Scarface: The World is Yours
Score: 89% ESRB: Mature Publisher: VU Games Developer: Radical Entertainment Media: DVD/1 Players: 1 Genre: Action/ Third Person Shooter
Graphics & Sound: Scarface: The World is Yours isn't your typical movie tie-in. Instead of your standard rehash of the film, the development team at Radical Entertainment decided to let the players escape the mansion shoot-out at the end and let the game act as a sequel. Graphically, it is pretty obvious that the team took a lot of care in getting the look of Tony Montana just right. Everything from his very recognizable face to his swagger comes off very cleanly and is noticeable to anyone who has seen the movie a couple of times. The game's semi-major characters, like Tony's lawyer, his banking friend and Felix, all come off well also, but it's obvious that there wasn't quite as much time put into them as there was Tony. As for the street thugs and all of the other people you meet in the game, they quickly become very generic and cookie cutter. So what about the game's version of Miami? The development team went down to southern Florida to get a feel for the city and while the game doesn't duplicate the exact layout of the sunny city, it does seem to grab the feel of it (or at least the feel of the city we saw in the movie). Audiowise, the game brings together probably the largest cast of movie star vocal talent. And while very few of the cast actually worked on the original film (those few being Steven Bauer and Robert Loggia), the sheer volume of recognizable voices in this game is noteworthy. Jay Mohr, Cheech Marin, James Woods, Miguel Sandoval, Robert Davi, Michael Rappaport and Michael York are just a few of the vocal talents you will hear in the game. The game also hosts a wide selection of music from not only the 70's and 80's, but also a few new tunes tailored for this game.
Gameplay: Scarface: The World is Yours lets you take Tony from rags to riches all over again. After escaping Sosa's betrayal, Tony must start from nothing once again and build up his drug ring, retake his mansion from the dirty vice cops, take back his territory and finally seek out Sosa and exact his revenge. Scarface is all about being Tony Montana. All of the actions and decisions you make in the game are based on what Tony would do. For instance, Montana would never shoot an innocent bystander, so if one happens to run in front of you while trying to clear out a rival gang nest, then Tony will pull back and not fire until they pass. Like most open world games, just playing through the story missions will cause you to miss a lot of what this game has to offer. The World is Yours boasts races and side missions that all help to make Tony more money and increase Montana's empire. These side missions include clearing out gang nests to gain territory and buying out fronts to sell your cocaine. Scattered throughout Scarface is a mini-game that helps you determine everything from how high a price you sell your drugs to how much of a cut the bank gets from your cash when you deposit it into one of your special accounts. This game is also used to fast talk your way into the cops' good graces when they happen upon you. This mini-game is fairly standard. You hold down the Circle, and a bar starts to fill. When you let go, the bar stops filling and if you land it in the sweet spot, then you succeed in your dealing. Starscream pointed out to me in an IM session how much this game reminded him of the GTA games and he had some reserves concerning this game seeing as he has played quite a bit of not only the GTA's, but just about every other game cloning its style. I, on the other hand, never really got a chance to really get into Vice City or San Andreas (I know, I know ... don't shoot me) so I guess I have a slightly different perspective on the game. Because I haven't been drowned in the various open-world drug/car smuggling games that have come out over the last few years, I found some of the missions that have been seen as old hat as fun and new. In the end, I found the game fun, and whether or not the game is original means nothing -- it's all about having fun while playing it.
Difficulty: Scarface: The World is Yours's difficulty has a gradual gradient that slowly eases you into the tension-filled rushes between the drug farm filled islands and your various distribution fronts in the city. The game starts off with a series of missions that hold your hand as you go through the game's basic events like buying and selling drugs to dealers, buying out businesses to create fronts and laundering money through a local bank. Once the game lets you out on your own, your missions allow you plenty of time to get to the various checkpoints and the distances between them aren't all that great. But as you progress, you will have more fronts to manage and as you race between them, you will have to make decisions between your different cash cows based on your limited time and the state of your empire in other parts of the city. There were several times when a rival gang started attacking one of my territories while I was in the middle of a drug run and I had to decide if it was worth the time and money to stop the attacks or continue dropping my product off at the various fronts.
Game Mechanics: Scarface: The World is Yours's most notable mechanic would be the Balls Meter. Now really, it isn't anything new. We have had berserker bars in other games, but I think what makes this game's version of it stand out are what type of actions affect this meter and in what ways. Sure, shooting a room full of enemies will increase your bar, but mowing down people with your machine gun using the game's target locking system doesn't net you nearly as many balls as using your pistol and aiming by hand. There are also a ton of other elements that add or even detract from your meter. There are some people in the world that you can intimidate, and if you do well in the mini-game, then you gain balls, but if you do badly then you will actually lose points. If you are a fan of the Vice City and San Andreas gameplay style and haven't gotten completely burned out on it from all of the clones out there, then The World is Yours is a game to pick up.
-J.R. Nip, GameVortex Communications AKA Chris Meyer
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