Scarface on the PsP is not what I expected in both a good and a bad way.
Building your drug empire is fun to say the least. And that is mainly what you will be doing, that and taking over other gangs territories. I must say though that levels take a lot longer then they should because one minute you will have every territory but one, and then before you know it you only have one left. The games story is connected through movie clips that really have nothing to do with what you will be doing in the mission, it is just there to kind of show that what you are doing actually has to do with the movie. So if the empire building is fun, then the actual combat is fun right? Not really. The combat could be better. Thats really all there is to say. The power-up items are very very cool, and they might be the best part of the combat, but other than that the combat is very boring to watch and it sucks to watch your guys who are better equiped get mowed down because of some cheating CPU A.I. I must say the game would have been awesome if you could take control of your soldiers and then the game played out like the console game. That would have been a lot more fun, because I found myself skipping the battles even when I was part of them.
Graphically Scarface: Money. Power. Respect. is not much of a looker. I say this because in the end there is not much to look at. There is the map that you get to look at while you are donig the empire building aspect of the game, and then during the combat you see the a bunch of gang members all dressed the same in the same setting every single time. The explosions and the movie clips do look pretty cool.
The music in this game sound like something that you would hear in a cheesey movie from the 80's during a club scene or something. There are a few tracks from the movie. The voice overs are decent and I am going to give them credit for trying to throw in some humor, oh and about a thousand curse words per battle. The bullets and explosions sound pretty cool, especially if you have headphones in.
I would say that Scarface: Money. Power. Respect. for the PsP is definately a rental. Fans of the movie might want to make a purchase, but the game can be brutal at times and the battles can go on for ever, and that really takes away from the game. You will get sick of seeing the same battles over and over again. If it wasn't for the games repetative nature I would definately reccomend a purchase for the strategy gamer with a PsP since there really isn't much out there right now. There is a 'quick battle' option so you still have lots to do after you beat the single player, but I dont know if you really even need to beat the game, because it will frustrate you to the point of no return. This is another reason why I stress that even the biggest Scarface fan should rent this game before they even think about making a purchase. But on the otherhand its Scarface and you can bring it with you anywhere which is a pretty cool idea.