Customer Reviews

The Godfather II

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This Godfather II provides an entertaining but ultimately lacking "mobster" experience. While the single-player campaign offers an engaging yet all too linear experience, multi-player fails fans and hopeful gamers with a narrowly focused combat-centric set of game modes that drops the strategic elements that make the single player side so much more interesting.

The single-player game contains several features that provide the best part of the Godfather II game. Namely, the strategic and "Don view" overlay, family management, and a somewhat open-ended game world in which the player must exert their will on opposing AI mafia families.

While the single player experience will likely take most gamers around 30 to 40 hours to complete, a notable degree of linearity exists that causes the replayability to diminish quickly. This is in part due to its focus on plot and story telling--not a bad thing on its own--but also because of a general lack of randomness.

This lack of randomness extends into aspects you wouldn't necessarily expect to see, including the pool of possible family recruits and the static nature of businesses (aka "crime rings"). This is somewhat offset by the fairly large game world consisting of three major locales (a small New York region, a large Florida region, and a moderately sized Cuba region), altogether offering a fair number of overall business locations and number of recruitable associates that will take some time to explore completely.

The game play itself has a familiar feel that manages to feel a bit novel at the same time. While it is fun to hear the commentary as your crew smashes a cafe or gives the smack down to opponents, both the one-liners and the game play strays into repetitiveness by about mid-game. Upgrading your men and finding weapon upgrades does nothing to escape this and the strategic side of the game also ceases to expand by this same point. In otherwords, you'll be repeating more or less the same activities you were at the beginning of the game without any hope of those options and actions being expanded upon as you continue. It is what it is, nothing more and nothing less.

Some short cuts in the game design also manage to "whack" the sense of immersion and general depth of the setting, cheapening the game experience alongside. That is, some aspects have a distinct "gaminess" that is hard to overlook and, if abused, makes the game both too easy and a lot less fun. Examples include safehouse abuse and the ability to "shortcut" (via engineers, bruisers, or similar path-enabling family members) your way to business owners who must be, erm ... convinced ... that they should work for you. This latter aspect can allow you to utterly side step defenders of the location, convince the business owner to switch sides, and then immediately recruit in an army of defenders of your own--taking over some locations in literally seconds flat. Yes, this can be a yawn-fest that is almost unavoidable at later stages of the game.

While these gripes are tangible ones the game can be quite fun and the strategy aspects of the game help it stand out from competitors such as GTA IV. The strategy mode lacks depth but is something that adds an interesting dimension which, again, because of gaminess, tends to be engaging for the first few hours only later to become more of a nuisance.

The strategic addition is one part of the game that they really failed to exploit, a literal treasure trove still buried, at least so far as the single player game is concerned. It is utterly absent from the multi-player side of things--a huge mistake on its own, leaving a fairly slim multiplayer that quickly runs sour and repetitive. In sum, it is something that they simply failed to tap into as completely as they should have no matter what type of game you were hoping to play.

Perhaps the one aspect of the single-player game that is most damaging is that it is too easy, particularly when you've grown and upgraded your family. Strategically speaking, the game dies after your family becomes powerful enough and you are more or less assured that no business will fall to enemy hands.

This easy-mode factor also extends to the direct game play in which taking over rival locations is your main activity. Unfortunately, there is no means (that I'm aware of) to increase the difficulty without artifically limting yourself in some fashion. A difficulty slider or setting could at least make the latter parts of the single-player game still engaging.

Multiplayer, well, it is rather astonishing that they didn't extend the mechanics and greater game world of the single player game to multiplayer. If they had, they really may have had a fantastic hit on their hands no matter what the single-player game provided. The developers opted to, in their words, "tighten up the multiplayer world", resulting in smallish game maps, overly focused game modes, an utter lack of strategy at any level, and a concentration on combat-only gaming that is done much better in any number of competing games.

They really missed their opportunity with this one and a very late attempt to add some sense of strategy, via the game-day release addition of "Don View", only managed to highlight how badly the developers and designers failed to tap into this dimension of the game.

How and why they opted to ignore this, only the brighter minds at EA can suggest. The irony is that virtually everyone I know expected and wanted the polar opposite of what was ultimately offered, so we have to imagine the designers considered it at some length on their own but decided against it even still. A crying shame, really, with virtually no chance of it being rectified going forward. Perhaps the designers will consider this mistake when they start work on Godfather III.

Having said that, in Godfather II's multiplayer we're offered a smattering of much more simplified game modes, each focused on one or another "specialty" such as safecracking or arson. Multiplayer families square off against one another in a manner reminiscent of more frantically paced games like Unreal and Quake than what many expected--a more strategically engaging multiplayer mode that could have taken advantage of both the setting and mafioso styled play that was just begging for a bit more cerebral multiplayer, punctuated by machine gun fire fights and ruthless "hits" of enemy players, of course. Games are notably brief affairs, usually no more than 20 minutes, and consist of frag-fest styled play with but minor hints at strategy or tactical incentive.

Frankly, if you were considering buying this game for the multiplayer I would suggest a serious reconsideration--and yes, this includes consideration of the release-day offering of "don mode" which really isn't much to brag about, despite EA's attempts to do just that.

In sum, Godfather II does offer a decent single-player experience that will provide many players at least a couple play throughs--some 60 to 80 or so hours in total, depending on your approach and leisure. My first play through took just over 24 hours from start to finish.

It is at least a good single player game. Not great, but good. You will feel as though another six or nine months of development, alongside a lot less short cutting and a bit more thoughtful design, could've made this a true classic that we'd all still be talking about in twenty years. Instead most players will give it a pair of cement shoes and send it to the same place as Luca Brasi.

When the price on this comes down about $15 it will be more worthy of the value, for single-player at least, and barring some post-release addition to multiplayer it shouldn't even come onto your radar if online gaming is where your inclinations rest.

===============
OVERVIEW
===============
PRO:
-- Capable setting with good (but not stellar) graphics, sound, and voice acting.
-- Interesting strategic elements normally absent from this type of game.
-- Solid plot and story telling elements.
-- Fun combat with entertaining "fatality" moves.

CON:
-- Linear single-player that eventually becomes repetitive.
-- Narrow multi-player offering that simply lacks long-term fun.
-- Obvious design shortcuts kill immersion, replayability, and overall game value.
-- Console like control scheme and feel (not a negative for everyone).
-- SP Game is quite easy with no ability to adjust difficulty.
-- Securom DRM and EA Nation multiplayer requirements.

*NOTE: Yes, this game has DRM--it utilizes Securom 7. For those who understandably have a distaste for such things, you're likely aware already and have probably avoided the game. Godfather II also requires that you connect to the EA Nation/EA Online system in order to play multiplayer--there is no LAN or private server capability, at least in the traditional sense. You can setup a so-called private (i.e., protected) game on EA Nation but you can't host or join a game that isn't in some way connected through EA itself. Ridiculous, I know, but welcome yourself to content control measures that have become a mainstay in modern gaming.

Puzo's & Coppola's GODFATHER may be the I-Ching of western men but this installment, like Sollozzo the Turk's proposal, is an infamita.

EA's pezzonovante, they come not in respect. They come not asking to be our friends. Not once. Even though we keep financing their very existence. They only ask greedily for more.

Like Hyman Roth, EA tries once more to infect our domains with SecuROM RootKits and make us pay again and again for the same game by Limiting its installations. By claiming to fight piracy (ironic already...) EA wants to keeps squeezing its own customers. And they are ready to badmouth and brand as "pirates" anyone who might stand up to their rule.

But just like Don Fanucci, behind the white suit of an ever-menacing EULA hides nothing. Forced to accept an agreement under pain of suffering the financial loss of a worthless non-refundable product nullifies any stipulation in said agreement before any court of law. They only rule on our fear.
But we shall fear no more. Because this is cosa nostra. We have been in PC gaming long before these accountants ruined this beautiful artform.

Make them an offer they can't refuse: let THIS horses' head soil the silk sheets as EA is slumbering. Eventually they will wake up.
And they will do so screaming.

Gamers, I salut!

I purchased this item with little expectation becuase the game game was bryond its prime. I was curious about it and it didn't disappoint. The graphics were solid and it was a challenging process to complete the game. The only negative is the game draws you in and makes it hard to walk away from!

I'm surprised this game didn't get better reviews. Like the first edition of the game, it's like Grand Theft Auto set in the universe of "The Godfather" movies. The sequel expands upon the original by making the game much more dynamic, giving you a "crew" who follows you around, and reducing much of the repetition. The three towns you "do business" in are large and detailed. The people on the street and your crew have lots of fun things to say, and rarely repeat themselves. There is a wide array of weapons, each with their own cool kill animations, but I found myself using the Magnum revolver almost all of the time because it was one-shot-one-kill with almost every opponent. It was a lot of fun to battle my way into each well-guarded business, find the owner, and threaten him until he agreed to pay protection money. Most of the other mission come from random people on the street who want you to either bomb, smash up, or burn down a business they don't like, or beat up or kill someone. It did feel a bit ridiculous that you could walk down the sidewalk and there would be a line of people who want you to kill someone for them. But you need to do these missions to earn money to pay for guards and to upgrade the skills of your crew. This didn't make much sense to me because I owned all of these business that were supposedly making thousands of dollars a day for me, but they only seemed to pay out during the first part of the game. All of the sudden the game stopped adding money to my bank account, and I never understood why. This was probably a bug, but if I just didn't understand the financial system, then that should also be considered a bug of a poor interface in this area. Another big flaw was that your crew could only carry weapons at or below their weapon proficiency level, but the only way to increase this level was to play on-line, and the on-line servers were always down. Since I couldn't upgrade them I had to kill of my own guys in order to find replacements with higher weapon skills. Ultimately this was unnecessary because the game is so easy I really didn't need any crew with my main character. He was a one-man army, able to carry 10 weapons at once, get shot multiple times without dying, and take on 30 guys all by himself. With the exception of one of the rare special missions, none of the missions were very hard. However, despite my complaints I did find the overall game to be very fun. It was engaging to take over my rival's territory and destroy his men and compound.

I expected the game to be rather mediocre, but it actually turned out to be one of my favorite games. The graphics are okay, although some animations could be done much better. The game is reminiscent of GTA but with a hint of RTS elements in it. I have easily put 10 hours into this game and it will keep me entertained for a while. I really don't have many complaints about the game besides the repetitive missions and the subpar weapon selection.

Games should be fun to play even 2 or 3years after they are released. This one isn't even worth the bargain pricing of 1.75. EA has become a horrible game company. There is no charm in this one, and it doesn't even rise to the poor levels of the first game.

Still, the best gangster game is Mafia II.

I really enjoyed the first Godfather game so I was eager to get my hands on this one. It's similar to the first one but it is better in some regards and worse in others. The two major irritations I had about the first one (mob wars and way too many businesses/rackets) were eliminated. I thought the storyline was much more interesting and liked the increased interaction with street people. Here's a few observations:

It didn't really follow the plot of Godfather part II as much as the first one did. I can understand why, though - you can't really play in two different time periods.

I got annoyed in Cuba when every time you'd brush someone's shoulders you'd have the police firing at you. It was most of the time better for you to just let them kill you than to try to do something about it.

I found the vehicles impossible to drive because it seemed like the turn radius was way too wide. You had to practically do a five point turn in order to reverse direction on a street. The cities were small enough that you may as well just run everywhere.

I especially liked the fact that you had a crew and could use them to your advantage. Having the ability to add crew members adds an extra element to the game.

I thought the first godfather game was pretty easy. This one is a tad more difficult because each of the "made men" had to be eliminated a certain way. One in particular took me multiple tries to get right.

I have recently purchased this game and I have also finished it a couple of days ago. This game is worth playing. It does get repetitive and there isn't that much to do in comparison to other sandbox games in the same genre, but it does bring some interesting and fun gameplay mechanics. A couple of the things that I liked about the game was the fact that I was able to take over & bomb stores and etc. Also having your "family" and "made men" was very interesting since they all had areas that they can specialize in such as: demolitions, arsonist, safe cracker, engineer, bruiser and medic. On top of the made-men classes, you can also upgrade their abilities and choose which gun they will be using. The driving controls I didn't really like, and I wish there was more variety of vehicles, and side missions instead of just the story line. There are the mini missions you can do for extra money but they do get repetitive since you're pretty much going to do the same in the story line.

bottom line; aside from the repetitive gameplay the story-line was mildy amusing, it is a good game if you can get it for cheap.. (cheap meaning.. less than $10) and in my opinion it was worth every last penny I spent.

much of the same of the first Godfather game. Only wish they had ALL of the original cast in the game would've made it better.......i guess.

I bought this game for my older brother Jay for his birthday. I have bought this game before when it was brand new a couple years ago. I ran it on my laptop using Windows Vista, & was barely able to complete the game & win it. The problem is my Dell laptop overheats on games like this, causing Windows & the game to crash. I had to keep the A/C on cold/high, blowing it into the CPU vent to keep the game from crashing, even with that, the game would still crash at times. However, when I was able to play the game, I was having a tough time trying to keep my properties from being taken back over. I always seemed to start over from where I started, even though I was following the strategy guide. Finally, I put the guide away & drastically changed my tatics. I improved my guys, as well as their skills. I did a bunch of small favors for awhile to build money & other items. Then I went right after the big bosses first, which made for killing off the underbosses easier, thereby making it much easier & quicker to obtain my properties as well as guys to protect them. I had to save every few minutes or when I completed a mission, before the game crashed. I would like to play this game again sometime as well as other games I enjoy like Mafia 2. I would have to play this game on my home gaming PC as the laptop won't take it again. I'm not sure if this will run on Windows 7, but would suppose that it will with no problems. Just buy the game, play it through, explore every nook, cranny, change your tatics to win faster, & enjoy yourselves! I really like the graphics, & I really love all the music that plays on the radio no matter where you are. Every place you go to, the music & stations change to something different, pretty cool! I drove around listening to the Easy Listening station, my guys didn't seem to say much about it. Then I took my guys around to all the different places after the game was over, got the cars lined up & shot some cool group pics of my gang as wallpaper. Pretty sweet! Don't listen to all the gripes & complaining about this game, it runs fine, theres nothing wrong with it! The "Super Gamers" just can't be happy with any game that's out there, I'm sure the deveolpers are getting pretty fed up with all of the unhappiness & imperfections that keep going around with these games all the time. Which would they rather have? Another round of Pac-Man, Space Invaders, or Dig-Dug for the Atari 2600 AGAIN, just because the developers gave up trying to make everyone happy??!! (Sigh.....) It can be so heart breaking for developers to spend months or years writing a game, only to have it bashed all down in a few hours of release. Games are supposed to be relaxing & to make use of the newest hardware technology, not be overly stressful. I think this game, Mafia 2 & others like it is quite an acheivement in graphics, gameplay & sound from what we had in the early 80's or even mid 90's! Just play it & enjoy, it's all good.