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Scarface: The World is Yours (PC)

• Developer:
• Publisher: Vivendi Universal
• Genre:
• Official Website: http://www.scarfacegame.com
• Score: 5 of 5: Purchase

Who wouldn't want to own the world? Tony Montana, a Cuban immigrant, worked very hard (which means killing, stealing, lying, dealing drugs, and all that fun stuff), to own what was the world to him: Miami. That is, until he was killed at the end of Brian De Palma's classic film from the 1980s, Scarface. How is it possible to make a game from a movie where the main character was shot to death at the end? It's simple.

Instead of basing the game on the movie (meaning, have the game feature how Tony built his empire and how he died, which in my opinion would have made more sense), the game takes place as if Tony did not die at the end of the film. He lost his empire, and he needs to re-build it from scratch. He goes out to get revenge on the cock-a-roaches that made him lose everything.

The gameplay is pretty fun- better than your standard GTA clone. The map is huge, and there are plenty of things to do. You can do missions, which include protecting people, killing people (gee, this is a surprise!), driving around, selling drugs, and taking over territories. You also need to increase your reputation, and with purchasing exotics, it's quite fun.

Exotics range from small house decorations, to henchmen, from luxury cars and boats, to owning firms and enterprises. Obviously, if you purchase a multi-million dollar business, your reputation will be increased more so than if you just buy a small house decoration. More and more exotics will be unlocked once your reputation reaches a certain level.

There is a pretty fun mini-game incorporated when you are buying/selling drugs, laundering your money, fast talking cops, and so on. You press and hold T, until a red line goes a full circle. You need to do this quite often, and depending on your reflexes (at times, the line goes faster than at other times) you can score much better deals with drug dealers or laundering your money. For example, if you let go of T at the right time, you will be able to sell 100 grams of coke for 10,000 dollars instead of 6,000 or make no deal at all. In banks, the bank takes a certain amount of your dirty cash when you go and deposit it. If your reflexes are good, the bank takes only 1% of your cash instead of 13%. These rates go up as you progress. Depending on your reflexes, you can be filthy rich, with very low gang and police heat (which I will get to soon), or extremely poor and wanted by pretty much everyone.

Heat from cops as well as rival gangs plays a big part in the game. You gain heat from gangs very easily. Killing gang members from rival gangs raises the heat from them. To lower it, take over their territories, deal drugs, or pay big bucks in the "heat" menu. With cops, you need to fast talk them, or once again, pay in the "heat" menu. If you have heat from these two factions, that could mean a lower income from drugs and a harder escape from cops.

Another fun gameplay element is the rage mode. To increase rage, you need to gain balls. How do you gain balls? Shooting people in certain areas will allow you to fill your rage meter faster than others (such as shooting someone in the head as opposed to shooting someone in the arm). Also, doing car stunts will allow you to fill your rage meter. Once your rage meter is full, you can unleash hell. You are invincible and have infinite ammo while rage mode is active. You also get your health filled up this way! Isn't it ironic? You murder people, so that you can gain more health.

The visuals are alright. Though, because my machine is not exactly new anymore, I had to tone down the graphics a bit. Although with a game like Scarface or GTA, you can't get Gears of War like graphics (unfortunately!). The faces look pretty good, though not as detailed as in The Godfather. In my opinion, graphics don't necessarily make the game, and in Scarface's case, it certainly did not break it either.

I can't go without mentioning some of the negative aspects of this game. For one, Tony Montana is not voiced by Al Pacino, but there is at least some resemblance in terms of looks. Also, there are some bugs in the game. For example, when I was going around with the chainsaw, the chainsaw was right in the guy's chest, but he did not die for some reason. Instead, I was shot to death. Unlike how you can kill any civilians in games like GTA, Scarface prevents you from shooting innocent pedestrians. However, if they get in front of your car that is racing through town- well, that's their problem.

Scarface was a pretty fun game. I enjoyed it more so than most GTA clones and wannabes. Though, the game is a bit late in terms of making movie to game adaptations (much like The Warriors was, but that did not stop that game from kicking ass; read that game's review here). If you like GTA type games, like the movie Scarface, or just want some third person action going on, I urge you to pick this game up.

Nov 30, 2006 | 0 comments
Mate Bors