 "Scarface: The World is Yours")
Holler if you’ve heard this one before. Poor, yet extremely proud and honorable man comes from some back of beyond place to make it in the big bad city. Doing things lawfully just doesn’t work for him, so he ends up turning to crime. Pretty soon he’s got the money, he’s got the power, he’s even got the women, but unfortunately he’s also made a crapload of enemies who’re constantly vying for his empire and his blood and pretty soon, his unlawful ways catch up to him resulting in his unfortunate demise. Credits roll and the message ‘Crime doesn’t pay’ is shoved down our throats.
Standard Hollywood/Bollywood fare right? But check it out; what if there’s a slight twist at the end and the lead doesn’t die? What if he somehow makes it out alive to plot vengeance against those who tried to get him killed and took everything that was his? Then, you would probably get Scarface: The World is Yours, a new free roaming game from Radical Games that’s loosely based on Brian De Palma’s 1983 cult flick of the same name.
The reason I say Scarface: The World is Yours is loosely based on the movie is because the game starts where the movie ended with Tony Montana beginning to introduce people to his little friend, an M4 rifle. Unlike the movie, you actually make it out alive but unfortunately your empire’s been taken over by Sossa (life’s a bitch ain’t it?) and it’s up to you to get it all back; why? Because the World is yours, duh!
__PAGEBREAK__
When you start up this game you’ll be inclined to slap yourself because it feels like you’re playing Vice City all over again, which really isn’t a bad thing, but the more you play, the more you realize it isn’t a GTA clone you labeled it initially. I’m not saying it’s bad, all I’m saying is that we shouldn’t compare nearly every free roaming game to GTA or we’ll all end up disappointed. Keeping that in mind let’s move onto the game at hand now, shall we?
Like I mentioned earlier, you’ll have to build your empire from scratch and you won’t be doing so by mowing lawns; you’re gonna have to get your hands dirty if you want to make it to the top. To make some serious money, you have to buy and sell drugs… a lot. Hop over to a supplier, buy some stuff from him and sell it to the local dealer at a good price, repeat x infinity. To make sure you get the best rate for the ‘yayo’, the developers have implemented a mini-game of sorts that seems universal when it comes to interacting with people throughout this game. It’s really not that complicated so it won’t pose a problem, but for some reason if you do end up screwing up, you’ll get a raw deal and may have a pissed off dealer vying for your blood.
The game does grant you a lot of freedom at first and with Miami as your playground the skies the limit, but pretty soon you’ll be wary of this sort of freedom. Mission structure can get a bit confusing initially with you not knowing what to do, where to go or whom to meet, but the more you play, the more you’ll get the hang of things, so don’t give up if you get frustrated because the game does get better. Even though the game may resemble GTA, Tony Montana is nothing like most GTA protagonists, and he’s got a really strong conscience as he won’t kill anyone who’s not harmed him; in short don’t expect to go on killing sprees like you did in Vice City or San Andreas. While this may help people not deviate from the story, it’s also disappointing to a certain extent and can reduce the replayability factor quite a bit.
__PAGEBREAK__
Combat in this game is nothing you haven’t seen before; only cool part here is that we get some decent dismemberment after a long time and it’s that dismemberment that adds to your rage meter. Fill it up by killing more enemies and taunting them after they’re dead (but of course!). Once that meter’s full, you enter ‘Blind Rage’—a first person view of all the action where the more you kill, the more your health regenerates.
Visually this game is pretty butt-ugly and nearly every aspect screams ‘console port’ on the top of its lungs; in fact you even get a message that says “Saving, please do not turn off your PC”. WTF!!!! What this game lacks in the visual department, it makes up for in leaps and bounds with its OST and voice acting. Even though Al Pacino isn’t attached to this project, he’s been voiced by Andr
 "Israel targets top Hamas leaders in Doha; Qatar, Iran condemn strike as violation of sovereignty")
 "Nepal: Oli to continue until new PM is sworn in, nation on edge as all branches of govt torched")
 "Who is CP Radhakrishnan, India's next vice-president?")
 "Israel informed US ahead of strikes on Hamas leaders in Doha, says White House")
 "Israel targets top Hamas leaders in Doha; Qatar, Iran condemn strike as violation of sovereignty")
 "Nepal: Oli to continue until new PM is sworn in, nation on edge as all branches of govt torched")
 "Who is CP Radhakrishnan, India's next vice-president?")
 "Israel informed US ahead of strikes on Hamas leaders in Doha, says White House")
