50 Cent: Blood on the Sand

""Bitch took my skull!""

- 50 Cent, describing the game's central conflict

50 Cent: Blood On The Sand is a third person shoot em up featuring rapper 50 Cent As Himself as the main character. Though technically a sequel to the not well received 50 Cent: Bulletproof, this game managed to get average critical acclaim... and a ton of So Bad It's Good value.

The majority of said value is related to the game's High Concept plot: The game begins with 50 Cent and the G-Unit finishing a concert in an unnamed, war-torn Middle Eastern country, only for the promoter to refuse to pay the promised $10 million fee due to an alleged robbery. After 50 Cent points a gun to the promoter's head, the latter gives 50 a priceless diamond encrusted skull as collateral. 50 accepts only for the skull to be stolen as soon as he walks out the door by a paramilitary group connected to a local warlord. The rest of the game involves 50 and a selected G-Unit partner slaughtering their way through the Middle East to recover the skull.

Yes, that's the plot.

The game itself is a fairly linear third person shooter with a Gears of War-esque cover mechanic. However, the game also has a points-based mechanic similar to that of The Club (no relation to 50's song In Da Club) in which you gain points by fulfilling special timed objectives given to you in several points (usually involving killing specific enemies, or killing them in a specific way) or by killing enemies regularly though you can increase the score by... swearing at them. Via the dedicated swear button. Said points are then able to be used in the game's shop where you can buy and upgrade weapons... as well as swears.

Yeah, you can see why this game is better regarded than its predecessor.

This game provide examples of:
"G-Unit: "How the fuck is Amal supposed to deliver in here?"
 * A God Am I: Kamal says this in the theatre.
 * Aluminum Christmas Trees: Some cultures actually decorated human skulls in ornate manners, though possibly not to the extent of the skull in this game.
 * Badass: 50 Cent and the G-Unit. They rap songs, make their fans happy and get filthy rich. They also fight through war-torn cities and kill crazy terrorists and highly-paid and trained mercs.
 * Fifty can take three rockets to the torso and he doesn't even flinch.
 * Blatant Item Placement: Lampshaded when 50 can order guns while inside a burning theater.

50: "Shut the fuck up. I'm making a call.""

"Anwar: Kamal's base of operations must be deep inside the theatre. He's well known for having a love of the dramatic."
 * Bloodless Carnage: Mostly averted, but during the cutscene when Wilder gets into the helicopter and, 50 shots two of Wilder's men who fall over dead without a single wound or blood splatter.
 * Bloody Hilarious: You can shoot your teammate as much as you like, he won't mind or lose health (or even react). However, if he is standing next to a wall, you could technically paint the wall with his blood.
 * Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Eighty percent of the people 50 Cent meets in the game.
 * Cluster F-Bomb: It's 50 Cent, what did you expect? There's even a swear button.
 * Collection Sidequest: In which Fiddy grabs promotional posters of... himself.
 * Color Coded for Your Convenience: Short-range weapons are blue and take blue ammo, assault rifles and machine guns are yellow, special weapons like sniper rifles and rocket launchers are red. Enemies will also wear shirts color-coded to this so you can tell at a glance what they're armed with.
 * Convection, Schmonvection: Fire doesn't hurt 50. The G-Unit also won't be hurt by 50's fire bullets.
 * Corrupt Hick: Wilder.
 * Dull Surprise: The default facial state for 50 and G-Unit are rather slack-jawed and blank, even when they are stabbing people to death. Fortunately they're much more expressive in cutscenes.
 * Fisher King: Implied during the takedown animations as 50 Cent transports mooks into a stark black and white world that, in the Let's Play, is called "Fiddy Space".
 * Gatling Good: One sequence has you manning a helicopter mini gun and laying waste to an enemy base.
 * Groin Attack: Cheezum and Ironicus in the Let's Play, for no apparent reason.
 * Hello, Insert Name Here: Since the G-Unit partner is interchangeable, 50 never mentions his name when talking to him despite said partner usually going "YO FIDDY!" every five minutes. As the Giant Bomb video review says, this can give the impression that 50 is an uncaring taskmaster surrounded by a trio of sycophants.
 * Hey, It's That Voice!: A mercenary is voiced by Lance Reddick, aka. Cedric Daniels from The Wire.
 * Hidden Depths: The G-Unit member lampshades several of the game's over-the-top tropes, recognizes a desert castle as Napoleonic on sight, and admires the statuary in the city you're currently destroying. Even 50 is surprised by this.
 * Improbable Use of a Weapon: With the aid of explosive ammo, taking out a helicopter with a handgun.
 * Large Ham: Kamal. Anwar even lampshades it:

"General Ironicus: I Knew It!!"
 * Let's Play: One by ChipCheezum and General Ironicus which handily allows you to experience this game's lunacy without buying it.
 * Made of Iron: As the Let's Play demonstrates, 50 Cent can take an RPG three RPGs to the chest and survive. Apparently, 50 is not simply bulletproof, but mortarproof as well.
 * The LPers also theorized that, when the game was being made, the guideline "Make a sequel to 50 Cent: Bulletproof" eventually mutated into "Make 50 Cent bulletproof".
 * Hell, at one point in the game itself, 50 actually claims to be bulletproof!


 * Multiple Endings: The two endings depend on whether or not 50 opens the shutters, setting off an alarm and dooming Leila and her family or going the longer way through the level.
 * Mundane Utility: Once 50 gets the expensive diamond-encrusted skull back,.
 * No Honor Among Thieves: Said by Wilder after betrays him.
 * No OSHA Compliance: Your G-Unit buddy lampshades this when you reach a construction site. Really.
 * Private Military Contractors: Appear as the villains.
 * Qurac
 * Real Is Brown: So extremely brown that the LPers thought there was something wrong with the video.
 * Refuge in Audacity: Again, a game where you play as 50 Cent, fight your way through the war torn Middle East and gain extra points by swearing at people while you shoot them.
 * Shout-Out: Some of the achievement titles, such as Lord Of The Bling.
 * Stealth Parody: Zero Punctuation's take on it.
 * This Is for Emphasis, Bitch: In addition to the dedicated swear button, 50 Cent will often yell out something like "suck on this!" when tossing a grenade.
 * Token Romance: Leila.
 * Zillion-Dollar Bill: The skull.