It has been a while since we last a game based on a movie in which Al Pacino has starred. Remember Scarface: The World is Yours? It was all about taking over Miami by taking businesses from gangs and other drug lords and then, of course, washing drug money trough them. But in the beginning of 2006. few moths earlier before the release of the previously mentioned game a game published by no one other than Electronic Arts saw the daylight - The Godfather. It was a descent addition to the free-roaming action genre and brought some new ideas to the table. It had bunch of problems. The biggest of them were the repetitive nature of the game and the absence of Al Pacino...I mean, c'mon! You have Don Michael Corleone in the game, but he looks like your average history teacher and sounds like one too. Well, these two problems are still in Godfather 2. Actually, this is what the original Godfather game would be like if it would come out in 2009.
So, you, once again, are not a character from film The Godfather part II, but a mobster who only exists in the game - Dominic. At the beginning of the game you are in Cuba with Michael, his brother Fredo and your boss Aldo. Just another Mafia meting. Sadly, these fine gentlemen have chosen the wrong time too visit this island because our good old friend Fidel Castro is making a revolution, and they are certainly not friendly to the members of Mafia. So, while Dominic is escaping Cuba his boss gets killed. Dominic isn't crying for the loss for a long time, because in a plane over the Carribian Don Michael asks him, could he ran a mob family and take over his rivals. Our character agrees immediately and now is the Don. The problem with the story line is that it has almost nothing to do with the Godfather part II script. A lot of parts are missing, a lot of them have been changed immersly and a lot of them are new. You will be happy to find scenes from the film. Then again, the new storyline isn't bad and the characters voices are recorded professionally.
You are giving 3 locals to take over - Florida, Cuba and New York. You are going to do that by taking over businesses and rackets. Intimidating their owners is the best way to do that, but to get to that part you'll have to take out guys who are guarding the property. You can take over businesses by your own or by sending there your family members using the Dons View...it's great. See, Dominic is a Don. So, he recruits made man to his family. Guys who each have different specialties - medic, arsonist, demolitions expert and so on. They will eventually rank up and will be able to learn new skills. Oh, Dons View. Using that you can upgrade your men and yourself, arrange how many guards will you want for each business you control, send your made men to take over businesses, defend them or bomb them and use it as a map. A beautifully rendered one! Other families will attack your fronts and rackets and you will have to defend them by going there yourself, sending your made men or trusting your guards to take them out. If you will control all businesses from Crime Ring, you will receive bonuses, such as bulletproof cars and more ammo. And this is all you will be doing in this game. Taking over and defending your businesses. Yes, it's repetitive. Story missions aren't better too. They consist only of shooting people in the face.
In the progress of all this you can take out the made men of rival families. First, you will need to know the location and the specific way to kill these mobsters. You will gain that by completing small jobs for random people...why the hell would a Don from a powerful and respected Mob family do such unimportant tasks? Anyway, if you take out these made men other families wont attack your fronts and rackets that much. When all of the rackets and fronts of one rival family have been taken over you can take out them once and for all - bomb their compound.
Godfather 2 has a multiplayer mode...it's not great, there not much into it, but you can earn money and gun licenses from it for your single player campaign.
Godfather 2 is a good action adventure game with some strategy elements and a lots of freedom in choices you make. It's repetitive, yes, but you will have a lot of fun with it.