PlayStation 2 Review of Scarface Video Game

Based on the 1983 movie of the same title, Scarface promises to be unlike anything you’ve seen on a single player action/adventure game before. It creates a little twist to the ending of the movie, and then moves on from there. After being held captive by Sosa’s men, Tony vows to take his revenge and won’t stop at nothing until he gets it. Aside from revenge, he also wish to reclaim his position as Miami’s ultimate drug dealer.

All throughout the game, Tony will have to gain turfs and purchase fronts for his drug trades. In the process, he must be able to maintain his empire and make more money out of selling drugs. To make this possible, Tony would have to bring down his enemies and increase his reputation level. As rival gangs will try to dominate the city under your control, you have to make sure to protect them and continue buying businesses to front your drug deals. It works in a chain of some sorts as the more money you got, you increase your power, and an increase in power will also boost your reputation level.

From the start, you will only have limited options. As your reputation is key to rebuilding your empire, you have to complete missions, buy fronts and exotic items to slowly build your reputation. But you will need money to be able to buy things, and you can get them by selling cocaine. Eventually, when your reputation level has increased tremendously, you can have an almost unlimited access to any sort of weapon or vehicle that you need.

You’d start off by selling drugs to street dealers, then move up to large suppliers where you can earn bigger money. Once you have also purchased fronts where you can distribute your drugs, money will just come to you. This will displease your rival gangs, leading them to plot on bringing down your front businesses. You might need the help of a henchman and employ surveillance to help protect your investments.

There will be four turfs in the city of Miami and in each turf, you would have to obtain different fronts. However, some of these fronts are already controlled by certain gangs. You will have to eliminate your rival gangs so you can explore the rest of the city and find new turfs to explore. Just talk your way through the managers so you will gain their trust and you can eventually do business with them. In a separate islands is where cocaines are produced and where you will be making deals with certain large suppliers. As soon as you have secured your fronts and a warehouse, you can smuggle your supply of cocaine from the island to there.

As we have mentioned a while ago about the need to protect your fronts, you will need quite a lot of guns for that. At the start, you’ll have access to only a limited number of guns in your arsenal but you’ll soon increase your options as you also increase your reputation. With higher reputation, you’d have a wide array and good selection of guns like hand guns, automatic rifles, shotguns and rocket launchers. And as if that wasn’t great enough, you can also adjust its accuracy, silencing mechanics, and some other options to make your attack deadlier.

When you are a drug lord fighting off rival gangs, and engaging in fierce gunfire, you are sure to attract police on your way. When you have committed certain unlawful acts, you need to reduce the cops’ heat on you by paying them off. But you have to make sure that you keep the heat of the police in check, or it will cost you quite a lot of money.

And when it comes down to the worst, you will be forced to outrun the police and you got to have a set of wheels to make sure you keep them at bay. You would not ruffle feather with the police some more by stealing a car, so you should get a phone call and have a driver bring in your own car to help you get out of trouble. Only when you have gained enough reputation will you be able to buy and handle extremely fast cars. And from a wide selection of potential cars to use, each have their own traits that sets them apart from the others. For example, you have a speedy car that does not offer much protection or a well-protected car that can be a real drag.

When it comes to battling your enemies, do not fret when you feel like the gang seems just too many to handle. Tony is equipped with a rage meter that builds up with every act you perform using the “balls”. This balls can be earned through skillful driving, pedestrian conversations, and taunting your victims. If the meter is filled up, Tony becomes extremely powerful and he can attack multiple enemies at once, as well as acquire the health of every enemy he has killed. The effects of the rage meter lasts for quite a short span of time, but it can be enough to let you out of a really bad situation.

When you have significantly increased your ball levels, femme fatales will appear on your map. If you try to meet them convince them to stay at your mansion, they will help upgrade your health, rage meter, and stamina. This is of course aside from the fact that these femme fatales would be a nice addition to Tony’s growing collection of exotic items. With every purchase of these exotic items, you will also be able to increase your reputation depending of course on the price and rarity of the item bought.

One great weapon that Tony has in his arsenal is his intimidation meter. Oftentimes, it will work to his advantage by acquiring some great rates in the bank, settle a lucrative drug deal, and squeeze his way out of a potential bust by the cops. All you need to do is be able to time your press and release of the button as soon as the meter fills up. Just make sure you don’t press the button too short or too long, for you might end up with an extremely bad drug deal or lose your money to the cops.

Moving over to the technical aspects of the game, as much as the gameplay is as close to the movie as it can get, so are the overall look of the game. When dealing with drugs and all that underground businesses, you need to be able to create a mood for that through the environment. And what better place to set that than in Miami? The game was able to recreate Miami into the world of Scarface game.

Being a major part of the game, sounds can either make or break it for the game. For Scarface, the voice acting is simply astounding. There just seems to be a great connection between the voice acting and the actual events on the game. Hats off to those actors who lend their voices in this game. And also, not failing to mention that this game is also geared with some of the best bands and artists out there. The game uses the official soundtrack of the movie, and hence it can be quite a similar experience altogether-you know, playing the game and watching the movie-the only difference being in the game, you have control over Tony.

If you haven’t got enough of the movie, this might be a great way to fill in on more of the action/adventure feel that Scarface has delivered. Sosa’s betrayal does not bring you down, and although your empire has been snatched away from you, you are determined more than ever to rebuild it and gain power of it. If there is anything that could take you right into the world of drug lords and see how it works, you have come to the right place. Join Tony’s adventures as he proves he deserves to be on the top.