Brian De Palma’s now classic “Scarface”(1982) has taken over so many facets of our world. Quoted by fans, teens, and most importantly the Hip Hop culture, the movie that redefined the American Dream, is easily one of the most influential in modern culture. In the movie, after a highly crooked and perilous life Tony Montana (Al Pacino), is shot in the back during a rival coke supplier’s raid. Pacino goes out in a blaze of gunfire, and ultimately falls into his pool with the classic “The World Is Yours” globe behind him.
“Scarface : The World is Yours” is more or less a huge “What If ?”. In the game, Montana survives the final shootout and escapes with nothing left of his empire. Interestingly enough, the boys over at Radical and Vivendi Games basically took two gaming elements that had been repeated over and over, games based on feature films and Grand Theft Auto “spin-offs” , and created something fairly original yet comfortable. And honestly, who can resist the opportunity to kill a couple dirty “coc-a-roaches”??
Grand theft auto 3 set off a whole new generation of open world games. From “True crimes” to “Saints Row”, everyone and their mother seem to be making their own GTA inspired game. Luckily for them, Radical not only used the GTA style of gaming, but improved on it in a few key areas. A huge problem in Vice City (a GTA based in Miami, and heavily inspired by Scarface) was the targeting system. In Scarface, basically putting your cursor over an enemy will target him, and pressing the caps lock will lock onto him. This allows you to accurately shoot at certain body parts like the head, arms, and “left and right nut “ (nope, I’m not kidding). Another issue in Vice City was the need to constantly drive around to buy guns and arms. In Scarface however, Tony gets his guns personally delivered (as well as his cars and boats via his satellite phone) delivered straight to him, which eliminates a lot of useless driving.
The main focus of the game is to completely rebuild your empire, through the trafficking of Yayo, the buying of fronts, the elimination of several key suppliers, and most importantly through taking revenge on Sosa. To do this you get help from leads, friends, and your best friend, Mr. M-16. Every single action you perform, every mission and every fight is all linked with you taking back your empire, which gives the game a great sense of cohesiveness that lacked in much of the GTA franchise. When taking over a front, you don’t do it simply to own property, but so that you can push Coke from it and make yourself a couple extra bucks depending on the local demand for coke. Missions are not given by completely random people, but characters that can in some way further your revenge.
Though the game does provide a lot of depth in certain areas, gameplay does seem limited in others. Much of the game works on the “balls meter” . Basically you get more balls (yes, I realize how awkward that sounds) for different tasks, i.e. taking out gangs, doing stunts, and even from conversating with random people. When the balls meter is completely full, you enter “Rage mode”, which basically makes you invincible and have unlimited ammo for a short period of time, and you will regain health for each person you kill, all while screaming classic Montana insults. Having a full Balls meter will make the game a lot easier when entering a mission, but if yours happens to be empty it will take a hell of a lot longer to eliminate each enemy, and theres a good chance you will run out of heath.
Another important system in the game is the “dial” mechanic. Basically, before each drug deal, attempt to intimidate , attempt to launder money, and attempt to get yourself out of a high Cop Heat level, you will go through a small minigame that has you stopping a moving dial. If you stop it just right, your deals will be a lot more beneficial, but if you screw up and get the dial in the failure zone, your deals will go wrong / the cops will take all your money and drugs / you’re banking interest rate will be extremely excessive. Though this process does simplify a lot of things in the game, it makes almost everything you do a matter of luck. This really did dumb the game down a lot, and make it quite annoying at times.
Of course, not everyone appreciates a rampant, fairly psychotic, coke dealing Cuban. If you get out of line too often, the cops will get on you, and your only way of getting them off your tail is to pay them off via your cell phone’s menu. If they are already chasing you and you fail to lose them, or lower your heat, a meter surrounding your map will reach capacity and you will ultimately be “F*cked”, and you have to restart. This is also pretty annoying, as it doesn’t even give you a chance of fighting off the cops like in GTA. If your gang heat becomes too high and you don’t pay them off, they will not only chase you, but attack your fronts. As the Notorious B.I.G. said it best, almost everyone is trying to stick you for your paper…
There are many extremely unnecessary elements in the game. For example, once again through your cell, you have the option of buying various things, from cars, to boats, to various things for your mansion. While the boats and cars are extremely important, buying Genghis Khan’s armour, or a 5 foot bong for the sole purpose of increasing your reputation and your level, seems kind of a waste of time. Though somewhat fun, “the pimp your Mansion” option does get old quite quickly, especially when the only reason you need to go to your mansion is to advance levels when you have the required amount of balls.
Graphics in the game are nothing special, and could probably have been improved on a bit, however, the game’s audio is truly something else… Though Al Pacino was unable to provide the voice for the characters due to his age, he chose a voice actor who does an incredible job of acting out everyone’s favorite Cuban (and it’s not Fidel…). Often times I found myself just looking forward to each missions cutscene just so I could hear Tony talk.
The Music in the game is kind of awkward as it consists mostly of extremely modern hits, from Reggaeton to Rob Zombie… Though the movie’s original soundtrack is also available, its hard to play 50 hours listening to “She’s on fire”.
In conclusion “Scarface: The World is Your’s” is an extremely good attempt in furthering the movie’s storyline, and making you feel like your part of the action. Though it does fail in some areas, like that godamn dial , I’d recommend it to Scarface lovers and aspiring Cubans around the world.
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