Scarface: The World Is Yours (Wii)

GameSpot editors' review

• CNET editors' rating: 2.5 stars OK
  Detailed editors' rating
  Overall score: 5.8 (2.5 stars)

• Reviewed by:
  Jeff Gerstmann
• Reviewed on: 06/18/2007
• Updated on: 06/19/2007
• Released on: 06/12/2007
• Originally published on GameSpot: Scarface: The World Is Yours (Wii) Review

Scarface: The World Is Yours was a shoddy Grand Theft Auto-style game that was released on the PlayStation 2, PC, and Xbox last year. Now, for whatever reason, Vivendi has decided to bring the game to the Wii. On the surface that's not a bad idea, because there's nothing else like it currently available on Nintendo's platform. But adapting a game with a ton of different controls for a controller that wasn't built for this sort of action makes an already-lackluster game a little worse.

The World Is Yours is based on the movie Scarface, but rather than duplicate the events of the movie or make some kind of prequel, the developers decided to make a sequel. The only problem is that Tony Montana, the movie's lead character, dies at the end in a blaze of cocaine-fueled rage and gunfire. So in order for the game to occur, they've gone back and rewritten the movie so that Al Pacino's Cuban coke lord gets away at the end, but loses his entire drug empire, his mansion, and yes, even his tiger. Resetting his net worth back to zero and giving you a reason to get revenge sets the game in motion. You need to rebuild your drug empire and exact your revenge on the guys who caused your downfall, one neighborhood at a time.

Rewriting the ending to a movie just to justify a sequel is a tough pill to swallow, especially when you're dealing with an ending as memorable as the one in Scarface. It's likely that some fans of the film will never be able to get over that hump and despise the game for existing in the first place. But if you can deal with the concept--you'll take control of Montana shortly after the "Say hello to my little friend" line and orchestrate his getaway yourself--you'll find a foul-mouthed, bloody adventure that does next to nothing with the characters. In the film, you saw Tony Montana grow from a simple refugee to the king of the coke world. In the game, the shock of losing his empire causes Tony to clean up his act and get off the yayo so he can start dealing again. Then you basically kill everyone who wronged you, all while talking about the need to have balls. The whole experience feels flat and often self-conscious. It's as if the creators of the game watched the movie, picked out a few common words that Tony Montana would say ("cock-a-roach," "balls," "f***," "chico," and "coño"), and then set about writing dialogue that uses those words as often as possible.

It might not feel terribly true to the spirit of the film, but as a game, Scarface is functional. You're given the open city of Miami to drive around right off the bat, though you'll be doing business in only one part of the city at a time. You start in Little Havana, and your goal is to take back that part of town so you can deal cocaine unabated by the other dealers that have risen during your three-month absence. You take back the streets by going to war with gangs that have taken up residence in various parts of the neighborhood. These gangs are denoted by a skull on your map, and your task here is to roll up to the thugs, open fire, and not stop shooting until they're all dead. You'll also need to buy businesses in each part of town, mainly so that you can use them as drug fronts, and you won't able to advance the story if you don't. But you can't just waltz in and buy each business right away. Business owners have specific tasks that you must complete before they'll sell. That means you'll have to go on a mission. Some of the missions make perfect sense and fit with something Tony Montana would do, like defending a restaurant from attackers. Another has you guarding a speedboat from a fixed gun position on a helicopter while it tries to find shark fins to make shark-fin soup for a wedding party at another restaurant. The slightly goofy missions make the whole game feel disjointed and flippant.

In addition to the main process of completing missions and buying front businesses, there's the more open-ended goal of making money and building a reputation. You have a reputation level that increases for a variety of reasons, including completing missions, and you won't be able to take on some missions unless your reputation is at a certain level. If you need to earn a lot of rep, that might mean you go several hours without progressing the story because you need to earn money to purchase junk for your mansion, which raises your rep and also gives you access to the stupidly named "pimp my mansion" feature.

Or, you can just go on what seems like an infinite number of side missions to help out coke suppliers, usually by defending them from attackers for a minute or two. Once that's done, you can get connected with the suppliers and purchase cocaine. Grams can be dealt on your own to street dealers or through your front businesses, though the street dealers usually give you more money for your product. As you move up the food chain and take over entire neighborhoods, you get access to supply warehouses. Around that point, you can start buying by the kilo and store those fat keys of powder in your warehouse. Once you've stored some coke, you can then go on a distribution mission, which has you drive around to your various front businesses, ostensibly to deliver the coke you've accumulated. But all you really do is drive around and run over boxes that give you money. During this process, gangs will show up and attempt to attack or take out your front businesses, but they never get too hard to deal with. Completing distribution is a great way to earn a lot of cash?dirty cash.

Continue reading