The Godfather II
Video game information
Developer	EA Redwood Shores
Publisher	Electronic Arts
Released	2009
Genre	Action-adventure, Sandbox, Third-person shooter
Platforms	PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows
Timeline	1958-1960

The Godfather II is both a sequel to The Godfather: The Game and an adaptation of The Godfather Part II, where you control a Corleone soldato called Dominic Corleone and become Don after former protagonist Aldo Trapani gets killed. The action takes place across three cities: New York, Miami, and Havana. The game is played from a third person perspective. It also contains some strategy elements, as the player's character battles rival families and take over businesses to ultimately rule over many cities.

Robert Duvall reprises his role as consigliere Tom Hagen in both voice and likeness as he did in the first game. However, Al Pacino, who played Don Michael Corleone in the film did not provide his likeness or voice and the character of Michael was changed significantly in the game itself.

Synopsis

Prelude

In 1955, Michael Corleone has moved his family to Lake Tahoe, Nevada, leaving Aldo Trapani as his proxy in New York. Michael's ultimate ambition is go legitimate, via Nevada's lucrative gambling trade and a business enterprise in Cuba with Hyman Roth, and give his caporegimes the opportunity to form their own families.

Story

On December 31, 1958 in Havana, Cuba, Hyman Roth has arranged for a meeting in which various Mafia families discuss plans to divide territory in Cuba amongst themselves. Among those families are the Manganos, the Granados, and the Corleones, including the Almeidas, who sent their representative, Alejandro Almeida, down to the meeting. Aldo Trapani, Fredo Corleone, and Dominic, are present at the meeting as well. When their meeting is interrupted by the Cuban Revolution, Dominic and Aldo escort Michael Corleone and Fredo to safety, but Aldo is killed by a sniper upon reaching the airport. Michael Corleone appoints Dominic as Aldo's successor to keep the city under the Corleone family's control.

Six weeks after the riot in Cuba, two of the Corleone's caporegimes, Carmine and Tony Rosato, better known as the Rosato Brothers, reneges on their former side to begin building their own organized crime families. Dominic is then tasked with recruiting underling soldiers and re-acquiring Carmine's newly-owned profit rackets in New York. After Dominic has managed to reclaim a number of Carmine's rackets, Carmine offers to hold a truce meeting with Dominic and Corleone caporegime Frank Pentangeli to negotiate for peace. The meeting, however, turns out to be a setup. Dominic manages to escape thanks to a police officer entering the building, but Frank is apparently killed. Dominic suspects Michael Corleone of setting him up as one of Carmine's soldiers say "Michael Corleone sends his regards". After taking over the rest of Carmine's rackets and eliminating all of Carmine's made men, Dominic eliminates Carmine and his remaining men at his compound and then orders one of his men to bomb the building's gas main effectively destroying the compound and the remains of the Carmine Rosato family.

After Carmine's death, Hyman Roth contacts Dominic and asks him to come to Miami, Florida, so he can rescue his associate, Steven Ciccoricco, who was kidnapped by the Granados family. Following the rescue, Dominic allies himself with Roth and is aided by Fredo (who was sent by Michael Corleone to help at the hotels). Dominic establishes himself in Miami and gradually takes over businesses from the Granados family and Tony Rosato, eventually eliminating them at their compounds later on. When Don Samuele Mangano moves his organization to Miami, Dominic wisely chooses to offer an alliance with them, which Samuele accepts. A few hours later, Fredo calls Dominic and wants to have a drink at Dominic's Florida safehouse. Dominic and Fredo are suddenly ambushed there, but both survive the attack, thanks to Dominic's quick actions. Fredo, suspecting the Mangano family to be guilty, breaks the alliance, also believing that Mangano's smuggling men and guns into Florida to start a war. After killing Hector Santos as a favor for Charlie Green to gain access to the island that Mangano's Warehouse is on, Dominic's family raids and takes over the Warehouse. Mangano calls Dominic shortly after and says that he was not behind the hit and says that they need to have a sitdown at an old warehouse on Dodge Island. However, instead of Mangano being there, his consigliere, Paolo Riccitello, is there instead. Paulo tells Dominic that the Mangano's were not behind the hit attempt and that if they had wanted Dominic killed he'd already be dead. After the meeting, Giorgio Strozzi, a Mangano underboss, leads an assault to take over six of Dominic's rackets. Later, Fredo tells Dominic to go to Hyman Roth who knows not only how to reason with the Manganos, but also how to fix the problem. But Roth won't help Dominic unless he's willing to help him. Roth reintroduces Dominic to CIA Agent Henry Mitchell (Who tasked Dominic to assassinate Alejandro Almeida to stop an airport strike earlier), who is plotting to assassinate Fidel Castro. This situation pays homage to rumors that the CIA hired Mafia members to try and assassinate Castro. Dominic is sent to Havana and tries to kill Castro with a sniper rifle, but fails, as one of Castro's high ranking officials, Don Esteban Almeida had prior knowledge of the assassination attempt and alerted the authorities. It is also suggested in various scenes that Roth was working with the Almeida family to set Dominic up. Which explains why Mitchell and Roth wanted Dominic to assassinate the dissident leaders, removing all of Batista's supporters would keep Castro as the president.

When Dominic returns to account his failures to Michael, they learn that Frank Pentangeli is alive, ready to testify against the Corleones at a Senate Investigation into organized crime. Dominic rescues Frank's brother, Vincenzo, from Hyman Roth's kidnappers, and Vincenzo convinces Frank to recant his testimony. But the family has other problems. Henry Mitchell has gone rogue, and Fredo has unwittingly betrayed Michael, due to Roth's manipulation. With the Senate hearing out of the way, Michael decides that his enemies need to be eliminated. After killing Mitchell and destroying the rest of the rival families in all three cities, Dominic and his men carry out their last mission: assassinating Hyman Roth. After a tense shootout at Miami International Airport with Roth's men, airport security and the police, Dominic assassinates Roth and successfully escapes to the previously taken over Mangano Compound. When Dominic corners an unarmed and cowering Roth, the player has the opportunity to engage in dialogue - Dominic demands to know why Roth betrayed him and tried to have him killed, to which Hyman responds in a melancholy tone the famous quote "This is the life we chose". Dominic shoots his way through the police, corners Roth as he is just getting off of his plane, and escapes alive. Michael congratulates Dominic on a job well done, and tells him his future in the family is secure. The family welcomes him in, calling him Godfather. At the end, Fredo's murder is reenacted from the original film, with Dominic's voice heard saying "Fredo, I'm Sorry".

Gameplay

Many gameplay elements from the original game returns in the sequel, some expanded and improved. Like the first game, The Godfather II is a third-person shooter taking place in an open world, and both story-based and side missions involve gunplay, hand-to-hand fighting, and driving. However, the sequel features "Black Hand 2.0" control scheme where the player can grab, knee, kick, and head-butt enemies. In a gun fight, the player can use target-lock or freely aim at specific parts of an enemy, and a disarmed or injured enemy can be approached and executed with a unique killing blow that depends on the weapon and the enemy's condition. Each of the weapons in the game, including handguns, shotguns, and sub-machine guns, have its own level and statistics, and the player is able to purchase licenses to use higher level weapons with more skill.

Much emphasis was placed on the squad mechanic, where the player can directly command a group of soldiers to strategically coordinate the attack. In addition, each soldier is able to use a special skill such as hand-to-hand combat or demolition expertise. By using these skills, multiple approaches will be possible when assaulting a business location or a rival family's compound.

In addition to the third-person action gameplay, the game features a strategy aspect that manages the Corleone criminal empire. In the "Don's View," a strategic overview of the game world, the player can order members of the family to expand or protect his territory. Taking over businesses is the main source of cash and reputation, in addition to the perks from controlling the specific type of business. The player's soldiers can be either ordered to take over the target or directly led by the player himself. This strategic gameplay is said to take up about 20% of the whole game.

Rival families will actively attack and sabotage the player's establishments in order to dominate the three cities. To weaken the rival family, businesses under the control of enemies can be attacked and taken over. Also, enemy mafiosos can be shot down during gun battles, but key members will only be critically wounded and return after a period of recovery. In order to remove them for good, the player must gather information and assassinate the target in a particular context relating to the plot of the game.

The Godfather II features a third-person shooter multiplayer mode that supports up to 16 players online. There are currently 6 maps and 4 gameplay modes announced. Multiplayer matches can be also yield in-game cash and weapon licenses that can be carried over to the single player mode.

Cast

Families

• Almeida family^[1]
• Trapani family
• Corleone family^[2]
• Granados family^[3]
• Mangano family^[4]
• Rosato Brothers
  • Carmine Rosato's family^[5]
  • Tony Rosato's family^[6]

Notes and references

External links

• The Godfather II official website