Video game review | "The Godfather II" falls short

Video-game review |

In the "Godfather II" game (Electronic Arts, rated Mature), the "Godfather" tale is merely a patina of plot and setting meant only to lend credence to the important business of building a criminal empire.

As an action and strategy gangland simulation, "Godfather II," a sequel to "The Godfather: The Game," entices and frustrates, marrying an ambitious, innovative design with a final execution that seems unfinished. I enjoyed almost every minute of the roughly 17 hours I took to complete the PC version of the game, which is also available for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, yet I never felt seriously challenged in terms of either intellect or dexterity.

Given the constraints of the "Godfather" legend, the game does a reasonable job of weaving its nominal story around the events and characters of the second "Godfather" film. The game begins with the player's character, Dominic, a second-tier hood in 1958 Havana who helps guide Michael Corleone out of the city as Fidel Castro's rebels close in.

The relatively scant dialogue in the game consists mostly of sophomoric locker-room humor laced heavily with profanity but without the wit and subversive charm of a "Grand Theft Auto" title.

Most of the time the player directly controls Dominic from a third-person perspective while driving through urban locales and attacking rival syndicates, assembling his fief and recruiting made men.

What makes the game interesting is its strategy component. In the Don's View, you see an entire playfield of criminally controlled enterprises — some run by the player, some by rivals. The player can dispatch one of his made men to bomb an enemy smuggling operation, while the player himself simultaneously orders a takeover raid on a gambling den. Meanwhile, enemy dons are sending their own enforcers to assail the player's operations.

It is a well-devised framework, but it simply has not been developed at a level that would propel "Godfather II" to the ranks of great strategy games.