  Waking up the neighbourhood in '25 To Life'.
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Is it dope? In a word: Nope.
Here's what 25 To Life could have been: An urban riff on the Max Payne style of run-and-gun action game, one where you pull off John Woo-style moves while growling John Singleton-worthy dialogue.
Here's what 25 To Life is: A mediocre shooter that fails to capitalize on any of its potential strengths. It's loaded with swearin' and killin', but it's not shocking. It's an action game, but it's not particularly exciting. It's coming at the tail-end of the current-generation console life cycle, when games tend to squeeze every last graphical trick out of the hardware, but it's not visually appealing.
It's too bad, really. The building blocks are there: A hot-button theme, a killer hip-hop soundtrack, a script written by someone with credibility (urban culture expert P. Frank Williams, who says, "I wanted to make sure it wasn't too corny, like some crazy white boys trying to write black language") and a publisher that gave us the Hitman games, which still rank among some of my favourite third-person shooter titles.
But the whole thing just sort of goes nowhere, leaving us to mourn what could have been. Let's pour a 40 on the ground out of respect.
You start out the game as Andre "Freeze" Francis, a gangbanger who wants to go straight but must dive back into the life because his wife and child have been kidnapped.
As the story progresses, you switch into the roles of a cop on Freeze's trail and a rival gangbanger, though the progression of each level remains pretty much the same: Run through ultra-linear and kind of drab environments, shoot everything that moves, accomplish a few simple objectives and reach the exit point.
The game appeared on politicians' radar early on because it promised over-the-top violence and a cop-killin' storyline. But the Hillary Clintons of the world need not have worried too much, because 25 To Life doesn't have the impact or appeal that Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas does.
Yeah, you shoot a lot of cops, and a lot of gangsters, and, if you're feeling particularly sadistic, a lot of civilians. And yeah, you can take hostages as human shields, though most of the cops have no problem with shooting at you regardless.
But everything's rendered so woodenly and unconvincingly, I feel worse about gobbling up innocent pellets as Pac-Man than I do about shooting these spastic, cartoonish coppers.
Plentiful gripes aside, 25 To Life does have some appeal as a straightforward blast-'em-up. I found the game was at its best on the easiest difficulty setting, which helps to compensate for the twitchy aiming.
Then, instead of being forced to crouch behind cover and carefully line up headshots, you can burst into rooms full of enemies, guns blazing and crimson gushing. You want some? What, you want some too? That's what I'm talkin' about, playa!
The online multiplayer component is also fairly robust. While it's no SOCOM, there are lots of cops-versus-robbers deathmatch and attack/defend variations, some of which are novel enough to be fun.
But unless you've already played through GTA: San Andreas (and 50 Cent: Bulletproof, and Fear & Respect, and Crime Life: Gang Wars) and you absolutely must have another fix of urban thuggery, there's no need to serve this sentence. Peace.
BOTTOM LINE
Not an outright felony of a game, but definitely a major misdemeanour.
WHAM! Rating: |
4 out of 10 |
ESRB Rating: |
M (Mature) |
Official Web Site: |
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