Scarface: The World is Yours (Sony PlayStation 2, 2006)

If you like the Scarface movie with Al Pacino, you'll like this game as well. It has a great storyline and is very fun to play. You'll definitely get your money's worth on this game. I've spent hours upon hours on this game already and I'm about 70% done, and I'm not even close to sick of it yet.

Set in Miami, like the movie, Scarface: The World Is Yours puts in an alternate ending to the movie. Tony Montana apparently didn't die, he made it out of the final showdown by the skin of his teeth. He then tries to rebuild his empire by knocking off gangs, making contacts, buying fronts to distribute his cocaine, and lots and lots of buying and distributing cocaine. He then launders his money through the bank to buy exotics which include henchmen, cars, boats, furniture, house decor, and mansion upgrades. Oh yeah, and more cocaine (but that's not an exotic, but you spend a lot of time buying cocaine in this game). The only thing that I can say bad about this game (well two things actually) is that to get the most amount of money for exotics and whatnot is to buy from the large distributor (at first you buy from the small distributor then work your way up) and sell it to your fronts. This is fun for awhile, but it gets pretty repetitive because you have to do this over and over. And over. Another thing is that the game can get frustrating at times because some of the missions are just impossible at times (even with using cheat codes which do limited things for you), some missions I think I had to do over 20 times before I passed. One in particular really ticked me off. You go to a front and the manager won't sell you his restaurant. Then a bunch of goons come and try to kill him and you have to defend him. The object of the mission is to kill the goons while protecting him. This one took a long time for me and I found a cheat online that helped me, but even with the cheat it still took forever. The stupid manager continually got into my line of fire, even when you stand in front of him to block him from attackers, he still somehow finds a way to get hit, by you!

Anyway, that aside, it's still an excellent game. You get taken through the streets of Miami and have to kill gangs that invade on your territory and if you kill too many gangs without paying cops to lower your gang heat, then the gangs will retaliate against you and attack one of your business fronts. I especially liked doing missions in the islands. The scenary is a change of pace from the streets and you have to ship your drugs by boat back to Miami.

I am a fan of Scarface the movie, but not a huge fan. It's corny at times, but it's a classic in the sense of all the things that Al Pacino says in the movie like "Cock-a-roach" and stuff like that. In fact, I don't think it was really considered a classic until Sportscenter started using all of Pacino's sayings in their show like "Say hello to my little friend". Anyway, I like the game a little more than the movie and if you're a fan of the movie, you'll definitely love this game as well. If you can get past the sometimes redundant cocaine trips and the frustrating missions (which I have), you'll have hours and hours of fun. By the way, this game is not for young children. There is nonstop profanity (like the movie) that young ears don't need to hear, as well as plenty of violence. The rocket launcher is really cool to use on this game, though it doesn't serve too much use, but I like the overkill.

OK, we all know the story from the movie, but this is the game we're talking about. All too many folks in love with the movie will give this game glowing reviews regardless of how good it really is. Not me.

GOOD: On foot, this game rocks. Smooth controls, great weapon selection, and THE most overlooked feature of a third person shooter - shoot from cover. Games like James Bond Everything or Nothing, kill.switch, and precious few others have this function whereby you can tuck up to a corner/object, aim from behind it, and pull the trigger to lean around/pop up and fire. Makes for great small arms fights, instead of the Rambo-esque running into harm's way, firing, and running back. Sooo unrealistic. Also great is the depth to which you can interact with other people. Buying of properties, controlling underworld commerce...that's all in there too. By now, a freeroam driver/shooter requires these things, like a car with a radio, it's now just assumed to be standard.

BAD: The driving. If you really don't care about the driving physics, controls, and interaction with other vehicles, and just want to write the driving portion of this game off as a way of getting from point A to point B, well then great. Not me...if you can drive in a game, they better well get it right, because what are you gonna do when you finish it? Right...DRIVE AROUND AND EXPLORE! The driving in Scarface is pitiful...controls are illogical and you pretty much need two thumbs on your right hand to do it at all. Steering is L stick, and side views are achieved by use of the R stick, and gas and brake are X and Square. Can you see the trouble here? And the side views do not center themselves quickly. Camera follow is decent in turns, but with all the games that have done better with the layout, couldn't they have just followed on this point? The Driver series comes to mind...although they all share (save for the close-chase cam from GTAIII) the same problem of not enough height perspective to the chase cams. You really need to see the tip of your hood and things right in front of you in games like this - not the back tires! Also poor is the completely digital feel to the gas pedal...it's nearly impossible to maintain a consistant speed, very annoying when speed limits are enforced by AI cops. When you coast down to less than about 10 MPH, Tony slams on the brakes, also very annoying. Kinda like driving with Grandpa...all or nothing on the gas and prone to too-quick stops. Overall feel is like you're playing Outrun on Sega again.

I really had a hard time with rating this one, being the two parts are so different in value. On the whole, the game's worth it, due to the stellar on-foot play. Just don't forget your ol' pal shooterpro70 warned you about the crummy driving when those missions are driving YOU nuts!

If you are like me and love to play video games as well as a huge fan of the film Scarface then this is a must-have. The game takes place in an alternate reality separate from the film in which Tony Montana doesn't die, it starts off at the end of the movie and follows Tony as he hunts down those who betrayed him and rebuilds his cocaine empire. Now it's hard to make a free-roaming crime based video game with lots of profanity, violence, sex, and drugs without being reminiscent to Grand Theft Auto (by the way the game is rated mature if you haven't figured it out by now) Not to fear! the game is very original and has a great story that grabs you and sucks you into the Scarface universe further than anything since the release of the film. In fact some features in this game seemed to have had an influence on Grand Theft Auto IV, such as the wanted level system and the more-realistic use of a cell phone. The game is long, but not one bit drawn-out, you even learn about and see some characters that were only mentioned in the film. There are so many features of this game that make replaying it over again almost as fun as the first time. This is probably one of the best video games made from the properties of a film, however DO NOT buy the nintendo Wii version- the controls are awful. Thank you for reading I hope I was helpful.

If you like free roam, Sand Box style games such as GTA, this is a must have for you. Also any fan of the movie will be glad to play this game. Graphics are excellent for the PS2 and voice acting is superb with many celebrities lending their voices to characters such as Steven Bauer (Manny from the movie) Robert Logia (Frank Lopez from the movie), but there are also mainstream celebrity voices like Bam Margera and even Dale Earnhardt Jr. The gameplay will have you engrossed for atleast up to 25 hours or more of gameplay. Also those players just seeking a good challenge will definately find it here (if they don't cheat that is.) Overall I give this game a 9/10.

Im a huge Scarface fan and I've seen the movie so many times and purchased different scarface products and when they made the video game I was definitely going to own it as well! This game is not for kids, it's for adults who is into violent games such as this one. It's just one incredible experience that you actually feel like youre the big guy in action. The Scarface game for ps2 is about 4/5 rating although it is a very excellent game but the graphics were kinda just about off.