50 Cent: Blood on the Sand (PS3)

50 Cent: rapper, actor, businessman and television producer. However nowhere in his Wikipedia bio does it say that he is the eponymous hero of two games. Now I had seen both of these games on shelves for years as a kid but never gave them a second glance. Gangsta rap was never really my thing in my youth and I’d much rather have played the Mass Effect trilogy again for the thousandth time. But whilst scanning over YouTube I noticed a number of videos claiming the second game Blood on the Sand (which will be referred to at points in this review as BotS for my own sanity) was a cult classic. Now as an adult I’m probably more into rap now than I have ever been before so after looking up the game on Ebay and finding a copy at a good price (some copies sell for upwards of £40), I decided to play the game in one night and I’m very glad that I did.

50 Cent: BotS is primarily a Third-Person Cover Shooter that plays similarly to the Gears of War games. You duck in and out of cover using a variety of weapons whilst enemies do the same. The shooting in BotS though feels much better than most shooters at the time and even some today in my opinion. Guns have noticeable feedback and recoil which makes the shots you land feel weighty. Enemies also react to bullets rather than just being stationary and although the enemy AI is fairly bad, watching them ragdoll as they get hit by a shotgun shell or grenade is very satisfying. 50 can also engage in melee combat which is referred to as a counter kill. In these you have to press the circle button at the correct time in order to pull off a slick looking instakill. There are a number of these in the game and they work as a nice way to take out any enemies who charge your position with ease even if mistiming the button press can leave you to take some unavoidable damage due to the game's jank. There is no animation that blends you out of a counter kill so if you fail one 50 ends up standing still like a sack of potatoes for a second. On the other hand, 50 is accompanied by one of three members of his G Unit and this AI teammate sometimes managed to take out as many enemies as I did, saving me in some scenarios.

The game also has a score system which helps keep enemy encounters interesting. To earn more points you must string kills together, get headshots, environmental kills or taunt your adversaries before you kill them. The taunt button is one of my favourite parts of the game. It never gets old hearing 50 throw profanity and abuse at those he is going to kill and it made the experience so much more fun to play. You can also earn money throughout the levels to buy more weapons, taunts and counterkills from any of the game’s payphones and I really liked trying all of the various weapons out because they all felt very different. To earn money you can smash crates hidden in the levels, find posters scattered around the level or just engage in the games core gameplay loop. This resulted in added incentive to search the levels and this will add a bit more length to the runtime.

The worst part of the game is when it takes you away from its central loop and tries to add some variety. The two car missions slow the game’s pace to a halt because they involve you strictly driving from point A to B and while they are pretty cool to look at, they involve very little input from the player. Because the game boasts online co-op it is the AI controlled member of G Unit that mans the turret in these sections which annoyed me even more given there is no split screen mode. On the other hand, my favourite quote of the whole game came in the first of these driving missions and those who have played BotS before probably know what it is.

The other mission which offers gameplay variety entails manning a chopper gun and holy lord it’s bad. Enemies are too far away making me miss many of them and the minigun you fire, tanks the framerate down to single digits. The noise the gun makes is also awful, capping off what is easily the worst section of the game. The last piece of variety comes in the form of boss battles. These all task 50 with taking down a helicopter and these are lame too.

The story in 50 Cent: BotS is serviceable at best but fits the bombastic tone of the gameplay. 50 is on a quest to retrieve a diamond encrusted skull in the Middle East and has to take down a gang lord and his cronies. Characters are introduced like Anwar, Carter, Kamal and Leila and their loyalties flip flop when the story needs them to. It’s basic but funny to experience with 50 Cent himself being the main attraction. His voice acting is surprisingly good given his limited experience and most of the game's cutscenes had me laughing at either something 50 had said or how absurd the situation had become. The game is shorter than most and clocks in between 3-4 hours, and this is actually for the better as the shtick would have probably gotten old if it were much longer.

50 Cent: Blood on the Sand is actually quite the looker even though it came out 15 years ago. I think the characters' models are fairly nice and the action can look extraordinary at times. The frame rate can drop in normal combat situations but never enough to dampen the experience. The sound design is the true standout in the presentation. There is the previously mentioned voice acting which is good across the board but the soundtrack is where the game truly shines. As you venture through the story you will be listening to some of 50’s classic tracks and even some made specifically created for this game. These tracks have an excellent beat and fit the action better than I could have Imagined. I now have the playlist for the game saved on my Spotify account and have listened to it throughout the day as I’ve been writing this review. My personal favourite tracks are Back Down and Blood Hound which I made sure to add to my custom playlist during my playthrough. Some sound effects though such as the guns do let down the audio presentation as they feel very weak.

Conclusion

I love 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand! It may not seem this way given how critical I was about several aspects of the game but when the music and gameplay come together it creates a very unique experience that I’d encourage others to try. The gunplay is punchy, the game is visual and sonically pleasing and the story rarely intrudes on the fun. It’s sad that the game sold so poorly worldwide (only selling around 56,000 copies in the US) because I’d play the hell out of a sequel. This game is awesome for most of its runtime. Shortcomings aside, I urge anyone who likes 50 Cent, or Gangsta rap or even Third Person shooters to give this game a chance if you find it at the right price.

Rating: Definitely worth more than 50 Cents

7/10