Scarface: The World Is Yours – First the Money, Then the Power, Then the Women… [RETRO

Scarface was a game that combined the best of both worlds, an immersive story with a unique gameplay mechanic. The protagonist Tony Montana started off as an immigrant working for Cuban drug lords before rising to the top and becoming the most powerful man in Miami.

Scarface is a 2006 American crime film directed by Brian De Palma. It tells the story of Cuban refugee Tony Montana who immigrates to 1980s Miami and becomes a powerful drug kingpin.

RETRO – Tony Montana, nicknamed Scarface, rose to the top of the underworld via blood, gore, cocaine trafficking, and continuous murdering, but he ultimately lost everything. Al Pacino is wounded in the back with a shotgun at the conclusion of the movie, but in the game, he gets away with it: as “Antonio f*cking Montana,” you have the opportunity to recover your riches and power in Radical’s superb GTA clone.

I remember every scene, every word, every gesture, and every facial expression of every performer… There are very few films that I could watch any number of times, at any moment, and I’ve watched them a million times… I’m sure I could come up with five off the top of my head: Blade Runner, the original Star Wars, Dune, the French film noir Samurai, and Brian De Palma’s iconic gangster picture Scarface are just a few of the films that come to mind.

The Scarface is regarded as a genuine movie masterpiece. It’s not just another mafia movie; it’s an extremely accurate portrayal of the Miami underworld in the 1980s, featuring Al Pacino in perhaps his best performance. It’s no surprise that he influenced the creators of Rockstar Games, and that Grand Theft Auto: Vice City included many Scarface allusions.

Radical Entertainment, on the other hand, has taken on the task of turning Scarface into a game, altering the ending and sparing Tony’s life by starting up where the film left off: As Colombian hombre rush in from all sides to put an end to the drug lord’s life, at Scarface’s mansion…

“To kill me, bitches, you’ll need a f*cking army!”

The first thing you notice when you start the game is that Radical definitely woke up with Scarface and went to bed with Scarface in terms of theme development. They don’t have a primary menu full of badly drawn animation like the creators of Reservoir Dogs. Still, immediately at the opening of the restored DVD, we get a violent professional film trailer, followed by a handmade montage of the picture with extremely powerful effects, in which we get to witness some of the most famous Scarface moments. Anyone who hasn’t yet picked up on the film’s vibe (if there are any such people on the world) will be captivated after seeing this trailer.

The game itself then starts… even the former PC player will be somewhat dissatisfied at first. Tony walks up to the armoury, pulls out his deadly military machine gun, blasts the door open with his now-legendary war cry, and then wreaks unimaginable devastation among the lines of Colombian mobsters who are besieging his room and often striking Tony in the closing moments of the film. Of course, in order to save his life, I turned around and shot the assassin who killed Montana in the movie, but this “vengeance” was a bit of a sham in comparison to the comedy.

And Tony’s escape from his palace was nothing more than a Serious Sam-style kill (we’re hardly wounded at first), when we get our first taste of “blind madness,” in which Tony’s eyesight blurs and he is healed by every shot he fires, and he is unharmed. (I’ll go into more detail about this later.) Thankfully, this initial – somewhat exaggerated – nonstop slaughter is not representative of the whole game.

“My name is Tony Montana, and I’m a political exile from Cuba fighting for my human rights! NOW!

Scarface, as you would imagine, incorporates aspects of the Grand Theft Auto game series. We’re in Miami, 1983, and the heroin trade needs to be resurrected with the help of a lot of blood, bribed underworld figures, cops, and other powerful people, and, of course, a lot of vehicles that have been ridden – not only for the money, but also to reclaim our fame, influence, and… “ball,” which translates to “balls.”

Scarface’s gameplay is exactly as nonlinear as the GTA series’: you may steal vehicles for hours on end, cruise about on luxury motorboats (no motorcycles, aircraft, or free helicopter flights, sadly), or concentrate on heroin trafficking or related tasks.

The reality is that, whether we like it or not, we have to spend a lot of time distributing white powder because, in order to advance, we need enough money, and conquering Miami’s underground requires not only murdering rival gangs, but also investing in a variety of businesses. Of course, this is also similar from GTA: Vice City, but because to some bizarre development decision, you don’t receive any income from these businesses throughout the game and must instead rely on drug transactions to fund everything.

“Manolo! Get your yeyo ready! Quick!”

The heroin transaction works in the same way every time: you speak to Felix, your most important and trusted guy, and he assigns you a side assignment, which generally entails murdering rival mobsters or safeguarding your informants. After that, you may bargain with the customer to purchase the items for a cheap price, and then with the dealer to sell them to him for as little as possible.

You must launder the money in your bank once both parties have agreed to the transaction, and only then can you legally possess the sushi. You can buy one of Miami’s entertainment and nightlife establishments once you’ve raised enough money: the game will gradually put you in control of hotels, casinos, music stores, and cinemas, but only after you’ve helped the owner solve a tricky case: eliminating rival gangs and gang leaders, busting corrupt lawyers, busted accountants, or simply saving the owner’s life.

Despite the fact that this organizational game-style task structure seems to be a little dry and boring at times, each owner is a fascinating character. You won’t get tired of the main missions for a second since they’re so interesting and inventive. Unfortunately, this is not the case for the heroin trading portion of the game, which becomes tedious after a while when contrasted to the rest of the game.

“Fck Gaspar Gomez, and fck the Diaz brothers!” exclaims the narrator.

Scarface is a well-thought-out GTA clone with a lot of new features and skillfully soaked with menander themes, and the creators have gone to great lengths to make you feel completely immersed in the character of Tony Montana. The main plot revolves on Tony regaining control of Miami and exacting vengeance on Alejandro Sosa. Nonetheless, unlike many film adaptations, the Scarface film does not “weigh” too heavily on the game.

Because virtually everyone from the first film perished, David McKenna, who also authored the script for American Story X, was able to create new characters with relative ease. They are not, thankfully, bound by the old ones. There are some recognizable faces, but it’s the people we’ve always wondered about but never seen: the (f*ck the f*cking) Gaspar Gomez and the Diaz brothers (who were mentioned in one moment by Lopez, Tony’s employer), as well as Sosa, who keeps calling Tony.

The true star, though, is Tony Montana, whose persona is well depicted in the game. Despite the fact that Al Pacino did not perform the voice work, he found a replacement actor who was able to capture the ‘Al Pacino’ voice delivery and accent in a startling, almost uncanny manner. André Sogliuzzo has the same Cuban accent as Al Pacino and swears as much as the Italian actor.

Seriously, no one can identify the difference between Al Pacino and his game counterpart, even for a single second of the enormous quantity of speech. I was even certain it was Pacino at points, but he refused to reveal his identity… Aside from the voice, the creators did an excellent job with the actor’s appearance and motions. His movements, shrug, head, and eyes were all precisely sculpted, in addition to his face and physique.

Despite the fact that the actual Marlon Brando was the voice actor, Electronic Arts’ Godfather could hide behind Radical Montana. If you’re going to be a goose, be a fat one: aside from Sogliuzzo/Pacino, the other voice actors did a professional job, which was not difficult given that they were voiced by world stars like Michael York (Jerry the lawyer), James Woods, Robert Davi, Ice-T, and Steven Bauer, who is not Manolo, as Tony shot him in the movie.

“I just have one thought in my head, man!” My knuckles! ”

Of course, a superb game structure and unmatched atmosphere aren’t enough to save the game, but Radical hasn’t forgotten about the action aspects. The climactic moment, in which Tony, seething from drugs, kills an army of Colombians until he is ultimately shot in the back by an assassin, is one that I believe will remain with every Scarface fan forever.

He seems unaffected by bullets for an extended period of time, and the radicals have included this into the game with their ‘balls’ system. The more evil people you murder with Tony, the more “full of balls” you become, and after you’ve gotten your fill, Tony’s brain goes crazy, and he not only becomes invulnerable, but all of his bullets are nearly immediately deadly, and he even recovers.

You won’t have to keep looking for health packs (although there are several in the game), and you’ll be able to battle your way through an army of muchachos without too many trouble, but the game will still be challenging. Some levels are difficult, and there may be a significant difference between beginning with full or empty balls, and as you die, they empty, making it a headache to restart…

“Hello, my little pal!” says the narrator.

Another peculiarity of the action scenes is that instead of using Rockstar-style aiming for shootouts, Radical uses a crosshair, like in a normal Max Payne or comparable TPS. Although those who must have it at all costs may use Caps Lock to automatically pick opponents, you earn more “balls” if you aim manually, and even more if you choose various body sections, and this is more perfect for us PCs anyhow, so we finally feel cared for.

Exxon is nearly always a smoldering battle, so hiding or positioning is pointless. The opponents aren’t renowned for their advanced AI or other cunning tactics (they do sneak up on you sometimes, but that’s about it), but that wasn’t a huge issue in the GTAs, and it wasn’t even a necessity for this style, so we can forgive them.

The way the cops operate is significantly better than in GTA. Whereas we were usually pursued aimlessly there, here the notified policemen issue a “zone of influence,” which appears as a blue ring on the map and grows in size as the police “heat” increases (you can read more about “heat” in the box).

If the game is over and you’re still there, or police vehicles are sirening at your heels, the game informs you, nobly and plainly, “you f*cked up.” You may still attempt to flee, but it’s pointless since the whole UI vanishes, all of Miami’s police are on your trail, and you’re dead in a single shot. When you’re in the midst of a tough task, this may be very aggravating. You’re ready to solve it when the yard appears, and you make a mess.

“I’ve always wanted to see the United States.”

Another flaw in the game is its somewhat antiquated graphics: regardless matter how you look at it, this isn’t the “American dream,” but rather a GTA: Vice City-style visual environment. Although certain aspects (such as Tony Montana and some of the more significant characters, as well as the design of several vehicles) are excellent, there is no Tony Montana to inform a policeman that this isn’t a real Xbox or PS2 remake. (It’s no accident that the game was never released on the Xbox 360.)

However, if you increase the resolution, this sunny Miami looks great — I didn’t have any issues with the rendering, but it’s certainly not a 3Dmark-baiting marvel. I was a bit more concerned by the fact that the streets aren’t as ramified as we’re accustomed to in ‘big brother,’ so your trip is often limited down to a single path, and you’ll see the same streets again and over, which gets a little tedious after a while.

It also gets more boring to invest in more and more leisure facilities as the game progresses. I also ran out of money somewhere, and having to deal with petty drug dealers again instead of advancing through the major narrative was heartbreaking. Aside from these little flaws, Scarface GTA is an unmissable gift for fans of the film. We may also discreetly declare that the curse has been lifted.

-BadSector-(2006)

Pro:

+ Excellent GTA clone with many improvements + The original film’s aesthetic has been faithfully reproduced + Excellent ambiance

Against:

– Graphics are a little dated by today’s standards – Route issues – At times dull

Sierra Entertainment is the publisher.

Radical Entertainment is the creator of this game.

Action-oriented

2006 is the year of release.

Tony Montana, nicknamed Scarface, became the king of the underworld via blood, gore, cocaine selling, and continuous murdering, but he ultimately lost everything. Al Pacino is wounded in the back with a shotgun at the conclusion of the movie, but in the game, he gets away with it: as “Antonio f*cking Montana,” you have the opportunity to recover your riches and power in Radical’s superb GTA clone. There are certain movies that I could watch any number of times, at any moment, and I’ve watched them a million times; I know every scene, every word, every gesture,…

The World Is Yours, Scarface – First the Money, Then the Power, Then the Women… [2006 RETRO]

2021-09-19

Gergely Herpai (BadSector)

Scarface is a shockingly well-made film adaption, featuring great GTA aspects, a great Scarface atmosphere, and a wonderful Al Pacino voice-over.

8.7 out of 10 for gameplay

Graphics (2007) – 7.9 out of 10

9.4 for the story

8.8 out of 10 for music and audio

8.9 Ambiance

8.7

EXCELLENT