Scarface is not quite as good as others, but it still is fun
Pros: Good graphics – Superb licensed soundtrack – It's the perfect game if you're felling bloodthirsty – Miami is wonderfully recreated
Cons: Bland animations – Bad camera – Uninteresting missions - Rewrites one of the most iconic scenes of the movie
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Scarface makes it's debut on the Wii with the world is yours, a port of a 2006 Xbox and PS2 game and it's the best version of the game, not that the old ones were great but the new control scheme really helps this one.
Scarface is based on the 1983 movie of the same name starring Al Pacino as the iconic Tony Montana, a cuban drug lord who's searching for the "American dream" and goes to Miami (where the game also takes place) where he fights mobster in order to become the best. The game is a sequel to the movie....A sequel? Didn't Tony Montana die at the end? Well yes he did, but the guys at Vivendi rewrote the whole final part of the movie –which also happens to be one of the best action scenes ever created-. This time escapes the mansion attack but he losses all his money, drugs and his empire. And it's up to you to get revenge and regain your empire.
The way the story goes is simply ridiculous, not only rewrites the best ending in any movie but after that it doesn't really get any interesting. You'll take control of Tony shortly after the memorable "Say hello to my little friend" scene and try to escape from the mansion, after that you go to Little Havana and start dealing again until you get all your money back. It's very much like The Godfather game in the way that you'll have to take over business and kill as many enemies as you want. But it also borrows heavily from the GTA series because it's an open world crime game.
Unlike the Godfather you don't just enter a business and punch the owner until they give it to you. No, this time they will ask you to do something for them, which could be killing one of his/her enemies, defending the business from attackers, or –and this is one of the most stupid missions- pick up some papers with your boat in the ocean, but doesn’t paper in water get wet? Well, who cares. You also have to defend a helicopter while it's getting sharks out of the water to make shark soup. Most of the missions are stupid, uninteresting and boring.
But taking over business is not the only thing to do in the game. You also have to kill all the gangs- and there are many gangs, which mean shooting everyone you see in front of you. The action in the game is non-stop; you'll take out your enemies by using machine guns, knives, machetes and even the chainsaw. When you kill an enemy using manual aiming you get ball points, which are used to activate the rage or adrenaline mode (used by shaking the nunchuck). In this mode the game will momentarily transform into a first person shooter in slow motion, which makes it easier to kill your enemies; the more you kill the more life you gain.
Enemies respond to the place you shoot them, but no matter the place you'll always see a fest of blood and guts flying around, it gives it a visceral felling to the game, specially using manual aiming and the chainsaw. There are also plenty of car chases and crashes. In one of the best action sequences of the game you'll have to take down a gang of thugs in the auto cinema, this part is really mind blowingly fun, though a little hard. This game is obviously not for kids because many of the side missions include coke dealing, to do this you have to get close to the guy and press and hold the a button, after this a circular meter will appear on screen and you have to hold the A button until it gets full and then let off, if you fail you wont be able to sell the drug. This is also used to fast talk cops and for money laundry. It's a really neat idea and better than just pressing a button.
The city of is wonderfully recreated; there are many business, houses, hotels and people walking around so it's very lively. And you can explore it with cars and boats, there's a lot of vehicle variety too and the fact that they are more contemporary than those in the Godfather makes it a bit better.
Visually it looks on par with the X box version, well a little better, but just a little. That doesn't mean it looks bad, there's a lot of great looking things in the game and the lighting is wonderful, especially in the sunset. Though there are also a lot of bad looking things, the water for instance looks horrible. Another thing that looks pretty bad are the character animations, they're pretty bad, though not noticeable when you're playing, you'll notice this during cutscenes and close-ups, it just looks like a polygonal mess. Other than that the car models look decent and the city interiors look great, but it feels really inferior when compared to games like GTA IV and Saints Row.
On the audio side is where Scarface shines. Not because of the voice acting though, the guy who plays Tony does a decent job imitating him, but the rest is just lame celebrity voice acting, it could've been better if it wasn't for the script, which consist of pure cursing; in fact if there's nobody around and you shake the nunchuck Tony will start cursing. Where the sound shines is in the soundtrack because not only do they have the original score from the movie, but also because it includes the best variety of licensed songs ever seen in a videogame. It has plenty of songs from various decades and styles. There's rock, pop, reggae, pop, reggeaton, rap and even country. Many artist are present here, from Judas priest's "Breaking the law" to Rick James' "SuperFreak" and Winsin & Yandel's "Callejeros".
Scarface: The World is Yours is a fun game, only and only if you're into GTA. It also helps that other than the Godfather there aren't many games like this on the Wii, though if i were you i would go for the Godfather because even if Scarface is pretty long and has a lot of replay value, the uninspired mission design, bad camera and horrible story brings this game down. It's good but just for a rental.