Scarface: The World Is Yours

Overview

Scarface: The World is Yours is an alternate universe sequel to the events of the Al Pacino film Scarface. It was first released on the PlayStation 2, Xbox, and PC on October 6, 2006, with a Wii version released at a later date. The film Scarface ends when protagonist Tony Montana is attacked in his Miami mansion by armed hostiles and it shot dead by a gangster with a shotgun. Scarface: The World is Yours rewrites the ending and presents a what-if scenario that presumes Montana survived the attack. The player, in the role of Montana, must then fight to rebuild his lost empire.

Story

Little Havana

The game opens up with Tony Montana, watching the CCTV as the enemies break into his mansion as it occurs in the end of the film Scarface. However, once the player takes control of Montana, shoots his way out of the mansion and manages to escape. During the attack, the police arrive, and during the confusion open fire on the assassins. While this is going on, Montana sneaks to a car and speeds away from his mansion. The following cutscene then shows him in a shack in a wasteland area just outside of Miami, where he is badly injured and looking at himself in a mirror. He says he regrets decisions he has made and that he will take revenge on the man who sent the assassins after him: Alejandro Sosa, the main antagonist of the film.

The game then jumps ahead three months. Montana is preparing to take back Miami, and he gets in touch with his ex-lawyer, George Sheffield. The general word on the street is that Tony Montana perished in the attack on his mansion, and all of the districts of Miami are taken over by rival gangs. Once Montana requests the services of Sheffield, he is forced to pay more money due to his reputation having evaporated.

Tony is sent to attack Gaspar Gomez, the leader of a successful Miami drug ring at his condo in Miami. However, Tony reaches the condo only to discover that Gomez is not present. After Tony massacres Gomez's guards, he steals armored security van loaded with $50,000, as well as an expensive satellite phone.

Downtown and Sandman's Islands

Once the van of money has been delivered to a bank, Tony opens a new account at the bank to offload dirty money, and in doing so regains control of Little Havana. Once this task is complete, Tony travels to the Babylon Club to rest. While there, more assassins arrive with the intent to kill him. Tony kills his would-be killers and manages to escape again. However, one of the assassins also informs Montana that the Diaz Brothers, leaders of the gang that used to run Little Havana, killed Tony's mother. Once he hears this information, Tony is driven into a rage and kills the man. He then travels to the Diaz Brothers' garage and kills them both.

Shortly after, Montana is contacted by a man known as Pablo. Pablo claims to be an underling of George Sheffield, and invites Tony to a warehouse to receive information about his wife, Elvira. However, once he reaches the meeting point, he is ambushed by Pablo and his thugs. In killing these thugs, Tony is able to regain control of downtown Miami and slowly rebuild his power base. Furthermore, Tony's mansion, ruined in the assault in the game's opening, is slowly restored as Tony's wealth expands. Soon, Tony has control of over half of Miami, but he lacks a decent drug supplier.

As if to answer Tony's need, he is contacted by "The Sandman." This mysterious figure claims to own multiple islands in the Caribbean and produce large quantities of cocaine. He also mentions his own desire to take down Alejandro Sosa as well, although he does not give a reason as to why. The Sandman gives Tony a tip-off about El Gordo, the ex-ruler of the Downtown area of Miami. Apparently, the man has a large tanker docked on one of the Sandman's islands. The ship functions as both an illegal casino and as a piece of equipment for smuggling. However, in addition to smuggling cocaine, it's also used for human trafficking. The fact that El Gordo engages in human trafficking disgusts Tony, who travels to the Sandman's island and boards the vessel. A shootout ensues between Montana and the remaining members of El Gordo's forces.

El Gordo retreats as Montana wipes out waves of his men until he reaches the deck of the ship. Montana follows him up onto the deck, and in desperation, El Gordo jumps overboard and into the water. However, he falls victim to his own trap, as he had a shark which was used to dispose of the bodies of those that did not survive trafficking. After Gordo dives into the water, Montana fires a single shot into his leg in order to make him bleed. He then leaves and allows El Gordo's own shark to deal with him. Once El Gordo is dead, Montana frees all of the human cargo and employs them as his staff. He also makes use of the ship to transport its drug contents to Miami.

North and South Beach

Once the drugs have been shipped to Miami, Montana takes advantage of the chaos brewing back in the U.S. by using it as an opportunity to take over South Beach. Montana then moves quickly to wrestle control of North Beach from the Gomez Cartel. Once both North and South Beach are under his control, Tony regains command over all of Miami. It is at this point that the Sandman once again contacts Tony to inform him of his plans to wage war against the Colombian drug cartels responsible for the initial attack on Montana's mansion at the start of the game. Tony advises against this idea, but is won over by the opportunity to kill both Sosa and Sheffield together. However, to be able to continue this war, both the Sandman and Montana need to dispose of the Colombians that have taken control of one of the Sandman's islands, Tranquilandia.

Montana travels to Tranquilandia, where he cleans out the Columbian invaders before informing the Sandman of his success. Finally, Tony has the power and influence he needs to find Sosa and exact his revenge. With this plan in mind, he travels to Bolivia in order to track him down.

Finale

After Tony arrives in Bolivia, a cutscene depicts Alejandro Sosa and George Sheffield sitting in Sosa's mansion, discussing Tony Montana. Neither man wants to take responsibility for the failed assassinations on him, and they want to find a way for both of them to get out of the situation. This discussion is interrupted by an explosion that rocks the mansion. Montana's time for revenge has arrived. He hunts down Sheffield, Gomez, and Sosa, removing the last obstacles in his ascension back into power.

Gameplay

Scarface: The World is Yours is an open world action game similar in nature to the Grand Theft Auto series, and as such contains gameplay elements strongly reminiscent of GTA and similar games, such as a notoriety system. Combat is both based in gunplay and melee attacks, and when wielding a gun specific bodyparts can be targeted for different results. For example, shooting an enemy's arm may disarm the opponent, while shooting the leg could cripple them.

The game features style of berserk mode, focused on a gameplay element call the "Balls Meter." This meter can be filled by taunting enemies, killing enemies in a stylish manner, and similar actions. When the gauge is full, a special mode can be triggered in which Tony becomes invincible and doesn't need to reload. While this state is in effect, Tony will also scream obscenities nonstop.

Players eventually unlock the ability to purchase weapon upgrades from black market dealers. Common upgrades include silences for pistols and grenade launchers for rifles. Silencers are useful, as the lack of noise will delay the police response when a gun is fired, while grenade launchers deal large amounts of explosive damage.

In some missions, it is possible to play as characters other than Tony; a female assassin for hire, and an "enforcer." Both figures take orders from Montana himself and can engage in assassination missions.

Once the player has progressed at least as far as reclaiming Downtown, gangs will attack the player's businesses in an attempt to take them back. The player must run to the the defense of a business under attack, or else it will become severely damaged, and repair costs can hinder Tony's finances.

Trivia

• The video game incarnation of Tony Montana is not actually voiced by Al Pacino. Rather, he is voiced by Andre Soliguzzo. Al Pacino nominated Soliuguzzo for the role, as he said his own voice had changed from years of heavy smoking.

Reception

The game received some decent praise, with Metacritic aggregating the following scores for the different platforms:

The highest praise given was by GameShark, who rated the game an astonishing 100/100, with the quote:

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.

This review was for the Xbox version of the game. However, the lowest rating across any platform given was by Gamers Europe. Their scathing quote was:

At its worst, Scarface is a clumsy, angst ridden and self indulgent idea with a game tacked on as an

afterthought. At it’s best, it is tired, clichéd and derivative.