The Godfather II is an
action-adventure and
role-playing game played from a
third-person perspective, in which the player controls Dominic, an original character created for the game, who becomes the
Don of the
Corleone family in
New York City, and
Michael Corleone's
underboss. The basic
gameplay and
game mechanics fall into the subgenre of
Grand Theft Auto clones, as the player can travel throughout the game world freely, commandeer vehicles, do whatever they want in terms of attacking and/or killing innocent civilians, and progress through the storyline at their own leisure, spending as much time traversing the city as they wish.
Combat shows the mini-map on the bottom right, Dominic's currently selected weapon and ammo on the bottom left, his
health, and funds on the top left, and his currently targeted opponent's health on the top right. Below his own health bar are the health bars of his made men, as well as icons indicating their specialties. Much of the game is based around
third-person shooting, with the player able to wield a
pistol, a
magnum, a
tommy gun, a
shotgun, and a
sniper rifle, as well as projectiles such as
molotov cocktails and
dynamite. The game features both a lock-on system and a manual aiming system. In the manual system, the player has complete freedom to aim wherever they wish. In the lock-on system, the player can lock onto a target, but still has a certain degree of freedom to aim manually; the targeting reticule can be moved around the locked on target, allowing the player to target specific areas. If the reticule turns red, the player has found a weak point. All enemies have four weak points - their two
knees and their two
shoulders. If the player shoots one of their knees, the enemy will no longer be able to run, but will continue to shoot back. If the player hits a shoulder, the enemy won't be able to fire back or fight. The other mode of combat in the game is
melee combat, which is very similar to the "BlackHand" system used in the
first game. Once the player has locked onto an
NPC, either hostile or non-hostile, they can use the right
analog stick or the shoulder buttons to engage in melee combat. The system allows for light attacks, heavy attacks, powered attacks, and directional attacks. It also allows the player to swing the opponent around, drag them, strangle them, lift them to their feet if they fall to their knees, slam them against walls, smash their head against counters, throw them over ledges and out windows, and perform execution maneuvers when the opponent is suitably weakened. Players can also wield numerous melee weapons, such as
baseball bats,
tire irons,
police batons, and
snooker cues.
Extortion and family A major part of
The Godfather IIs gameplay is
extorting businesses. When the player is attempting to intimidate a business owner into paying
protection money, a meter appears on screen with two red bars. To get the owner to agree to pay, the player must intimidate them until the meter fills up to the first bar. After this point, the more intimidation the player can achieve, the more money the owner will pay out. However, if the meter passes the second red bar, the owner will begin to fight back and will refuse to pay anything. Every business owner has a weak point, something they particularly fear, and if the player finds it, the amount of money paid out will rise faster than the meter fills, allowing the player to extort more money before the meter reaches the second red bar. Intimidation methods include beating the owner up, throwing them around, smashing their shop, hanging them off ledges, attacking customers, or pointing firearms at them. A new element of gameplay in
The Godfather II is "Crime Rings". Every business is part of a larger multi-business crime ring, and once the player has taken over every business in a given crime ring, they receive a gameplay bonus. For example, taking over every business in a
diamond smuggling ring will give all members of the player's family
bulletproof vests, taking over all businesses in a
drug ring will double the player's income from each individual extorted business, taking over all businesses in a
chop shop ring will give the player access to armored vehicles, etc. However, these bonuses are also available to any rival family who controls the crime ring, until the player takes over any single business within the ring, then the bonus disappears. For either the player or a rival family to receive the crime ring bonus, they must control every business in the crime ring, but to lose the bonus, they need lose only one business. To ensure the player does not lose extorted businesses, they must assign guards. Every business the player has extorted is open to attack from rival families, and if the business is unguarded, it will be lost. If a rival family successfully takes back a business, they will break the crime ring, and the player will lose their bonus. Ultimately, the player must tackle the rival family's strongest holdout - their compound. Once the compound is destroyed, that family has been defeated. To destroy a compound, the player must first unlock it by taking over all of the family's businesses. They must then fight their way inside and plant a bomb. Each compound is heavily guarded by opposing family members. Another new gameplay aspect in
The Godfather II is the squad mechanic, whereby the player can directly command a group of
made men. Each made man has one or more special skills; "
Arsonist" (can set fire to various locations), "
Demolitions" (can rig bombs on cars and buildings), "Bruiser" (can smash certain locked doors and perform stealth kills on enemies), "
Safecracker" (can open safes and certain locked doors), "Engineer" (can cut through fences and deactivate communications in enemy businesses, meaning they cannot call for backup) and "Medic" (can revive Dominic and other made men if their
health is reduced to zero during combat). When a made man is hired, they start at the lowest rank;
soldato. A total of four soldato can be hired, with the player able to promote two to the rank of
capo, thus leaving room to hire two more soldato. When a made man is promoted to capo, they are granted an additional special skill, and become more powerful. The player can also promote one capo to the rank of underboss, giving him another special skill and further enhancing his strength. Although the player can have a total of seven made-men working for him, only three can be active in his crew at any one time. The inactive men can be sent to guard businesses or attack rival businesses. To manage their crime rings, and get an overview of their empire, players have access to a semi-interactive map called the "Don's View." Presented in a
3D perspective, with a rotatable/zoomable
isometric three-quarter
top-down view, the Don's View allows players to examine rival businesses to see how many guards are present, select the number of guards to place at their own businesses, send family members to bomb or try to take over a rival business, set
waypoints, organize their own family, manage their finances, upgrade Dominic's skills, promote and fire made men, and examine collectibles.
Heat and favors As in the first game, the player must be aware of "heat" at all times. Shooting rival family members in public, killing innocent people, or attacking police officers will all raise heat levels. If the level gets too high, police will fire upon the player on sight. To avoid this, the player can bribe police to ignore them for a while. The game also introduces witnesses. When the player commits a crime, a yellow circle appears on the
mini-map. This is the crime scene, and police will soon arrive to investigate. On occasion, a member of the public will be willing to identify the player to the police. If this happens when the player is still within the yellow circle, the police will attack. To avoid this, the player can either intimidate or bribe witnesses into not talking before the police arrive on the scene. Another new aspect of
The Godfather II is the favor system. Players can do favors for ordinary people on the street either for money or for information on how to
assassinate rival family made men. Like the Corleone family, all of the other families have made men. If the player simply shoots a made man, he will be hospitalized, not killed. To permanently eliminate a made man, the player must meet his "kill condition"; that is, he must be killed in a specific way, such as being thrown from the roof of a building, hit by a car or killed using a certain execution maneuver. The only way the player can learn these kill conditions, and the location of each made man, is by doing favors for people on the street. The player can also do favors for various influential people, such as
police chiefs, politicians,
CIA agents,
judges and
DAs. Doing favors for these people grants the player bonuses which they can cash in at any time. These bonuses include instantly reducing heat to zero, instantly healing hospitalized made men, putting enemy made men in prison for a time, and instantly rebuilding bombed businesses.
Multiplayer In
online multiplayer, players do not control Dominic, but one of his made men from single-player mode. Multiplayer can support up to sixteen players in eight-versus-eight man teams. However, the abilities of the made man are important to the type of game mode, although there is also a standard
deathmatch mode. Other modes are "Firestarter" (which is designed with the arsonist in mind, where players gain bonuses by starting fires), "Safecracker" (designed for safecrackers, where players must open and then defend a safe from the other team), and "Demo Assault" (where demolition experts must destroy pre-designated targets in their opponents base). Additionally, each time the player uses one of their skills, they gain in-game cash. If a player uses their made man's skill enough times in a game, they gain honors, which can be used to unlock new weapons in both multiplayer and single-player modes. All cash acquired in multiplayer is also carried over to single-player mode. ==Plot==