This game is pretty fun to play and at times it shows a lot of potential but so much more could have been added.
In the Godfather 2 it only focuses on one of the stories which is when Michael Corleone is now Don of the Corleone family. The game follows the movies storyline very closely but with slight variations and with some of the most famous scenes out of order. The game starts off in Havana in 1959 where the invasion of Cuba is about to begin and where Michael Corleone celebrates with a bunch of other family members Hyman Roths birthday. You get to play as one of Michaels henchmen named Dominic.
At the start of the game you get to customize the character, which gets the game to a pretty good start. Even though there is only limited selection of clothes an hairstyle unlike the Saints Row game you do get a wide variety of clothes. The best part about it is that you can change the looks of the character at any time during the game.
Godfather 2 plays like an open world game like GTA and Saints Row but with more strategic based gameplay. The idea behind this is really cool. Throughout the whole game you'll be capturing different business from rival families all around 5 different cities. The businesses include things like strip clubs, factories, shops, and construction sites. When capturing these businesses you'll get lots of money from it and if you capture a whole line of businesses in a crime ring you'll receive different bonuses like brass knuckles, armored cars , or bullet proof-vests. The idea of having your own monopoly empire is really cool and sets it apart from other open world games.
Unfortunately what ruins this really cool concept is in its repetitive nature. Now this game can be very fun for a time but as the game continues you won't get any new updates as far as new businesses to take over, new bonuses, or any other upgrades. Even though you travel to 5 cities like New York, Miami, and Cuba they all look the same. The main missions are usually the same set of missions which are capture a certain number of businesses and kill a made man. The side missions are pretty much the same as the main missions only being received by civilians or cops.
When capturing businesses you'll have a crew to tag along with you. You basically hire these crew members at the compounds or at the different business locations. The certain specialties like lock-picking, demolition expert, and a medic. The crew members for the most part actually perform tasks really well and they are pretty good followers in the game. You can also send them over to protect the businesses that are being attacked which is very helpful if you are far away from the location.
Now what this game does better than Grand Theft Auto 4 is in the melee system called the Black Hand 2.0. In this melee system you can grab the person punch them in the face or knee them in the stomach. It works out really well when you're trying to take over businesses because each of them have an owner that you have to rough em up to hand it over to you.
The graphics for the most part are very last gen looking, which is not what I expect for a PS3 game. But I do like how colorful a lot of the environments and clothing's are. It does a decent job of giving it a 50s feel to it.
However the A.I. for the civilians and rival families are the hyper paranoid and extremely dumb. Some of the civilians are easily scared by the sound of honking in which they respond "please don't kill me". The rival family members suicide charge your position. Even though they are poorly handled I got a few laughs of how ridiculous it was.
However the thing I didn't like the most about this game is in its story. Pretty much the story feels like a recreation of the famous movie scenes then an actual story. None of the characters are compelling in the least unlike the movie. The most you know about them if you haven't seen the movies are just the bare basic: their name and what they do. You don't get to know any thing else about them and are mostly there to give you objectives. Even the main character that you play as is not compelling. They all basically feel like cliche characters with voice actors that seem to phone it in.
This game is pretty fun to play and at times it shows a lot of potential but so much more could have been added. I hope in the future there would be a more refined game with the same open world/strategic here.