The Godfather II

In trying to do something new with the Don’s View, it seems like the resources of the development team were stretched too thin, resulting in a completely forgettable experience.

The weirdest thing about this game - I've never had so many gripes and still found myself so incredibly addicted. I played the game all the way through - around 25 hours - in two sittings.

Anyone looking for the fun, stress free pleasure of a sandbox game then this is for you.

The Godfather II was meant to be big competitor to the dominating GTA series, but it feels like a lousy rip-off. You got to be doing more than that, EA!

Godfather II is a game that’s never quite sure of which audience it’s trying to please, instead choosing to go straight down the middle and culminate in an experience that is as unengaging as it is unsatisfying.

EA introduces some new gameplay elements and injects some variety, but it's not enough to keep the game from getting repetitive, and the overall polish isn't as high as it was in the original.

Fortunately, not just a GTA clone. The strategic interaction with your personal "crew" and with the city add a nice twist to the classic Free Roaming mechanics. And the plot is good enough.

Most of this game’s content is in betrayal of the license, and it’s not all smut, either. In one mission, you are tasked with assassinating Fidel Castro, an act that ends up being just as comedic as The Naked Gun’s assassination attempt on Queen Elizabeth II. Unfortunately, the intent of this sequence isn’t to make ­players laugh.

The only one of the film's cast members to appear here is Robert Duvall, and every word spoken sounds like he was reading it while doing his taxes. The members of the Godfather cast who appeared in the first game knew when to 'git while the gittin's good' it seems.

There are scattered elements throughout the game that come across as shockingly unfinished, or at least dismayingly unpolished.

The Godfather II's failure is that, outside of the most utilitarian sense in which it is a smoothly-playable game, it doesn't accomplish anything at all.

The Godfather 2 is a great game in a lousy shell. If EA turned around and made the third entry in this series into a competent sandbox shooter and improved on the Don’s View mode, making it more useful and adding more depth to it, dropping the Godfather movie tie-ins, it would be a lot easier to recommend. As it stands now, you can find games that do what this game tries to do a lot better.

Despite some serious gameplay issues, The Godfather II is actually quite fun, in a morbid kind of way. Unfortunately, repetition and poor AI routines damage gameplay and ultimately sap the life out of what should have been a tremendous sequel.

A good idea that turned into a bad game. The Don's View has potential, but with a very low difficulty you can take over where and whenever you like. The action itself is pretty mediocre, the graphic style even worse. The Don's View can form a good starting point for a new game, but pretty please with sugar on top, don't mess with the Don.

Almost a solid game. There are some interesting concepts put forth this time around, but most of them are overshadowed by the lack of attention paid to the gameplay. I really wanted to enjoy playing this, but the longer I played, the more it felt like a chore instead of fun.

Everything required of you feels functional, mechanical, and pedestrian, and each city is sparse and lacking in the kind of lifelike vitality that gamers now demand from their sandbox environments. [May 2009, p.108]

Godfather II stands out in the sandbox genre because of the Don’s View but it’s the only thing that really does. Everything else can be discarded, but if EA can take the Don’s View and put that in a game with more technical proficiency, we’ll be buying.

It took me about 12 hours to finish The Godfather II, but I felt like it just ran out of steam about two-thirds of the way through. There are definitely a lot of interesting ideas at work here, but the game was never challenging enough to make any of the decisions I had to make feel very weighty.

The Godfather II is a technically flawed game. Glitches, pop up, framerate drops are quite frequent and the soulless sandbox world isn’t too appealing either. The upside is the strategic element of the game. It’s fun to coordinate attacks on rival families and to take over businesses by using excessive force. All in all it’s great fun if you’re not turned of by the technical issues.

An offer we can probably refuse, despite the great script and solid sim-management blueprint.

This sequel does manage to do a couple of things right. The strategic elements are interesting, the sound is great and the way you overlook your influence in the different cities is implemented in an impressive way. Despite these great features the urge for spreading your influence never really takes off. Since both the presentation and gameplay feels dated you're better off waiting for upcoming gangster related games.

Godfather II works quite well as a gangster manager, but fails to deliver as a GTA-style sandbox. Its technical side is poor in all sections and despite the fact that we have plenty of options to gain control of the cities, it soon becomes repetitive. Globally it stays way under GTA IV, but as a mafia manager it still has a point.

The Godfather II represents for many aspects a missed chance, especially regarding the new management part, too superficial and unsatisfying. The technical aspects perfectly line up with the overall mediocrity of this new EA Games production, but the action part revealed to be quite fun, especially the executions, even if it gets quickly old due to its repetitiveness. The game doesn't live up to the higher standards of some of the latest EA Games productions, and for a brand like this it's a real pity.

The Godfather II is not a game that should be played because it is “bigger and better” than its predecessor, as it is certainly not as long or as deep an experience, but instead it should be at least given a chance for its satisfying and plentiful on-foot action sequences and the addictive new strategy and resource-management elements which The Don’s View brings to the table.

That seed of potential excellence is frustrating, when the execution falls so regularly short of great.

All in all, The Godfather II goes on the same path of its predecessor: funny gameplay, but repetitive, cool design, but graphics look old. You can squeeze the best out of it while managing your rackets, but the fun won’t last long, and won’t leave much behind when it’s over.

This game without the Godfather license could have been great, and they wouldn’t have had to have changed too much either to the core gameplay. But with the awkward-fitting pelt of Coppola’s murdered masterpiece on its shoulders, it will be hard for people to discover the really well-designed hybrid-type game underneath.

The film truly is a millstone around the game's neck. If this game was called Cosa Nostra or Organised Crime 101 (or something similar) it would feel like a far stronger title altogether. Its open-world game template may be well worn but The Godfather II contains some excellent ideas, and the way it integrates them through a smooth control system is admirable.

After experiencing The Godfather II in its entirety, it’s impossible to deny that this is an unfinished, irrational product that fails to capitalise on the license which has been well and truly worn out after two poor iterations.

Far more enjoyable than its predecessor, The Godfather II presents a sufficiently different take on the open world formula to make it worthwhile - just forget the fact its based around Coppola's classic.

Overall Godfather 2 is a Grand Theft Auto clone and a fairly mediocre one at that.

Decent ideas married to some questionable execution. In short doses Godfather II can be an absolute hoot, but sadly its shortcomings become more and more obvious the longer you spend with it.

The Godfather II is an offer that you probably should refuse.

A tired city crime epic that might have looked good five years ago, but even that would have been a bit of a stretch. Now it’s barely passable and a bit of a shame in pretty much every respect.

This game is not terrible but, when that is the best you can say about something, that really isn't much to go on. You will have plenty of fun while it lasts but the all too obvious flaws will leap out at you and soon begin to spoil what would otherwise be a fairly enjoyable romp.

A very welcome strategic slant to the genre. [June 2009, p.70]