The Godfather II is an open world action-adventure game played from a third-person perspective, in which the player controls Dominic, 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
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 II's 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.
