The Godfather II (GF2) slipped past its initial release date, but don’t think for a second that it’s been forgotten, chained to the bottom of the Hudson. During our initial preview , GF2 was not only shaping up to be a standout sandbox game, but a potential advancement of the genre. For most developers, that would mean bigger worlds, more missions, and more diversions – all the elements that the genre has become known for – but not EA Redwood. Consider this statement from Senior Producer, Joel Wade:

One of the negative themes [of The Godfather] was that there was too much commuting and a lot of time driving over long distances without a lot going on. We made an active decision to keep the gameplay as dense as possible and make transportation a lot less of an issue. We wanted gameplay to be continually active at your fingertips and you’re not spending a lot of time commuting. No one likes it in real life and no one likes it in games either.

I can certainly agree with the statement, and it’s the reason that I rarely see the credits in sandbox games. I get distracted by side-missions and mini-games until I forget my original goal, and eventually settle on finding unique ways to kill myself. While many developers might solve the cycle of masochism by adding even more diversions, EA is approaching GF2 with a narrowly focused mindset, but there will be plenty to keep players occupied.

In a reversal of tradition, GF2 positions you at the top of the Corleone food chain as a don out to dismantle three rival families. Although you spend much of your time on the streets, getting your hands dirty with a blood-stained bat, there is an equal emphasis on forming and upgrading your crew, watching the movements of rival families, and even managing the paychecks of your guards. In the downtime, you can rob a bank or offer your “services” to the locals. Regardless of what you do, every action is part of a larger, cohesive sphere of influence.

Our main focus was to filter everything around organized crime and keep it focused on that. If it fit within the world of organized crime, we kept it. Our bread and butter is the extortion of the rackets and crime rings. Layering on top of that is building your family and the RPG [aspect] of getting money and investing in skills, and taking over all of the crime rings yourself. A big change for us this year is that the rival families are dynamic, so they are going to be taking businesses back from you if you don’t guard them well enough.