50 Cent: Blood on the Sand

Alright, so i was at my local none-Gamestop video game store the other day, picking up the PC version of the GTA 3 trilogy. Through a strange confluence of events, ended up leaving with a copy of 50 Cent: Blood in the Sand, for which i payed 30 dollars for.

The game has kind of intrigued me since it's release, because, well, it apparently isn't terrible. which is shocking.

after a hilarious Giantbomb seal of... sort of approval? i became increasingly curious, and decided what better way to celebrate a large commission i recently recieved, than a possibly fun, if not shamelessly ironic-for-the-sake-of-irony impulse purchase?!

that was two days ago, and having dropped a good five hours into this game, i can tell you... it's kind of rad.

the game play is far from original (it's essentially Army of Two: Fix'd.) but there are elements that are totally functional and well done. it doesn't do anything new, but ti takes it's influences from all the right places. it's like they took a bunch of bad games with good ideas (The Club, Army of Two, Stranglehold) and picked away the bad parts.

you go through various combat theatres collecting money and ammunition. the game is point-based as opposed to the standard kill base. you can rack up points by chaining together kills, completing challenges in limited time, collecting posters strewn throughout levels, preforming elaborate melee kills and taunting enemies before and after you kill them. you can use your money and points to unlock new weapons, new melee kills, and newer, crasser taunts. there's also perfectly compitent jump-in co-op, and weapons, money and points all carry over into levels you go back too or if you restart the game after completion, which is useful for completionists who want to get every weapon, counterkill, poster, taunt and challenge available. there is also the obligatory slow motion trigger available, and it is called Gangster Mode, and that is awesome.

think of how much better Bioshock, Shadow of the Colossus and Okami would be, if they had Gangster Mode.

Think About it.

i dont know how much of an influence Mr. Cent himself had on the title's developement, but i imagine developers Swordfish Studios (who apparently made some sort of Cricket game before this) saw this as an opportunity to make fun of 50 Cent without him realizing it. the game is far too ludicrous to be unintentionally funny, and borders on the self-refferencial. the game's story plays out like a lost sequel to Tango and Cash, with brash american ass-holes (G-Unit) blowing up an entire country populated by vaguely foreign people (who are also vaguely arabic, making it totally okay) in order to obtain a the bejewelled skull of a sultan's favorite concubine that they really have no claim too in the first place. this is either social commentary at it's best... or oblivious american pandemoneum at it's worst... it could really go either way.

so has anyone else played this game? can anyone say they truly hated it? i need to know if i'm insane for kind of liking this game.