This game is worth all your money..Ignore gamespot review..
First off I would like to comment on the flaws, and actually contend against some "Flaws" of major reviews.
FLAWS:
- First off, the graphics, while good, are not better than San Andreas (environments, scope), but it is at least as good as Vice City, and the character models in the game are improved upon in detail. It is not bad looking to say the least, and Miami is actually done pretty well. A little more polish would have went a long way though.
- The cop system is slightly flawed as well. Many times I found myself trying to stop fronts from being destroyed, killing gangs, etc. only to have to cops after me very soon. A white line appears designating that you can talk to a cop to stop this meter if done right, which is fine out of missions, but during missions the cops did not come after me and a red line will appear stopping negotiations with the police. A red line will then appear with an increasing radius on the map, indicating you HAVE TO ESCAPE the cops, mission or no mission, or you are ****ed. The problem is, if you try to finish the mission, you will probably get caught because there isn't much time to get away. A remedy is to quit during the mission, call a fast car and driver, and then speed out of the radius. The Gamespot review will have you believe you can't stand off with the cops, which is almost lie in a way. By leaving a police radius, and THEN killing the cops following you, you will be able to escape the police in a "red line" situation, you just have to provide yourself enough time to get away.
- Another real flaw, which overtime becomes apparent, is the monontony of the missions for Felix Deals. There are quite a few different things to do for Felix, but over time, especially after many hours of gameplay, you will recognize the monotonoy. Even with this flaw, the missions are never NOT fun, and they are usually over quickly. Another thing I would like to point out is that games like The Godfather and Saint Row, which both have this same problem, are not bashed as harshly and it is unfair of reviewers. Their are also missions that Tony does outside of Felix missions that are actually quite fun, even if the gameplay for Felix missions is never widely varied. There are various ways to distribute coke, take over gangs, and other things that are acutually MORE varied than The Godfather. So while missions may not vary too much after playing them all, the sheer amount of things to do provide you won't be bored doing to same thing the whole time.
- Pedestrian killing is another misconception used by many reviews, as Tony will not pull the trigger on innocents (which is a characteristic of the character in the movie). This is true, however, various henchmen can be purchased who can not only kill innocents, but also complete other missions only available to each one, which are fun little diversions as well. Another thing only adding to the gameplay.
-Small collision problems with vehicles, sometime I had game wrecking glitches (not too often).
PROS:
- The driving system in the game is done pretty well, and doing powerslides and wrecking is quite fun. - Any of Tony's vehicles can be brought to him at any time, which is essential to escaping to police. It's a just a nice feature made available.
- The shooting system is better than any of the open world games to date, allowing precision aiming ala Saints Row, but also a auto targeting system similar to Tomorrow Never Dies, but tagets those closest to the recticle instead of being random. This makes many gameplay missions that were similar to other open world games more fun to me, allowing a greater amount of killing pleasure.
- The Blind Rage may not be the greatest feature in the world, but it's far from useless (thanks Gamespot). In fact, it no less useless than an adrenaline pill in GTA, and similar devices in other games. I actually found it quite usefull in taking over gangs, and it was go nuts in that view taking out large groups. It's acutally pretty essential later in the game. It is a bit easy to kill people, but it's still fun and gives a sense of how Tony went "nuts" at the end of the movie getting shot up but still alive.
- The Pimp my Mansion feature, while not a essential to gameplay, is good for people to want to individulize thier mansion Sims style. It's not really a huge feature, but Gamespot again, makes it out to be dumb and useless. Well, I'm sure some people may actually like this, as it's OPTIONAL, and it's a feature that no other open world game has. I would bet if you could style your mansion in a GTA game, nobody would have any complaints (*cough*changing clothes in San Andreas *cough*). It does nothing to hurt the gameplay at all.
- The Weapons Trunk allows access to all weapons all the time, which you can stock to huge levels. No more having to stop constantly at a weapons dealer, and easy access to weapons in the heat of battle from the trunk of any car.
- There is sometimes a nice driving feature that points how to get to your designated area, but it wasn't always working as I played.
OVERALL: Many may think I'm trying to bash Godfather, or GTA, but really I just want to point out the many features that were put into this game that make the open world genre better. I played though The Godfather 100% getting all properties, missions, etc, and I can say their wan't as much gameplay features as in Scarface. Add better level design, vehicles, and a feeling of actually building an empire, and you have a great game brought down by some flaws. I would still have to say overall San Andreas is a better game, which Scarface on the same level as Vice City, followed closely by The Godfather, and lastly the bug ridden True Crime series. Their is fun to be had here, perhaps it's a love it or hate it game, but I love it, and I think that it does many things to improve the genre.