Remember the year 2006 when we created a Scarface game after the end of the classic 80s gangster movie? It was a weird setup, but the end result was a somewhat clumsy, yet fun, GTA-like open world game. Apparently, it did well enough to begin the development of a sequel, but it never ended. Still, new images have come online of this canceled sequel to Scarface, giving us a good look at the follow-up it never was.
The recently released images of this never-published sequel, which was known as Scarface Empire, are courtesy of the YouTube channel Mafia Game Videos. The footage shows an early construction of the game, showing the new Las Vegas setup, improved graphics, improved combat, and many oaths.
Images from Mafia Game Videos show fighting and driving, as well as a new mechanic called “reviving,” which would have allowed Tony to survive encounters with random armed thugs. This could have worked as a fast time event (QTE), letting the player recover if he was successful or die if he failed. The video also shows a lot of supposed conceptual art for the never-published sequel.
On Twitter, Mafia Game Videos shared more clips and screenshots from the initial version. The channel also shared information about the engine that is said to power the game, explaining that it used modified technology that was first seen in the open world Hulk games developed by Radical Entertainment. This technology would also feed the studio’s open world prototype games.
For the curious: the engine of the game Scarface: Empire was “a heavily modified version of what was used in Prototype and earlier Hulk games.” pic.twitter.com/pApX3vJKO3
– Videos of the Mafia game (@MafiaGameVideos) June 22, 2022
There have long been rumors that a sequel to Scarface is being developed, but this is the first image of the game to appear since its untimely demise.
The idea of Scarface’s first game that Tony Montana had somehow survived the big shootout at the end of the original film was always a bit silly, and it definitely lost the meaning of the film. But it also allows Radical Entertainment developers to create a new story of rags to riches with the gangster head hot as he rebuilds his empire. And of course, in many ways the game was just a clone of GTA: Vice City, but to be fair, GTA Vice City is in many ways a clone of Scarface. So it just seems fair. Also, the game ended up being a pretty fun open world crime game from the PS2 era. Sometimes the big nonsense shootings and virtual drug trafficking just got to the site, you know?
While it’s unlikely to ever happen, I’d love for the first game to have a remastering or a new modern version to make it easier to play in 2022. I’d rather play that than in remastered Vice City, at least.