50 Cent: Blood on the Sand

It took me about 13 hours to get through the single player campaign (Hard difficulty)

A week after buying my Xbox 360 Arcade, my friend brought Gears of War over and we spent the whole weekend perfecting our “cover than fire” strategy. Upon completing every little detail in the game, we both wanted more. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find a game as good and had to put off our efforts at saving the world…that is, until now.

50 Cent: Blood on the Sand is a great cover/fire 3^rd person shooter. The story begins with 50 and G-Unit performing in the Middle East. When 50 doesn’t get his promised payment –a crystal skull—he takes matters into his own hands to recover it. It’s not long, though, until 50 and the gang realize they’re in over their heads.

From here, the story becomes really confusing and just becomes a jumble of action-packed, over-the-top sequences; 50 meets terrorists, 50 fights terrorists, 50 blows stuff up, terrorists become unhappy, terrorists chase 50, etc. Eventually the whole thing comes together somehow in the end during the final fight against a…man from Texas? What? I thought this game took place in the Middle East.

Right, anyway it obviously wasn’t the story that kept my interest in the game. The gameplay in Blood on the Sand emulates Gears of War’s in many ways. Up against a bunch of enemies and clearly outnumbered? No worries…just hide behind this big ol’ pillar and wait for your chance to return fire and lay waste to your enemies. Choose from a plethora of weapons like the Uzi or the automatic shotgun. The mechanics are simple and the controls responsive for the most part. On a rare occasion, 50 would confuse my “go for cover” for a “let’s roll head-on into enemy fire” causing him an unwanted death. Luckily, checkpoints are plentiful and you’ll never lose too much progress after a failed attempt.

The AI can be a bit off at times. I often found enemies running to the same areas for cover, making killing streaks with a well placed grenade or RPG blast all too easy. My partner’s AI would sometimes do his own thing too. You get to choose between 3 different G-Unit members as a partner(Tony Yayo, Lloyd Banks, DJ Whoo kid), each having their own fighting styles and quirky one-liners. Each of these partners are fun to play within the single player story, but I found myself in dire need of help while under heavy fire, and more times than others, my partner was nowhere to be found.

While this can be frustrating at times, it’s easy to forgive the game’s minor flaw when there are so many visually-stimulating explosions and smoke effects to enjoy. One of my favorite levels involved 50 shooting missiles out of an attack helicopter, laying every building, vehicle and bridge to waste. The visual effects in this level alone are enough to mesmerize any veteran gamer.

The soundtrack is also pretty cool and features a number of 50’s and G-Unit’s songs from their entire discography. While I’m not a huge rap fan, I felt a surge of energy every time I killed an enemy to “Back Down.” The music feels very appropriate for the games content.

Overall, my time spent with this game was an enjoyable, yet forgettable, experience. It did a great job of satisfying my craving for a Gears-like game without me wanting more. I still find myself confused with the story-line, but who cares? With action this tight, silly plot development doesn’t seem all that bad. Give it a go if you want to see one of NY’s best rappers fight and take down the Middle East single-handedly.