How the hell did this managed to be a good game?
bad : Extremely annoying G-unit members, especially Dj Whoo Kid, plus they are extremely ugly, and very unfit for the given situation, due to their odd clothing choices ( bright colored shirts, no body armor, unlike fifty ). They almost looks like papa 50's groupies, begging for his golden and so mighty attention. Some animations quirks.
50 cent's very first attempt at video gaming wasnt very well recieved. It wasn't a terribly bad game, but it was far from being a good one too. While it had some nice touches, like tons of weapon scabbards and cool finishers, the game should have been a straight-to-bargain bin one.
Mister cent returns to us three years later with his new title, blood on the sand. At first, when I saw the screenshots of this game, I thought it was going to be pathetic. Well, thats because most of the early screens were pathetic. Oddly enough, the game itself turned out to be good.
Blood on the sand embraces what is is; an arcade shooter. There is no realism, 50 can soak up hundreds of bullets before dying and enemies keeps swarming from all sides. If you can managed to see that this is a game that doesnt try to be a gears of war and that there is no tactic involved whatsoever, you'll enjoy yourself.
See, this game throws you against waves and waves of enemies coming from all sides. You rack combos, points for taunting a fallen enemy or popping a guy in the head or with less traditonal methods. The point of the missions is simple : get to the end and rack as much points as you can, and to get the golden badges, it can be quite tricky.
The game's graphics, while very solid, uses the same ( and lame ) unreal engine 3. Wich means loads of texture popping, blurry distant environements and such. I've encounted some odd bugs, like pinkish and green squares on some surfaces instead of the actual texture ( wich occured in L4D too ) that may need you to install the game. Most of the time, after the reload of the level, the bugs would disapear.
The animations are a mixed bag. Some of them are quite great, like fifty's way of vaulting himself over obstacles ( unlike AAA games like Gears of War 2 where the vaulting animation is quite jerky ) while some of them are just passable ( when fifty lifts up a buddy to higher ground for instance, and puts his hand on an invisible ledge ). When fifty throws a grenade its downright laughable, and will make you not want to use that fonction again, out of shame. See, you can even throw a grenade while zooming and shooting with a gun. How many arms do you have, mister cent?
The cover system works fine when you understand how it works. See, you can't flatten your back against any wall and walk. You'll only be able to take cover on corners, so you can pop out and shoot. Oddly enough, you cannot blindfire a grenade, forcing you to aim and then throw it, wich is not very logic in any given situations.
The music is a hit or miss. You don't like rap? Turn it off. The guns have a good ammount of oomph to them and the explosions sounds convincing, even if they look weak.
The game isnt very long, but its highly replayable due to its arcade nature. You'll do the same thing from point A to Z, and if its your cup of tea, you'll find this game to be surprisingly good. If you can get over that its a 50 cent game, you'll be quite amused by it. Buy or rent? Definitly a rent, and definitly a buy at 29.99, but its not worth the actual 59.99 price tag. Wait for a price drop.