Close Combat

In first-person, you can get even closer to the punks you're killing.

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We recently had the chance to sit down to give the multiplayer portion of Eidos' 25 to Life a whirl. The game's multiplayer, a gritty affair that pits thugs and gangstas against law enforcement officials for primacy over the mean streets of New York, isn't going to blow anyone away with originality or innovation. But it does offer a solid implementation, with subject matter that's rarely seen in multiplayer console games.

Be prepared to get up close and personal with the criminal element, if you're playing as a cop.

One of the strongest aspects of the multiplayer is the ability to thoroughly customize your character. While not all the customization features are implemented yet, the beta version we played already has a number of character models and skins available for choosing. The cops, for instance, can play as two different SWAT members, a Federale Lieutenant, a police officer, or the eloquently named "ATF Badass." Meanwhile, would-be thugs can select from urban blingsters, shirtless tattoo enthusiasts, escaped prisoners, and a couple of character models apparently taken from the single-player portion of the game. The full version of the game may also let players shift around individual body parts, as well as let them select new tattoos and gear for their avatars.

What's more important, though, is that the game lets you completely modify your weapons loadout as you see fit. In multiplayer, you're able to select four different weapons to carry, including a primary weapon, a secondary weapon, a melee weapon, and grenades. There's already a wide array of munitions available for selection, and each side will, of course, get its own unique weapons to bring to the fight.

Even top-of-the-line equipment won't save you when you're outnumbered.

The law enforcement side, for instance, can opt to go the nonlethal route, if it wishes, by bringing in stun guns and Tasers in its melee slot. And you can also make it easier for yourself to land shots with these weapons by first chucking a concussion grenade, flashbang, or tear gas grenade at your foe. Of course, the cops don't have to stick to nonlethals if they don't wish to, and indeed they have a good selection of perfectly "killtastic" weapons on hand for headshotting unsuspecting street thugs. For secondary weapons, you can select between an array of pistols, including Glocks, 9mm automatics, .357- and .44-caliber revolvers, and even the redoubtable (but slow-firing) Desert Eagle. Primary weapons are even more diverse, and they include a pair of shotguns, a SWAT sniper rifle, M4s, and a half-dozen variations of the MP40 (although they're referred to as simply machine pistols here, of course).

The criminal element is going to have to deal with equipment that, while a bit more rudimentary, is no-less-deadly. For melee selections, it has such classics as a hammer, a tire iron, a bat, and the "Big Knife," while its grenades are distinguished by homegrown improvisations, like the Molotov cocktail (which is awfully easy to set yourself alight with, we found) and the pipe bomb. Its pistols are a bit more streetwise than those of the law enforcement players (although many of them overlap between the two classes), with such held-sideways luminaries as the TEC-9 and numerous 9mm handguns. The primary weapons are probably where the two sides are most similar, although gangstas do have the option to go for sawed-off shotguns and the ever-popular AK-47.

You'll have the option to swap out your kit between games.

Luckily, if you dislike your weapon selections, then you're always able to go back and pick a new kit before you join the next game. You can also pick up the kits of fallen players in the game itself, be they friend or foe, and trade all your weapons for the guns the dead player was carrying when he or she got capped.

Speaking of gameplay, there isn't much of a learning curve required in 25 to Life, because most of the gameplay modes should be familiar to anyone who's played an online shooter before. There isn't a straight-up deathmatch implementation to rely on, so if you're looking for free-for-all game types, you won't find them here, because all the four multiplayer modes are team-based. This isn't really a drawback, however, as it reinforces the law enforcement-versus-criminal theme.