Scarface: The World is Yours (Wii) - Review by yoshimn

Introduction

The family of violent-open-world-adventure games seems to have a new addition pretty much every month. As you can tell from that previous sentence, the problem for this swelling cohort of games is identifying what they should be collectively called; the easiest although not most politically correct name is of course the Grand Theft Auto (GTA) games. This works because everyone and his cat have at least heard of, if not played, the big daddy of sandbox game play. Today's proposed new family member is Scarface, a game that has been out on other platforms for a while, and is being brought to the Wii for some motion sensitive carnage. The question is, does it have what it takes to be considered one of the GTA fraternity?

Gameplay

The game opens where the film ends. But, and this is a big but, it creates its own alternative ending. Rather than the honourable death in a cloud of bullets, Tony escapes by the skin of his teeth and returns to his home city to reflect on his life, and quickly decides to rebuild the death, pain and drug empire that he has recently lost. With this fresh plot tension we have the main tenet of the game. Your basic remit is to work your way back to the super-criminal heights that resulted in your filmic death. There is little heed paid to the ethical and emotional affect that having a second life chance may bring to a man, Tony doesn't rise to a better more peaceful version of himself; after all where's the fun in that! This is essentially an out and out violent ride back to old habits, which it seems do really die hard.

Once you have dusted yourself off and got your bearings you are taken through a reasonable tutorial stage. This introduces not only the Wii controls but the intelligent design decision to allow them to be customised in the game. As the game proceeds you soon discover that you need to work with the criminals and innocents in the environment to gain both money and respect. This is most often achieved by pulling a gun, knife or chainsaw and inflicting some retribution on those around you. It is curious that in the tutorial a big deal is made of not being able to hurt people who have not crossed you, although in the game proper you are quickly killing both henchmen and bystanders left, right and centre; not what you would call a high ethic. But this is not a game with a chip on its shoulder, or anything to prove. It simply invites you to revel in the genre and enjoy it for what it is, a bloody biopic of humanity.

You build money by completing particular tasks that usually centre on the drug lord legend that we have heard and watched many times before. It goes something along the lines of work the small guy for a few hits a week, build up your business by expanding into new geographic areas, squeeze the process now and again with price hikes and finally throw in some other back street dealings. The money you earn from these activities needs to be put through a money laundering service most commonly found at the bank. You obviously have to pay a back-hander for the service; the amount of which is controlled by a golf-swing like control which works pretty well. All in all there is plenty to keep you interested in the game for many hours, provided you like the hard worn formula. Whilst obviously not pushing many gaming boundaries, what it does do it does well.

Controls

The Wii controls work surprisingly well with the game. Whilst not being as nuanced and varied as those found in The Godfather: Blackhand Edition, they are certainly more refined than the recent Driver Parallel Lines on the Wii. Their main success comes from the fact that you can adjust the sensitivity of the Wii-mote's turning circle. What I mean by this is that the area of the screen that is used to trigger body turning is adjustable. The size of the bounding box that distinguishes between turning your head and turning your body has three different sensitivities. As you play through the game and get used to the controls you can turn the sensitivity up to provide a quicker response time. This is a clever and subtle way to deal with the fact that most people will take a good few hours to really get comfortable using the Wii-mote and Nun-chuck to control the third person perspective.

Graphics

Visually, things are also pretty solid. Although the game doesn't advance the Wii's graphics, what it presents is well executed and stable. The environments all feel solid and well put together. Whilst it doesn't have the quirky appeal and lived in feel of GTA, its stark concrete environments have an appeal of their own.

As with most games of this (older) generation graphics wise, the character models serve their purpose whilst not coming all that close to realism. The biggest problem comes when anyone speaks who is close enough to camera for some lip syncing to be attempted. It never quite looks right or really feels all that believable. But these are minor points that really don't detract from the enjoyment of the game.

Sound

The audio on the game has benefited from its multi-platform original. It has had plenty of time and money invested in it to give the on screen action a descent backing from some well chosen music and excellent sample work.

Whilst the voice work could have been more varied, what we do have as of a high quality. It is just the lack of breadth means that samples are inevitably repeated more often than is ideal; you quickly tire from the best delivered lines once you have heard them a dozen times in the last half an hour.

Final comments

This is a game that, like many others in the genre does well in some areas whilst letting itself down in others. Its environments are certainly more engaging than God Father but it hasn't quite got that creative spark of Driver. With the upcoming GTA IV soon to be hitting shop shelves it has certainly got its work cut out. This shouldn't put you off however, as this is a confident and well delivered game that is certainly worth a second look.

Pro: Environments that are engaging and believable coupled with intelligent and customisable implementation of the Wii controls.
Con: The game lacks that spark of life that makes it compelling to play; subsequently you can find yourself struggling to sustain interest.
Final score: 7.1

Share on Twitter or Facebook

Comments