The Godfather® II

Keep it in the family with The Godfather II

Act like a mobster and think like a Don in The Godfather II for PlayStation 3.

EA previously brought its take on iconic gangster movie The Godfather to PlayStation 2, and now its sequel gets the PS3 treatment in The Godfather II.

The action starts in Cuba as you take control of Dominic just as Michael Corleone asks him to stake control of the family after the death of Aldo Trapani. You return to New York on a mission to seize businesses from rival families in order to become the most powerful Don in America.

However, you must start on the streets. The Godfather II is played from a third-person perspective, like its predecessor, and you are free to explore the city and its many buildings, either on foot or by stealing any car that takes your fancy. You have an arsenal of upgradeable weapons at your disposal, ranging from handguns to rifles to baseball bats, although sometimes it’s more appropriate to let your fists do the talking.

You can only take over the city one business at a time and a dead manager is not going to help profits, so you have to rough them up to convince them to work for you. Holding the L1 and R1 buttons grabs an opponent by the scruff, and using the responsive Blackhand controls, you have a variety of sinister moves at your thumbs. Preesing the L3 and R3 buttons simultaneously, for example, applies a choke and if you are using a DUALSHOCK 3 Wireless Controller, you can feel their pulse gradually fade. Each manager has a weakness that will make them crack, be it roughing up their customers, destroying their merchandise or threatening to throw them off the roof.

The level of violence in The Godfather II is gratuitous and it is a game meant for a mature audience.

A Don is only a powerful as his family and you need to build an army if you’re going to run the city. If you see a character with a dollar sign above his head you can ask for his backstory and his specialty. Some are demolitions experts, capable of blowing up doors or entire buildings, while locksmiths are useful for cracking safes and robbing banks, and arsonists can light up a room of enemies. As you gain more influence, you’re able to recruit more men, and it’s always worth keeping your eyes peeled for stronger soldiers. If you’re carrying dead weight, you can mark one of your gang for death, then ‘accidentally’ shoot him during a fight or dispose of him quietly in a dark alley.

Taking out a rival family takes more than firepower, and you have to consider your strategy before wading in. Each business you own is susceptible to attack unless you employ guards. However, guards cost money, so having too many will eat into your profits. It’s worth stationing one of your crew members at a particularly valuable property, as they are much tougher than standard guards, or you could instruct them to take over a rival business on their own. If they succeed, then you’ve acquired a new property without breaking a sweat. If they fail, then you’ll be without their services for a while as they recover in hospital or serve a prison sentence.

There is online multiplayer for up to 16 players and an impressive range of competitive modes. Team Deathmatch is all about taking out members of the opposing team; in Demolition Assault, you have to blow up three of the opposing team’s buildings; setting barrels and propane tanks alight boosts your score multiplier in FireStarter; and in Safecracker, busting open a vault and defending it earns you points.

The Godfather II is a gritty representation of the classic film that is more about exploring its world, rather than following a linear retelling of the plot. It balances action with strategy and the varied abilities of your gang members means there are multiple methods to taking over businesses.

Pick it up and delve into a violent world of greed, revenge and, above all, respect.