Godfather II, The

GamePro

It isn't the best open-world game out there, but it does a sublime job of capturing what it feels like to be the head of a virtual crime family. [Apr 2009, p.81]

ZTGameDomain

While it still isn't perfect, Godfather II is leaps and bounds above the first game, and one of the most engaging titles I have played all year.

3DJuegos

Godfather II is a good action videogame that is remarkably improving the good work of its predecessor. A brilliant mixture of action, strategy and resources management, with extraordinary ideas in its concept but with a technical side that needs to be more polished.

PSX Extreme

The Godfather II, although a bit easy and not nearly as long as it should be, is still a great sandbox game that fans of the genre will enjoy wholeheartedly. It boasts solid control mechanics, from on-foot gameplay, to fighting, to gun play, and to car control. The missions are always a lot of fun, even if they can be a bit repetitive, because the game does a good job of conveying the life of a mafioso.

PGNx Media

Conceptually, The Godfather II has the potential to be an amazing game. However, the somewhat dated visuals, coupled with the occasional mission-ending glitches, and the relatively ease of the strategy component mean that The Godfather II is a good game but one that doesn’t fully live up to its potential.

GamingXP

If you enjoy fast action-gameplay and build up-strategy games, you will enjoy Der Pate II (Godfather II) very much. If you are fond of the brutal world of crime, this game is your product.

AceGamez

The Godfather II doesn't quite live up to the film upon which it is based, but the experience it delivers is much more enjoyable than I expected.

XGN

All together The Godfather II really is a fun title to play. The game is not perfect, but brings you a good atmosphere, great storyline and a intense mobster experience. The features to extend your family and the Don's View, are really great new extras.

DarkStation

The game has its faults but when it is all said and done if you really enjoy The Godfather you are going to find a lot to enjoy in The Godfather II.

Kombo

Electronic Arts has made another offer that you cannot refuse.

GameDaily

It's a fun single player adventure with an equally entertaining multiplayer mode full of 16 player death matches. Although its graphics look dated, monotony quickly sets in as shooting the same bad guys and completing similar missions gets old. That said, The Godfather II makes for an ideal weekend rental.

Games Master UK

Too flawed to be truly great, but that doesn't stop it being brilliant, ludicrously violent fun. [May 2009, p.65]

Extreme Gamer

The Godfather II might be a little sloppy in its execution, but its intentions mean well.

Cheat Code Central

A good game that players will both enjoy and find tedious. Hopefully, the franchise will progress with a third iteration, as sticking to a more complex, strategic-based formula would do wonders for the series. As it stands now, you'll have fun but wish for a whole lot more!

IGN

It's still fun and has almost all of the elements of a great game, but until a harder difficulty level is added (which, fingers crossed, would occur with a future download or patch), The Godfather II falls a tad bit short.

Vandal Online

The strategic action and management combination that The Godfather 2 proposes is a remarkable formula, but also risky. Maybe it won't be able to convince gamers looking for an action game, nor those looking for strategy, but our feeling is that ultimately this is an action game -a good one- with interesting strategy elements, more than the contrary.

NZGamer

In the end, The Godfather II has the recipe for an excellent game filled with action, mindless violence, great characters and strategic thought. But you just can’t help but shake the feeling that it doesn’t quite feel 100% finished.

Destructoid

Fans of the first Godfather game will definitely want to take a look at the sequel, with the caveat that the extra layer of Don’s View depth and the strategic learning curve may turn some people off. It’s also not the best looking game, and it’s certainly not the most engaging. But it’s a fair bit of fun if the idea of shooting fools in the face -- when choking them just doesn’t work -- appeals to you.

GameShark

The strategy elements fall short and are only as important as you choose to make them, but the combination of brutal action and customizable crews is reason enough to warrant a play-through.

Gaming Age

I for one love what ideas the developers had in store with The Godfather II. The strategy elements were well thought out, implemented nicely, and the game really gives players the feeling of controlling your own family. If a bit more polish and time were given to the game’s action portion, The Godfather II would indeed be one you couldn’t refuse.

DailyGame

EA introduces some new gameplay elements and injects some variety, but it's not enough to keep the game from getting repetitive, and the overall polish isn't as high as it was in the original.

AtomicGamer

There's some good stuff here if you dig in for a while, but even if you do, don't expect to be blown away.

GameZone

This is a game that does not have the depth of other gangster-themed titles, but still manages to present the world of the movies in a solid way. Fans of the film may enjoy this ride while those looking for something a bit more substantial may find this game not as deep as they would like.

PSW Magazine UK

A solid sequel, but it doesn't add a lot that's substantially new.

Total Video Games

Far more enjoyable than its predecessor, The Godfather II presents a sufficiently different take on the open world formula to make it worthwhile - just forget the fact its based around Coppola's classic.

Gameplayer

Repetition is the biggest flaw in the game, but it doesn’t ruin the experience, by any means. As mentioned earlier the graphics are a lot crisper, the gunplay is a lot tighter, and the managerial side of the game isn’t without the odd moment of satisfaction. The Godfather ii is a decent enough sequel of a decent enough game, diehard fans of the movie should hit it up, to everyone else: this is an offer you can refuse, if you’d like to.

VideoGamer

Decent ideas married to some questionable execution. In short doses Godfather II can be an absolute hoot, but sadly its shortcomings become more and more obvious the longer you spend with it.

InsideGamer.nl

The Godfather II is a technically flawed game. Glitches, pop up, framerate drops are quite frequent and the soulless sandbox world isn’t too appealing either. The upside is the strategic element of the game. It’s fun to coordinate attacks on rival families and to take over businesses by using excessive force. All in all it’s great fun if you’re not turned of by the technical issues.

Playstation: The Official Magazine (US)

The bottom line is that its disparate parts don't combine to make a better whole. [June 2009, p.76]

Cynamite

The Godfather II was meant to be big competitor to the dominating GTA series, but it feels like a lousy rip-off. You got to be doing more than that, EA!

PS3bloggen.se

The Godfather II brings mob strategy and action together, and does neither thing great. It is still, however, a game you cannot leave that easily – with an interesting gaming concept around made men, intimidation strategies and other mob oriented modes of play.

PALGN

The Godfather II may be an offer you'll refuse, but there's enough here to interest someone who would like a sophisticated twist on the sandbox formula.

Telegraph

The film truly is a millstone around the game's neck. If this game was called Cosa Nostra or Organised Crime 101 (or something similar) it would feel like a far stronger title altogether. Its open-world game template may be well worn but The Godfather II contains some excellent ideas, and the way it integrates them through a smooth control system is admirable.

PSM3 Magazine UK

Somehow manages to be slightly fun despite its patchy quality. [May 2009, p.66]

The Onion (A.V. Club)

The Godfather II entices players with a few fun hours of empire-building, but it breaks up the flow with a weird distortion of the original film’s story, then comes to an abrupt end.

SpazioGames

All in all, The Godfather II goes on the same path of its predecessor: funny gameplay, but repetitive, cool design, but graphics look old. You can squeeze the best out of it while managing your rackets, but the fun won’t last long, and won’t leave much behind when it’s over.

Playstation Universe

Disappointing yet addictive, The Godfather II blends strategy and violence with mixed results and technical inefficiency.

Gameplanet

Despite some serious gameplay issues, The Godfather II is actually quite fun, in a morbid kind of way. Unfortunately, repetition and poor AI routines damage gameplay and ultimately sap the life out of what should have been a tremendous sequel.

GameFocus

The Godfather 2 is a great game in a lousy shell. If EA turned around and made the third entry in this series into a competent sandbox shooter and improved on the Don’s View mode, making it more useful and adding more depth to it, dropping the Godfather movie tie-ins, it would be a lot easier to recommend. As it stands now, you can find games that do what this game tries to do a lot better.

Playstation Official Magazine UK

A likeable, albeit unpolished, blend of action and strategy that hasn't been done before. [May 2009, p.94]

Playstation Official Magazine Australia

The Godfather II starts off as a robust crime caper, but it alienates fans of the film and confuses those who haven't seen it. [June 2009, p.67]

Edge Magazine

Coupling this mostly successful strategic management to a realtime 3D world is unconvincing. More than that, the places where the RTS bits meet the shooting bits exist on some weird fringe of reality, where the symbolic shorthand of tactical games clashes absurdly with the pavement-pounding veracity we've learnt to expect from open-world crime. [May 2009, p.91]

Worth Playing

The Godfather II is an offer that you probably should refuse.

Game Revolution

There are scattered elements throughout the game that come across as shockingly unfinished, or at least dismayingly unpolished.

Game Informer

Most of this game’s content is in betrayal of the license, and it’s not all smut, either. In one mission, you are tasked with assassinating Fidel Castro, an act that ends up being just as comedic as The Naked Gun’s assassination attempt on Queen Elizabeth II. Unfortunately, the intent of this sequence isn’t to make ­players laugh.

Gamer.nl

A good idea that turned into a bad game. The Don's View has potential, but with a very low difficulty you can take over where and whenever you like. The action itself is pretty mediocre, the graphic style even worse. The Don's View can form a good starting point for a new game, but pretty please with sugar on top, don't mess with the Don.

1UP

Godfather II suffers from a lack of design foresight. Instead of delivering a movie-quality narrative, it presents a frustrating, accidentally comic world.

Game Over Online

The only one of the film's cast members to appear here is Robert Duvall, and every word spoken sounds like he was reading it while doing his taxes. The members of the Godfather cast who appeared in the first game knew when to 'git while the gittin's good' it seems.

GameSpot

Questionable design choices aside, the problem with almost every aspect of The Godfather II is simply that it feels unfinished.

Eurogamer

Lacking both a challenge and soul, and failing to even engage on a narrative level, what you're left with is an overly forgiving shooter with weak strategy elements, which only serve to make it even easier for you. Having played right to the end, I wish there was something I could point to in its defence, but all I'm left with is the empty realisation that they've managed to somehow make this even less entertaining than the flawed original.

GameSpy

There's absolutely nothing wrong with the game in concept, and done properly, it would easily have established it as a classic on par with the film on which it's based. Instead we get brilliant concepts ham-handedly executed.

Play UK

Ugly in every sense of the word. There’s almost nothing remotely likeable about Godfather II, and it’s glitchy and scruffy. One of the poorest EA games in a long time.

Absolute Games

Establishing a new Family is a hard undertaking… and a tedious chore. Imagine spending 10+ hours on taking over one building after another! In GTA: San Andreas and The Godfather, this occupation was but a side attraction; here, it is everything.