50 Cent: Blood on the Sand

Review - Fiddy gets out of da club

After the distinctly lukewarm reception 50 Cent: Bulletproof received back in 2005 it is a little surprising to find the ever confidant hip hop star having a second bash at the gaming charts. However, with development duties now in the hands of Swordfish Studios and a new generation of hardware to play with the slate has been wiped clean and, although there's not a lot new here, happily 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand is really rather good.

Obviously trying to shoehorn a hip hop star into a scenario involving a load of gun battles is going to take some doing but Blood on the Sands has a fair go all the same. The game starts off with 50 and G-Unit being messed around by a gig promoter in the Middle East. Having had the error of his ways pointed out to him he offers them a BeDazzled skull (like a regular skull but encrusted with diamonds) as compensation and everyone's happy. However, it's not long before 50 and the gang are attacked and the skull stolen.

What follows is a fast paced third-person shooter that borrows heavily from the likes of Gears of War (so yes, there's cover a-plenty) and The Club (score multipliers a-go-go) as it winds its linear way across roughly ten to twelve hours of gameplay.

With the camera fixed tight over Fiddy's shoulder, in the one touch cover system, the left trigger zoomed-in shooting view and the gritty urban environment the Gears influences are obvious at first glance. Soon enough though things take a far less serious turn with score multipliers for successive kills encouraging you to try and rack up huge scores while bonuses littered around the levels allowing you to earn money. Points earned can be exchanged for unlocking new songs in the suitably well stocked soundtrack while any cash you find can be spent on weapons and ammo at any of the phone booths found on your travels (yes, I know, quite how you'd buy weapons in a phone booth without having to at least wait for next day delivery is beyond me too).

While it's true that there is a very obvious lack of originality to be found in BotS, that isn't by definition a bad thing. Assuming you get it right there's a lot to be said for taking the best elements from a variety of sources. Thankfully for the most part Swordfish have done just that, combat that was dull and uninspiring in Bulletproof is now a million times slicker while the wise choice to not take itself seriously has enabled elements like the absurd story, cannon fodder enemies and expletive ridden one liners to all come together and add to the fun without seeming out of place or annoying.

Levels are pretty much linear, on foot affairs, although there are a couple of vehicle sections thrown in to break things up a bit, and there's very little in terms of puzzles or even basic path selection to worry about. Instead its simply a case of getting from A to B killing everything that moves in-between with the help of a hand picked member of your G-unit team. Enemies aren't too clever and 50 seems at times to be wearing some kind of invisible body armour, he manages to absorb so much damage; but it's all good fun and BotS is one of those games that understands we sometimes just want to kick back, disengage our brains and shoot things.

It isn't by any means perfect, though. For example you'll probably get annoyed in the long run by things like the slightly quirky camera, the fact that your AI buddy often hogs the best cover spots and the realisation that what few puzzles are to be found are almost all of the old find a key or flick a switch variety. It is also all a bit one-paced, very much all guns blazing all the time, never pausing to allow any of those lulls before the next storm moments that help create tension or simply give time for a breather. These few shortcomings however should be viewed as minor irritants in a game that gets far more right than it does wrong.

The game supports drop-in two player co-op via Xbox Live which works well enough although it would have been nice to see a split-screen option too. It's not the longest game in the world either and the lack of competitive multiplayer means there's not much here to keep you coming back once you've had enough of the main campaign. There's always the unlockables to max out and huge scores to try and rack up if you feel the urge but in reality only the serious 50 Cent fans will bother. When it comes to how the game looks on screen there's very little to moan about. The Unreal engine 3 is used to good effect to create a decaying Middle Eastern war zone even if it does look suspiciously similar to GoW; even down to the ultra chunky character models.

One slightly unfortunate hurdle in the way of the game's success is the Marmite nature of the licence that spawns it. 50 Cent may well be the self proclaimed world's biggest hip hop star (so says the on-box blurb) but that doesn't make him, or his music, everyone's cup of tea. While most gamers are happy to 'be' a grizzled space marine or mysterious Elf, it is quite possible the very idea of a game so infused with all things 50 Cent will actually put off more people than it attracts. With a whole catalogue of music videos and audio tracks to unlock and enjoy there's no doubt the 50 Cent and G-Unit fans amongst you will be in raptures. The rest of the world however will barely notice this additional content and may soon find the ever present star man slightly irritating after a while.

It comes as something of a surprise, but there's simply no denying that 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand is surprisingly good. It may lack some of the fine polish and epic sense of scale found in the triple-A titles it so obviously borrows from, but that's no reason to ignore it completely. It is a game that revels in its absurdity never taking itself seriously, an attitude that breeds a certain amount of forgiveness for its shortcomings. If you're not put off by the obvious 50 Cent saturation then this is well worth a look for anyone wanting a new third-person shooter that'll tax their trigger finger more than their brain.

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