We have two types of games - good ones and bad ones. Some games are good just because they bring something new to the gaming world. In this case it was Mafia. And it has nothing to do with the fact it's a czech game :) No, the game had a great story, nice graphics and a lot of fresh ideas that made it loved all over the world.

Well, the main reason it become so popular was probably that whole mafia idea which made the game something special. So, when EA saw this, they decided to develop and release their own Mafia. All of us know how it ended - The Godfather was a bad mix between Mafia and GTA series with aweful graphics and terrible story. Actually the fact that it was built on The Godfather series probably hurt the game even more. It was just a cheap filling that deserves to be forgotten.

However, EA is company that have enough money to poop out a lots of such crappy games, so they decided to give us another part of the story and released The Godfather 2.

Bah, another crap?

Not really, no. I've seen some trailers and previews and decided to give it a try. First few minutes won't tell much and game really doesn't look like something changed but after intro, you'll that it's not a true.

Game changed a lot. Graphics still not a strong part of a game but it's not really bad either so I don't give a damn. What changed a lot is a ****of playing. Now it's not just going to rackets, killing guards and kicking the deal out of the owner, playing dull missions and trying to outrun cops with ultrafast cars.

You're now building a family. During the playing, you'll be able to hire some muscles to your family - guys with different skills and different tastes for fun. Some like to burn things down, others to blow them up etc. These guys are here to help you with missions and taking control over cities.

Family is everything

There's not much skills needed in fact and I think it's good for the game. You can choose between few types of guys who are skilled in particular thing. Some can set stuff to fire, which distracts police or guards, others can blow up walls or even business of your rivals. You can hire a guy who's able to open safes or guy who will cut electric to the building so guards can't call for backup. And there's also a medic and nice guy with skill in intimidating ppl. As I said, there's just enough of these to make it fun.

But that's not all. You can upgrade skills of your made men, which then makes them better in using weapons, surviving fights or getting faster out of jail. They differ not only by primary skill they have but also by licence for weapons. Some have only basic licence and can use only basic stuff like small colt, shotgun or tommy. Others have their licence advanced or even better, so you can equip them with silenced pistol, sniper rifle or whatever weapon you find.

It's a nice addition that makes the game more personal and fun.

Where's my money?

Family is one thing but you have to get some business to get money for keeping it alive. Getting money works the same way as in first game. You take over rackets and get money from them. Tho, it alone would be dull so it's not that simple.

First of all, you have to protect your rackets from other families. Hiring guards is a good idea. You can also place you made men here - they're stronger then guards and makes it harder for others to take over your business. If happens (and it will) that somebody attacks your racket, you'll be informed and you can send your men to help protecting the place (or you can go by yourself).

But that's not all. You can put somebody's business out of order for some time by bombing it. That might get usefull when they have a lot of guards inside and you don't have the men or you just need to cut off the bonus from racket ring.

Bonuses are another nice addition - if you control a racket ring, you get a bonus, like armored cars, bulletproof vest or more ammo. Controlling racket ring means you have control over all racket of same type. Lose just one and you lose your bonus - this is when bombing become useful - bombing enemy racket brakes the ring and they'll be without bonus until racket is rebuilt. But same for you.

You're not alone in the world

Yes, you are not alone. There are others who wants to control the cities. Yes, there's more cities, not just one - more smaller cities instead of one big. Other families can do same as you can. They'll try to take over your rackets, bomb them to cut you off the bonuses and send their made men to make your life miserable.

Yeah, they too have their own made men. And one of your tasks in game is to move them out of your way. It's not that easy how it might sound tho. Mostly they'll appear on racket during takeovers but killing them there will just send them to hospital from which they'll return after some time. If you want to send them to hell forever, you'll have to kill each one of them in particular way.

To do that, you have to find them first. And to find them, you have to do some favors to ppl. Taking care of some evidence, beat the hell out of a bully or kill somebody, whatever it takes to get to them. After you know where, you'll find out how - you want to send a message to the family so you can't just shoot them in a head. Some have to be choked, some shot, some thrown down from a building...

Also, taking care of them now mean that you won't encounter them during final attack on family base.

No revolution, sorry

It's actually nothing that I did not expected. Second Godfather is just a first game with some improvements, which makes it last longer but after few hours of playing, you'll find out that you're doing same stuff all over and over.

So, since I wasn't expecting much, I'm not disappointed, probably even a little surprised. However, I'm not sure how to look at the whole thing with connection to the movies. From my point of view it just makes it all a lot worse because you'll expect something that the game can't give you. If you know the books and movies, play the game without expecting more then familiar faces. Otherwise, play the game and then watch the movies or read the books so you see how good the original is and how poor is the game.

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