If The Godfather II had been a mediocre, mindless
action flick, the game of the same name could at least
be considered faithful to its source material. As it is,
though, Coppola’s Mafia-themed masterpiece has been
reduced to an uninspired, repetitive open-world action
game with out-of-context movie quotes and a handful
of recognizable characters sprinkled throughout its
forgettable story. To make matters worse, The
Godfather II has clearly been released in an unfinished
state and is riddled with performance issues and bugs
like they’ve been fired from a Tommy gun.
You play as Dominic, an important member of the
Corleone family who somehow managed to make it
through the epic movie trilogy without ever wandering
into camera shot despite apparently being involved in a
number of key scenes. As one of Michael Corleone’s
most trusted men, you’ve been groomed to head up
your own family, and after a brief introductory sequence
set in Cuba, the game proper gets under way in a
diminutive New York where you’re instructed to set
about making a name for yourself. From this point on,
much of your time is spent seizing and attempting to
retain control of businesses run by rival families in order
to make money and, ultimately, force said families to
retreat into their compounds where you can eliminate
them entirely. Unfortunately, killing rival mafiosi and
intimidating business owners gets repetitive quickly and
isn’t much fun to begin with.
That’s largely because the gunplay in The Godfather II
is neither challenging nor satisfying. You have an
impressive arsenal at your disposal, and weapons like
the Magnum and the shotgun really feel like they pack a
punch, but the enemies you’re using them against rarely
seem too interested in self-preservation. Too many of
them simply stand their ground or charge at you and, if
they somehow manage to get close before you put a
couple of bullets in their heads, can easily be grabbed,
punched, strangled, or head-butted into the afterlife.
With that said, the made men working for rival families
are geniuses compared to the clowns you get to recruit
into your own family. They have their uses, but even
having them do something as simple as walk through a
doorway ahead of you or climb into one of the game’s
many slow but slippery cars with you can take some
work. Predictably, things don’t get any better when
they’re put into combat situations or are asked to
perform the very specific tasks that they supposedly
each specialize in, which include cracking safes,
committing arson, and kicking down doors.
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