The Godfather II (video game)

The Godfather II
Developer(s)	EA Redwood Shores
Publisher(s)	Electronic Arts
Engine	Godfather engine
Platform(s)	PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows
Genre(s)	Action-adventure,Sandbox
Mode(s)	Single player, Multi player

The Godfather II is a 2009 video game based on The Godfather Part II, a 1974 crime drama film directed by Francis Ford Coppola and co-written by Coppola and Mario Puzo. The game will be published by Electronic Arts and has been confirmed to be released on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows. This is also a sequel to The Godfather: The Game, which was also developed and published by EA in 2006. The game was released on April 7, 2009 in North America, April 2 in Europe and April 5 in Australia. The Godfather II is played from a third person perspective. It also contains some strategy aspects, as the player's character battle rival families and take over businesses to ultimately become a "don" ruling over many cities. Makers have also said the Wii version will come out later in the year featuring aspects with the motion sensors and expanded gameplay.

Synopsis

Characters

Individuals

• Michael Corleone: Head of the Corleone family. He is attempting to legitimize the family business.
• Dominic: The main player character is appointed the new Don after Aldo Trapani dies in the escape from Cuba who is tasked with expanding, and defending Corleone operations in New York, Miami, and Havana
• Aldo Trapani: The player character (main character) of the previous game and New York Don of the Corleone family, who is killed by a cuban sniper during Michael Corleone's escape from Cuba.
• Tom Hagen: Corleone consigliere who offers counsel to Dominic.
• Hyman Roth: A Jewish mob boss who serves as the primary antagonist. He is allied with the Rosato brothers.
• Pat Geary: A corrupt senator involved in a congressional investigation into organized crime. Preview footage suggests that Dominic is involved in the revenge plot against him.
• Frank Pentangeli: Replaces Peter Clemenza as the Corleone caporegime after Clemenza's death.
• Tommy Cipolla: A henchman character who is exclusive to a pre-order bonus from special stores. He is a trained as a Medic and Arsonist, and wields a sawed-off shotgun in combat.
• Henry Mitchell: Dominic's primary contact with the CIA, who instructs Dominic to carry out some assignments in Havana.
• Jimmy Lira: A henchman character who is obtained by puchasing the downloadable content pack "Jack of all trades" or "corleone bundle". He is trained with the skills: arson, engineer, medic and safecracker abilities as well as a level 2 machine gun.

Families

• Almeidas family: The Almeidas family are led by Esteban Almeida, a former rebel fighter who fought alongside his brother Ramon and Che Guevara in Fidel Castro's Cuban revolution. Referred to as the Cuban Mafia, the Almeidas are able to operate on Cuba as long as the family does not interfere with political affairs, and they are the only organized crime family operating in the country. Esteban is referred to as violent and ambitious, who remains loyal to Cuba only because of his loyalty to his brother Ramon.
• Corleone family: Originally beginning as an olive oil importer in the 1920s, the Corleone family has since risen and become the most influential family in America. Lead by Don Michael Corleone and his New York City Don Aldo Trapani, the Corleone family seeks to expand international power over smuggling and gambling.
• Granados family: The Granados family is led by Rico Granados, a man who made his bones through the real estate market, managing both property and loans, that operates in Miami, Florida. Rico was dubbed a Mafioso after he successfully overcame extortionists by eliminating them as a threat, and has since become the top contractor in the city of Miami. In his family are loyal con and hitmen.
• Manganos family: The Manganos family is led by Samuele Mangano, who inherited the crime family from his father. The family is known for its Sicilian roots and follows traditional Mafia code, like Omerta. The family has run the city of Palermo for generations, and continues to hold strong by ruthlessly dispatching challengers. The Manganos are also deeply respected by their community.
• Rosato Brothers: Carmine and Anthony (Tony) Rosato were both previously caporegimes in the Corleone family empire. However, once Aldo Trapani was killed, both left the family and started their own, expanding in New York and in Florida. Carmine remained in New York, and took over rackets and businesses that previously belonged to the Corleone family. Meanwhile, his brother Tony moved down to Florida, to expand their empire there, and establish connections in the new territory.

Law enforcement

• Police: Much like the first game, "heat" can be managed by bribery.
• CIA: Very close to their depiction in "shadow government" conspiracy theory lore, the player character occasionally does favors for them.
• Cuban Military: Fidel Castro's troops are encountered in Havana, and are considerably harder to deal with than conventional police.

Setting

The Godfather II takes place in the late 1950s and early 1960s over three cities: Havana, Cuba, New York City, and Miami, Florida. Michael Corleone orders the player character, Dominic, to take charge of the family after the death of his New York Don Aldo Trapani, the protagonist and player character of The Godfather: The Game. Now as Dominic, the player leads the family to defeat other, international families and take control of various businesses and crime rings, in order to become the most powerful Don in America.

The game commences on December 31, 1958 in Havana, Cuba, 4 years after the character of the preceding game, Aldo Trapani, is made Don of New York City. The game proceeds to introduce its main protagonist, the player's character, who is named Dominic. The player is then allowed to customize Dominic's physical appearance according to his/her preferences. Following this, the game reveals the first major scenario which occurs. Michael Corleone, successor to the Corleone empire, is in Havana for a business meeting with Hyman Roth. However, after a short discussion with Michael and Aldo, the player is given the task of escorting Aldo, Michael and Fredo to the airport. Owing to the inconvenient moment which the Cuban Revolution reaches the political center of Havana, any attempts to expand the family venture into Cuba is currently a travesty. Upon arriving at the airport however, a sniper aligned with the revolutionaries attacks Trapani and kills him. Aldo's demise provides the player a promotion to the now-vacant title of Don of New York City. Six weeks after this incident, due to the volatile instability created by the recent events, two of the Corleone's caporegimes, Tony and Carmine Rosato, reneged on their former side to begin building their own organized crime family. The player is then tasked with recruiting an underling soldier to assist in re-acquiring Carmine's newly-owned profit rackets. The player is also later allowed to recruit two more soldiers with different abilities to fulfil various purposes. After the player has managed to retake a number of Carmine's rackets, Carmine offers to hold a meeting with the player to negotiate for peace. He requests for the player and a Corleone underboss named Frank Pentangali to present themselves at the meeting venue, a barjoint known as Richie's Tavern. The meeting, however, was a trap initiated to neutralize the player. The player manages to escape but Pentangali is apparently killed. While trying to strangle Pentangali, however, one of Carmine's underlings taunts him: "Michael Corleone says hello." The Corleone camp suspects that Roth is manipulating Carmine for his own benefit. Meanwhile, Michael's brother, Fredo, is in Florida to discuss a business venture with the latter. After retaking Carmine's rackets the player has to defeat him at his compund.

When Carmine Rosato is defeated in his compound, Hyman Roth will call you and request that you go to Florida to talk about business. When arriving at Florida, Fredo is there already and explains a little bit about what Roth wants. You and your soldiers travel to Roth's apartment and Roth explains that an associate was kidnapped and you need to free the associate. When done,you need to take some business over from Tony Rosato and Rico Granados.

Gameplay

Many gameplay elements from the original game will return for 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 will feature "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 machine guns, will have its own level and statistics, and the player will be 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 would be 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 will feature 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.

File:The-godfather-2 17-08-08 25.jpg

The Godfather II screenshot

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 will feature 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 will also yield in-game cash and weapon licenses that can be carried over to the single player mode.

Development

System requirements

	Requirements
Microsoft Windows
Operating system	Windows XP (SP2) or Windows Vista
CPU	Intel Pentium 4 2.8 GHz or AMD 64 3000+ processor
Memory	1 GB (2 GB for Vista)
Free space	9 GB of free space
Graphics hardware	256 MB video card with Shader 3.0 (Nvidia GeForce 7800 GT or ATI Radeon X1600 Pro)
Sound hardware	DirectX 9.0c compliant card

The development of the sequel was hinted at from as early as 2007, and EA officially revealed the game in August 2008. After the first game was released on both "current gen" video game consoles and "next gen" consoles over 2006 and 2007, its engine was further developed by EA for use in "next gen" EA titles, such as The Godfather II and Dead Space.

In accordance with the upcoming game, a spin-off based on The Godfather II was created as a Facebook application, entitled The Godfather II Crime Rings. Based on the crime rings system from the upcoming video game, the application allows participants to create a mobster (similar to the MobFace feature from the video game) and takeover rackets to build crime rings, making money, and becoming a Don. The Five Families featured in the game are the same as those in The Godfather II, and the application provided the first look at the families, revealing their names and locations. Players are randomly placed into these families upon joining the application. A player starts off as a soldier, makes their way up to capo, followed by underboss, then consigliere, and lastly, Don.

EA announced on March 9 that the game has gone gold for the April 7th release in North America.

External links

• The Godfather 2: EA (official website)