Now this is what I want from a 50 Cent game.
50 Cent: Blood on the Sand is of course the follow-up to what most people consider a game that is pretty much utter garbage, 50 Cent: Bulletproof. And Blood on the Sand pretty much improves on everything. Not just is the shooting fun and frantic it also has a story that is not “epic” or what-have-you but it’s actually a fun over-the-top story that I enjoyed. It’s pretty simple, 50 Cent does a USO concert and needs his pay, the guy don’t have the money so he pays him with this Crystal Skull but there’s a load of people that want said skull so that skull is stolen and 50 goes on a journey for the skull where he fights through Helicopters, crazy enemies, and a ramp.
The gameplay is very similar to that of Gears of War and The Club combined, these are two games that I loved so that could be reason I found this game very enjoyable. When you start out you get to choose a side-kick and whoever you choose isn’t really important what is important is that the AI in this game works. Not just the enemies are smart but your side-kick gives you some of the best partner AI I’ve saw in a game (much better than that Resident Evil 5 game) Throughout the game your partner will lead the way. Whenever you get out of a fight your partner usually just walks to where you’re supposed to go and he proceeds to yell “Fiddy, over here!”
The Club comparison comes in because it’s pretty much a constant meta-game going on, you’re getting kill combo’s and there’s also little challenges that pop up in the top left corner of the screen that’ll challenge you to do something for extra “Gangsta Fire” which is pretty much another thing that slows down the game and lets you move faster than you probably should. The Gears is pretty much everything else, the cover system is good but I ran into one of the things I done a lot in Gears but it happened more here. Getting stuck to cover. I’ll just be jumping around trying to kill people when I randomly get stuck on cover and die, that doesn’t happen too much but when it does, it’s annoying. There’s other little collectibles to—well—collect, those being Posters and little targets you have to shoot (similar to The Club’s targets) and they’re not very fun and really show no meaning but to garner more points for the level.
While you’re trying to find Fiddy’s skull, you’ll run into some levels that are all pretty much the same, the level design is pretty much ‘This place is dark, I’m in a building, now it’s bright in the desert’ I really can’t say anything bad about that though because the look of the game, besides that, is fantastic. You run into a few grainy textures but still explosions and kills look beautiful. They throw in some melee also. You go into like a button-prompt sequence which is really easy it’s just pressing B/O but after you do one you really feel like a badass, hearing 50 Cent’s music in the background while stabbing someone in the neck, yep don’t get too much better than that. Blood on the Sand is also one of those games that realize that co-op is pretty much a necessity these days! And luckily, not only does it give you co-op it gives you fun co-op.
Weapons wise, this game is loaded (Yes I seriously just made the greatest pun ever) I was disappointed there is only 2 Rocket Launchers since this game is huge on Rocket Launchers but hey, I can deal with that when it gives me the kick-ass pistols that it does. The Assault Rifles in this game are all pretty good. One with a scope, one silent, one small with a huge Rate of Fire, no matter what any Assault Rifle you want you can get. You purchase these weapons by activating random phone booths placed throughout the land and when you go into these phone booths you can also, Switch out your weapons, buy more Counterkills, and buy more taunts. Taunts are pretty much 50 yelling curse words.
All-in-all 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand is not only one of the most shockingly good games ever but it’s also a lot better than most of the games that people will pick up this year because it’s supposed to be good. This is a game that might not provide you with 30+ hours, because after you complete the 9-11 hour story, you might not want to play it again but that 9-11 hours sure are some memorable times that left me with a smile on my face.
