The Remastered Project from Sept 2022 makes this game playable by fixing major graphical glitches that occurred on modern-day PCs, and improves overall performance. The project also touches up the game textures and sound via remade, a.i upscaled or remastered. However, I encountered crashing to desktop problems when using this mod with the vanilla game. I suspect it is due to the buggy nature of the remade game textures. A random user who also experience the same issue left a helpful tip on page 3 of this Nexus Mod. Here is a quote of his reply posted below.
''I just tested the Drive-In mission that always crashed the game and fixed it by not installing the Mod's art/characters/npc folder textures. You can install all other folders except this subfolder, it seems that some npc textures are buggy and cause crashes. You should delete the npc subfolder and replace it with the one from cement.rcf in the Backup Rcf folder that the installation of this mod creates (by using Scarface Archive Explorer, a user shared the steps in the comments below). Be aware that I haven't tested it in other areas prone to crashes (Like the Island Bar's docks) but the Drive In mission always crashed with the mod completely installed, now was the first time I managed to complete it with this mod on by removing the mod's npc textures and replacing them with vanilla ones.''
Using this fix / workaround solves the crashing to desktop problem. Overall, this a great GTA Clone game.
''I just tested the Drive-In mission that always crashed the game and fixed it by not installing the Mod's art/characters/npc folder textures. You can install all other folders except this subfolder, it seems that some npc textures are buggy and cause crashes. You should delete the npc subfolder and replace it with the one from cement.rcf in the Backup Rcf folder that the installation of this mod creates (by using Scarface Archive Explorer, a user shared the steps in the comments below). Be aware that I haven't tested it in other areas prone to crashes (Like the Island Bar's docks) but the Drive In mission always crashed with the mod completely installed, now was the first time I managed to complete it with this mod on by removing the mod's npc textures and replacing them with vanilla ones.''
Using this fix / workaround solves the crashing to desktop problem. Overall, this a great GTA Clone game.