Scarface: The World is Yours

There are two schools of thought on the movie Scarface. One school of thought, the one generally held by little old ladies, tends to believe that the movie was overly violent and disgusting for it's time, and generally was a predecessor to movies like Pulp Fiction. On another hand, there are people who think that the movie is some kind of magical film, a work of perfection that encompasses all that was the drug business in the eighties.

The answer is somewhere in between.

Scarface (And I'm referring to the 1983 film) was actually based on Scarface, a 1932 film loosely based on the life of mega gangster Al Capone. As the film (the 1983 version) famously ends, Tony Montana, a Cuban immigrant turned Cocaine lord, is shot to death in his mansion after spouting the words ?Say Hello to my Little Friend!? and blasting 20 guards with a M16's M203 grenade launcher. The movie ends as his dead body falls into a small reflecting pool in the mansion, a globe above him displaying in bold neon lights ?THE WORLD IS YOURS?.

Of course, this would mean to most people that Tony Montana is dead, ergo no more Tony Montana. But, in a feat of vicious re-writing the like of which only seen in Final Fantasy games, developer Sierra has brought back Tony Montana in a split from the story, where Tony Montana actually lives through such a firefight, his cocaine empire nonetheless destroyed before his eyes. Scarface, the video game developed by Vivendi Universal, is all about how Tony Montana takes the shambles of his empire and re-builds them to the powerhouse he had before his ?demise?.



And let's be honest- it sounds interesting. Much like the game ?The Godfather?, there is always something interesting about a company taking a 20+ year old movie/game and re-making it in modern times, using high technology to revive the story that everyone generally knows about. While the cast of Scarface is generally gone (Al Pacino had no part in this, primarily because chain smoking nuked his voice box), Vivendi made every effort to revive this title and make it into a functional video game. Of course, much like the Godfather game, everything didn't come out as good as planned. Well, what I should say is that I seriously suspect the game designers were on cocaine. Fitting, no?

Scarface: The World is Yours is, in it's most basic form, Grand Theft Auto in Miami with Cubans. Stealing virtually every cue from Grand Theft Auto, Scarface: The World is Yours chronicles the rise of Tony Montana back to power by building drug supplies, selling his drugs, regaining turf in Miami, and generally causing hell in between. Not surprisingly, every single thing I mentioned above falls squarely into the category of ?Go do a mission?, much akin to virtually every Grand Theft Auto game known to man. By doing all of these seemingly pointless missions, Tony Montana can earn Turf (percentage of Miami, generally attained by killing gangs), Exotics (fancy crap- furniture, henchmen, the works), Balls (I'll explain below), and Reputation (how others see him). As these statistics rise, Tony will eventually become more and more powerful, the money will flow in with more and more speed, and his takeover of Miami becomes easier and easier.

That encompasses the majority of the game. Much like Grand Theft Auto, a lot of these missions and projects revolve around assassinating people or driving away from them, all while trying to ensure the cops never find out. These missions are surprisingly not hard or irritating- in fact, they tend to be a little too easy for even the casual gamer. Of course, many may stipulate, once you figure out that you can run over people to kill them and not get shot that way, life is a lot easier.



Scarface: The World is Yours' engine itself is something unique, but not so much so. Everything is cut-and-paste from Grand Theft Auto, from the third person view to the weapons system. What makes Scarface slightly different is that the game is made to be played with the kind of fury that the movie had- making it easy but resoundingly fun. No sneaking missions here- the game even features ?Balls?, which are essentially points given out to Tony for doing insane things (killing people, flipping cars, swearing at people by pressing a button, etc). When Tony hits 100% balls, the player is given the option to use what is known as ?Blind Rage?, where the game switches into First Person mode and Tony kills everyone with one hit kills. Talk about Cuban anger.

But before I'm done with the engine, let me get back to running over people with cars. Scarface's engine, while interesting, is WAY TOO EASY. Because the game attempts to be Grand Theft Auto, it provides you the same methods of killing people as GTA did- meaning that a lot of the game's more difficult parts (especially regarding killing gangs) is remarkably easy. Tired of shooting a gang? Get into a car (they have really high health and barely take damage from being shot) and run everyone over. Maybe back over them to ensure they're dead. And hey, if you want to fight ?Fair?, don't forget the game features ?Lock On?, which means that shotguns magically have the ability to lop off heads from 300 yards away. While this is one hell of a lot of fun, there is also the depressing fact that you know it took no energy to achieve these goals. Then again, what am I saying- I get to kill indiscriminately.

The graphics and music of Scarface: The World is Yours is where this game messes up. The graphics in Scarface may be the worst I have ever seen on any system- PC, PS2 or XBOX. While the landscape of Miami is no doubt detailed and expansive, the game horribly renders every inch of it. Every building looks generic, the trees look ugly, and everything in between is disgusting and begging for anti aliasing. Graphics of such low quality ARE expected for GTA-level games (they demand graphical power to do other things), just not this low. Where Vivendi could have honestly hit the ball out of the park when it came to graphical quality for Scarface, the game is about as detailed as a Saturday morning cartoon. This also is tied along with a very annoying and honestly out of place soundtrack, featuring rap and rock that are not only loud and annoying, but completely out of place.

Now hold on for a second. Mull over that- think about how Vivendi put RAP into a Scarface game. Mull it over like fancy wine tasters do with wine in their mouths. The game is set in the 1980s. And this is not ?oldschool? rap- this is crap rap, the kind of stuff that no-one really cares about. Tied in with some really generic rock that tries to be too hardcore, the game feels... wrong. It does not feel like the 1980s. Now, get this- even if you TRY to turn off the music in the game (by pressing the select/back button), it turns on again, even when you're walking. See the problem? You're being forced this kind of stuff down your throat.

This facet is where Scarface: The World is Yours turns from an ?interesting concept? to a ?bad idea?. No-one should be forced to listen to this kind of inappropriately placed music- especially when it's bad. That, tied along with atrocious graphics and some childishly easy gameplay, makes Scarface a... really bad game. Ironically, this is exactly where The Godfather failed as well. Trying to re-live an old franchise is a great and commendable idea- but there are some things game companies cannot forsee, like how they suck at making a decent game anyway. Scarface: The World is Yours had a lot of potential- a popular franchise, a great setting for a video game, and endless possibilities. Vivendi, however, in some feat of gross stupidity, took the game and made it into some rehash of Grand Theft Auto yet screwing up everything that made GTA fun. Unfortunately, while I really anticipated this game, I can only give it a low score for this fact- and simply hope that Vivendi and EA stop trying to relive history.

2 star(s) out of 5

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