Let me just start off by saying that 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand is not
a great game. It is not a game you should run out and buy for the
shamefully high price of $60. It is also not a game you should buy for
the more reasonable, yet still too high, $30. However, it is a big dumb
thrill ride that is a hell of a lot more fun than I would like to admit.
If you had to describe 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand in comparison to
another game, and you easily could, they would be Gears of War, Army of
Two, and Sega’s overlooked arcade shooter from last year, The Club. 50
Cent: Blood on the Sand uses the pop-and-shoot and co-op mechanics of
Gears of War and Army of Two along with the tandem co-op moves of the
later. When playing co-op, which is oddly only online with no option
for split screen play, Player 1 takes the role of “Fiddy” while Player
2 tags along as one of three members of G-Unit. If you go it alone your
trusty “homie” will be controlled by AI. The friendly AI was
surprisingly smart as it only got in my way twice and took out quite a
few enemies on his own, which is far more than I can say for Dom from
Gears of War. One of my biggest issues with the game is how its control
style attempts to be like Gears of War yet horridly fails in
comparison. Basically the walking physics feel too soft, there is no
run option so you’ll be at a brisk walk the entire time, and the
rolling commands didn’t always respond in the direction I wanted them
to. Also, the cover system can be hit and miss sometimes as some
objects just randomly refuse to allow you to take cover on them. But
most frustrating of all is the fact that you can still be shot in the
head while in cover. The vast majority of my deaths occurred while I
was ducked behind cover. It is for this reason I ran through most of
the game charging through enemies which was quite easy due to the games
regenerating health system.
But what makes 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand so damn fun is its arcade
like pace and scoring system. When you kill an enemy you receive points
and a red bar appears at the top of the screen. If you kill another
enemy before the bar depletes your score and combo time increase.
Various other factors like how the enemy was dispatched figure into you
score as well. This dynamic is what pushed me through the terrible
story and makes the game as fun as it is. In general I am not a fan of
bullet time in games. It was fun in Max Payne the first time around,
but after that bullet time just felt old and gimmicky. But after
playing this game for about two hours I thought, “Man this game needs
bullet time.” About five or so minutes later my finger accidentally
grazed the Y Button which thrust me into “Gangsta Fire”, the game’s
version of bullet time. It is only in games as ridiculous and arcadey
as this one can bullet time work anymore and it only makes the
experience better. The game is also laden with mini-objectives that
will pop up in battle. Each of these scenarios asks you to preform a
certain task within a certain amount of time for a power up reward.
These objectives are usually "Kill [Number] [Enemy Class] within
[Amount of Time]" but will sometimes vary. You are given several
grenades for completing each task, but more importantly your handgun
ammunition will become explosive. This means that your handgun
instantly becomes a one-hit-kill weapon of death and destruction.
Unfortunately this makes upgrading to the more powerful handguns
pointless seeing that any handgun no matter its power rating has the
same power rating once the bonus is applied.
Kamra Pasha is credited as the writer of the game’s story and for that
he should be drug out into the street and shot in the face. But to be
fair so should the writers of Gears of War. This story is stupid to no
end, but no worse than that of the critically acclaimed Gears series
and it doesn’t attempt to be authentic in anyway unlike the previously
mentioned series. Essentially, “Fiddy” and G-Unit perform a concert in
an unspecified Middle Eastern locale; the concert promoter gives them a
human skull covered in diamonds which is then stolen from our hero. Now
while most people would head back home and lick their wounds, that
ain’t the G thing to do so “Fiddy” decides to go on a swath of
destruction across the country killing everything between him and his
skull. Conflict resolution anyone? Now to the stories credit you are
NOT fighting terrorists. I like this decision seeing that it keeps the
story from descending into some kind of “Hell yeah, America!”
debauchery. However all of the Middle Eastern gang members you go up
against look like the stereotypical image of a “terrorist”, so I
guarantee you that many will fail to discern the two. So I suppose in
the end Pasha shouldn’t be publically executed, but if he goes anywhere
near a more narrative driven franchise I will need to retract my
previous statement.
As far as the weapons are concerned take some advice from me and don’t
buy anything until you can afford the most powerful rocket launcher and
the second highest class machine gun. I know going with the Silver
medal winner might seem odd, but its accuracy is higher than the top of
the line model and that makes more difference in the long run than a
little more stopping power. As far as the pistols and shotguns are
concerned you can skip them entirely, but you’re going to wind up with
plenty of cash so if you want you can buy them later. You may also
purchase advanced taunt packages to enrage your enemies and different
close range kills.
The close range kills occur when you get close to an enemy and press
the action button. (B on Xbox 360, and circle on PS3) You then enter a
quick time event that shows “Fiddy” punching/kicking/stabbing/
