50 Cent: Blood on the Sand
Nobody learns harder from their own mistakes than ‘Mr’ 50 Cent. And if you want the proof shoved between your teeth, open wide. No… wider!
We pretty sure that we’ve never encountered hip-hop justice before now, but 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand is all the education we’re ever going to need. We do solemnly swear to behave. Maybe the world’s ‘terrorists’ will do too, especially those from a ‘fictional war torn country’. Wherever that might be…
If 50 Cent is your hero, and you love hard-action games, welcome to nirvana. 50 Cent: Bulletproof was a travesty on Xbox and PlayStation 2. 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand is a triumph on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. It might be a game that upsets a lot of people, but it’ll entertain plenty more if we can keep our sense of humour.
This is Fiddy at his confrontational best, putting the world to rights with the barrel of his gun(s). Not because he cares about anyone else but himself, mind you, he just wants what is owed – in this case a diamond-encrusted skull received as payment for a gig in said ‘fictional war torn country’ but stolen in a downtown ambush. Nope, not even 50’s armour-plated Hummer could prevent this from happening.
Think Ghost Recon meets Gears of War meets the attitude of a 50 Cent album – plus 19 exclusive new tracks. This is 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand. And with tongue firmly in cheek it makes a mockery of such AAA titles simply by having too much fun.
You might recognise some traces of Sega’s The Club in here with timed challenges based on murderous intent: kill x number of bodyguards, that kind of thing. Props to EA’s Army of Two also, but the camaraderie works much better; the banter between Fiddy and his sidekick (players can elect Tony Yayo, Lloyd Banks or DJ Whoo Kid) is hilarious: “Where the f*ck you at man?” for example, as 50 requests some help.
The buddy theme is woven into the gameplay at every opportunity, so that even if you’re playing solo with an AI partner it feels like you’re in ‘this sh*t’ together. For example heavy shutters require two pairs of hands, and countless walls can only be scaled with assistance. It is better though to have a real friend on board to play co-op online, where players can drop-in / drop-out any time.
Let’s see… gunplay is superb, you can fire from cover or run and gun with equal ease. Melee combat is brutal, what else. Fiddy doesn’t waste time using his knife and this isn’t a pretty sight, it has to be said. But if it’s okay for trained soldiers to be featured in videogames performing similar techniques, well why not Fiddy eh?
Also pleasing is the reward structure built into the game. The spoils of war – which can include everything from bars of gold to posters of 50 Cent peeled from the city walls – are spent on weapons and so-called Counterkill Finishing moves. You’re always getting richer and stronger, and, frankly, it feels great.
We’ll reserve further comment for our review next month. For now though, we’re quite guiltily but altogether very impressed.
