Scarface: The World Is Yours Updated Hands-On
We say hello to our little friends from Sierra as they stop by the GameSpot office with the latest work-in-progress version of Scarface.
Earlier this week during a meeting with representatives from Sierra, we had an opportunity to spend some quality time with a work-in-progress PlayStation 2 version of Scarface: The World Is Yours. In case you haven't been following our previous coverage of the game, The World Is Yours is a Grand Theft Auto-style action game that sees you assuming the role of Tony Montana--the foulmouthed gangster played by Al Pacino in Scarface back in 1983. The game's premise is an interesting one, because rather than playing through the events of the movie or simply being dropped into a world inspired by it, you'll be stepping into Montana's shoes just in time to rewrite the movie's ending by preventing his death in the mansion shoot-out scene.
After shooting and swearing your way out of Montana's ruined mansion, you'll learn that all of the things that made you a feared drug lord--namely your reputation, cash, cocaine, turf, and exotic belongings--are gone. The game proper gets under way approximately three months later, when Montana returns to Miami and finds that his enemies were very quick to move in on his turf while he was away. Your mission, then, is to rebuild Montana's empire and take revenge on the guy responsible for his downfall, Alejandro Sosa. It'll be a lengthy process, though, because you arrive in Miami with very few belongings, no reputation, and certainly no goons to do your dirty work for you. During our time with Scarface: The World Is Yours, we had access to a debug menu with which we could access missions from various stages of the game. As a result, we're none the wiser as far as the storyline is concerned, but we have had an opportunity to play around with several different gameplay mechanics that won't come into play until you're well on your way to getting Montana back on his feet.
Drug-dealing, for example, is an aspect of the game that will change quite considerably as you work your way up from being a nobody to something resembling Montana's former position atop the drug-lord food chain. Early on you'll be dealing only in very small amounts of cocaine, and you'll be making all of your deliveries to the local dealers and such in person. As your reputation grows, you'll be able to acquire warehouses and front businesses that come with their own missions. Warehouses unlock distribution missions that task you with delivering cocaine to dealers and attempting to get a good price for them using a golf-swing-style mechanic, while front missions vary according to the business that you're taking over. An interesting feature of the game's drug-dealing mechanic is that any money you earn through the sale of cocaine is considered dirty, and as such, it will be confiscated by the cops anytime they manage to catch up with you. Dirty money can be spent, but if you're ever going to restore Montana's lost millions, you'll need to get it laundered at a bank, which will take a cut determined by the same golf-swing mechanic that's used during deals and when attempting to intimidate gang members and police.
Front businesses that we saw during our time with Scarface: The World Is Yours included a record store, a bar, an arms dealer, and a drive-in movie theatre. The missions that we had to complete to acquire these businesses were as varied as the businesses themselves and included assassinating a guy on a boat using a sniper rifle and retrieving a number of audio cassettes with satanic messages hidden on them. One of the most interesting things about front businesses is that while they're great for unlocking new missions and providing additional sources of income, they're vulnerable to attacks from rival gangs. If you have enough disposable cash, you can buy surveillance equipment for the businesses and even pay goons to protect them. Regardless of whether or not you do those things, you'll be notified any time one of your fronts comes under attack so that you can go and defend them in person and--after your enemies have all been slain--pay for any necessary repairs. Even later in the game you'll get to use various boats to smuggle large quantities of drugs into Miami from islands off the coast, at which point your enemies will include pirates, coastguards, and the Drug Enforcement Agency.
Dealing in increasingly large quantities of cocaine won't be the only opportunity that presents itself to you as you progress through the game. For starters, you'll be able renovate and refurnish Montana's mansion, and then there's the hired help to consider. In addition to goons who will accompany you on dangerous missions, you'll be able to hire an enforcer, an assassin, a driver, and a boat pilot--the first three of which are playable characters for certain missions. The driver and the boat pilot both proved incredibly useful during our time with Scarface: The World Is Yours, not only because they're able to transport you around Miami in their limousine and seaplane respectively, but also because they can be instructed to deliver vehicles to you anywhere on the map with a quick phone call. Furthermore, if you own the arms-dealer front business, any road vehicles delivered to you will come with a trunk filled with weapons and ammo. You can only carry a limited amount of each when you're on foot, so this feature is invaluable and certainly beats having to make regular trips back to your house or to an Ammu-Nation store in GTA.
Scarface: The World Is Yours Quick Links
Summary | Reviews | News | Previews & Features | Images | Videos | Answers | Hints & Cheats | Forum | Check Prices
- Vivendi Games
- Radical Ent.
- Modern Action Adventure
- Release: Oct 8, 2006 »
- ESRB: Mature
Games you may like…
-
Reservoir Dogs
(PS2) -
The Sopranos
(PS2) -
Made Man
(PS2) -
Mafia
(PS2) -
GTA: San Andreas
(PS2)
Users who looked at content for this game also looked at these games.
See More Similar Games
48 Comments