All Quiet on the 25 to Life Front
25 to Life
, Eidos' controversial cops-and-robbers shooter, slipped quietly into retail channels yesterday. So far, the expected backlash has been underwhelming. Aside from an article which appeared in the Salt Lake City Tribune last Friday, the launch of the game has not received a great deal of mainstream coverage.
That could change in a heartbeat, so we'll keep watching. Reviews, of course, will be a major factor. If, like, Grand Theft Auto San Andreas, 25 to Life is a major hit, expect politicians and pundits to attack. On the other hand, if 25 to Life bombs like last year's dreary NARC, it will drop quickly from everyone's radar.
We've only found one review so far, and it wasn't pretty. IGN's Charles Onyett ripped 25 to Life a new one in a scorching 3 (out of 10) ranking. Here's what Onyett had to say, in part:
"For anyone looking for definitive cops vs. robbers style of action game, this isn't it... Freeze has to kill about 300 police officers... a third person action game with a terrible aiming mechanic and woefully inadequate controls... With a game so specifically focused on combat, it's amazing how limited your character is in terms of abilities. After playing through the game's first two levels, you've seen pretty much all there is to see... all the enemies in the game seem very, very confused... There's really no reason to buy this game. The single player is boring, arrestingly conventional and entirely forgettable... In the end, 25 to Life turns out to be a flimsy product that feels tacked together strictly for the purposes of producing a "gangster" game..."
Ouch!
Reviews like that will do more to stop 25 to Life in its tracks than any politician ever could.