50 Cent: Bulletproof [Xbox]

Unfortunately, as the game is basically a straightforward shooter all the way through, the fact that the battles can be boring, if not frustrating at times, makes most of the general gameplay rather uncompelling. While most of it simply relies on pointing and shooting, there are a few aspects that change it up slightly from your general mindless shooter, though not a ton.

For starters, though the game's title says otherwise, 50 Cent is in fact not bulletproof. Since you can get mowed down very quickly without armor, you'll need to make use of whatever cover is available. You can duck behind a wall, pop out and fire off a couple shots to take down foes, or grab a large trash bin or something and use it as mobile cover while you push it. Since enemies tend to pop up behind you though, it sort of kills the usefulness of cover, which is unfortunate. As well, like the interactive items, you need to be in just the right place to back up against or grab cover. This can be a buzz kill, for sure.

For close enemy melee, you have the ability to perform counter-kills, similar to what was seen in Dead to Rights. With these moves, you'll basically disarm an enemy and kill him in one foul swoop. There are a whole slew of counter-kills available to you, though you have to buy all but the first few starting moves, and all of them are animated very well. They're also extremely violent, so as is the case with just about every other second of this game, children need not apply.

Visually, 50 Cent: Bulletproof is a pretty damn nice looking game. It's not the most technologically sophisticated game we've ever seen (that's Vib Ribbon), but its art direction is quite excellent.

For starters, all of the characters are fantastically realized takes on the real people, if not a tad bit exaggerated. It's very clear who plays (or is, as the case may be) everyone in the game, and there's just an overall feeling of care and time that went into creating their virtual characters. 50 Cent in particular looks awesome, tilted hat and all, though the supporting cast isn't far behind.

The game also looks very clean, even if it does take place in some unpleasant areas. Both the PS2 and Xbox versions are rendered quite sharply with nary an aliased line to be seen, and though the textures may not be of super-high resolution, they're all consistent throughout the game. Bulletproof simply has a very cohesive feel to it visually, and though it may not be a showpiece game, it's a very, very solid-looking title.

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