Scarface - Is that your little friend or are you happy to see me?

[spigot]

Anyone pick this one up? I would normally relegate this to bargain bin status by virtue of the fact that it's a movie-based game, but some reviews of it look promising. From what I can tell, it's essentially a GTA/Saints Row open-ended type game where you roam Miami as our beloved Tony Montana with a huge chip on his shoulder (the game takes place after the events of the movie).

If anyone has any impressions, I'd love to hear them. If I don't pick this up, I still have to get my hands on Yakuza.

[EngineNo9]

Heh, I was thinking the same thing.  I had written the game off as a crappy movie game but the reviews are turning out higher than expected.  I'm interested, but not interested enough to drop full price on it since we've already seen something similar in GTA:VC and graphically this one is behind the times. 

[Doopri]

anyone know if its backwards compatible?

[Calvin]

I'm thinking about a rental, but have not played it or really heard anything other than the reviews I am sure you guys have read as well.

[whiteboyskim]

I think I already played this when it was called GTA: Vice City.

[CeeKay]

In America, first you get the reviews, then you get the forum impressions, and then you get... the game!

[Darren8r]

I bought the game, okay. First person on GT to buy it whooo.

Anyways, I'll put up impressions later on tomorrow, after work.

[Xmann]

well since i'm new to the PS2 and never played any of the GTA games, i have some interest in Scarface.  Let us know if it's worth a purchase. 

[EngineNo9]

The reviews seem to be up and down on this one.  I just read the OXM review and it was a very unimpressive 4.5.

[jblank]

(the game takes place after the events of the movie).

Probably a short game then, considering he died in the movie.

[JLu]

(the game takes place after the events of the movie).

Probably a short game then, considering he died in the movie.

The little I read about this game was that they...  altered... the ending of the movie, and Tony got away to fight another day.

[jblank]

(the game takes place after the events of the movie).

Probably a short game then, considering he died in the movie.

The little I read about this game was that they...  altered... the ending of the movie, and Tony got away to fight another day.

Thats cheesy, but hey, hard to make a Tony Montana game without doing something like that isn't it? Still, I pass.

[Misguided]

flyinj posted this at Qt3:

"Put a few more hours in.

The thing I'm really digging about the game is it opens up more and more options the more you play. The "territory" system is really fun, and it's a much better fleshed out version of the gang wars section of GTA4.

Basically, there are about 40 gang hot spots per section of the city. Some of them are active during the day, some of them at night. You have a "gang anger" meter which goes up every time you kill any criminal elements in the game, from missions, driving around, etc. If your gang anger meter is high, the gang members in the gang hotspots are more likely to attack you.

Now, the way you make the big money in the game is by buying out fronts and supplying them with coke. In the beginning of the game you buy from suppliers and sell small quantities to smalltime dealers on the street. As you get fronts, you can sell larger quantites directly to the front. Even further along, you sell massive quantities through your front, which triggers a "supply mission".

When you're doing any of these activities, the gang hotspots really start messing with you. You're going to have to deliver coke through some of them, and they can really beat on you when you're on foot. This is where you decide which ones you want to kill off, which consists of going to their area and killing them until the game tells you they are all dead. If you manage to kill off a gang hotspot entirely, it's gone forever from the map and you get a big chunk taken off your gang anger meter. It adds a really fun strategic layer to the game. You can also buy enforcers. When you own one, you can switch to it and use it to clean up gangs. Enforcers come with grenade launchers and powerful shotguns, and are great for cleaning out gang hotspots. Another bonus of using an enforcer is that you're not putting your main charater in danger.

Also, with your fronts, you can outfit them with security cameras and muscle. When you're doing the supply missions later in the game, you have to drive between all of your fronts in a section of the city and pickup money from them. While you're doing this, any gang locations you drive through actually spawn gang vehicles that try to kill you. They also start to attack your fronts directly, and having muscle and security cameras at a front acts as a buffer before they start stealing the front's money and destroying it outright. You have to then balance between driving to your fronts to get money, and personally protecting fronts from attack.

There are also a few other really unique aspects to the game, but I'm tired of typing."

He and another poster said that the gamespy review is spot on (they gave it 4 out of 5 I think).