25 to Life is an urban action third person shooter that has a story-driven single-player mode and a team-based multiplayer mode. The single-player portion is mission-based and has a storyline where you play in turns as a good cop, bad cop, and gangster. You start you out in the role of Freeze, a gangster who's trying to get out of the game and escape with his wife and son. You'll also play as a cop surrounded by dirty cops and as a gang leader who gets banished to Mexico only to end up taking over the organized-crime scene there by force. Each of these playable characters has a unique background, but in one way or another, they remain connected to the main storyline. The story is all over the place, and since the playable characters are to a certain extent connected, you're never really sure if you're playing as a good guy or a bad guy.

In a lot of ways, the game plays like Max Payne. You are given a view behind your character, and you will see the action unfold that way. Unlike Max Payne, the gameplay lacks emotional gratification. It doesn't give you much to go for other than to rack up the number of killings as many as you can. In terms of shooting, the game boils down to hiding behind boxes and then spraying your enemies with bullets. In each single player mission you're given a primary objective, as well as several secondary ones. Killing xx enemies, getting xx headshots or breaking xx cash machines are a few of the secondary objectives that, if completed, net you bonus goodies for the multiplayer mode. Unfortunately, the missions are short, easy, and the same thing over and over.

The game offers a wide variety of guns including several pistols, SMGs, assault rifles, Rocket launcher, grenades and Molotov cocktails. Ammo is easy to find, as is health. They don't even hide the gun and health pickups - for some reason they smoke! However, the most irritating aspect of the game is getting used to aiming. No matter how hard you try sometimes, it seems almost impossible to fire accurately. But don't worry - the AI is poor in this game so you won't have too much trouble taking the enemies out. In addition, the character controls are pretty basic. You can run, crouch, lean, and sometimes climb walls. There is no jumping, there is no sneaking...

The team-based multiplayer is definitely where you're going to want to spend most of your time with this game. This mode offers four different variants and allow up to a maximum of 16 players to enter. The setting is basically cops versus criminals team match, and the list of multiplayer modes includes War (typical team death match), Raid (Raid puts you on the defensive side, protecting your stash from being raided by cops), Robbery (your goal is to loot as many items on the map and bring them back to the base), and Tag (a graffiti war between different gangs - you must tag the walls to earn control points). The multiplayer in 25 to Life does have potential, but it never seems to be addictive enough. It also fails to bring any innovations in terms of gameplay. Another very serious drawback to multiplayer 25 to Life is the lack of people to play with.

Should you get the game? NO! But if you still plan it, you should at least try renting it first.

related links: homepage, UK fansite, trailers, cheats, unlocker.

System Requirements:
Minimum: Pentium IV 1.4GHz (or AthlonXP equivalent), 256MB RAM, 100% DirectX 9 compatible 64MB Direct3D Card with Pixel Shader 1.1 support (GeForce 3/Radeon 8500+) (GeForce 4MX Not Supported), 100% DirectX 9 compatible Sound Card, DVD-ROM drive, 2.5GB uncompressed free disk space LAN and Broadband play supported.
Recommended: Pentium IV 2.4GHz (or AthlonXP/64 equivalent), 512MB RAM, 100% DirectX 9 compatible 128MB Direct3D Card with Pixel Shader 2.0 support (GeForce 6 & 7 Series/Radeon)

Note: Laptops & Integrated graphic cards may function but are not supported.