What are people on?
I have been reading what a lot of people had to say about this game. Not many good things. IGN gave it a 3.1 out of 10. I thought that was a premature grade because they had not played the multiplayer yet. Now I know to never trust an IGN review.
First of all, let me state that I am not a wanna be gangster, a real gangsta, or a brother. I am a white boi, who likes listening to white teenage punk rock, not rap. I am not a fan of rap at all. So I did not buy the game because it is ghetto or becausde of the rap. I like the game because of the fact that it is a cops vs robbers themed game. The cops and robbers theme should more be thought of as a disguise for what it really is SOCOM. SOmething the Xbox does not have yet. So this is a must buy for xbox owners. That is one thing that I missed when I sold my PS2 for an xbox, SOCOM. Now, I dont need it anymore.
Graphics:Graphics are good in this game. They fit into the environment well. This game does not loom bad. It looks better then Halo 2, and everybody worships how that game looks. Halo 2 looks like crap. If you can look at Halo and go WOW, you can look at this game a piss your shorts.
Controls:Controls are not bad like everyone says. Aiming is VERY EZ. Nothing hard about it at all. The controls are just perfect. Before anybody whines about not having a roll button, I dont hink you should. Remeber the rolls in Battlefront, I thought that was a lame button in that game. Made firefights last forever and made them look so goofy. Glad they did not have a roll button. This is SOCOM in the hood after all, why would they have a roll button? Before anybody whines about the lack of a sprint button, dont because thre game tears a page out of Counter-strikes book by lketting you pull out a melee weapon to run faster.
Bad Singleplayer:I dont know, never played it. Probably is if the AI is as bad as IGN says it is. But, I dont know who would buy this game for the singleplayer. This is a reason I will never trust IGN again. This game is a multiplayer game and they go off and rate the game based on the solely singleplayer mode. If you did that with the first SOCOM, then SOCOM would have got around the same score. It seems that whenever you are playing real people, you start using a lot of tactics, just like SOCOM. However, it looks like the Xbox community has not expericed a game like this before, so it could be a little while for the community to get good. I pretty much ran over everybody else. So, I think people are going to get better as they keep playing.
Unorginality:People have complained about this game being unoriginal. I dont agree. This is somethiung the Xbox has not experienced yet. A SOCOM like game. For that matter nobody has expericed a Cops and Robbers shooter. So that premise, in and of itself is very unique. Yea the thought of the game is pretty simple, but still pretty innovative since nobody has dont it before. They kept it simple, but in my opinion ended up looking good in the end because it has not been done before. It does not feel like just another urban themed game like Bullet Proof or 187 Ride or die. Dont be scared to give this game a try. They have some pretty unique feature's in here such as being able to take hostages and arreting playerss. The game modes are pretty fun as well. Customizing your character is also a lot of fun.
In the end, the game fills its promise as SOCOM in the hood. The sound of the game is just excellent. All gun shots sound great. Very satisfying. Many different types of gu8ns as well. You will be playing with all koinds of weapons sets beforer you ssettle on 1. You may neveer settle on one, as all the guns are really fun. The grenade explosions really rock your sopcks. Make the game feel eve more gritty. When you are running around and you see your partner fly by you, you really get immersed into the gritty shootouts in 25 to life. In the end blood will be left everyhwere. Explosions can go on contantly inb a firefight because of explosive objects and grenades. It makes it feel very hectic. People running areound on fire, explosions, tear gas, gun shots, a lot of things to look at. Very frantic. Very cool to look at. They did a good job with explosions in this game.
Another thing worth commenting on is the fact that you can play with 16 players with little to no lag. Thius is a rarity because Halo 2, Far Cry, Battlefront, or any other big game that has come out in the past has not shown that it can play the as advertised 16 players with no lag. 25 to life is a game that does. This is another very good thing in 25 to life that shows you most of the the money put into the game was the online mode, not offline story mode and AI. The only other game that I played with no lag and a lot of people was Delta Force: Black Hawk down. You could play 50 people with no lag in that game. That is one thing I found rerally amazing. No other game could make lag free games but Black Hawk down. Granted, Black Hawk down was a low quality game, but atleast it got that right. 25 tyo life is a quality game, and is not hampered by the effects of lag, even with 16 people. This is a big accomplishment.
Doint listen to IGN or anyone else who dissed thi sgame. It is solid. Go ahead and give it a shot.