Reviews// The Godfather II

Soon though, like an onion, The Godfather II begins to reveal its many nested layers. The game is not simply about running round town committing crimes for the hell of it. The mob is a business, and like any business, it needs to be managed, resourced, and to have an expansion strategy. Unlike many businesses, the exit strategy is trickier. Few Mob bosses retire, buy a yacht and go fishing, though many of them do spend time with the fishes once their mob career is over.

Like all successful businesses, finance is key. There are many ways of making money in The Godfather II: you can simply walk through a street game, and take the pot - but don't expect the opposition to be happy about it, or for the taking to be very significant. If you have a safe cracker and a demolition man on your crew (and you'll need both soon enough) you can rob a bank. But don't expect the cops to be happy about it. Get in, get the cash and getaway - because the alarms will go off and the police will come quickly in force, and if they catch you, you will spend time in jail.

The main way to earn money, and keep a steady income stream, is to take over and run a racket. This could be something simple like a prostitution or a drugs ring. To take over the racket, you have to find the main man (or woman: The Godfather II has a strangely gender-balanced view of crime leadership in the early 1960s that goes against authenticity, but has an empowering message for any female players). This will usually involve a good deal of gun-play with her/his goons first.

Once their men are dispatched, you can intimidate the boss into becoming one of your guys. This is where the game begins to show its true delights. To intimidate a business owner, you need to apply pressure to him or her. You can do this by beating them around, putting a gun to their head, or dangling them off a tall building - you really have a great deal of creative latitude here. Apply enough pressure and they collude, apply too much and they fight back or simply die on you.

If you accept their collusion, as soon as you intimidate it out of them, they will give you a pitiful cut of their take. The closer you take it to their limit the more you will get, and if you hit their limit on the nail, you will get a bonus for doing so. It's important to master this art, since you need to maximise your revenue stream, because you need to defend your newly acquired place of business, or rival mobs will try and take it over, and if it is undefended, they will succeed. Guards cost money, and if you are not earning enough from a racket, you will not be able to afford to defend it.

If you're not making enough from a place, all is not lost. Take over other rackets, so you control the whole ring and your income will be multiplied by a bonus. You can also take over legitimate businesses, which serve as a way to launder your dirty money. The more of these you have the more your income will be increased.

As I mentioned above, having the correct skills in your crew is vital to taking over many rackets and businesses and, as the game progresses, in assaulting rival families' compounds.

So, there is a team management aspect to the game. As spaces open up in your Family, you can choose from the host of ne'er do wells who hang out at your establishments hoping to get Made. Choosing the one with a certain skill set will open up new possibilities to you, and making sure you have a well balanced crew is vital to your progress.