The back of the box tries to talk up something called "Don's View." In this mode you are able to assign your subordinates to take over businesses, defend property and so on so forth. In theory this allows you to orchestrate all of the action while you sit back and watch it play out. Unfortunately this is even less fun than actually playing the game (repetitive gameplay and all). It's a solid idea, but not the selling point the box tries to suggest.
To add insult to injury, Electronic Arts certainly didn't spend much time trying to make this game look good. When the first installment in The Godfather franchise came out, I overlooked the sub-par graphics. After all, the Xbox 360 version was nothing more than a port of a PlayStation 2 game released early in the system's lifecycle. Several years later I cannot cut The Godfather II the same slack. This game looks awful, absolutely dreadful. The character models are blocky and often hard to make out, and the environments are repeated so often that I wouldn't be surprised if you suffer from déjà vu more than once while playing through the game. To my eyes, these graphics look like really good PlayStation 2 graphics, not something you would get on a next-generation console ... especially four years into its lifecycle.
The voice acting is also a big step down from the first game. While it's certainly nice to hear Robert Duvall reprise his role of Tom Hagen, he's about the only big name talent found in this game. The rest of the voice actors sound completely out of place, especially the more outrageous supporting characters. The voice of Dominic isn't bad, but I never really cared enough about this character to care. Thankfully the music is better, though the game can certainly be accused of simply repeating the same played out tune a few too many times.
When you're not being bored to tears by the game's repetitive story mode, you can go online and play with friends. Unfortunately, like everything else in The Godfather II, this mode comes off as being half-assed and is rarely much fun to play. The game supports up to 16 players at once, but all you're doing is playing the same boring old online modes we've been seeing in games for the last ten years. Worse yet, they are played on some truly heinous locations. The maps in The Godfather II are simply not made for a 16-player deathmatch, and it won't take more than a round or two to convince you to go back to Call of Duty or Halo. I do like the idea of leveling up your character by playing online, but the whole thing is just too messy to be fun. This is definitely a tacked-on mode that few will spend much time in (it's already a ghost town, based on my anecdotal experience with the mode).
The Godfather Part II may be one of the greatest movies of all time, but this game is definitely a huge disappointment. How could Electronic Arts get this game so wrong? Here is a game with a lot of great ideas, but none of them are able to shine due to the game's unfinished feel, repetitive gameplay and ugly, ugly graphics. As somebody who really enjoyed the first game, I simply cannot recommend this sequel. Given this game's questionable quality, I am already starting to dread what EA is going to do with The Godfather Part III.
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With the right team in place, The Godfather II could have been one of the best sandbox games of the year. Unfortunately, EA did not assemble the right team. Instead they released a half-finished product with repetitive gameplay, ugly graphics and a story that barely follows the movie's lead. You're better off just playing through the first game a second time and waiting for The Godfather III!
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