The Godfather II

Price £25 Publisher EA Developer EA
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Become the head of one of the most dysfunctional families around...

The way to make the Grand Theft Auto template your own, it seems, is to add in middle-management. That was certainly the twist in the formula for the original Godfather game, Scarface: The World is Yours, and The Godfather II follow suit, placing you in a world where criminal success is as dependant on human resources as it is on placing a shotgun in someone’s mouth.

You see, for a game that introduces you to mobdom by coercing a pimp via the medium of punching him in the face, there’s a surprisingly intricate mob war system at play. When you’re not engaged in the story missions, which are loosely grounded in the second film’s plot, you’ll have to take various crime rings and money laundering facilities away from rival families. With these you’ll earn money, but you’ll also have to pay out for guards to hold off reprisal attacks. That’s because rival families are playing the same game as you. Well, right up to the point where you rob them of all their assets and storm their HQ.

All of this is taken care of by a map system called The Don’s View, which enables you to survey the newly Monopoly-styled environs of New York, Miami and Havana. From here you can send your people on bombing runs, keep tabs on the corrupt officials who have asked you to kill, maim or destroy in return for favours, and analyse your expenses. It’s a neat system made more complex by the eminently upgradable Made Men that dutifully follow you around, bolster your defences or can be sent out to attack strongholds on their tod. Each one has their own speciality when it comes to missions (cutting wires, blowing up walls and so on) and you’ll learn to tolerate their occasional AI failings for the help they bring.

So far, so good. The system works and it works well, meaning that it’s genuinely satisfying to strengthen your grip on your acquisitions, plot your next move and take out competitors. You can even take rival Made Men out of the game entirely, their locations revealed by pulling jobs for members of the public who want you to kill, maim, or destroy for them. This, however, becomes a problem. Not only does everyone, from the grumpiest of businessmen to the sexiest bikini model, want someone else dead, injured or suddenly bereft of belongings – they want it done in repetitive ways. What’s more, each task and mission is mired down by a combat and driving system that isn’t a patch on GTA IV.

Indeed, so dull is the scripting and so expected the formula trying to extract wholesome fun from the game is like attempting to breathe through a pillow. Also, getting killed or taken into custody rarely seems fair and having to repeat takeovers gets plain irritating too.

Moreover the game is so prone to bugs that patching is a necessity otherwise you’ll find it frequently becomes unplayable. The Don’s View suffers from rough edges as well and should have been better optimised for use with a mouse and keyboard – it may look pretty, but it’s a pig to manoeuvre through its various menus. There’s also little doubt that the micromanagement, specifically the options to do with your Made Men’s stats and weapons, could have done with a trim. The game may get more and more samey, but you’re forever haunted by the sensation that there’s something you’ve forgotten, almost as if there’s some sort of in-game iron you suspect may have been left plugged in back at Mob HQ.

Overall, there’s certainly been an effort made to do something interesting with The Godfather II – an engaging business model has been strapped onto the familiar crime-sim, but with middling results. If you like your games mediocre, dive right in, otherwise heave a little sigh and move on.
Will Porter

PCF 67%

+ Monopoly-esque stylings
+ Genuinely innovative
- Rapidly gets repetitive
- Marred by bugs

Coulda had class, coulda been a contender. Let's hope the next one is more than a crime-sim bum (we know, wrong film - sorry)

Needs: 2.8GHz CPU, 2GB RAM, 256MB 3D card
Wants: Dual-core CPU, 2GB RAM, 512MB 3D card