25 to Life
Platform: PlayStation 2
Publisher: Eidos
Review Type: Touchy
Version: Retail
You can usually tell a game is going to be crap when the second level is a stealth level. As Freeze, a gangster trying to "get out of the game" I'm told to sneak into my apartment, which is surrounded by cops and rival gangsters. The strange thing is, that it's much easier to kill every single hood and flatfoot between me and my crib. Then the game throws another of gaming's cardinal sins at you -- the escort mission. Now I'm detective Lester Williams and I've got a rookie to keep alive while raiding a gang for drugs stolen from the police department evidence locker. As usual, my escort is good for nothing except for the occasional creepy glimpse of his head from the inside out thanks to a camera glitch. And yet despite these pain-in-the-ass game cliches, I find a certain satisfaction to the gunplay in 25 to Life. This isn't a run and gun game. As Freeze, Williams and the game's third character, Mexican gangster Shaun Calderon, I find myself spending most of my time crouched in a defensive position, slowly leaning out of cover to take pot shots at my enemies.
My initial urge was to compare 25 to Life with The Wire, a television show that explores both sides of urban crime. But holding a game like 25 to Life up to the same dramatic yardstick as The Wire is like looking for character development in Digital Playground's XXX feature Pirates.
Instead I'm seeing the action in 25 to Life in the same light of the deliberate gunplay in Christopher McQuarrie's The Way of the Gun. Yet still, The Way of the Gun's nihilistic leads had better reason to take fire than the characters in 25 to Life. In the flick there was an unborn baby to protect. 25 to Life is a shallow action game, with little concern for motivation, nuance, realism. I mean, since when do cops count head shots as they clear armed gangters from a nightclub?
On second thought, I really would rather not know.
Publisher: Eidos
Review Type: Touchy
Version: Retail
You can usually tell a game is going to be crap when the second level is a stealth level. As Freeze, a gangster trying to "get out of the game" I'm told to sneak into my apartment, which is surrounded by cops and rival gangsters. The strange thing is, that it's much easier to kill every single hood and flatfoot between me and my crib. Then the game throws another of gaming's cardinal sins at you -- the escort mission. Now I'm detective Lester Williams and I've got a rookie to keep alive while raiding a gang for drugs stolen from the police department evidence locker. As usual, my escort is good for nothing except for the occasional creepy glimpse of his head from the inside out thanks to a camera glitch. And yet despite these pain-in-the-ass game cliches, I find a certain satisfaction to the gunplay in 25 to Life. This isn't a run and gun game. As Freeze, Williams and the game's third character, Mexican gangster Shaun Calderon, I find myself spending most of my time crouched in a defensive position, slowly leaning out of cover to take pot shots at my enemies.My initial urge was to compare 25 to Life with The Wire, a television show that explores both sides of urban crime. But holding a game like 25 to Life up to the same dramatic yardstick as The Wire is like looking for character development in Digital Playground's XXX feature Pirates.
Instead I'm seeing the action in 25 to Life in the same light of the deliberate gunplay in Christopher McQuarrie's The Way of the Gun. Yet still, The Way of the Gun's nihilistic leads had better reason to take fire than the characters in 25 to Life. In the flick there was an unborn baby to protect. 25 to Life is a shallow action game, with little concern for motivation, nuance, realism. I mean, since when do cops count head shots as they clear armed gangters from a nightclub?
On second thought, I really would rather not know.
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