25 To Life
Crime really doesn’t pay…
Tags: 25 To Life Categories: Reviews, Xbox Reviews
Posted by Christopher on Feb 24th, 2006
| Title | Players | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 25 To Life (title page) | 1 - 16 | ||
| Developer | Publisher | Genre | Online |
| Action | Yes | ||
So you’ve played all the Grand Theft Auto games. You’ve risen to the top of a crime family, gone on amazing car chases, flew helicopters, robbed banks, and done pretty much everything you could expect a ‘crime simulator’ to offer. Still hungry for more? 25 to Life might just be the game for you. Well, maybe if you strip away everything worthwhile and you happen to enjoy loads of pointless violence and cursing.
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25 to Life begins about as clichéd as one could expect. The story opens following Andre ‘Freeze’ Francis a gangbanger whose wife tries to convince him to get out of the criminal lifestyle. Of course, his old gang members don’t seem too keen on his plans and poor Freeze gets pulled back into the life he wants to escape. Or something of that nature. The plot is very bland and filled with the same tired stereotypes and clichés in the average ‘urban’ movie or game. The story, or lack thereof, is played out in awful cut scenes where characters seem to curse every other word. Most gamers will stop trying to make sense of it before too long and just stumble along until eventually getting to control two other characters. In addition to Freeze, you also control a crooked cop named Lester Williams and another gangster named Shaun Calderon. Neither of them offer much to make you care about why they’re in the game at all.
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Graphically, 25 to Life isn’t much of a stunner. Everything looks like pale imitations of GTA or some sort of fan made sequel. Your surroundings are usually generic urban settings like alleyways and warehouses, all very forgettable places you’ve probably seen a thousand times before. The textures on everything from characters to guns, cars, and floors are all smudged and distorted to be almost unrecognizable. Character models give a performance as if they were marionettes moving in slow motion filled with jerky stops and starts, often times clipping through each other or their surroundings. The characters themselves usually blend right into the background which leads to frustrating moments trying to figure out who the heck is shooting you in what appears to be an empty room.
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The actual game play feels as though the designers were trying to have a game made on the cheap, and they seemed to have succeeded with gamers getting a mediocre product as a result. The reticule you get to aim with is far too small to be effective at nailing headshots regardless of what skill you may have. The way grenades are used is also flawed to say the least. You hold the left trigger longer to throw further, but the delay between a near and far toss is so small you’ll either overshoot your target by 30 yards or blow something up five feet in front of you. As for any ‘advanced’ maneuvers, you get a very broken corner peep, human shields, or the ability to arrest gang members. For the peep, your character leans out so slowly they basically make themselves a target for whatever foes are around the bend without letting you get a good view of the area. The human shield on the other hand is useful, but seems forced as the only people you can use are lying face down on the ground and only show up when the story dictates. As the cop character you can also arrest crooks you encounter with an added side effect. Due to some sort of bug you don’t take any damage from any enemies in the area gunning for you.
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Speaking of guns, being a third person shooter it’s full of them. You get all sorts of firearms from pistols and shotguns to more exotic flair like bull-pups, smgs, or assault rifles. The only problem is they all seem to act the same way. The only reason you’ll need to use a different gun is if you happen to run out of ammunition, which in itself is very hard with the liberal amounts lying around. The sound effects of each gun are crisp and clear, if maybe a tad exaggerated. Damage from each gun doesn’t matter when you can empty an entire clip in an enemy’s torso and he still walks around. It’s not uncommon to nail someone directly with a grenade and watch them smolder out and start shooting at you again either. Headshots are the order of the day, even though occasionally it’ll still take three or four to get the job done. The AI is very much like playing Russian roulette in that sometimes someone isn’t concerned on doing anything to stop you from plugging them full of holes, while other times a goon with a fully automatic rifle will kill you from halfway across the room. If you’re far enough away from them and fire you’ll usually get ‘lucky’ and an enemy will just stand there or turn and stare at a wall. By the second level you’ll have seen pretty much all there is as you move from one battle zone to another collecting health as needed.
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The only slightly redeeming qualities of 25 to Life are the soundtrack and game play over Xbox Live. KRS-ONE, Tech N9ne, Public Enemy, and Ghostface Killah are just a few of the artists that contributed to the soundtrack. While the songs fit the overall setting of the game, it’s hardly something the designers can take credit for. Xbox Live is where the game is at least tolerable. Game play and controls are still terrible, but the fact that you get away from the awful AI is a breath of fresh air. There are several different modes to play such as a capture the flag type where you try to get a rival gangs’ loot and bring it back to your crib, full on death matches, or defending targets carrying evidence. While hardly an excuse for the single player game, you might find yourself having fun playing Cops and Robbers online with living opponents.
Overall, 25 to Life is a product of companies trying to cash in on the crime craze Grand Theft Auto started. It’s uninspired, bland, broken, and not worth your time if you’ve played any shooting games at all in the last 5 years. Chances are you’ve already done it in a game with far better execution.
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
|
Decent soundtrack with some great rappers. Xbox Live play. |
3.0 |
| What Doesn't | |
| Nearly everything else. | |
| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| Worth a rental if you want mindless action. | |
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Tags: 25 To Life
Posted by Christopher on Feb 24th, 2006 and is filed under Reviews, Xbox Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
