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I think it’s safe to say we all probably enjoy some games that most people dislike. You could be the only one in your friend group who likes a particular game or maybe you enjoy one that was trashed by critics. I’ve experienced this, myself. There are many games I enjoy that others don’t for whatever reason and sometimes I see and experience the issues and understand the flaws but enjoy it for other reasons. It’s all subjective anyway and it really doesn’t matter what other people think. We’re all different and we like what we like. And I’m saying this to people reading this review to know my opinion on a video game. The irony is not lost on me.
I was looking for games that others found disappointing or straight up didn’t like because sometimes I end up enjoying them and maybe even find them to be underrated. My search led me to 25 to Life, a third-person shooter that received piss poor reviews. I’ve read that it’s described as a “cops and robbers” style game and I enjoy that kind of thing so I figured I would give it a shot. Developed by Avalanche Software and Ritual Entertainment and published by Eidos Interactive, 25 to Life was released for PC, PlayStation 2, and Xbox in January, 2006. For this review, I played the Xbox version because I couldn’t resolve the frequent microstuttering in the PC version.
The story primarily revolves around a character named Freeze and his friend Shaun, both criminals. Freeze decides to give up his life of crime with Shaun in an effort to be a better example for his son. Shaun and the gang don’t take his leaving too well and Freeze must evade police and gang members to escape the life for good but, of course, not all goes as planned. Overall, the plot is awful but in my opinion, humorous. The writing and dialogue are terrible, often corny, and filled with profanity resulting in almost every interaction between characters sounding ridiculous and making me chuckle and laugh frequently.
The sixth-generation era saw a surge in what some call urban crime games, romanticizing criminal activity like violence, drug dealing, police corruption, etc. Many of these attempt to convey a Hollywood-style presentation and some are even based on films like The Godfather and Scarface for example. These kinds of games are typically shooters set in urban environments. Some put you in the shoes of criminals, others the law, and you’ll often have to kill a lot of people. The Grand Theft Auto titles are obvious ones, the True Crime games, 50 Cent: Bulletproof, 187 Ride or Die, Narc (2005), and 25 to Life, all releasing to varying success during the sixth-generation era. I admit I’m a fan of this genre. I like the violence, gang and organized crime stuff, and action and out of all the games I’ve just listed, 25 to Life is easily one of the worst I’ve played. At least when it comes to the story and single player because I didn’t get a chance to check out the multiplayer.
25 to Life puts in you the shoes of multiple characters throughout the story and every level provides plenty of enemies to shoot whether they be cops or gang members. You can take hostages and when playing as the cop, you can arrest foes. Each level tasks you with primary and optional objectives and completing them does unlock rewards and I believe most are for multiplayer like characters and costumes but completing the story does unlock a bonus level where you must survive waves of enemies. The story doesn’t take very long to get through and does put you in some cool scenarios but there’s not enough substance and flash to make it all that enjoyable. Overall, 25 to Life feels like a generic third-person shooter.
For starters, the crosshair is way too big for my liking. Taking hostages is cool but you move way too slow with a hostage and in one level I couldn’t enter certain doorways with them or take them upstairs which I found to be odd. As for arresting foes, it only seems to be necessary to complete certain objectives. Furthermore, the action feels lackluster. I like the sounds of the guns and explosions, enemies will scream and shout when they’re on fire and dying, and blood does splatter, all of which adds a bit of a cool factor to the action but, otherwise, there’s very little to make it feel exciting. The game does seem to encourage taking cover because if you’re exposed, enemies can drain through your health pretty rapidly, at least on the Normal difficulty. You can crouch and lean out from cover and as often as I found myself in cover, I started to feel like the game would benefit from a snap-to-cover mechanic, similar to how the game Kill Switch does it which released in 2003.
25 to Life does feature a pretty cool arsenal in my opinion. Handguns, submachine guns, assault rifles, shotguns, sniper rifles, and rocket launchers can all be used to kill foes, and you can lob pipe bombs and molotovs as well. Enemies exhibit basic behavior, some don’t always react appropriately, and they can withstand a ridiculous amount of headshots. They run around, shoot at you, and any foes with rocket launchers typically prove to be annoying unless you know they’re around beforehand. As mentioned earlier, I feel the game does put you in some cool scenarios. You’ll have to rob a bank and casino and even shoot your way out of a prison. Some levels even feature friendly NPCs that will fight alongside you or you’ll see gang members and cops battling it out as you blast your way around. That kind of stuff is cool to me but there’s nothing else to elevate these scenarios. Every level basically has you going from point A to B, shooting everyone in between with basically no variety to the gameplay and no scripted sequences to mix things up.
The levels are mostly linear so it would be hard to get lost and the only reason to explore would be to find health and ammo and to complete certain optional objectives. You’ll shoot your way around a warehouse, apartment complex, bank, on the streets and rooftops, and even in areas in Mexico including a penthouse, hacienda, casino, and club. One positive thing I will say is the levels are diverse. Each location is distinct. While I feel most, if not all of these locations could make for some cool scenarios and action, they more or less act as backdrops for the generic run and gun action. The level design is nothing special containing a mix of narrow and more open spaces with plenty of walls and objects to use as cover.
When it comes to the presentation, the only real positive things I can say are that each level looks and feels different and I like some of the visual and gore effects like heads exploding into chunks for example. Other than that, this is far from a great looking game even for its time and the animations are below average. As for the audio side, you get to blow people away to a soundtrack consisting of hip-hop from popular artists like 2Pac, DMX, and Public Enemy among others. I do like the sounds of the weapons fire and that along with the gore effects are the only things that make the otherwise generic action tolerable. On the technical side, the frame rate does dip here and there and I did not encounter any major bugs or issues.
I don’t know if the multiplayer is any better but the single player portion of 25 to Life is awful. The story sucks, it’s short, and almost everything about the gameplay has been done better in other games. It’s a generic third-person shooter with tons of profanity and violence and it’s only a shame the violence isn’t that much fun. I don’t know if the game was rushed or went through some kind of troubled development but what’s on offer is nothing spectacular. I went into this game expecting some problems but was optimistic that it may be more enjoyable than others give it credit for. But that turned out not to be the case. At least as far as the single player goes. It’s generic, boring, lacks variety, and feels lifeless. It’s not even charming. Hip-hop fans may find the soundtrack appealing and I find the dialogue humorous because of how bad, corny, and profane-ridden it is but I struggle to find any redeeming qualities in the gameplay and that’s bad.
I do not recommend 25 to Life. If you’re looking for a fun urban crime action game, look elsewhere. The story sucks, the gameplay is lackluster, and it comes nowhere near the quality of most of its contemporaries. The positives here are minimal and none of them make the game worth checking out. You can listen to the soundtrack elsewhere and swear at your friends and have a better time than what 25 to Life offers.