Tuesday March 31, 2009
Over-the-top action
By CHONG JINN XIUNG
Fans of rapper 50 Cent won't want to miss his latest videogame, 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand as it promises to be a wild ride.
ALL BUSINESS: As 50 Cent you have to fight through a war ravaged country to retrieve the crystal skull. IF YOU are a big 50 Cent fan and you listen to his music, then nothing is going to stop you from getting the rap superstar’s latest game, 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand (Bots).
Bots is a licensed game that focuses entirely on the exploits of rapper 50 Cent (otherwise known as Fiddy) and his crew, the G-Unit.
The game’s violent over-the-top story and action is definitely not meant to be taken seriously.
As unlikely as it sounds, the game starts with Fiddy performing in the Middle East. He soon finds out that the concert organiser doesn’t have the money to pay for his concert.
In true gangster fashion, Fiddy “negotiates” with the organiser to give up a valuable crystal encrusted skull as payment for his performance.
While transporting the skull, the convoy gets ambushed by militants and the skull is stolen from Fiddy’s possession.
Yes, the story is that corny and if you are looking for a realistic shooter with a half-decent story, Bots isn’t the game for you and you can stop reading now.
However, if you are still remotely interested in playing a shooting game that’s just high on action, big guns and attitude, read on.
Blood, guns and sand
As I’ve mentioned earlier, the game is not grounded in reality so expect all sorts of things that don’t make sense to occur in the game.
Fiddy has magically been bestowed with the power to regenerate his health (a la Call of Duty’s regenerative health system), shrug off bullets like they were mosquito bites and even survive a direct hit by a rocket propelled grenade.
Alright, so it is a videogame we are talking about here.
But if this all sounds too familiar, that’s probably because Bots liberally borrows from other games as well. You will immediately recognise the third-person over-the-shoulder aiming similar to Resident Evil 4 and the mechanism for taking cover introduced by Gears of War.
Despite the fact that Fiddy has inhuman healing capabilities, he won’t last long in the open so you’re going to need to make good use of cover while fighting.
Shooting in the game feels somewhat “loose” and not as tight as other third-person shooters.
This can cause problems when aiming as I would often miss targets by inches. Perhaps toning down the default sensitivity may help with this.
The scoring system helps keep things fresh — similar to Sega’s The Club, it awards points for kills made.
KNEE MEET FACE: When the going gets tough you can always rely on brutal close combat moves to dispatch your foes. Killing enemies in quick succession will net you more points, and so will using objects such exploding barrels or just taunting them.
Quite simply, the more stylish and creative your kills, the more points are awarded.
Possibly the most interesting element of the single-player campaign is the many extra challenges peppered throughout missions.
Most revolve around killing specific types of enemies before the timer runs out. It makes for a refreshing change and challenges you to score more kills before the end of the level.
There is the obligatory vehicle section thrown in to spice things up but it under delivers as you are placed in the driver’s seat while the AI takes control of the machine gun.
The driving sections feels extremely lethargic, and boils down to avoiding enemies and letting the AI do all the shooting.
Enemy AI in the game is as dumb as dirt, saved only by the fact that they pop in and out of cover to take pot-shots at you.
They are easily flanked and hardly put up a fight when engaged in close quarters.
There are the occasional boss fights in between levels. However, just like the regular enemies, don’t expect them to put up much of a fight. Disposing one big boss tank just involved having to plant a C4 to dispatch it.
Help from friends
Fiddy isn’t alone on the field though — he is backed by a member of his G-Unit, a character that can either be controlled by the AI or a friend playing in co-op mode.
FIREWORKS: 50 Cent will be assisted by one of his G-Unit buddies on every mission he embarks on. Your allies don’t stop at helping you in combat as they also aid you in overcoming obstacles such as giving you a boost up ledges and opening shutters.
Aside from the occasional bit of dialogue, I found the AI character a little too scripted and robotic to my liking.
They basically act like tour guides around the level, ushering you in a specific direction if you are lost.
Aside from the shooting element of the game, the rest of the it is a little simplistic.
Objects that you can interact with in the game such as a box of gold will glow brightly so that you won’t miss it.
Gold can be used to purchase new weapons, combat moves and taunts from a shady arms dealer named Raoul who can be contacted via payphone, which is funny considering how it still works in the middle of a warzone.
Weapons range from the standard pistol, submachine gun, shotgun and various assault rifles to heavier ones like rocket launchers.
Most of the weapons handle alike except for the heavy varieties. But if there is one problem with the weapons in general is that I notice many have awfully long reload times.
The looks
As far as looks go, I can’t say I was too impressed with the game’s design.
While the general lighting effects looked nice in some situations, textures failed to load at times, leaving the game looking jarringly bland.
Some of the effects used in the game like explosions look really bad — blowing a hole in the wall with a C4 charge was just unimpressive.
ACTION PACKED: When negotiating with terrorists, always bring a rocket launcher. Also, character animations looked fidgety and are often recycled. In certain situations such as when Fiddy and a G-Unit buddy vault over a wall, the same animation is played back over and over again.
Rag doll physics in the game are over exaggerated with baddies flying several metres in the air when caught in an explosion.
Show’s over
50 Cent: Blood on the Sand is a game that is all about being macho and using violence to get things done even though it’s just about not getting paid for a performance.
Again, I wouldn’t recommend this game if you are used to playing higher grade shooters like Call of Duty, Halo, Dead Space and Left 4 Dead because the experience can be severely underwhelming.
There are secrets to discover, 50 Cent music to unlock and high scores to beat but aside from that the game doesn’t last very long.
There are just nine levels to play through and there is little replay value once you have completed the main story.
If you are able to switch off your brain and would love to indulge in an hour or two of senseless violence and can stand listening to 50 Cent’s songs, you may enjoy this game.
Pros: Frantic action; fun scoring system; lots of unlockable goodies.
Cons: Long reload times; driving missions are boring; no replay value.
50 Cent: Blood on the Sand
(THQ)
Third-person shooter for Xbox 360, PlayStation3
Price: RM189 for PS3, RM169 for Xbox 360
Review unit courtesy of Replay Interactive Sdn Bhd, call (03) 7806-2770 or visit
www.replay.my
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