This review contains spoilers
50 Cent: Bulletproof is a game developed by Genuine Games, a studio that hasn't created anything else? I'm not sure if they created anything else but what they did create was legendary. To those who don't know ANYTHING about rap, or gangsters or gangster video games, 50 Cent is a rapper who became famous in the Early 2000s after getting shot 9 times and surviving, eventually hitting the scene with his major hit album "Get Rich or Die Tryin", and from there expanded the G-Unit Brand to feature shit from clothes, more music (mostly surrounding him and his group which included Lloyd Banks, Tony Yayo and Young Buck as well as The Game but that fizzled out into an infamous rap feud later on), a movie of the same name as his first album and THIS game. 50 Cent was a fucking powerhouse back in the day, this game being another part of the G-Unit Legacy.
Now how is this game? It's average, it's not the worst game ever created and it's not the worst feeling game to play; I originally picked it up on PS2 and played it as a kid before playing it on my OG Xbox now, streaming it for friends where I had a fucking blast. It's certainly janky in the way of controls and such and the story/atmosphere even though it was created in an interesting way (bringing I guess what you call Hip Hop Noir vibes?) it's also goofy as fuck. I'm going to start with the story here.
You play as 50 himself as you get a call from your boy K-Dog, who begs you for help as he's being attacked by an unknown force. You go with your people (also Lloyd Banks, Tony Yayo and Young Buck) to help out K-Dog, shoot through strange masked men and finally get SHOT 9 TIMES. From there you wake up a while later, in the doc's office with this big dude named Friday. You eventually heal up before hitting the street to get info from your next rap cameos: Eminem as corrupt detective McVicar and arms dealer Grizz (Played by Dr. Dre). Detective McVicar gives him info on a safehouse where K-Dog is at upstate, of which 50 goes and starts shooting shit up only for K-Dog to be found dead, where you take his phone before leaving.
After looking at K-Dog's tattoo and going to pawn shop owner Bugs (and getting your shit back), you trace messages on his phone to a junkyard where a bunch of bikers led by Spider hang out, and it's insinuated that K-Dog was involved in a huge drug smuggling operation. After murdering every single biker, you get documents and then cut off the dude's tattoo before bringing it back to Bugs to learn about a connection to the Triads over in Chinatown.
In Chinatown, you confront the leader before getting into another shootout and taking his money; and on the way home in the subway you get ambushed by more masked men, before the game comically derails the train and you end up in abandoned subway tunnels, killing the leader of these masked men to learn, surprise, they're DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency for those not in the know).
In exchange for more information, Detective McVicar asks you to kill someone for him who was about to testify and you track him to the projects where you kill the fucker in a battle that I felt was iffy. You also meet a character named Booker, a homeless man who points you to a warehouse down at the docks where you shoot through more goons and you learn that the drug smuggling operation includes giant shipments from South America and the Middle East. You get back only for Booker to get shot down in a drive-by, and you go to the funeral to meet his daughter, Alexa, whom you team up with. You meet with McVicar who tells you of the dead body of Eduardo Vasquez, who also has the tattoo and a balloon in his stomach which contains opium, and escapes after shooting more dudes who come to clear up the crime. You also learn that the dude who shot you up was rogue DEA detective Spinoza, before Ediminem gives you the scoop on a recent drug bust in the Italian Mafia that involved Opium and 50 goes to Little Italy to follow up on the lead. 50 Cent and friends get captured and in the gnarliest scene ever his buddies get butchered via chainsaw before Dr. Dre as Grizz comes to save the day and you shoot through more mafioso and finally the boss himself. It turns out the mafia boss himself was the informant and you get tapes discussing business between him and Spinoza as well as a third person: Mohammed, terrorist and drug dealer extraordinaire. Spinoza and Mohammed kidnap Alexa while Edmininemesistoafeminist arrests 50 to keep him out of the way for a huge drug bust against Spinoza. Booker, later revealed to be a CIA agent, gets 50 out of jail and with the rest of the G-Unit (or the ones that aren't chopped to bits), 50 storms the ship containing the drugs. He shoots his way through Mohammed before killing Spinoza and leaving the scene; Booker well...books it before his daughter can recognize him. Alexa smacks 50 on the ass and then 50 goes over to Detective McVicar/Edimenem to rub salt in the wound before walking off to the soundtrack of, guess who, 50 Cent.
There's a lot of 50 Cent so let me toss in my 50 Cents about the plot, it's actually not that bad? I enjoyed the noir aspect of it, the twists of the plot and I certainly didn't see things coming. It's by no means as great or emotionally impactful as say, Max Payne getting revenge for the death of his wife and child but as a fun gangster romp it's good. The characters you see often (mostly 50 and Eminem) are the most engaging, while the others don't really offer much in the way of character development I guess I'm not really surprised much at it since it's really 50 Cent's game. Overall, while certain pieces of the story I had to get reacquainted with by looking it up on Youtube, I remember stuff for the most part.
Gameplay wise it's obviously a third person shooter and you go through the game ya know, shooting people. Once you kill them, you can loot their corpse to get money of varying qualities (and for a lot of the unlockables, which I'll explain in a second, you'll need to grind a good bit to get them). These unlockables mainly consists of buying guns from Grizz of which you can start up levels with loadouts I think, buying executions from a crazy fuck named Popcorn (named Popcorn cause of his obsessions with movies and hanging out in an abandoned movie theater), of which look cool as fuck (with some named after 50 songs like Gunz Come Out) but you don't really do much other than look cool really, as well as buying, get this, more G-Unit related music such as "Bootleg" music videos, medical supplies from Doc Friday (with fucking Vitamin Water as a health pickup LOL) and songs from DJ Whoo Kid. I'll discuss the music videos/songs in the audio/video presentation later, but I want to mention now in between most levels you'll walk around your block where you can go and browse these unlockables, talk to people sometimes, and walk around your apartment.
But to go back for a second to the combat I want to mention that the combat is adequate, it again feels janky and kind of sloppy in certain cases (especially during the boss fight against the guy McVicar asked us to kill), with a strange sort of sway that makes it hard to actually aim at enemies sometimes but overall it's serviceable and you'll probably have played much better or worse games for combat. I don't remember encountering any bugs persay (other than the pawn shop owner lol) so I can't really speak much on that but on my playthrough for the most part everything was fine. It's not gonna be as good as GTA or something and truth be told this game is more akin to The Punisher but worse.
The Audio/Video Presentation I think is where the game shines, though in a hilarious way. If this was a normal gangster game I would just give it three stars but this extra half is for two reasons, Number 1: I like 50 Cent/G-Unit's music so I don't mind listening to that shit while shooting dudes and Number 2: Because the amount of self advertisement, while understandable is fucking hilarious. I'm gonna list some examples from what I mentioned earlier: Doc Friday sells the usual pain pills and med kits but he also sells Vitamin Water? Wanna know why? Cause 50 had a huge deal with them in the early to mid 2000s and was making big money off of it brand wise. DJ Whoo Kid sells as I said before, Bootleg 50 Cent/G-Unit music videos and songs, so essentially 50 is buying bootlegs of his own work from a meta standpoint. These songs/videos are mostly old stuff (Like 50's first two albums, G-Unit's first album, and the first solo album from Lloyd Banks, Young Buck and Tony Yayo though with less songs of course; as well as instrumentals for a lot of them). Good thing is once you buy them you keep them, and can switch songs on the road while shooting gangsters and masked DEA; or if you want you could take a break and watch Tony Yayo's So Seductive music video compressed to hell. In 50's apartment, in the music studio are literally a bunch of G-Unit albums to finish off the constant plugging. As mentioned, there are original songs as well which are more expensive in game to buy but are worth it as they're actually pretty good, with Maybe We Crazy and Pimpin' Part 2 being the highlights for me. This game SCREAMS gangster rap and if you love that shit like I do, you'll love it here. If you don't, then I'm not sure why you're playing this game but nonetheless. As always, visual presentation is fine, the usual PS2/Xbox era graphics but they have looked better in other games though I have noticed Eminem and 50 looking better than the rest but I don't know if it's because G-Unit is kind of an afterthought? Because truth be told again you don't really get much in the way of character from them but nonetheless.
Final Thoughts:
This is a funny ass game to me and honestly a guilty pleasure of mine, and when I hear of people saying this is one of the first game's ever I'm not buying it. Sure, it's goofy as fuck, and the controls aren't the best; but the story is actually decent and the gangster rap self plug soundtrack is immaculate in my honest opinion. I streamed this game for friends a couple of years back and I honestly had a fun time, and truth be told I actually wouldn't mind going back and playing again? It's not a classic, and 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand apparently improved on a lot of shit but overall it's not a bad time. I picked it up for my Xbox OG dirt cheap, so I'm gonna guess that most copies of this game will run that way for you too? If you want, give it a try, but know that it's a flawed ass game.
Now how is this game? It's average, it's not the worst game ever created and it's not the worst feeling game to play; I originally picked it up on PS2 and played it as a kid before playing it on my OG Xbox now, streaming it for friends where I had a fucking blast. It's certainly janky in the way of controls and such and the story/atmosphere even though it was created in an interesting way (bringing I guess what you call Hip Hop Noir vibes?) it's also goofy as fuck. I'm going to start with the story here.
You play as 50 himself as you get a call from your boy K-Dog, who begs you for help as he's being attacked by an unknown force. You go with your people (also Lloyd Banks, Tony Yayo and Young Buck) to help out K-Dog, shoot through strange masked men and finally get SHOT 9 TIMES. From there you wake up a while later, in the doc's office with this big dude named Friday. You eventually heal up before hitting the street to get info from your next rap cameos: Eminem as corrupt detective McVicar and arms dealer Grizz (Played by Dr. Dre). Detective McVicar gives him info on a safehouse where K-Dog is at upstate, of which 50 goes and starts shooting shit up only for K-Dog to be found dead, where you take his phone before leaving.
After looking at K-Dog's tattoo and going to pawn shop owner Bugs (and getting your shit back), you trace messages on his phone to a junkyard where a bunch of bikers led by Spider hang out, and it's insinuated that K-Dog was involved in a huge drug smuggling operation. After murdering every single biker, you get documents and then cut off the dude's tattoo before bringing it back to Bugs to learn about a connection to the Triads over in Chinatown.
In Chinatown, you confront the leader before getting into another shootout and taking his money; and on the way home in the subway you get ambushed by more masked men, before the game comically derails the train and you end up in abandoned subway tunnels, killing the leader of these masked men to learn, surprise, they're DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency for those not in the know).
In exchange for more information, Detective McVicar asks you to kill someone for him who was about to testify and you track him to the projects where you kill the fucker in a battle that I felt was iffy. You also meet a character named Booker, a homeless man who points you to a warehouse down at the docks where you shoot through more goons and you learn that the drug smuggling operation includes giant shipments from South America and the Middle East. You get back only for Booker to get shot down in a drive-by, and you go to the funeral to meet his daughter, Alexa, whom you team up with. You meet with McVicar who tells you of the dead body of Eduardo Vasquez, who also has the tattoo and a balloon in his stomach which contains opium, and escapes after shooting more dudes who come to clear up the crime. You also learn that the dude who shot you up was rogue DEA detective Spinoza, before Ediminem gives you the scoop on a recent drug bust in the Italian Mafia that involved Opium and 50 goes to Little Italy to follow up on the lead. 50 Cent and friends get captured and in the gnarliest scene ever his buddies get butchered via chainsaw before Dr. Dre as Grizz comes to save the day and you shoot through more mafioso and finally the boss himself. It turns out the mafia boss himself was the informant and you get tapes discussing business between him and Spinoza as well as a third person: Mohammed, terrorist and drug dealer extraordinaire. Spinoza and Mohammed kidnap Alexa while Edmininemesistoafeminist arrests 50 to keep him out of the way for a huge drug bust against Spinoza. Booker, later revealed to be a CIA agent, gets 50 out of jail and with the rest of the G-Unit (or the ones that aren't chopped to bits), 50 storms the ship containing the drugs. He shoots his way through Mohammed before killing Spinoza and leaving the scene; Booker well...books it before his daughter can recognize him. Alexa smacks 50 on the ass and then 50 goes over to Detective McVicar/Edimenem to rub salt in the wound before walking off to the soundtrack of, guess who, 50 Cent.
There's a lot of 50 Cent so let me toss in my 50 Cents about the plot, it's actually not that bad? I enjoyed the noir aspect of it, the twists of the plot and I certainly didn't see things coming. It's by no means as great or emotionally impactful as say, Max Payne getting revenge for the death of his wife and child but as a fun gangster romp it's good. The characters you see often (mostly 50 and Eminem) are the most engaging, while the others don't really offer much in the way of character development I guess I'm not really surprised much at it since it's really 50 Cent's game. Overall, while certain pieces of the story I had to get reacquainted with by looking it up on Youtube, I remember stuff for the most part.
Gameplay wise it's obviously a third person shooter and you go through the game ya know, shooting people. Once you kill them, you can loot their corpse to get money of varying qualities (and for a lot of the unlockables, which I'll explain in a second, you'll need to grind a good bit to get them). These unlockables mainly consists of buying guns from Grizz of which you can start up levels with loadouts I think, buying executions from a crazy fuck named Popcorn (named Popcorn cause of his obsessions with movies and hanging out in an abandoned movie theater), of which look cool as fuck (with some named after 50 songs like Gunz Come Out) but you don't really do much other than look cool really, as well as buying, get this, more G-Unit related music such as "Bootleg" music videos, medical supplies from Doc Friday (with fucking Vitamin Water as a health pickup LOL) and songs from DJ Whoo Kid. I'll discuss the music videos/songs in the audio/video presentation later, but I want to mention now in between most levels you'll walk around your block where you can go and browse these unlockables, talk to people sometimes, and walk around your apartment.
But to go back for a second to the combat I want to mention that the combat is adequate, it again feels janky and kind of sloppy in certain cases (especially during the boss fight against the guy McVicar asked us to kill), with a strange sort of sway that makes it hard to actually aim at enemies sometimes but overall it's serviceable and you'll probably have played much better or worse games for combat. I don't remember encountering any bugs persay (other than the pawn shop owner lol) so I can't really speak much on that but on my playthrough for the most part everything was fine. It's not gonna be as good as GTA or something and truth be told this game is more akin to The Punisher but worse.
The Audio/Video Presentation I think is where the game shines, though in a hilarious way. If this was a normal gangster game I would just give it three stars but this extra half is for two reasons, Number 1: I like 50 Cent/G-Unit's music so I don't mind listening to that shit while shooting dudes and Number 2: Because the amount of self advertisement, while understandable is fucking hilarious. I'm gonna list some examples from what I mentioned earlier: Doc Friday sells the usual pain pills and med kits but he also sells Vitamin Water? Wanna know why? Cause 50 had a huge deal with them in the early to mid 2000s and was making big money off of it brand wise. DJ Whoo Kid sells as I said before, Bootleg 50 Cent/G-Unit music videos and songs, so essentially 50 is buying bootlegs of his own work from a meta standpoint. These songs/videos are mostly old stuff (Like 50's first two albums, G-Unit's first album, and the first solo album from Lloyd Banks, Young Buck and Tony Yayo though with less songs of course; as well as instrumentals for a lot of them). Good thing is once you buy them you keep them, and can switch songs on the road while shooting gangsters and masked DEA; or if you want you could take a break and watch Tony Yayo's So Seductive music video compressed to hell. In 50's apartment, in the music studio are literally a bunch of G-Unit albums to finish off the constant plugging. As mentioned, there are original songs as well which are more expensive in game to buy but are worth it as they're actually pretty good, with Maybe We Crazy and Pimpin' Part 2 being the highlights for me. This game SCREAMS gangster rap and if you love that shit like I do, you'll love it here. If you don't, then I'm not sure why you're playing this game but nonetheless. As always, visual presentation is fine, the usual PS2/Xbox era graphics but they have looked better in other games though I have noticed Eminem and 50 looking better than the rest but I don't know if it's because G-Unit is kind of an afterthought? Because truth be told again you don't really get much in the way of character from them but nonetheless.
Final Thoughts:
This is a funny ass game to me and honestly a guilty pleasure of mine, and when I hear of people saying this is one of the first game's ever I'm not buying it. Sure, it's goofy as fuck, and the controls aren't the best; but the story is actually decent and the gangster rap self plug soundtrack is immaculate in my honest opinion. I streamed this game for friends a couple of years back and I honestly had a fun time, and truth be told I actually wouldn't mind going back and playing again? It's not a classic, and 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand apparently improved on a lot of shit but overall it's not a bad time. I picked it up for my Xbox OG dirt cheap, so I'm gonna guess that most copies of this game will run that way for you too? If you want, give it a try, but know that it's a flawed ass game.