50 Cent: Blood on the Sand (PS3)

[aruljothi]

Release Date: 02/24/2009
ESRB Rating: Rating Pending
Genre: Shooter
Publisher: THQ
Developer: Swordfish Studios

References to "totin' gats" or "bustin' caps" come from just about anyone these days (whether or not they have a clue what the hell they're saying). That makes it tough for a game with rap ties (even one starring 50 Cent, who legendarily survived being shot nine times) to come off as anything other than a parody. Simply by taking the action halfway around the world to the Middle East, 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand breaks some of that numbness. But this unlikely move does far more for the game than just taking the action out of a familiar urban environment. The war torn setting provides the backdrop for a larger-than-life story that becomes the videogame equivalent of a comic book starring 50 Cent and the G Unit crew as the heroes.

Despite the association that comes almost reflexively now after seeing so many similar looking settings on news reports, Blood on the Sand neatly sidesteps almost any reference to terrorism. 50 and company just want to get paid after a concert promoter stiffs them. Well, not just paid. When the money from the ticket sales turns up missing the promoter offers a jewel encrusted skull as payment, but it too then gets stolen. To get it back they wind up taking on the warlord who runs the city. It plays out like a gang war, but one where everyone is armed with military-grade weapons.

It never gets close to any serious issues, and developer Swordfish Studios pushed the action all the way to the arcade end of the spectrum to match that. Enemies come in waves to be cleared in order to move on. And anytime you're about to be hit by more than a couple of them an alarm siren sounds and danger icons appear over the area the next attack will come from. Mowing them down on normal difficulty isn't quite automatic point-and-shoot, but it's easy enough that the pace stays fast. Get caught up in it, and you might expect to have to put a quarter in a slot somewhere to continue.

Like many a good arcade game, Blood in the Sand plays best with a friend. One of the three G Unit members -- Tony Yayo, Lloyd Banks, or DJ Whoo Kid -- fights alongside 50 throughout the game. In single-player the AI does a reasonable job keeping them out of the way and occasionally contributing a kill or two. But get someone to join you and not only do they play better than a computer controlled character could, you easily fall into talking smack together right along with the characters. And, clearly, that was the intent because online co-op is so built into the foundation of the game that, before you start, you can select how open to make your game to others who might want to join.

Some stumbles along the way interrupt the silly fun of pounding through the levels with a buddy. One of the most annoying comes from the completely unsatisfying melee attacks, which fail to provide any counter-punch to the gun play. 50 is a bad dude, and, as expected, he can beat down any enemy, but there's absolutely nothing to it. Hand-to-hand combat takes you into a simplistic minigame of tapping the same button three times in a timing window that's so open you'd have to try to mess it up. It quickly gets monotonous, and, other than the occasional instance when someone is right in your face, you won't go out of your way to use it.