After being promoted by Michael Corleone to Don of New York, players expand to new cities, as they build up their families through extorting businesses, monopolizing illegal crime rings and defeating new families in an effort to become the most powerful mob family in America. To help players manage their empire, The Godfather II introduces "The Don's View" - an innovative strategy meta-game that allows players to oversee the entire world as they grow the family business. Using the Don's View, players will be able to build, defend and expand their crime rings, while keeping an eye on the movements and plans of the rival families. Players will also learn to master the business of organized crime by building a family of Made Men, hiring crew, handing out orders, and promoting their best men up the ranks. Set in a stunning open-world environment, The Godfather II expands on the popular gameplay mechanics of the first game and doubles down on the series' signature BlackHand control scheme, which now features even more visceral hand-to-hand brutality at your fingertips, introducing a new combo system, pressure tactics and executions. In The Godfather II, players fight alongside their hand-picked crew, who have their own skills and expertise. Each family member specializes in a specific field such as demolitions, arson, engineering, first-aid and more. As The Don you control the family, sending some of your men on missions while heading off into action with others. The combination of strategic organized crime gameplay and brutal BlackHand action promises to set The Godfather II apart from other open-world games. Play The Godfather II online multiplayer modes and become the true Don of Dons. Take your money, weapons, and crew from your single-player experience online and wage mob warfare against up to 16 players from around the world. Play as one of the family's crew specialists and put your best strategies to the test as you take over territory and strike back at rivals. Earn upgrades and money that can be used in your single-player experience.

In 1958, three years after the events of the first game, elderly mobster Hyman Roth calls a meeting with the Corleone, Granados, Mangano, and Almeida families in Havana to discuss their future Cuban business prospects under the cooperative government of Fulgencio Batista. Roth announces his intentions to have his businesses divided between the four families once he retires. However, the guests become caught in the ongoing Cuban Revolution, and Corleone underboss Aldo Trapani is killed during the chaos. Don Michael Corleone, his brother Fredo, and Trapani's second-in-command, Dominic , manage to escape aboard a private plane, and Michael appoints Dominic as his new underboss, placing him in charge of the family's businesses in New York City.