Rating:


Price: $59.99
Reviewed On: PS3

The Skinny: Hand-picked by Michael Corleone to be the new Don of New York, you are tasked with growing your own Family and expanding the "business" throughout New York, Florida, and Cuba. Put the screws to your rival mobsters, defend what's rightfully yours, and get on the receiving end of some pinky kissing.

The Good: In the spirit of Grand Theft Auto, there is a ton of stuff to do in the open-ended, crime-ridden shithole cities you play in. Random people on the street solicit you to whack their neighbor in exchange for money, federal buildings are in constant need of bombing, robbing, and invading, and there is even a mission that tasks you with delivering a bullet to Fidel Castro's cabeza. Building up your crew is a little clunky—you have to scour the streets to recruit high-level members and then manage what kind of abilities (bombing, wirecutting, healing, etc.) each one has—but once you have your Family tree set, taking down 20 or 30 goombahs guarding enemy compounds is satisfying.



The Bad: It's become the norm for gamemakers to unnecessarily extend the length of a game by simply making you redo much of what has already been done. This is what you're faced in Godfather II after eliminating a few of the rival families. You'll be raking in the dough, controlling all of the requisite mob industries, like chop chops and laundering fronts, only to be subject to the "oh, we forgot to tell you about this other guy never mentioned before and how he really controls everything." You lose a portion of your hard-earned mobster booty and are forced to retrace your steps and take over parts of the city once more. Also, it's obvious that the developers have been given unlimited creative license—some weird and tangential plot devices will make Godfather movie purists shudder with repulsion.

Maxim Tip: Each individual mob industry is broken up into four individual store fronts. Take over and defend all four at the same time and you will be given a special ability, such as additional ammunition clips, a percentage boost in revenue, or (especially useful in hostile Cuba) bulletproof sedans.

Buy, Rent, or Disembowel: Ten hours of gameplay, a forgettable online experience, and little to no correlation with the classic movie makes this one a weekend rental, at best. Diehard Godfather fans may want to steer clear of this empty suit altogether.