Preface: I hate being negative, but this game really burned me when I got it back when it was new lol
Like many of the time, I bought into the "SOCOM but gang-based" hype train that surrounded this game. Obviously, we were all mistaken, for many reasons.
As a kid, I played the hell out of it, but only because I was really big into the crime-game boom of the era. The story is a crock, full of stock archetypes and tropes that don't even have GTA's benefit of being a satirical farce, or Max Payne's stellar writing and performances. Instead, 25 to Life is closer to something like "Watching a kid play with action figures by smashing them together" and the gameplay feels like the gunplay equivalent of that. Everything feels floaty and weightless, the level design is boring and uninspired, and the enemies fought have different skins but are otherwise generally indistinguishable.
The soundtrack, I recall being enjoyable, but I can't say as any of it has stuck with me since.
I never played the multiplayer, so I can't really comment on it.
Like many of the time, I bought into the "SOCOM but gang-based" hype train that surrounded this game. Obviously, we were all mistaken, for many reasons.
As a kid, I played the hell out of it, but only because I was really big into the crime-game boom of the era. The story is a crock, full of stock archetypes and tropes that don't even have GTA's benefit of being a satirical farce, or Max Payne's stellar writing and performances. Instead, 25 to Life is closer to something like "Watching a kid play with action figures by smashing them together" and the gameplay feels like the gunplay equivalent of that. Everything feels floaty and weightless, the level design is boring and uninspired, and the enemies fought have different skins but are otherwise generally indistinguishable.
The soundtrack, I recall being enjoyable, but I can't say as any of it has stuck with me since.
I never played the multiplayer, so I can't really comment on it.
Its okay
Pretty good story...
This review contains spoilers
25 to Life is an action third person shooter crime game developed by both Avalanche Software (Not related to Avalanche Studios of Just Cause/Mad Max fame, moreso the newest Hogwarts Legacy game and Disney Infinity Stuff) and Ritual Entertainment (of SIN and Quake: Scourge of Armagon fame whom apparently collaborated in terms of cinematics but besides the point) and released around Early 2006. Also known as the "Early to Mid 2000s Gangsta Game era", it was popularized in the hands of youngsters such as myself: GTA was popular as ever, games like True Crime and The Getaway were behind that and 50 Cent had just made his own game in the form of 50 Cent: Bulletproof. How did this game fare against the rest? Abysmally, horribly, all the bad synonyms. It did worse than 50 Cent: Bulletproof (of which I have thoughts and will put down someday), and truth be told yeah it's not really a great game. But it's also not the worst game I've ever played. I'll explain my thoughts below:
The Story: You play as gangster Freeze, who is trying to get out of the "game" and go straight with his wife Monica and his son Darnell. He tells his best friend, a gangster in the D-Boyz named Shaun Calderon that he wants out and he angrily agrees under the condition that he does one last deal for him. With how suspicious he plainly acts, it doesn't occur to Freeze that it's a set up which fuckin badabing it is! Corrupt DEA Maria Mendoza killed the other party and starts shooting at you, and you make your way back to your apartments to learn that Shaun kidnapped your family for "running with the money" even though clearly that's too suspicious. You decide to rob a bank to get him his money back, you do so only to get arrested and THEN realize you were set up.
Mendoza decides to set up Shaun (I think?) by getting her fellow Officer Lester to go after him after learning 8 Kilos of coke disappeared from impound. You raid Shaun's home before you chase him through a nightclub and down into a subway to catch him. You do that, though Maria shoots you and frames Shaun for it before telling him to leave.
As Shaun, you go to Mexico and decide to take over the Sargosa Cartel; you shoot your way through the Tijuana streets to kill a big shot, rob the boss's casino and then kill the boss before ruling the city with an iron fist.
Then finally, in the last chapter you play as Freeze where you escape prison, mow down corrupt cops (including Mendoza) before finally killing Shaun with multiple bullets and a knee to the throat. You locate your son in the security room, the cops come in and you prepare to shoot it out with the cops; as for your wife? Who knows she doesn't really get shit in terms of screen time other than one or two cutscenes and neither does your son so fuckin whatever I guess.
My thoughts on the story are this: It's not bad. It's average, with Shaun's part being the most interesting part in my opinion though I love empire building gangster stuff so that's probably just my niche. Other than that I only remember it because of a Wikipedia recap and a video by a guy named MrHammers (shoutout here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDP07_3s8yU&ab_channel=MrHammers, very good video) going through the story again. Here's what I can tell you what I mostly remember about the game.
I remember the game a bit from my days in the PS2 era where I played it, beat it once then forgot about it. I then picked it up on my Xbox Original, played the first three and a half chapters streaming for buddies via elgato before I stopped because personal shit. From what I remember playing those first chapters, the gameplay is OK. It's not awful. You go shooting gangsters and cops through about 12 different levels, with side objectives in each level awarding you now defunct multiplayer items (including the ability to play as rappers like Kurupt and Tech N9ne in the multiplayer?) as well as clothing items and tattoos. You can do them if you want, I do cause I'm a completionist. The combat itself is like Max Payne except worse with no slow motion and leaning around corners. That being said it's playable, and they litter health kits throughout each room so health is in abundance though sometimes certain areas are a bit challenging in terms of the amount of enemies (that last level had a guy who run and guns a rocket launcher from the top of a mansion who you kind of have to know is there otherwise you get pp smacked real quick). Enemies can be spongy but overall guns felt ok, just again be real careful of the last couple chapters cause they break out the splash damage rocket launcher and it's oof. Grenades feel kind of sluggish, you hold down a meter sure and it's fine but I found myself overshooting or undershooting sometimes. I also want to point out (and so did MrHammers) that when you play as the cop you can arrest people; but truth is other than the side objective it's not really conducive to the gameplay. You don't get penalized for shooting people on sight, nor do you get rewarded much otherwise for arresting them so the gameplay is still run of the mill shooting. I don't really have much else to say except again it's ok, average gunplay of which I have no real opinions on.
Soundtrack is hip hop themed of course with tracks from 2Pac, Tech N9ne, Public Enemy, Notorious BIG soundalikes Guerilla Black and Shyne, amongst some others here. They're fine, the soundtracks work for the gunplay. The sound design is ok if a little watered down to me personally and the voice acting even though it's average has some CRINGE ass dialogue from time the time that makes me yikes in my soul. As for graphically it's a mid 2006 game but honestly looks a lot older, even GTA 3 looked better in my opinion but I don't hate it cause graphics aren't really something I can judge and the visual design is of course the gangster stuff from the mid 2000s. If I were to finish off the single player portion it's that AI don't really have a strategy and they don't really do much except run around and shoot with an occasional but very rare melee weapon guy every now and then.
The multiplayer is something I never once played in my life so I can't say one way or another how it is but I wouldn't mind getting an Xbox Original game up one of these days just to check it out, I feel it could be really interesting especially considering everyone gave the most props (if that) to the multiplayer section.
Overall it's an average game, it's not great but it's not the shittiest game I've ever played in my life, if you're looking to play a gangster game and you have an afternoon to kill and you don't have a copy of Saints Row or GTA, it's not the worst game you could play but if you can get any other game (even 50 Cent: Bulletproof) you should try for them first.
The Story: You play as gangster Freeze, who is trying to get out of the "game" and go straight with his wife Monica and his son Darnell. He tells his best friend, a gangster in the D-Boyz named Shaun Calderon that he wants out and he angrily agrees under the condition that he does one last deal for him. With how suspicious he plainly acts, it doesn't occur to Freeze that it's a set up which fuckin badabing it is! Corrupt DEA Maria Mendoza killed the other party and starts shooting at you, and you make your way back to your apartments to learn that Shaun kidnapped your family for "running with the money" even though clearly that's too suspicious. You decide to rob a bank to get him his money back, you do so only to get arrested and THEN realize you were set up.
Mendoza decides to set up Shaun (I think?) by getting her fellow Officer Lester to go after him after learning 8 Kilos of coke disappeared from impound. You raid Shaun's home before you chase him through a nightclub and down into a subway to catch him. You do that, though Maria shoots you and frames Shaun for it before telling him to leave.
As Shaun, you go to Mexico and decide to take over the Sargosa Cartel; you shoot your way through the Tijuana streets to kill a big shot, rob the boss's casino and then kill the boss before ruling the city with an iron fist.
Then finally, in the last chapter you play as Freeze where you escape prison, mow down corrupt cops (including Mendoza) before finally killing Shaun with multiple bullets and a knee to the throat. You locate your son in the security room, the cops come in and you prepare to shoot it out with the cops; as for your wife? Who knows she doesn't really get shit in terms of screen time other than one or two cutscenes and neither does your son so fuckin whatever I guess.
My thoughts on the story are this: It's not bad. It's average, with Shaun's part being the most interesting part in my opinion though I love empire building gangster stuff so that's probably just my niche. Other than that I only remember it because of a Wikipedia recap and a video by a guy named MrHammers (shoutout here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDP07_3s8yU&ab_channel=MrHammers, very good video) going through the story again. Here's what I can tell you what I mostly remember about the game.
I remember the game a bit from my days in the PS2 era where I played it, beat it once then forgot about it. I then picked it up on my Xbox Original, played the first three and a half chapters streaming for buddies via elgato before I stopped because personal shit. From what I remember playing those first chapters, the gameplay is OK. It's not awful. You go shooting gangsters and cops through about 12 different levels, with side objectives in each level awarding you now defunct multiplayer items (including the ability to play as rappers like Kurupt and Tech N9ne in the multiplayer?) as well as clothing items and tattoos. You can do them if you want, I do cause I'm a completionist. The combat itself is like Max Payne except worse with no slow motion and leaning around corners. That being said it's playable, and they litter health kits throughout each room so health is in abundance though sometimes certain areas are a bit challenging in terms of the amount of enemies (that last level had a guy who run and guns a rocket launcher from the top of a mansion who you kind of have to know is there otherwise you get pp smacked real quick). Enemies can be spongy but overall guns felt ok, just again be real careful of the last couple chapters cause they break out the splash damage rocket launcher and it's oof. Grenades feel kind of sluggish, you hold down a meter sure and it's fine but I found myself overshooting or undershooting sometimes. I also want to point out (and so did MrHammers) that when you play as the cop you can arrest people; but truth is other than the side objective it's not really conducive to the gameplay. You don't get penalized for shooting people on sight, nor do you get rewarded much otherwise for arresting them so the gameplay is still run of the mill shooting. I don't really have much else to say except again it's ok, average gunplay of which I have no real opinions on.
Soundtrack is hip hop themed of course with tracks from 2Pac, Tech N9ne, Public Enemy, Notorious BIG soundalikes Guerilla Black and Shyne, amongst some others here. They're fine, the soundtracks work for the gunplay. The sound design is ok if a little watered down to me personally and the voice acting even though it's average has some CRINGE ass dialogue from time the time that makes me yikes in my soul. As for graphically it's a mid 2006 game but honestly looks a lot older, even GTA 3 looked better in my opinion but I don't hate it cause graphics aren't really something I can judge and the visual design is of course the gangster stuff from the mid 2000s. If I were to finish off the single player portion it's that AI don't really have a strategy and they don't really do much except run around and shoot with an occasional but very rare melee weapon guy every now and then.
The multiplayer is something I never once played in my life so I can't say one way or another how it is but I wouldn't mind getting an Xbox Original game up one of these days just to check it out, I feel it could be really interesting especially considering everyone gave the most props (if that) to the multiplayer section.
Overall it's an average game, it's not great but it's not the shittiest game I've ever played in my life, if you're looking to play a gangster game and you have an afternoon to kill and you don't have a copy of Saints Row or GTA, it's not the worst game you could play but if you can get any other game (even 50 Cent: Bulletproof) you should try for them first.
I've played this for the PS2 and honestly I didn't like it but maybe I need to give it another chance to play it a little longer than I did back when I had it see how with the plot and where it goes from there before I make this review
I played this game quite a lot, average game. It had some cool soundtrack in it but the dialogue was quite bad:))
Overall an ok game but nostalgia elevates it a bit
Overall an ok game but nostalgia elevates it a bit
The multiplayer component is really fun if you can grab a couple of friends, and it's probably the closest to a Saints Row 2 multiplayer revival we'll get...even though this game predates it by about three years. But for PS2 and PC, revival servers are up...you just need the game.
The closest thing to Kane & Lynch I've ever played, except with less story and more consistency.
It feels like a game that had a very clear vision to be a realistic and immersive urban action thriller, but somewhere along the way something happened (perhaps the publisher got involved or they ran out of time or budget), and they simplified and casualized it. Still, it remains a consistently solid experience all throughout.
Enemies kill you quick. This is essentially a cover-based shooter without the cover system that was beginning to get popular around this time with games like kill.switch (2005) and Gears of War (2006). Every shootout is suspenseful, and the level design is intricate enough to allow you to strategize and often outsmart enemies. Occasionally, when you have no such option, you have to rely entirely on your aiming ability. Headshots are encouraged, and when you manage to survive a room full of enemies, it feels rewarding. The AI is also pretty mobile. It can run from room to room, choose to rush you or wait in cover for you to come. In most cases you are also free to backtrack, jump in or out the windows, hide in toilets, etc. Using the level geometry is essential. And the levels are extremely detailed and feel like real places.
On the technical level the graphics are mediocre by the 2006 standards, but the overall presentation is perfect for what the game is trying to convey, which is realism. It's very cinematic, though perhaps not in the way most people use the term. It doesn't have a ton of scripted sequences and cutscenes, but it recreates the look and feel of mid-2000s crime action movies. And the soundtrack is great, though it's implementation is rather strange. This is probably the only game I've seen do this: the music comes out of actual boomboxes that are scattered throughout the level. And the music gets louder the closer you are to them. Meaning occasionally you don't hear it at all. And this kinda works for immersion in some levels, where you're in a neighborhood or in a mansion, but doesn't make much sense when you're in a subway or a bank.
There isn't much story here, and it's conveyed through text boxes before levels. I tried reading them at first, but soon realized I can't remember anything anyway. But for what it lacks in story, it compensates in its commitment to visual and mechanical authenticity. When you play as a criminal, you can murder civilians or use them as a shield. When you play as a cop, some enemies will surrender, and you can arrest them. There is one level here where you escape from a prison with a bunch of other inmates (another similarity to Kane & Lynch), and you can save a lot of them if you act quick. And taking over the prison genuinely feels like a triumph, because in the end you know how many people fought alongside you and how many didn't make it. In the final mission you get to play a reverse Scarface scenario, where you're invading a mansion full of enemies with a machine gun. And that final level, though the most challenging, throws at you situations that you've been training for the entire game. As a result, when you're single-handedly ambushing and defeating an entire small army, you feel like you've grown through the game and become a certified badass.
I think, if one approaches this game with expectations of it being a masterpiece, they'll be disappointed. But underneath its lack of polish is an enormous unrealized potential. If this game had a good story, a cover system, and a strong physics engine that allows for destructible environments and whatnot, it would've been amazing. But still, as it is, a hidden gem.
It feels like a game that had a very clear vision to be a realistic and immersive urban action thriller, but somewhere along the way something happened (perhaps the publisher got involved or they ran out of time or budget), and they simplified and casualized it. Still, it remains a consistently solid experience all throughout.
Enemies kill you quick. This is essentially a cover-based shooter without the cover system that was beginning to get popular around this time with games like kill.switch (2005) and Gears of War (2006). Every shootout is suspenseful, and the level design is intricate enough to allow you to strategize and often outsmart enemies. Occasionally, when you have no such option, you have to rely entirely on your aiming ability. Headshots are encouraged, and when you manage to survive a room full of enemies, it feels rewarding. The AI is also pretty mobile. It can run from room to room, choose to rush you or wait in cover for you to come. In most cases you are also free to backtrack, jump in or out the windows, hide in toilets, etc. Using the level geometry is essential. And the levels are extremely detailed and feel like real places.
On the technical level the graphics are mediocre by the 2006 standards, but the overall presentation is perfect for what the game is trying to convey, which is realism. It's very cinematic, though perhaps not in the way most people use the term. It doesn't have a ton of scripted sequences and cutscenes, but it recreates the look and feel of mid-2000s crime action movies. And the soundtrack is great, though it's implementation is rather strange. This is probably the only game I've seen do this: the music comes out of actual boomboxes that are scattered throughout the level. And the music gets louder the closer you are to them. Meaning occasionally you don't hear it at all. And this kinda works for immersion in some levels, where you're in a neighborhood or in a mansion, but doesn't make much sense when you're in a subway or a bank.
There isn't much story here, and it's conveyed through text boxes before levels. I tried reading them at first, but soon realized I can't remember anything anyway. But for what it lacks in story, it compensates in its commitment to visual and mechanical authenticity. When you play as a criminal, you can murder civilians or use them as a shield. When you play as a cop, some enemies will surrender, and you can arrest them. There is one level here where you escape from a prison with a bunch of other inmates (another similarity to Kane & Lynch), and you can save a lot of them if you act quick. And taking over the prison genuinely feels like a triumph, because in the end you know how many people fought alongside you and how many didn't make it. In the final mission you get to play a reverse Scarface scenario, where you're invading a mansion full of enemies with a machine gun. And that final level, though the most challenging, throws at you situations that you've been training for the entire game. As a result, when you're single-handedly ambushing and defeating an entire small army, you feel like you've grown through the game and become a certified badass.
I think, if one approaches this game with expectations of it being a masterpiece, they'll be disappointed. But underneath its lack of polish is an enormous unrealized potential. If this game had a good story, a cover system, and a strong physics engine that allows for destructible environments and whatnot, it would've been amazing. But still, as it is, a hidden gem.
It had shooting? And urban crime tropes, but I forgot everything right after I played it , which is saying a lot, because it's total runtime is about an hour and a half.