With the popularity "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" received since its release, game developers have come out of the woodworks to develop their own version of a certified "hood" based video game, and "25 To Life" is just that -- another hood inspired video game.
The third-person shooter is a fairly simple version of most third-person shooters already on the market, with two game play options including a single-player story-driven mode and a team-based multiplayer mode.
In single-player mode, you play the role of a character named Freeze, who after a long run in the street doing various criminal "jobs," realizes he is ready to leave the game for the sake of his girl and son. But, of course, instead of being able to simply walk away, you are asked to pull "one last job," which becomes a disaster, and leads you through various levels where you must work alongside dirty cops, rob banks, and even become an organized-crime leader in Mexico.
The actual storyline is quite misleading and most of the time, you are unsure as to if you're the good or bad guy.
During single-player action, you basically hide around corners and poke your head out long enough to take out the enemies with an arsenal of weapons to choose from including pistols (9 mm, revolvers, etc), dual pistols, Uzi's, AK-47's, shotguns, and even rocket launchers, among others. And if you happen to catch yourself without ammo, you can always use your trusty knife, bat or something similar to hit your enemy senseless, but this mostly never happens due to the almost endless supply of guns and ammo left after killing an enemy target.
The game's scenery and set varies and changes through every level. On one level, you may be roaming an apartment structure and the next you may be in a bank vault trying to escape from the SWAT team who arrive after a teller hits the silent alarm. From there, you may have to rob a casino, or even break out of a prison during a riot. The variety of the sets in the game are above average, but you find yourself directed in one path throughout the entirety of the gameplay.
As you head toward the team-based multiplayer mode, you find it a little more challenging, but it doesn't have the tactical elements of say, a "Socom." If you've managed to work your way through the single-player mode, then you've unlocked custom items for use in the multiplayer. The team-based gameplay is basically the cops versus thugs with up to 16 players in four different modes. The four different modes include War, Raid, Robbery and Tag.
War is your basic team vs. team battle to the death type play. During Raid, the criminals are forced to guard their stash from the cops, while Robbery places various loot items across the map, which the thugs must steal and return to their base safely, all while cops make that task hard to do. The last mode is Tag, where thugs go against their own kind in a graffiti battle.
One bright note about "25 To Life" is the soundtrack, which mixes old and new school hip-hop tracks together, including songs from Tupac, KRS-One, Public Enemy, Xzibit, Wu-Tang and much more.
Overall, "25 To Life" isn't anything we haven't seen before in a third-person shooter. Although, at times, the game can be entertaining, it falls short in comparison to previous shooters like "Max Payne," which is very similar, just with different subject matter. If you want a "hood" version of "Max Payne," this is for you.
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