I tried playing this game a few months ago but couldn’t get it to work - well, it worked out this time. Can’t say it was worth it though. I started this playthrough knowing these games aren’t really my type of thing but willing to give it a real shot, if only so I could talk with my friend (a huge fan of the series) afterwards and say “hey, I gave it a chance”. Things were relatively alright at the beginning, not great but decent enough to not feel put off immediately. It didn’t take long for my experience to sour though even then I was willing to chuck it up to it to “not being my thing” and wanted to finish the game - by the time I got to Metropolis (level 9 out of 13) I simply gave up.
This was probably the worst gaming experience I had in years. Between mediocre level design, encounter design ranging between “well thought out packs of enemies spread around logically” to “lets just spam a ton of random enemies at once, preferably in small space to make it difficult to avoid” and combat music constantly fading in and out, the whole thing ended up feeling like complete waste of time (in a bad way). I do not want to touch this series ever again and leave it to those who actually enjoy it.

On a more positive note, I started playing Scarface again. Well, I say “positive” but the this one started pretty rough as well, though for different reasons. Initially, I planned to play the game with the Scarface Remastered Project (mod improving textures, restoring missing effects from PS2 version etc) but had very little luck with it. I couldn’t install it on Linux and when I set up the new files using a Windows partition, none of the new assets would load anyway. Alright, that sucks but whatever. Let’s just play with the GangstaPatch (mod adding better widescreen support, improving performance and fixing a bunch of other issues) instead - this should be fine, right?
I spent like two hours trying to figure out why the game kept crashing. First it was right after the intro mission, then during said mission the moment I fired my gun. Guess what? You can’t play the game with framerate above 60 (especially during intro). It’ll work fine but only after the intro mission and even then it WILL crash the moment you finish any other mission as well.
Fine, this isn’t a huge deal even if it took me a while to figure out (should’ve start with the obvious solutions first but eh). Great, so the game is working perfectly now. How is it? Well, it’s pretty easy in terms of difficulty, mouse controls (camera movement and aiming during combat) are abysmal, driving is stiff and weightless, there’s no proper radio system (only a semi-manual music player) and everything looks… pretty bad in terms of visuals. Despite all of these flaws however I really enjoy it. While it looks and feels like a rushed budget title from a different era, it does have some interesting ideas like active drug dealing, ability to bribe cops, having to launder your money to keep it safe etc. Those things might not be perfectly executed but they’re enough to make the game feel somewhat unique compared to GTA titles. Add the “super serious” if corny story and pretty good voice acting (at least for most of the named characters), and you end up with a pretty decent licensed title. Nothing groundbreaking, sure, but an enjoyable romp nonetheless. Hopefully I can finish it this time instead of getting distracted again.