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25 to Life Multiplayer Hands-On

We finally get a hands-on look at the online portion of this cops-versus-gangstas shooter.

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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.
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.
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.
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.

Gang Warfare

The first mode is war, which is a simple team deathmatch in which law enforcement and the criminals go head-to-head in a race to either hit the kill limit first or simply get the most kills in a certain amount of time. The next game types, raid and robbery, will be well familiar to anyone who's played Counter-Strike or a game of one-flag capture the flag. The cops (in raid) or the criminals (in robbery) will start on one end of a map, and they'll be tasked with forcing their ways past the opposing force, grabbing a stash of cash, and returning it to their starting point to win the round. The usual caveats apply here, though, as the defending team will be able to concentrate its forces around a single point, while the offensive team will be able to choose from multiple points of entry to attempt to bypass some of the defenders. If the raiders manage to grab the stash, but get killed on the way out of the mansion, the stash will sit in the location where it was dropped for a short period of time, letting the offensive team attempt to pick it up where it dropped rather than having to infiltrate all the way to the rear of the map again. If the offensive team manages to retrieve the stash, then it automatically wins the round.

Watch your back! Better yet, have a teammate do it.
Watch your back! Better yet, have a teammate do it.

The fourth game type is tag, a variation on things like Battlefield 2's conquest mode or Halo 2's territories game type. Tag is exclusively criminal-versus-criminal, so there aren't any cops running around trying to ruin the fun. In it, you and your team will be tasked with running around the map while attempting to put your graffiti tag on as many of the five tagging spots on the map as possible. Of course, the other team will be trying to do the same thing, which means you'll both have to shoot while tagging, as well as defend the spots you've already tagged. Tagging takes seven or eight seconds to complete from start to finish, so there's plenty of time for an enemy to come up behind you and pop you in the back while you're spreading the love. The game takes both successful tags and kills into account when scoring, so you'll need to be good at both aspects of the game if you want to win. Or, if you're really dominating a match, you can automatically win a round by taking all five tag spots under your control simultaneously.

Of course, all this is just pure information. What you're really curious about is how the game plays. We're pleased to say that, even a few months from the game's release date, the multiplayer portion of 25 to Life feels like a pretty solid entry into the online action sweepstakes. Although the relatively sparse number of game types may disappoint console gamers that are used to having eight or a dozen game types to choose from, the core action is well-implemented by the large variety of weapons that offer up many different styles of play. If you plan on sniping out enemies from a distance, then you can go with a sniper rifle and a Desert Eagle, with flashbang grenades to stun anyone that closes in on you. If you prefer to get up close and personal, then you can wield a shotgun and a MAC-10, or you can just switch over to Molotovs and pipe bombs to attempt to get multiple kills at once.

The map design also does a good job at making for tight, up-close-and-personal combat, as few of the maps have many wide-open spaces. Instead, they're divided into numerous smaller rooms, leading to more than a few occasions where you'll turn a corner and suddenly come face-to-face with an enemy, resulting in some frenzied panic-firing. There are no auto-aiming or lock-on features implemented into the game, so you'll have to be accurate with your shots if you want to take a foe down, which can be quite difficult when you're attempting to avoid fire at the same time. There are numerous obstacles in the world that can be used as cover, however. We had good results with sniping while crouched behind a trash can in an alleyway, and defending a bank vault by standing upright behind the teller's counter, which we previously jumped over.

You can expect a lot of close-quarters encounters in 25 to Life's multiplayer modes.
You can expect a lot of close-quarters encounters in 25 to Life's multiplayer modes.

There are also some nice touches to the gameworld that help make it feel a bit more interactive than it really is, such as the destructible glass and objects that are scattered around the levels. It's often easier to just shoot through a glass door than it is to pause to open it up. One of our favorite features, however, is the inclusion of boom boxes throughout each level. If you don't like the current song that's being played, you can simply use a boom box to switch to the next one before getting right back to the killing.

Although we haven't had a chance to sit down with the single-player portion of the game--which is already proving to be quite controversial to people who, likewise, have never played it--it seems as though the multiplayer portion will be well worth the price of admission alone...if you happen to be a fan of up-tempo online action games. We'll have more on 25 to Life as it approaches its October release date.

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