50 Cent: Blood On The Sand Review (Xbox 360)

By Joe Haygood | May 25, 2009

After lackluster reviews for Bulletproof, no one thought we would see 50 Cent have an opportunity to star in another video game.  Of course, when that game sells like a blockbuster movie, it does matter how bad the game is, there will be another one, and so we gamers have been graced with 50 Cent: Blood On The Sand that is so absolutely ridiculous, and yet so much fun all at the same time.

The premise to set up Blood On The Sand goes to show how ridiculous the game can be at times.  50 Cent is finishing up a huge tour of what could be the Middle East, with a cityscape that looks awfully similar to Dubai, yet it never goes named and when the concert is over, he wants to get his money.  Of course things are never that simple for 50 Cent in a videogame, so he finds out that there is no money.  On the verge of putting a cap in the promoter’s ass, Fifty is offered a skull, adorned with diamonds and crystals for payment.  With everything said and done, 50 Cent is leaving the arena, when his Humvee is attacked, and the skull is stolen, prompting 50 Cent and his G-Unit to tear up the country to get his skull back.  Hey, players need to get paid, not played.

The story is coherent at best, but to be honest, it does not matter here, as Blood On The Sand ends up being a rewarding shooter.  You will be assaulted with lots of enemies that you have to kill with style to rack up points.  It sounds a bit weak, but there is something about stringing together a series of kills to boost up your score.  On top of it all, you get special rewards at the end of a level for scoring a certain amount of points.

There are also collectibles that can be found around the world that add to your killing spree.  There are posters and target spots hidden around each level.  Finding all of them equals big point bonuses.  As you can see there is a lot of focus on building up a large score, but you also need to find boxes that contain treasure or money.  These boxes allow you to gain money to buy new and improved weapons to lay down the destruction.

Throughout the game, you have a customized soundtrack playing that is full of 50 Cent and G-Unit tunes.  You can have whatever songs you want in the mix and in whatever order you like.  The flow from Fifty and his crew really worked well into the game, and I would be lying if I said I did not enjoy killing people while bumping out his tunes.  Also, 18 of the tracks in the game were created specifically for the game by 50 Cent.

Blood In The Sand does offer full co-op play, with your partner joining in as one of three G-Unit personalities.  If you are playing solo, your companion has pretty good AI, helping you take out enemies and will point out treasure caches and the like.  Also, they point out a few historical facts along the way.  I would have never known that Napoleonic architecture existed in the Middle East, but thanks to Tony Yayo, I do now.  I wanted to play some co-op, but never found any takers, which is unfortunate, as the game is pretty good, and I would have enjoyed seeing what a human partner would add to the mix.

50 Cent: Blood On The Sand does so much right, and unfortunately, its biggest fault is the lack of replayablility.  I enjoyed every minute of Blood In The Sand while I was playing it.  It was fun, it was fast and it was mindless.  This is not a criticism of the game, but the exact opposite.  It is fun while it lasts, but it ends too soon, and there is no real motivation to return to it unless you are a serious completionist and what all the posters and targets.  Normally, I am not one to pressure for multiplayer in a game, but Blood In The Sand could have benefited from having it.  The gameplay of getting points for kills totally fits into the multiplayer mentality, but it just seems like that might have been lost in the mix when it was shuffled from development when the game shifted publishers.  It is a sad tale, because here you have a game that is really good, that no one should buy due to its lack of options.

50 Cent: Blood On The Sand offers fast and exciting gameplay that most will find enjoyable.  Leave your thinking caps at home while you are playing and you will have fun, but look to renting it over purchase as there is not enough to keep you coming back to the title.  50 Cent: Blood On The Sand gets 4 out of 5 Aeropausonauts.
Check out 50 Cent: Blood On The Sand and other Xbox 360 reviews at Test Freaks.