The Godfather II
Description official description
On New Year's Eve 1958 Hyman Roth not only celebrated his birthday, he also celebrated the successful expansion of the Corleone family, successfully lead by Don Michael Corleone for fifteen years now, into Cuba. But the celebrations did not last long when suddenly "la revolucion" started and all hell breaks loose. Michael and Hyman manage to escape with most of the other family members but Aldo Trapani (the main protagonist in The Godfather) gets killed - just in time for five new families to threaten the Corleone family's control over New York, Florida and Las Vegas. As one of Aldo Trapani's closest soldiers, the player jumps into the role of Dominic to help Michael and the Corleone family win the war as well as to build a family of his now.
Looking over Dominic's shoulder, the player moves freely through three cities depicting a New York, Florida and Cuba from the late '50s/early '60s traveling between them by airplane. Connected by the main storyline, the main goal of Dominic is to grow his family and destroy the other five families. This is done in two main steps: Taking over businesses and killing so-called "Made Man". Taking over a business is done the same way as in the predecessor: Enter the shop/joint/factory/construction site, fight through the enemy guards and find the person with the Godfather-sign over his head. That is the one the player needs to threaten until he gives up his resistance and pays his dues to Dominic from now on instead of the other family.
Each business owner has his own weak spot as well as a breaking point. A weak spot ranges from destroying inventory to punching him or her in the face, and gives a 25% bonus on the monetary outcome. But if the player pressures the owner to much, he either dies from the torture or reaches his breaking point. Then he gets aggressive, cannot be intimidated anymore and attacks without mercy. Is the intimidation successful however, the player gets a one-time cash advance and gains money from the joint every day. In addition there are several rackets combined in a crime ring. Once the player controls it, he immediately gains a bonus until he loses one of the rackets in the crime ring. This goes for his enemy as well. When the player takes over a business of a crime ring, the bonuses like bullet-proof vests for all family members or brass knuckles for higher melee damage are instantly removed. That's why the enemy families do not just sit by and let Dominic take their businesses one by one. So the player has to hire guards to protect the businesses. In case of an attack, he can also send one of his soldiers to help in the defense.
This soldier or so-called "Made Man", is initially discovered and invited by the player to join his family while hanging out at the various safe houses and rackets. Each of them has a specialization. While one might be good at planting bombs, the other is a safe cracker very useful to rob banks and loot all the various safes in the city to get an achievement. As the player progresses through the game, he cannot only hire more family members, but can also promote a few of his soldiers. This allows them to learn a second and even third profession on top of their initial one. It is also possible to upgrade certain skills like Survival (stay longer conscious once out of health) of a family member, in return for hard-earned cash. When a made man is downed by enemy fire, he does not immediately get transferred to the next hospital or police station. Instead there is a time window in which everyone can revive the other with a shot of adrenaline. If it's too late, the player respawns at the hospital/police station and loses some money while his made man is out of the picture for a certain amount of time. This is also true for the player if he has a medic on his team, otherwise he goes directly to jail or the hospital.
The amount of time it takes them to get back on your side can be reduced by using favors. Favors are handed out by random people with a sign over their head on the streets and by high-ranking officials. Both give the player a mission which can involve killing or beating someone up, blowing a business (even one of the player's) to hell or something similar. The difference is, that the favor of an official can be saved for later like immediately rebuilding a bombed business. Favors of random people instead come in the form of money rewards or kill conditions.
Kill conditions are needed to get an enemy made man. Just shooting them only puts them in the hospital. To take them permanently out the picture, the player needs to make an example of the man by fulfilling the kill condition. Shoving a made man from the roof of a building, putting a bullet between his eyes and such are examples for such kill conditions. Once all made men of a family have been eliminated forever, the player can deal the final blow to the rival family: killing their Don and blowing up their compound. All while dealing with the police that hunts you down just for forgetting to silence a witness of a crime.
The game also features a multiplayer mode that ties in with the single player campaign. Upon entering the multiplayer mode, the player chooses one of his family members he has hired in single-player and takes on his role. During his participation in the four game modes Team Deathmatch, Demolition Assault (blow up three objects in enemy territory), FireStarter (torch barrels, gas and propane tanks to rack up scoring multiplicators), Safecracker (bust a safe and hold the position for more points), the player then earns honor points for his family member. These are used in single player to buy a new weapon license for that soldier, which allows him to use the higher level weapons the player finds scattered around the city and can be handed to him.
Spellings
- ŠŃеŃŃŠ½Ńй Š¾ŃŠµŃ II - Russian spelling
- ęē¶ā ” - Traditional Chinese spelling
Groups +
- BPjS / BPjM indexed games
- EA Value Games releases
- Games pulled from digital storefronts
- Genre: Open world / Free-roaming / Sandbox action and driving
- Inspiration: Movies
- Physics Engine: Havok
- Protagonist: Gangster
- Setting: 1950s
- Setting: Caribbean
- Setting: City - Havana
- Setting: City - New York
- Symphonic Orchestra: Skywalker Symphony Orchestra
- The Godfather games
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Credits (Windows version)
577 People (553 developers, 24 thanks) · View all
Executive Producer | |
Creative Directors | |
Senior Development Directors | |
Senior Producer | |
Art Director - User Interface | |
Art Director - Characters | |
Art Director - Environments | |
Visual Effects Director | |
Animation Director | |
Audio Director | |
Cinematics Animation Director | |
Game Design Lead | |
Design Development Director | |
AI Design Lead | |
Meachnics Design Lead | |
Technical Design Lead | |
World City Architect | |
World Design Lead | |
World Designers | |
[ full credits ] |
Reviews
Critics
Average score: 64% (based on 41 ratings)
Players
Average score: 3.5 out of 5 (based on 23 ratings with 2 reviews)
The Good
Since I played the first game, I expected a lot from this sequel. It is very similar to the first part, with an addition of playing multiplayer. It's a nice touch, which brings a new feeling to this game. You can send family members to take over businesses, or defend it from an rival family. It's an fun experience, but it doesn't last long as you play only in one limited area with one family tree. Another nice addition is the ability to free roam whenever you want.
The Bad
There are some things that I did not like about this game. One is the graphics, I think that like they look to cartoonish and to similar to the first game. It would have been nicer if they have given it an more realistic approach. The second thing is the story, I feel like there is almost not story and that the classic missions are gone. Also the map feels smaller.
The Bottom Line
I expected a lot from the sequel, but i'm a but disappointed with the result. It would have been nicer if they made this game closer to the original game, and change the graphics.
I would only recommend it to the players of the original game.
PlayStation 3 · by Deleted (381) · 2010
The Good
Well, the only other review of this is Simonās. Simon didnāt see The Godfather II (film), and that makes his a bit funny, but he is right about the story feeling lacking. The best thing about Godfather II was that ½ of it was flashbacks to Don Corleone kicking ass in the 20ās. You donāt get that here, so itās literally ½ of a movie plot.
User Pixelspeech did a structure in a recent review and Iām going to borrow it because I think it keeps a good focus.
The Good:
- Beating guys up hand-to-hand in this is very fun. This is years ahead of GTA.
- Ammunition is actually relevant here. You will run out and you will need to go back to the safe-house to stock up.
- You get to dress up your goons as well as yourself. Silk suits to t-shirts variety, full custom patterns; blew me away with how customized you could look.
- Although you know the plot of the movie they found an interesting way to tie you into it.
- Very powerful menu tool called āThe Donās Viewā handles every aspect of the game. You can, in the middle of a gunfight, bring your goons in, send other guys to take something over, change your weapon, and all from one menu.
- Mainly good voice acting, although Marlon Brando doesnāt feature (big surprise). No Pacino or Deniro either I guess. I guess James Caanās character is dead anyway so good job there. They did get Duvall though(?)
- The explosions for this game are just beautiful. Blowing stuff up is hilarious!
**The Bad** - I know itās a game, and itās even one of those ones where itās really easy to kill people by accident. Itās even one of those games where crushing a pedestrian with a car is just something that happens occasionally. But this game made me, as part of the plot, brutally assault some poor female business owner. Thatās not something I like doing and this game gets points off for being a jerk.
- The driving in this game is frankly terrible.
- The engine isnāt finished. Things will happen and the engine will have to reset you because it doesnāt know what to do.
- Story is lacking. I know it would have disrupted the strategy elements of the game to switch between time periods, but the game actually occurs in chapters, so they could have done brief chapters of 1920ās-1930ās new York and kept the best parts of the plot in there.
- Killing a frail, old, unarmed man isnāt much of an end boss fight. Same argument as my one-line summary: this game is a jerk.
**The Bottom Line**
Story
The way they had to do the story was to continue to insert the new character (you) into the movie plot in a way that you are the key element to the events in the film. This was done okay-ish, but the way the story usually continues is that you have to answer a payphone for each main story segment. Well Iām the kind of guy where you give me a job to do and I do it. So I wiped out an entire family of goombaās that was supposed to last between several story segments. This meant that I was left hanging with nothing to do for about 2 hours. The āfamilyā that you build up over the game really lacks character. Sure, they look different enough, and they say funny things, but why does it stop there? I get that EA wanted you to choose out of a bunch of guys who to recruit ā but they only did about 5 different āvoice setsā for them anyway. They donāt even write proper bioās for them. Theyāre just guys with guns, even when you make one your underboss he doesnāt act any different. These guys donāt add anything to the story, and they could have. Maybe your 2nd in command gets kidnapped and you need to go get him. Maybe the bad-guys kidnap his wife and heās forced to set you up ā they arenāt used for the story properly and you can feel that. The smart thing for EA to do would be to record different sets of dialogue with each of the 5 voice actors, dialogue for every rank, and use them in cut scenes as well to tie what youāve done into the story instead. Dominic (you) is not a compelling or interesting character. Heās a violent man, not particularly bright but loyal. He never reveals insight, or contemplation. Heās just not a nice person to be. Playing him right after playing John Marston in Red Dead Redemption was jarring. The movie characters like this guy? Why? I guess because itās in the script? I canāt even really remember anything he said outside of threatening people. I guess this is what happens when game writers cut and paste with masterful writing from a much bigger budget picture.
Game-play This game has some very insightful features, and it has some very silly over-sights. The level of polish on what exists is very pretty, but a lot of things arenāt as fully realized as I am used to. Iāve been playing a lot of Bethesda/Bioware games and they have just beautiful game engines. This one has some quirks. Let me give you some anecdotes: 1. I was driving around with my guys (three of them) in a sedan I stole from some bozo wearing a hideous plaid suit. I didnāt really have a destination in mind, just cruising and listening to the radio. One side of the sedan looked like it was parked at a driving range for several months in golf season. This was because I drove over a curb (with the tire) on that side and the games damage calculator figured thatās the same as scrapping against a wall for 30ft. Weāre in some kind of parking garage and Iām headed for the exit. I donāt realize until we get close that weāre on the 2nd floor. But I can just drive right off (no railing) and I accelerate to do so. Some guy on his way to work looks up as the front wheels of my sedan appear above him. He looked right at us. And then he took a car to the neck. There was a *skrit* from the PS3 as it asked the game engine what to do in this case. The man sank to his knees and then fell over, much like being shot in the head, bearing the weight of the car to the ground. This moment inspired my current e-mail address because it etched itself into my mind with its sheer bizarreness. 2. I was driving āmyā car, a big boat of a Cadillac rip-off. Again, 3 guys with me, all wearing ugly blue bullet-proof vests that ruin being able to change clothes (you canāt take them off, as soon as you control a racket they are permanent). Weāre driving at the ludicrous speed of 65 mph or so. Most cars in the game hover around 20 mph. Itās impossible to drive at 65, the camera is freaking out, the wind noises go whoosh, and you lay down skid marks changing lanes. I swerved to miss a tanker truck, struck a curb, and the whole car flew into the air doing barrel rolls. It flew right off of the over-pass I was driving on, and it landed wedged with the passengerās door towards the ground, up against a pole and the interstate. And then the car faded from existence, and I was standing on the interstate again. And my goombaās come running up. 3. One of my favorite things to do in the game when you have a lot of frustration is to sprint at high speeds down a street and swing at people as you run. You donāt lose any momentum by this, and the punched person launches 5 or 6 feet backwards through the air when it. Iāve punched people through fruit stands and road barricades this way. 4. I had to try 4 times to take out a rival familyās Capo. In order to make them stay dead you have to kill them a certain way. In this guyās case I had to throw him off the building he was standing on. To do this I had to grab him and drag him over there. Ever try to run up and grab a guy whoās got a shot-gun? And he wasnāt stupid, heād wait for me to run at him, shoot me, and then finish me off as Iām recoiling from the first blast. The second time I managed to grab him, but I had to re-grab him about 10 times on the way over to the ledge. He broke free just short of it and ran back to the center, plugging me along the way. And thatās the kind of things that happen while playing, little things but stupid things. Oh, and thereās no jump button. Thatās never a good sign EA. Presentation This game is very polished looking. The other reviewer noted that guys look ācartoonyā. And they do, but it is fitting with the visual style of everything else. Itās a very sundrenched world that I think speaks to the optimism and nostalgia of that era ā when Kennedy was president and people were middle class. Womenās Rights are the talk of the town, people talk about the Cuban Missile crisis, itās all very appropriate. Even the cars are all shiny and nostalgic. I like it. The menus are beautifully done with little pop-up animation on the map and slick sound effects. The casinoās make dice noises and the brothels coo at you ā itās well done. Aside from being pretty though, this game suffers from (in my opinion) a very bland kind of level design. Itās very GTA Vice City (except that game had a jump button). The businesses that you can take over are laid out so that you have to follow a linear path to the person who you need to beat up and exhort. This can be very frustrating because they put goofy obstacles that a normal person would just climb over to cut you off. The worst offender was a huge cylindrical concrete tube that I could have walked through in a game with a better engine. Iām willing to bet this was done so that multi-player would be less prone to people exploiting engine glitches and jumping around everywhere like a jack-ass. There are topless women in this game. Well, there are two topless women in this game; they just switch their facial features around. The idea that 6 women in a topless show all have the exact same complexion is weird to me. Neither of them is a very good skin map and their breasts havenāt been told theyāre free of a bra. Sometimes they work in your businesses as coke cutters. You see It makes sense because you donāt want that stuff getting in your clothes, but they just recycled the ānudie barā model. So youāve got someone in a back room wearing high heels and frilly lingerie to cut drugs. You can flirt with them, but thereās no point because it doesnāt go anywhere. They are just there because woo boobies. Iām sorry EA, I donāt go woo for boobies anymore, and I like intelligent characters now. Maybe they just wanted to hit the 14-19 year old audience with this? Replay Value Well this game is meant to be played online for death-match etc. I donāt really like playing online, so if youāre like me youāre paying for the single player game only. Iāll re-play a game if I figure I missed out on something or thereās an alternate angle to it. With this game I put the brakes on for the last chapter and tried to milk as much play variety as possible. I killed every made member of both boss families (which takes a long time), did all of the optional stuff. I did it all, thereās no need to play it again.7 Extraās Even if there were, I donāt think Iād bother. Verdict I just bought a PS3. This is the third game I bought for it. I am disappointed in this game, but it is still an above average game. Itās better on a technical level than Way of the Samurai 3. I think I wanted to play LA Noire but the fact that I was already buying a Rockstar game put me off that. What could they have done better? Look, Robert Deniroās career is kind of suckinā right now, he should have been involved. Honestly they should have done both parts of the movie. If not spliced together, then as separate modes or having the 1920ās module be the reward for beating it.
PlayStation 3 · by Kyle Levesque (905) · 2012
Trivia
Cut versions
In the German, Australian and Japanese version of the game it is no longer possible to kill or run over civilians. All topless women were given clothes.
Awards
- G4
- 2009 - Horrible Movie Game Of 2009 (along with G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, Terminator: Salvation, Wanted: Weapons of Fate and James Cameron's Avatar: The Game)
- Gamespot
- 2009 - Least Improved Sequel (Editors' Choice)
- 2009 - Worst Game Everyone Played (Readers' Choice)
- 2009 - Worst Use of a Great License (Readers' Choice)
Related Sites +
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The Godfather II homepage
Official homepage of The Godfather II -
X360A achievement guide
X360A's achievement guide for The Godfather II.
Identifiers +
- MobyGames ID: 40203
- Steam App: 24830
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Contributors to this Entry
Game added by Sicarius.
Additional contributors: POMAH, chirinea, jaXen, Big John WV, Spenot, Picard, Paulus18950, Patrick Bregger, Starbuck the Third, macmat.
Game added April 25th, 2009. Last modified September 18th, 2023.