SPOILER WARNING! The end of the Scarface film is revealed in this review, so if you haven't seen the film and somehow don't know how it ends, read on at your peril!

Say hello to my little friend! It's about time somebody decided to do a video game of one of the finest gangster films of all time. The s***-talking, no-nonsense character of Tony Montana has just been crying out for his own game. At the time of its cinematic release, Scarface received a lot of harsh press - particularly for its controversial chainsaw through a human head scene - but it has now been established as an absolute movie classic. However, with GTA reigning over all gangster games, is there room for one more, be it based on a movie legend or not? Let's hope so…

In the film Tony dies a nasty death, riddled full of bullets in his luxurious mansion, but having taken down a small Colombian militia. Scarface: The World is Yours picks up the end of that story - but instead the ending is changed and Tony survives. It's an ingenious idea, as the game uses Brian De Palma's awesome movie as a launch pad into a great expansion of the original story - a whole new world of sex, drugs, violence and bad shirts. You're even given the opportunity right at the start of the game to guide Tony through that faithful shootout so he can live on and kick some serious ass. The game takes place in Miami, which has been torn into quarters by some badass rival gangs. For you to regain control of the city you have to rebuild your reputation. Your ascent back up the top of the tree begins at a very, very low level, with you as a pissant drug peddler. The opening missions thus take the form of moron-friendly 'big flashing arrow' tasks as you do some petty deals with the local scum. Follow the arrow to here, pick up the drugs, follow it over to there and then sell the drugs. Repeat for thirty minutes and gradually you earn enough cash to buy a 'front', which is basically a legitimate business to all intents and purpose but is actually selling an absolute shed load of cold, hard drugs within.

The more drugs you sell, the more money you make and the more exotic products you can buy. These luxury items - sports cars, home furnishings, pet tigers - help to reinforce your credibility among the criminal fraternity, which in turn unlocks even better missions and bonus zones. You can also buy henchmen, hired arse-kissers who constantly snivel around you, attending to your every need. Your driver, for example, is on call twenty-four hours to deliver your choice of sports cars to wherever you may be. Handily he also tags along for the ride and wades in should you become embroiled in a gunfight.

For you to get ahead in the decadent criminal underworld of the 1980s, you need to bust a whole lot of heads to get yourself back on an even keel. Each of the four territories in Miami - Downtown, Little Havana, South Beach and North Beach - host their own local gangs that must be completely crushed before you can take control of their hood. All you need to do is locate them via your map, grab some guns, speed over in your sports car, shoot the place into oblivion and then slink away before the cops arrive to clean up the mess. Take out every gang in the area and the place is yours.

The gang fights really are great fun and you get plenty of scope for Heat-style shoot-outs spilling out onto the Miami streets. The combat system during these fights really exposes Scarface as a genuine contender for the likes of a Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Compared to GTA's static point-and-click system, where you can only hit one target at a time, Scarface lets you spray multiple enemies with heavy machinegun fire - blissful! Being based on a hideously violent movie, Scarface the game is thankfully suitably gory; heads pop like watermelons, arms and legs shear off to lavish spurts of blood. It's also set to an incredibly high tempo, as you've got everything you'd want in this game, from tense alley shootouts to death-defying car chases during rush hour. In terms of exciting gameplay and extravagant violence, Scarface could never be accused of pulling punches.

When you're killing people and pop a cap in them, it flashes up on screen telling you exactly where you hit your target, be it their kidney or their lungs. There's also a Balls meter - the more Balls you have, the more you're going to kick ass and to build up your Balls you basically just need to kill as many people as possible whilst swearing profusely! Do enough of this and you can tear into a Rage mode where you're invincible for a short time. The only real downside to the gun battles in the game is that the enemy AI is pretty lame; you can lay on a blanket of gunfire and your enemy will run from his cover right into your stream of fire, or you may even find them stuck in a corner, walking incessantly into a piece of scenery. If that doesn't bother you too much, the good news is that there're plenty of bad guys and even more bullets to mash them up with.

The driving parts in the game are also surprisingly enjoyable. Unlike many recent games such as Saints Row and Just Cause, the car handling is gauged just right so that the vehicles are easily controllable, but with that extra shot of throttle things can get very interesting. Driving and shooting at the same time is nigh on impossible to master and this still remains a problem that none of the developers of these types of games has yet been able to solve. Whether you're driving, shooting, swearing, or selling drugs by the truckload, Scarface looks fantastic. They've lovingly recreated 1980s Miami in its vast, sunkissed urban sprawl. It all feels hugely realistic, with the wide palmtree-lined boulevards, barren docklands and towering skyscrapers. Add to that a thumping Eighties soundtrack and some top-notch voice talent and this game perfectly evokes what was so great about the film. As you're playing it really does feel like an extension of the movie, which is a great tribute to the developers, as that was surely the whole point of the project, but something that could so easily have gone awry.

The only real problem with Scarface is that it's very difficult to initially get into. You may find yourself giving up after only an hour - but please, take my word for it - it's worth hanging on in there. The menu system may be clunky, but the game offers some genuine depth with plenty of different missions to complete and activities to partake in, more so than games such as The Godfather, True Crime: New York City and Yakuza.

I expected not to like Scarface: The World is Yours, but I have to say that I'm very pleasantly surprised. Movie franchises tend to be absolute shockers, but with this one the developers have actually done the original film proud. Unfortunately Al Pacino doesn't provide his voice for the game, although he did provide his seal of approval and I think he'd be impressed with the results. Plenty of depth, great sound and visuals, copious amounts of unnecessary swearing, oodles of violence and an awesome central character in Tony Montana - it's not quite GTA IV but if you can't wait until next October then you should definitely say hello to this little friend!

Reviewed by Ross Alexander for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).