50 Cent: Bulletproof G Unit Edition

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Release Date: September 12, 2006

50 Cent: Bulletproof G-Unit Edition Review

The same set of threads on a different, but equally criminal, gangsta.

The console release of 50 Cent: Bulletproof wasn't met with the best reviews ever, but that didn't stop the game from selling in the millions. One way that the game did live up to expectations was its use of the license. Featuring a ton of videos and music, great cutscenes and more, the game made nearly perfect use of 50 Cent and his crew, even if the fundamental gameplay surrounding the presentation wasn't all that great.

So here we have 50 Cent: Bulletproof G Unit Edition for the PSP. Developed by High Voltage, the game does away with the third-person shooter mechanics and instead employs a top-down view that's somewhat akin to what you'd find in a dungeon crawler. While this still doesn't elevate the series into the realm of a great game, the main draw here for many people is still the surrounding presentation, and in that the game comes through in spades.

First and most importantly though, let's talk about how the game actually plays. The top-down view certainly fits the PSP better than a third-person camera would have (due to the system only having a single analog stick), but the bird's eye camera system has a number of flaws. Though you're able to swivel the camera around 50, you basically need to stop everything to do so as you need to hold L and then press left or right on the D-Pad to spin your view. The camera is situated rather close to 50, and you're not able to zoom in or out, so it can be very difficult to navigate about the environment. The in-game map doesn't help much either because while it gives you a slightly larger view of the area, it isn't exactly accurate. Some large objects, like immovable machinery and such that block your path, don't show up on the map. To make matters worse, even though your G Unit Mobile device has pretty much everything else you'd need, you aren't able to bring up a full-screen view of the area. In other words, you'll find yourself wandering down alley after alley, hallway after hallway and hoping that you're headed in the right direction simply because you can only see 10 feet in front of you.

The fighting mechanics have numerous problems as well. While the game is mostly fair in that enemies won't shoot at you from off-screen, the camera is close enough that enemies are right on top of you by the time you can see them. This isn't too big of a deal, but it again hints at the fact that the camera was poorly implemented. The main drawback to combat however is that it's flat-out boring. When you have a pistol in your hand, all you need to do is hold R to lock on and repeatedly tap X until everyone on the screen is dead. The same goes for boss fights - so long as you have enough energy and pain killers, you're going to win every time. There really isn't any strategy or skill needed in the game at all, so after about half an hour it feels as if you've seen just about everything there is to see as far as combat is concerned.

The counter-kills and ability to hold soldiers as human shields mixes things up just a tad, but while the human shield mechanic works just fine, the counter-kill system has a major flaw in that when you steal the enemy's weapon, you automatically switch to using it. If you're running around with a pistol and perform a counter-kill on someone with a nightstick, or worse, someone who's bare-handed, you'll have to manually switch back to your pistol afterwards. There's an option for turning off auto-switching, but this only applies to weapons you pick up off the ground and not those nabbed via a counter-kill. A slight annoyance with regards to this is that the only way you can take a weapon from an enemy is with a counter-kill; they won't drop it if you kill them from a distance.

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Game Details

Published by: Vivendi Games
Developed by: High Voltage Software
Genre: Third-Person Action
Release Date:
United States: September 12, 2006
UK: October 27, 2006
Australia: September 30, 2006
MSRP: 39.99 USD
Also Available On: PS2, Xbox
Also known as: 50 Cent: Bulletproof