50 Cent: Blood on the Sand Member Review for the Xbox360

The Good: Lot's of 50 Cent for fans, solid shooting mechanics, fun vehicle sections, lots of weapons

The Bad: Retarded story, spotty voice acting, semi-broken mechanics, maybe too much 50 Cent

50 Cent is one of those celebrities who thinks he can dominate any market, any industry, especially ones he knows nothing about, just by flexing his abs, flaunting his fake money, cars, and jewelry. That's all Blood on the Sand in a nutshell, but if you look past 50's over the top thug persona you have a pretty decent weekend rental.

The game's story is complete nonsense since 50 and his crew are fighting middle eastern terrorists for a priceless skull. What is 50 doing in the middle east? Probably not singing for charity causes. What makes the story even more ridiculous is that it's just lame. You never know WHY this (insert unpronounceable middle eastern name here) owes him this money, and the game just has a lot of loopholes story wise. Thankfully its easily forgettable and you really just concentrate on the action.

Blood on the Sand has a lot of action and its not too bad really. You run around in a third person POV ducking behind cover and shooting to your heart's content. Unfortunately, the game has a slightly broken cover mechanic since it's too sticky. When you pull away from the cover some times 50 won't move away and you usually have to use the roll button to get off. This makes it hard if someone is running up to you and you need to get away quickly.

There are a plethora of weapons in the game and they can be bought via placed phone booths, or picked up off downed enemies. The down side to this is the better weapons can't be bought till the last level of the game because you can never earn enough money to buy them. Money is earned by killing enemies or smashing crates. Not only can you buy weapons, but you can buy taunts, and takedowns as well.

Takedowns, are timed melee attacks that show 50 using martial arts he really doesn't know in real life (everything in the game he can't do in real life yet raps that he can). The problem with buying more takedowns is you never see the animations. The same takedown is repeated over and over again until the engine decides to let you see one that you spent 50K on. The taunt thing is just ridiculous and really earns the game's M rating. The M rating is mainly for all the swearing which is in every other word. While this is fine I just think it's ridiculous and unnecessary and doesn't make the game any better. Besides taunting does nothing for game play and just seemed like something that was thrown in there so 50 can curse more.

My favorite parts of the game are the vehicle sections which vary from turrets on helicopters to driving jeeps. These parts tend to be pretty easy, but I have to admit the game is unnecessarily hard. The game throws too many enemies at you at times and it is completely retarded. I've never played a shooter with so many enemies in my life. Its hard to really strategize what your going to do when there's an enemy around every corner and they can even hit you through your cover some times.

-Sigh- if you really love 50 you can find posters and targets around the game that let you unlock all of his music videos. I am also disappointed Eminem and the other Shady crew don't make an appearance in this game. Hell, even his G-Unit buddies take a back seat as poorly controlled AI opponents, but that's what co-op is for.

The game has pretty decent graphics since it uses the Unreal Engine 3, but it doesn't use the engine like we've seen it before. The game is very brown since the whole thing takes place in a desert which leaves little for an artistic art style. The audio is pretty good with voice over from 50 Cent, but they tend to be over done some times or spotty. If you really love 50 Cent you must own this game, but if you just like you shooters then give this a spin.