50 Cent: Blood on the Sand

Gameplay

Blood on the Sand includes on-foot combat, as well as vehicle missions such as a driver-and-turret-gunner Humvee H2 road chase and a helicopter-borne minigun shootout. There are also boss battles against helicopters.

The game has a feature called the "Shop" (activated in the game by placing a call on payphones hidden on each level), where the characters can use cash to buy new weapons, upgrade their old weapons, and learn hand-to-hand combat moves called "Counter-Kills". Cash can also be used to unlock Taunts (each rated by Profanity, Braggin' and Triple X levels), which increase the points earned from kills.

Weapons are graded from 1 to 10 by Capacity, Damage Rating, and Accuracy, and also list possible Add Ons (weapon enhancements like scopes or silencers). Players can use a mode called "Gangsta Fire" (50 Cent's variation on the slo-mo "bullet-time" concept used in Max Payne) to take on multiple opponents at once.

Each level has Target Enemies (5 per level; each is just a high-value target, not a "Level Boss"), crates of gold bars (which are broken open to earn money), as well as collectables like Posters (5 per level). Kills grant points, which help the player to earn Bronze, Silver, and Gold G-Unit Badges; these unlock better Weapons, Counter-Kills and Taunts in the "Shop".

It also features more music tracks than the first game (40+ tracks in all); 50 Cent made 18 exclusive tracks just for the game. Swizz Beatz, Lab Ox and The Individuals made the original score for the game. There are also unlockable songs and videos.

Plot

The game revolves around rapper 50 Cent. The co-player's character can be one of three other members of the G-Unit crew: Tony Yayo, Lloyd Banks, or DJ Whoo Kid, each specializing in different combat techniques. The co-player is either run by the game or through online cooperative play.

The game is set in an urban warzone in an unnamed Middle Eastern country, where 50 Cent and G-Unit have been hired to play a rap concert. After the concert the promoter, Anwar, is unable to pay them the $10 million in cash he promised, but relents after being threatened. However, instead of the cash they were promised, he gives them a diamond-and-pearl encrusted human skull (bearing a striking resemblance to a platinum cast diamond encrusted skull by artist Damien Hirst) as collateral. This is promptly stolen by a paramilitary group led by the terrorist Kamal. 50 Cent (with the help of a selected G-Unit partner) decides to get it back at any cost and soon, they find out that there is a much bigger enemy than Kamal.

Development

After the original company planned to distribute the game, Activision, merged with Vivendi Games, many games, including 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand, faced the possibility of not being released. The rights to Blood on the Sand were then picked up by THQ.

The NA and EU versions of the PlayStation 3 release lacked Playstation trophies support.

Reception

Unlike Bulletproof, which received generally very mixed reviews, Blood on the Sand was more well received by video game critics, scoring a 7 out of 10 on GameSpot and a 4/5 on X-Play. Critics also praised the improvement and 50 Cent's involvement in the game. Jeff Gerstmann of Giant Bomb said the story was "mostly nonsense, with a lot of half-assed dialogue that's usually delivered by people who sound like they have a plane to catch". IGN praised the solid gunplay and strong co-op though they noted that the repetitive nature of the gameplay meant that it did not have great lasting appeal. Chris Watters of GameSpot said "it works surprisingly well. This isn't the best action game you'll play this year, but that doesn't mean you won't have a damn fun time playing it."

As of early April 2009, 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand sold an estimated 56,000 copies in the United States.