The game kicks off with a very healthy dose of vulgarity that (some may say) is warranted given the frustrating situation 50 is in. It is the last show on a 50 cent tour that is set in some unnamed Middle Eastern country and its time for him to collect his modest fee of $10m. Unfortunately, that money has been stolen by someone crazy enough to mess with him in the first place. Luckily for his sponsor he just so happens to have a priceless artifact - a diamond encrusted skull which saves his life. However, ironically, they are ambushed and that skull is stolen by some 'bitch'.

Luckily for 50 cent fans, thats as complicated as the storyline gets. Personally, I am not a fan (nor a critic) of Mr.Fiddy so bear in mind if you enjoy his music that adds a whole new level of experience itself.

This is how he we do it

I'll start off with the pros, since there are quite a few of them. I have to mention though, from the very first minute in the game I got a very 'Gear of War'-isque feel from it, which is actually awesome. The action is top notch although very simplistic. In fact, lets get that out of the way, this game is very simple in every regard - gameplay, storyline, combat and reminds us that a game doesnt have to be very complex to be fun. One of the main things that keeps the game so intriguing is the fast pace, from the very first second a feeling of urgency is created to move things along. In many ways this game takes things back to the fundamentals of video gaming - especially with the score system. There are constant time -restricted objectives (such as killing certain amount of people within a certain time frame) that boost your score and make the kills all the more satisfying!

The array of weapons add to the excitment, but personally I feel the melee (counter-attacks) are quite gratifying. Although, I must say I find the idea of 'buying' moves over the telephone rather odd, but hey anything can be done over the phone these days right? The visuals are stunning as well and extremely diverse - from the first dark moment in the streets, to the open spaced deserts. There are a few scenes where you are driving an armored vehicle and your side-kick controls the turret. In those cases, at least in single player mode, there should have been an option for you to control the fire as well. Regardless, those scenes give you quite an adrenaline rush and are an excellent feature of the game.

Don't be hatin' now

There arent very many things that are wrong with this game (parents may disagree), but for a large part of the game the side-kick just seems useless. Sometimes, you forget he's even there (unlike in, let's say, gears of war where you feel like you're fighting in a team). The cover system is not as well implemented as it was in Gears of War and sometimes it gets frustrating as you want Fiddy to take cover but the positioning is not exact enough for it to happen (so you just run blindly into 10 grenadiers and shoot them one by one). It would've been fun to have SOME missions that required just a bit of strategy, as you can pretty much just blast your way through the game without firing up a single neuron in your brain. Finally, the ending was rather short and lame to say the least.

The Final Word:

The fast paced action, array of ways to kill your opponents, and the thrill of racking up countless points overshadow the small flaws and make this game very worthwhile. Quite simply, the game builds up so much momentum so fast, its hard to put the controller down once you hit start. I strongly recommend 'Blood on the Sand' to every action fan, and even if you don't fit that category, I am quite certain you will at least get some highly enjoyable hours of it! If you aren't the type of gamer that likes to replay games you should consider giving this a rental due to its short single player mode.