Scarface: The World Is Yours (PS2, Xbox) Preview
Posted by Andrew Mellick on 10.10.2006
Tony Montana has finally found his way into the digital world. Now you're in control, you must build an empire from scratch, display your power in violent fashion and sell ridiculous amounts of cocaine. Sounds like fun for the whole family.
Al Pacino first slipped into the paten leather shoes of Tony Montana in 1983 and pop culture has been fascinated ever since. You can barely listen to a rapper today who doesn't reference the balls-to-the-wall character in their lyrics. Phrases like "You wanna get rough?" and "Say hello to my lil' friend!" are spouted countless times in movies, television, and music.
Now 23 years later the story of Tony Montana comes to the digital world. What can we expect from Vivendi? Read on to find out.
What's the story?
If you have not had the pleasure of seeing this movie, you won't be completely in the dark (however, I recommend seeing it anyway, it's a classic).
This game picks up where the movie ends.
MOVIE SPOILER WARNING
If you remember at the end of the movie Tony is brought to a violent and bloody end. Well, this game says what if Tony survived? What if he somehow made it out?
END MOVIE SPOILER WARNING
The game starts with Tony having no money, no power, and no empire. He has to start from square one building his empire and eventually seeking revenge on his enemies. So how do you build an empire in 1983 in Miami? Sell cocaine!
The game revolves around the concept of building up your empire. You start small, following tips and helping drug dealers with various tasks to score some flake. You slowly build on this and begin to hire your own thugs and make your way to the top. Don't think that it's all just buy drugs sell drugs and make money. There are a variety of activities that can be done to pad your bank account.
The game has the little things like, paying off cops to keep your name in the clear and laundering your drug money in order to use it without worry. Small details but they help to create the environment of the life of a drug dealer in 1980's Miami.
What's the play like?
If you thought this game was another GTA rip-off, you're somewhat correct. It is like GTA in the open ended do anything you want kind of way. But there are some notable exceptions.
For instance, don't expect to be able to go down to the beach and blow off some steam by putting holes in some beautiful people. Taking aim at civilians results in some chastising from Tony who says he only kills those "who deserve it" and if you ignore Tony your shots will fly wildly and miss the target. While some people may not like this, it does add a level of realism to the game verses say a GTA where you can literally killed a hundred people and get a fine.
When Tony does find a group of people who "deserve it" he can dispatch them in violent fashion. The aiming system in this game is solid and the game rewards you based on where you hit your enemies. Where the bullets hit your enemies is displayed on the screen in anatomical detail. (Yes if pop a guy in the balls, the game will tell you)
Oh, such language
If you have a problem with the F word, steer clear of the game. Just like the movie, Tony will go on his expletive laden tirades. But it's so much more than just potty mouth.
The game incorporates a taunting system. That's right, in the middle of a gunfight, when you put somebody down, when you take some led yourself, even if you get into a fender bender, you can hit the taunt button and let the world know what you think. This is not only encouraged but it is necessary. Every time you taunt somebody it raises your balls meter (yep you read that right "balls meter"). Once your balls meter is full you will be able to be invincible for a short time. Its completely ridiculous, but an extremely necessary and fun add on. Come on, who doesn't want to say "Just got to fill my balls a little more…"
"The world is yours" is an apt title as you are able to have a conversation with literally everybody in the game, from tourists to drug dealers. These conversations are not "Hey baby, looking good". In one instance, Tony recommends to a hooker to get out of the business and flippantly offers to off her pimp. Another example of how the world of Scarface comes alive.
Voice acting in the game is top notch. Tony Montana is voiced by someone who was handpicked by Al Pacino (because lets face it, Al doesn't sound like he used to). The voice acting looks solid and balances well between the intense and the humorous.
But how does it look?
Scarface looks good. Nice character renderings of Tony and comparatively its a lot more smooth than other GTA clones.
Overall
Despite all the delays, Scarface is shaping up to be a solid sandbox game. Sure it borrows a lot from GTA but what sandbox game doesn't? With an empire to build, a city of people to talk to, and a whole world to explore, Tony Montana looks to have his hands full. Will he be able to recreate the empire he once had?
Check back here for a full review next week to find out.
If you have played any iteration of the GTA series, you probably will feel right at home playing Scarface: The World is Yours. The game starts right off as if Tony Montana had never been ambushed and killed at the end of the movie. The voice acting and character interaction is probably some of the best that I have ever seen in a video game. There is tons of drug use and references and vulgarity on par with the movie, which makes this game for adults only as I am sure you can imagine. Some people may have a problem with this, but personally, I love the fact that the producers of the game stayed true to the Scarface franchise and did not try to appease the critics. Hardcore fans will love this game! At first, you can clearly tell that Tony Montana is not voiced by Al Pacino, but the stand-in, who was appropriately hand-picked by Al Pacino himself, does a great job and at times, sounds just like Pacino. The dialog with NPC's is the games highlight in my opinion. You can have a 5 minute conversation with a random person on the street, and not hear the same sentence twice. Not a huge selection of guns, but they serve their purpose well. A well placed gunshot will blow a head off and cue the spraying fountain of blood in true Kill Bill style. The targeting system is spot on and allows Tony to dispatch literally dozens of cock-a-roaches with ease. The graphics could be a bit better and some of the missions are downright silly, but if you are a true Scarface fan, this is as close as you will ever get to a new chapter that is the cocaine and expletive-laced life of Tony Montana. Overall I give it an 8/10.
Posted By: SmokeyDNuggs (Guest) on September 22, 2008 at 11:01 AM
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