There are some vast improvements on the control of your Family in this version of Godfather and I love how you can hire men, promote them and upgrade their skills and weapons. Don's view is a nice quick way to order men to help protect your investments. The developers were also nice enough to provide us with the locations of any missing safes, finishing moves, etc. for your achievement hunting.
The sad thing is that's about where the game's improvements ends and the bad points begin. While very fun to play in single player, the game's AI strategy is very poor. Outside of the occasional random bombing or attack, the AI posed little to no threat as my empire grew.
For a game that claims to be open-world it's frustratingly closed.
There are three city maps to compete on including NY, or what amounts to about 3 city blocks of NY, Florida (the largest city) and Cuba. In each city the number of buildings you can take control of was considerably lower than in the original game and outside of Florida the maps are really small. Each building is part of a racket which expands your family with upgrades such as additional ammo and eventually armored cars. Sadly the AI families don't appear to use or gain any benefit from holding onto rackets and many of them you cannot control until you unlock the next map. By the time I unlocked Armored Cars the game was well in the bag with about 30 minutes left of game play.
Gone from the original game:
Don't expect drivebys. Not once did the AI Families chase me down with a vehicle.
Armored Truck robberies (Not a part of this version at all!)
Long in depth story in which you feel your weaving together events that shape the Corleone family.
I wish that the developers would have given us a game with the depth of the original Godfather with the control improvements of this game. While the racket bonuses are a nice touch, taking over businesses just didn't have the same feel as its predecessor. It would have been nice if each racket you controlled reduced the cost to purchase weapons, cars or incrementally increased capacity instead of the all or nothing bonus
The game engine is so much fun to play with, I wish there was a random map generator or something to give this game some replay value. As it stands now there is zero replayability.
Multiplayer could have been extremely cool if it had been built as a strategic RTS with each player controlling a family in Don view and using their single player resources (family, weapons, money) to battle with or against friends across the games city maps. It would have been awesome to team up with a buddy and ally against NPC families of varying AI strength. Instead it's yet another frag fest 3d shooter thrown in using its own maps and some of the game engine mechanics. Sure you get to `use' your single player family members while running around fragging each other but in name and abilities only. My made men lost all of their uniqueness in multiplayer in exchange for a lovely blue or red suit and the same face as the next guy. I'm guessing the developers thought they would bring you to multiplayer mode with the lure of unlocking level 4 weapon licenses but after a couple of hours finding out that my made men earned nothing was a huge disappointment. A nice touch in theory, but certainly not enough to keep me playing Godfather 2.
I highly recommend renting this game over a weekend as you can beat it easily in 10-12 hours and if you haven't played Godfather it's worth your money instead of this one.
The Godfather the Game
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The following is for the single player aspect of the game. While this game does have an on-line component, the SP is the primary reason for me purchasing most any game that is not an FPS (and some that are).First the good.
The game starts off well and the overall story is not bad. You begin in Cuba, just before the revolution, moving from there to NY, to Miami, and eventually a bit back to Cuba, so there is a lot of opportunity to create a detailed and different game than GTA or the like. In addition, the Don's View is interesting and is quite nice visually, separating it from the pack a bit. The team system developed here is very good as well. Your NPC associates are actually somewhat useful (more than just a bullet shield at least) and it is nice that you don't have to worry about losing them, if you drive off they will just appear with you later, eliminating an annoyance from games such as Saint's Row. The hand-to-hand and gunplay is fun and the aiming system works well for a third-person game. The graphics for the characters are actually surprisingly good for a game of this type, but there are a lot of "clones" around.
There are also some very innovative game play elements that bring this game up a notch as well. The ability to eliminate the members of a rival family one-by-one, thus weakening the family's attacks, is a nice touch. Also, the rackets and associated bonuses are nice to have, reminding me of an real-time strategy (RTS) game. Each racket you control gives bonuses, both to the player and to the computer. When you first start, the computer has BP vests, extra ammo, etc. and you have almost noting. To even the score you can bomb one of the enemy's locations, disrupting a racket, and making them lose the bonus, making it easier for you to take over another location you may want. The computer can do the same to you as your rackets grow, so defense becomes important.
Now at this point you might be wondering why I would give a game like this an average rating. The reason is that while the above innovations are quite impressive, they are not followed through on and instead of a deep, interesting game, you are left with a quick, repetitive, standard third-person shooter (yes this is where the cons begin).
The story. While overall it is engaging and a nice, if clichéd, mob tale, the character development for the main character is almost nonexistent. You just don't care about the man you are supposed to be playing, this takes away too much from the game.
The locations. I think the designers got a little too ambitious here and spread things too thin. All the levels are tiny by today's standards, as noted by a previous poster, and the level of detail is sub-par. I would have liked to have seen a larger emphasis on one area, letting the designers focus on this would have made a world of difference and create a better overall look.
The team. While the team members are mostly a help, you just do not need them for this game. Sure you will need their skills for some quests, as you have none of your own, but in taking over rackets, just you and a gun can do this with no problems. In fact, as with most games, the team can get in the way, causing you to have to repeat a level if they accidentally kill someone you needed. Go on your own for the hitman targets, as they will just end up blowing up a nearby car, killing your target and not letting you get the required condition for a permanent kill. I would have liked to see more controls for them than just commanding them to follow, use a skill, or sit in one place.
The above are annoyances, but ones I could live with, what keeps this game from being great is two things, both related to game play. First, the game is just too dang repetitive. Secondly, the AI is a bad joke. The combination of these two factors is what makes the game clock in at about 10 hrs of real gaming and makes this one of the easiest games I have ever played.
I think the designers got a bit too ambitious once again with the RTS elements they added. They did not create a playing field where it really matters if you lose any of the bonuses the rackets create, so they are useless. While the computer usually bombs a good location, taking a bonus for a bit, it doesn't matter as it is still easy to defend against the resulting attack, provided you stationed enough guards there. The only reason to obtain the rackets is really so the enemy compound opens and lets you attack. You end up doing the exact same things over and over until suddenly the game is done. First, attack a racket location (again you can do this by yourself, with no bonuses, with no problem). Second, torture the shopkeeper and grab the business. Third, set up guards (you will always be able to afford what you need). After that, all you do is defend, sending a made man or two if the other side really gets ambitious, until you get all the businesses. Any differences only arise in the main quest and it is just a variation of the above theme, again, very easy to complete. The side missions are nothing more than completing favors for people, sometimes gaining semi-useful ones in return (mostly just the ability to call off the cops). You only have a few things to do though, beat someone up, kill someone, crack a safe, or vandalize a location, all things you do over and over again in taking over the rackets.
One note on the Don's View. While this is a good concept, they need to work on the controls for the next one. It would have been easier to have all your options available on the screen as pop-up (or drop-down) menu system, instead of having to go into each, one-by-one. It gets too tedious when you want to do something quickly and click the wrong button. Also what is with having to use the + pad and not the analog sticks for menu selection??? Not an intuitive control scheme at all.
To sum up, if you are a fan of the GTA or SR-type games, you will like this to an extent. There are some interesting RTS elements that warrant fuller exploration, but the combination of a poorly programmed AI and the repetitive game play overshadows any gains from the innovations. This is a game one should rent or borrow from a friend, but definitely not a must-have purchase.
My 2¢
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I found this game to be very entertaining in the 360 format, but a bit short. If you are familiar with the Godfather movies it seems to make the gameplay a little more fun. I liked the idea of hiring crews with variouls skills, but the idea certainly could have been expanded upon. Overall worth $20 or so.Honest reviews on The Godfather II - Xbox 360
First off this game is indeed fun, you run around capturing places, defending them, and making money while moving your way up the tree. My problems with this game is that the mechanic got old really fast, and the story line did not take much to play through, and graphics are not the best. The multiplayer was fun, but I highly suggjest grabbing a freind and rolling through multiplayer together.Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for The Godfather II - Xbox 360
The gameplay is similar to the first, the missions are slightly different, you now have a few guys with you who have "specialties" to help you get into certain areas, etc. But the first one was done better. I liked the look and feel and control of that first game much better than this one. In this game, you're a boss, but you're still going out roughing people up? Doesn't work. Still kinda fun, but weird. Also, that 3D map stinks. I have no idea where I am in relation to where I need to be. It's much more info than you need. The auto-save feature is weak because I have no idea when it's saving or not. I never know. I can complete some task only to die and re-load an old game, only to find that it didn't save for me after I had completed that task! And it's not very friendly if you wanna save yourself! You get a single save-game slot! Weak!-
The game looks utterly unfinished. This game has "Rush to shelves" written all over it. From the bad voice-acting (If you ask someone about joining your family when you have no room he'll actually SAY he's sorry and has no room, then you proceed to ask the guy questions anyway! LAME!) to the really weak graphics, this game has rush-to-stores written all over it. The plot is weak. The gameplay is wayyyy too easy. I eliminated 3 families in just playing it a handful of times. It's just not a well-thought-out game at ALL.
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