The Godfather 2

An offer to return to the violent world of The Godfather - an offer that should be refused...

The first Godfather game managed to drive fans of the classic Coppola films into an uproar, while at the same time being a mildly popular take on the sandbox-crime-spree genre made so popular by GTA. Apparently rage and near-mediocrity are like a red flag to EA's raging bull, and so we find ourselves in the mobbed up company of The Godfather 2.

On paper, there's actually some stuff that this new iteration has that you might look forward too. For movie fans, the fact that character actor Robert Duval reprises his role as Corleone family advisor Tom Hagen might excite. For those who like a touch of strategy in their sandbox, the Don's View offers a top down cityscape where you can post guards on your various nefarious operations and plan future hits and shakedowns, as well as promote and tweak your growing crime family.

And, of course, there's the nigh-unresistable lure of driving around town with scant regard for road laws, fire hydrants and pedestrians that typifies all sandbox games, set against the backdrop of the second, even darker middle film of the Godfather Trilogy.

The game opens promisingly enough, with a rather wordy introduction the Corleone family's latest racket - making a mess of money in Cuba alongside a more or less corrupt (and soon to be defunt) Cuban government. It's very film-accurate, as Hyman Roth congratulates all the mobsters concerned on their new found business wealth, but goes off the rails a touch when Michael Corleone starts talking - obviously, Al Pacino does not care to lend his voice nor even his likeness to the game. In fact, the quietly spoken and darkly menacing original take on Michael seems to have been replaced with something just shy of a mobster caricature.

Disappointing.

Of course, it all goes to hell as revolution grips Cuba and you've got to escort Michael and your own boss to the airport. It's a pretty good lead in to the mechanics of the game, and as training levels go it does a good job of getting you used to the game and introducing the setting.

The problem is that it falls into the same trap that the first game does - namely, that if you're at all a fan of the films then the idea of Michael Corleone blasting away at rebels in a blood-drenched escape to the airport, complete with snipers, is a touch... alarming, shall we say.

From that point, the game introduces you to more elements, especially the Don's View, as you're tasked with taking over New York, one illegal business and money laundering front at a time. This too is bit of a training level, and it does some interesting things with the sandbox game. You start recruiting your own made men, and can choose from a range of specialists - demo guys, medics, all the usual stuff - that you can either post at your joints, or have follow you around town as you bully, co-erce and generally scare the ever-loving crap out of otherwise honest businessfolks.

This is the Black Hand control scheme, introduced in the first game, but largely expanded here. Now you can use both control sticks (we reviewed Xbox code) to grab, shake, headbut, or groin-kick your targets, and do even more in the right context. Roughing up a barman at his bar? Slam his head into it. Got someone on a rooftop? Try dangling him over the long drop.

It's an interesting scheme, but possibly a little too... effective. We don't mind a degree of escapism in our games, and violence is practically part of our gaming DNA these days, but the intimidation in Godfather 2 left us feeling more than a little guilty. It's possible to discover that some of the people you're trying to intimidate have weaknesses; handy, to a degree, but discovering that a woman is afraid of being hit, and then needing to hit her to get the job done, simply left us feeling dirty.

And not in a good way.