There’s not much to be said about most video games that are based on movies. More than the majority of them are – to put it nicely – garbage, and are usually rushed out the door to be on time with the movie release it is based on, only to be filled with bugs and hideous glitches. Of course that’s not to say that every single game based on a movie is utterly horrible, as there are a few definite exceptions to the rule such Chronicles of Riddick and The Godfather, but the general rule of thumb is, if it’s based on a movie, buyer beware because chances are it’s going to suck. When it was announced a couple years back that the classic film ScarFace was going to be made into a video game, I’ll admit I wasn’t to keen on the idea. I didn’t want to see the glory that is the movie of ScarFace being tarnished by the movie to video game curse or have the ideology of ScarFace or the character of Tony Montana turned into a laughable joke to the younger generation of gamers that had never the incredible experience of the movie.

One thing about video games that are based on movies that irks me to no end is that if you play the game and haven’t seen the movie, you know what happens and you totally spoil it for yourself. Likewise if you have seen the movie and then go to play the game, you know what will happen throughout the course of the game so why bother? Thankfully Scarface takes place right at the end of the movie, when he is getting ambushed by Sosa’s goons in his mansion and he delivers his infamous line “say allo to ma leetle friend!” Instead of getting a back full of buckshots like in the movie, Tony goes bat crap insane and kills his assassin, the slew of bandits that are flooding through his hallways and high tails it out of the mansion to make his escape. From here, he stays underground for a few months and then decides it’s time to get his revenge on Gaspar, Sosa, the Diaz Brothers and regain his empire by setting out to get what he believes he rightfully deserves.

To rebuild your empire, you need to start from scratch and immediately get in touch with some old contacts. They set you up with small missions to secure deals with drug dealers where you will need to buy and sell to start making some money. You really do start from nothing in the game and over the course of 8 levels, you watch your empire exponentially grow the entire time. Drug deals require nothing more than talking with a supplier to purchase various amounts of cocaine and then finding dealers on the streets to sell it to. For each of the people you need to talk to through out the game, be it drug dealers, cops, or just random people you want to intimidate, you will use a circular meter that fills up the longer you hold the button down. Hold it down too long and you will over shoot your targeted area to land on and fail, where as if you pull up short and let go too early, you can either fail or end up paying more and getting less for your efforts. This type of gauge is used through out the entire game for just about every transaction. At first it may take some getting used to, you will have it mastered soon enough given the number of times you use it.

As Tony takes his tour around Miami, he will need to complete countless missions to earn his reputation back as the man in charge. With a hefty arsenal at your disposal and the ability to take some serious damage without biting it, you’re a force to be reckoned with. Killing rival gangs will happen a lot during the course of the game and each time you will find yourself facing swarms of enemies. Each time you kill an enemy you will earn balls – yes balls – that will fill your balls meter. Each time you kill an enemy, you can also taunt them which will cause you to stop attacking and yell obscenities at them for more balls. Once your balls meter is full, you can enter rage mode, which turns the screen into a washed out first person view. When you are in this mode, each person you kill will add to your health and all enemies are auto targeted, so mowing down crowds of them is no problem and requires nothing more than holding down the fire button. When you are in regular mode, you can lock on to an enemy with one button and then move the crosshair to target certain parts of the body – kidney, arm, head, left nut - for more descriptive kills.

For each mission you run, you will earn cash and reputation for your efforts. As your reputation increases, so does your ability to purchase more items to help you through the game as well the amount of money you make increases significantly. There are plenty of missions found in the game for you to complete but unfortunately the premise of them doesn’t vary all that much. Each mission is either a kill certain amount of enemies, protect a person from an attack or drop of packages at select locations. There really isn’t much range through the missions and sometimes you will even find yourself doing the same missions over and over even after you have already completed them. I must have driven a bus full of gang members at least three times on three separate occasions, each time with the same outcome just to turn earn more money and reputation.

Once Tony starts to make some bank, you can use the money to buy yourself some items to make your life easier and more entertaining. The first thing you will be able to purchase will be a henchman. The first henchman available from the four that are possible is a driver. When you need a car, you can call up your driver and he will bring your car or boat to your location in a matter of seconds. Sometimes the conversations Tony has with the driver can run on a little too long and get annoying but over all it’s a nice feature to save yourself from having to run down a car and jack it ala grand theft auto 3 (although you can if you want to), and it’s nice to have the driver follow you on missions to give you some extra back up. Other henchmen you can purchase are enforcers, assassins and weapon dealers. Each has their uses but none that will be used quite as often as the driver. As you increase your money, you will then be able to purchase fronts around the city in forms of various retail outlets to sell your wares out of.

Pawn shops, cigar stores, night clubs and the like will fall under your ownership as you progress and will earn you large amounts of money once you have a storehouse to store large amounts of drugs in. For each front you own, rival gangs will cause you headaches by attacking them, but you can set up surveillance and henchmen to guard your goods and protect your interests. Once you start to get farther in the game, you will be able to purchase more expensive items such as a limo to go to and from your mansion easier, a sea plane that will allow you to travel long distances such as the islands later on in the blink of an eye or purchase companies like a record company to unlock music, a gym to increase your henchmen’s life or law firm to decrease the heat cops give you for your crimes. Heat will come down on you the more crimes you commit, such as traffic accidents, running people over and killing people. Most of the time you can either outrun the cops or bribe them to lose your heat, but there will be times when there is nothing you can do, such as killing a cop, which will make you ultimately screwed with nothing you can do about it.

With all that is found through out Scarface: The World is Yours, there is a huge amount of things to do and more action than you can shake a stick at. The soundtrack is great with music ranging from LL Cool J to Judas Priest to the original sound track from the movie. The free roaming world lets you go where you want when you want and the driving is superbly done as the on foot parts of the game. Missions, although repetitive in function, do offer some variety in substance and the voice acting is easily some of the best in any game to date. With an all star cast of actors ranging from James Woods, Oliver Platt, Bam Margera, Ice T, Jason Mewes and countless others to the spot on incredible performance of André Sogliuzzo as Tony Montana delivers some of the most memorable dialogue. ScarFace is a game that absolutely does the movie justice, although there may be those out there that find the idea of the game changing the storyline of the movie somewhat sacrilegious, the storyline of the game is one that could very well have happened had Tony not met his self destructed demise. In a line similar to one found in the movie, Tony Montana asks himself during the game while lounging at the Babylon Club, “is this what it’s all about man? Killing, driving, swearing?” It sure is Tony and you do it so well.