Godfather 2 XBox 360 Review

The Godfather 2 is a game that promised a lot. It also lived up to quite a few of the things it promised. And then for some it didn't. Now to be specific. If you were expecting to play as Aldo from the first game, then too bad. Aldo gets rofl-sniped in the first level. No, you play as Dominic, an unknown character who is suddenly dumped with the responsibility of being a don, or leader. You start by creating Dominic. This character designer tool, when you first use it, seems incredible. Then you play Saint's Row 2, unless you live under a rock and have no taste for awesome games. Then you look back on the creator tool of the Godfather (which is ironic because the Godfather 2 came out after SR2) and you say "Meh." Anyway, once you're done creating him, you play through about 4 minutes of the Cuban Revolution (to be revisited later) and once on the plane are promoted to boss. In a gang other than the Corleones. They take a back seat in this game. Sad, really. It is from that point on that you are tasked to reclaim individual businesses (there's too damn many!!) from rival gangs in New York (MUCH smaller than in the first game, like think 25 times smaller at least), Miami (also unrealistically small) and Havana. You can drive a circle around these maps in minutes. Once a rival gang has no businesses, you storm it's compound and kill everyone inside it. Don't quite get why the gates open when they're out of business, it's like they open the doors and hang a neon sign on the door saying "KILL ME (US)", but once you get inside, they change their minds. Once you kill them, you need to blow the compound up. Not like it's enough to kill EVERYONE IMPORTANT in their gang and quite possibly everyone who isn't and run them out of business. Nope, you need to blow up the compound. Once you set the charges... scratch that, once you order someone to set the charges, you need to escape in the measly 30 or so seconds given. Once the bomb goes off, the gang is GONE forever. One of the first things that makes sense. Once you finish a certain gang(s), a story mission pops up. These are the only real variety in the game. Once you kill the last gang you kill the guy responsible for all the conflict... in an airport, of all places. There is no subtlety in this game. Once you kill him and go back to your safe house, you get promoted to don of the Corleones. Excited? You shouldn't be. All that happens is you watch a cutscene where you see Fredo get shot in the head by a hitman sent by Michael (so much for brotherly love). Then the credits. But the game lets you keep playing in a world where cops are your only enemy. So you can try the multiplayer. Once. You won't go back, trust me. There is also no replay value in the single player. None. Do what I did and sell it when you're done. Now to talk about the gameplay. You drive around, shoot things, and beat things to death like a crazed caveman with only one type of swing. The game also makes you feel like such a douche while you play. When he kills people, Dominic says things like "I hope you said goodbye to your family this morning!" or "You should'a run when you had the f#$@ing chance!" To be fair, the gunplay works, the driving is acceptable, and the melee combat is visceral. The graphics and audio are decent. Nothing groundbreaking. The gameplay works in a way that I can't call it a bad game, just an average one that I feel isn't worth what you pay for it. If you like action games or the godfather franchise, rent it. A 3 out of 5.

Gamertag: Steviespartan