Joystiq

Godfather II is simultaneously a lot like and completely different from its predecessor: It feels less like the wannabe GTA the first game was and more like its own unique product. The sandbox gameplay is here, the laughable attempt at making a serious storyline from one of the greatest film franchises ever is also still here, but this time around there are many more activities to partake in, as well as an extensive online mode.

Godfather II stars underboss Dominic who flies with his New York crew to Cuba, where Michael Corleone, Hyman Roth, and the New York families meet to discuss a deal giving the mafia a stake in the government, essentially allowing the mobsters to have their wildest dreams fulfilled. Thankfully, that doesn't happen ... because if it did, the game would be over.

Exploits as a criminal do, in fact, pay.

After some light gunplay in Cuba that introduces the cover system, I extracted Fredo and Michael and was awarded my own family in New York, with the purpose of squashing turncoat Carmine Rosato and his family of traitors. After recruiting my first solder, it was time to get down to business ... the business of extorting business owners, that is.

The core gameplay of Godfather II is very similar to that of the first game. Find businesses controlled by rival families, rough up the shop keeper, and make them pay for protection. Once done, the business belongs to you, and if you take over businesses of a similar nature, you can work towards a crime ring. Crime rings are a collection of establishments that, once owned, provide any number of boosts, from added firepower to bullet-proof vests. They come in handy, especially later on when you're fighting high-level gangsters that control crime rings of their own.

And in each takeover, your crew's different abilities will come into play, allowing you to approach each situation in a different manner. If you're rolling with a medic it's guns blazing, because if you get shot down, you have the ability to be revived. Is one of your boys a demolitions guy? Send them to go bomb a building and break a rival family's crime ring, while you take your crew to another location without having to worry about your rival's perks from that crime ring.

Handling your many assets is accomplished through Don's View, a real-time, 3D map representing all the available properties and crime rings. Here, you can coordinate members of your family to take over rival venues or bomb them, as well as send them to defend locales you own that are under attack. You also use it to stack each controlled location with generic goons that will defend the spot should a rival family come sniffing around, adding a light strategy element to the game. Own a spot that isn't much of a money generator? Put fewer guys there and focus on those places that are more profitable. Don's View is pretty useful early on; however, its full potential is realized when you start managing properties in multiple cities down the road, when it becomes essential.

Another new feature to the game is multiplayer, which incorporates a series of objective-based gametypes, as well as the requisite Team Deathmatch. I had the most fun with the Firestarter gametype, where arsonists run around setting fire to gas pumps and cars for points. As a bonus, the stat boosts for your multiplayer crew carry over to the single-player game and vice versa.

Godfather II is like waking up on December 25 and not realizing it's Christmas. It's a wonderful surprise, and EA has really managed to build on the previous game. Sure, there are some things I don't like (you can't blindfire, hand-to-hand combat is more clumsy with no lock-on, etc), but the package as a whole is ... you know, an offer you can't refuse.