50 Cent: Blood On The Sand
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50 Cent: Blood On The Sand
Go shawty, its your birthday!
After a forgettable and abysmal first try with Bulletproof, the hoodlum turned rapper-actor-businessman and his G-Unit crew return with 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand, a game that shows that it’s not because you got shot nine times and survived but rather that you can learn from the mistake of the first game and deliver something cool and fun for the second. Haters beware; the Candy Shop has been temporarily closed as Fiddy sets the table for some gun blazing and Middle-Eastern bitch-slappin’, yo!
Gameplay
The story starts when the G-Unit crew gives a concert somewhere in the Middle-East. Expecting a cash payment, the promoter instead offers the crew an encrusted-diamond skull head, worth way more than the $10 million promised. However on their way back to the airport, they are attacked by a group of mercenaries, stealing the precious diamond skull head in the process. What a great way to piss off 50 even more. From there, you will be going through levels, shooting and killing enemies or use hand to hand combat while collecting money and unlocking goodies that will help you during your quest.
The game advancement system is based on a scoring combo system similar to what we’ve seen in Bizarre’s third person shooter The Club. The more destruction you do and killing sprees you accumulate, the more points you earn towards your level score. For example, shoot an exploding barrel to kill enemies, perform a headshot on another and taunt them right after can earn you a significant amount of points. The faster you chain these events, the more multipliers you will earn. You will also have the opportunity to earn bonus points if you complete a specific timed limited scenario that will occur during a mission like killing a certain number of enemies in less than 30 seconds. There is a “Gangsta Fire Bar” that builds as you continue to chain shots and eventually allow you to enter a bullet time stance that will help you pile up more points and increase your multiplier. As you defeat enemies and break the crates scattered around the levels, you will find gold and jewels that will convert to cash. This cash can be used to increase your weaponry, upgrade your taunts and unlock new counter kills. Counter kills are melee attacks that require the player to perform a series of button presses using quick time events, similar to those found in The Bourne Conspiracy.
The gameplay mechanics are very responsive, the control scheme is simple and solid throughout the whole game but there are two things that messes the experience up. The first would be the unpredictable AI from your virtual partner. Very often you will find yourself running and gunning all by yourself while your AI partner will either stay back or go forward and shoot very randomly, messing up everything rather than helping you. Other times, he becomes very useful when the time comes for climbing walls and even chaining huge combos. Sadly, your virtual partner will feel more expendable and you will find yourself often forgetting his existence. The second thing is the game’s useless cover system, which you end up only using at higher difficulty levels. Since the game turns around chaining combos and creating chaos, the usage of a cover system already seems like a crazy idea and becomes laughable. Add the fact that the enemy AI uses the cover system in such a poor way that you can easily and quickly eliminate them while they’re clearly exposed…maybe it has been done on purpose because Fiddy is such a gangsta? Who knows?
With that being said, the game remains extremely fun to play. If you focus on shooting, blowing stuff up and chain together some bad-ass combos while listening to rap music (the game of course offers a massive 50 Cent song selection) mixed with some cheesy but hilarious taunts from Fiddy, Blood on the Sand can be really fun to play making you quickly forget its flaws.
Graphics and Sounds
Without being the greatest looking game ever, Blood on the Sand’s graphic and visual presentation is great. The character renderings and animations are well-orchestrated. No texture pop-ins, no framerate drops, no collision bugs…the graphic engine holds its ground even during the multiplayer side of the game. The color palette also adds something special to the game’s Middle-East set-up. Nothing will wow you nor make you gasp; everything is kept simple and it works.
Sound wise, Blood on the Sand delivers without bringing a sense of grandiose. The voice-overs are okay, the environmental sounds are good but what stands out the most is the game’s soundtrack. With the help of a virtual jukebox, you can set-up which songs will play during your game and you will unlock more by achieving certain scores in-game. Of course, being a self titled game, there’s a good variety of songs from Fiddy’s latest and previous albums in the game. While many would say that it’s a total rip-off and self-publicity for 50 cent, I actually found it interesting to mix a shoot’em up game with some hip hop. One thing that I would have loved is the possibility to skip songs with the directional pad so you can listen to different tracks instead of just listening to one or two songs during a level (the number of songs will vary on how fast you complete each level). For the most part, the game’s sound build is probably where the game it shines the most.
Value
Although the game’s experience is satisfying and amusing, 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand is short. You will submerge yourself into the game rather quickly but after 4-5 hours, Blood on the Sand will leave you hungered. The game does offer a very solid drop in/drop out online co-op mode but only extends the game’s replay ability by offering players the chance to replay through past levels again. Fans of 50 cents music however, will definitely want to be sure to unlock all of the in-game music and may not mind replaying levels for the chance to listen to the artist’s hip-hop style. The game does not have any true multiplayer integrated into the online modes just to say “look we added multiplayer”. The game doesn’t need it and thankfully the developers didn’t make the mistake some others did (hum…Condemned 2?).
Only 50 Cent fans will find a true value to the game and add the game to their game collection while others will pass on it. Truth is if you like playing action games: you can’t go without giving this one a good look and if you played the horrendous 50 Cent: Bulletproof game a few years back, you will quickly find out that Blood on the Sand is actually a huge improvement. Paying the full price for an action game based on a hip-hop star might not be appealing to you but at 60 dollars, I’m sure you bought worst games than this. It may not be the greatest game ever but the full-blown action and the hilarious and yet solid performance of 50 Cent is worth every cent.
Conclusion
Despite the few flaws we found, 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand is extremely fun to play, especially to those who were looking for a bad-ass co-op game to play with their buddy. Just remember that the game doesn’t try to take itself seriously…and neither do you. Turn off your brain, grab your bullet-proof vest and give 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand some love, ‘shawty’.
Pros
+ Music soundtrack
+ Online co-op mode
+ Scoring system based on combos is fun
+ Really easy to pick-up
+ Impressive visuals and animations
+ Original and clever storyline
Cons
- Unpredictable and inconsistent A.I
- Forgettable and almost useless cover system
- Short experience
Final Verdict
Here's a small guide to help you understand our evaluation of games.
PRESENTATION GRADE
Can be from the game's box to the contents of the booklet, and even the game introduction. (Intro, menus, options, etc)
GRAPHIC GRADE
Up to what point the graphics have been worked on my the developper. The design type, the effort used for textures and environments, as well as animations and framerate.
AUDIO GRADE
Is the soundtrack a good match to the game's style, he ambient sounds keeping with the gameplay and the sound effects clear and convincing?
GAMEPLAY GRADE
Placement of the controls and the inferface that the player with be using during the game.
REPLAY VALUE GRADE
The most important factor in the evaluation of a game. It identifies the lifespan of the game and the fun of coming back again and again.
I can remember many Christmas mornings from my childhood spent excitedly flipping through the pages of a new book. This was unusual because as a young child, books and clothes were the only gifts I would dread receiving. However, the Christmas morning books that excited me so much were something special. Granted, they weren’t literary classics, but back then,... 
Shane
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