25 to Life

Cheat Code Central

The online portion of 25 To Life isn't bad; it's not deep by any stretch nor does it look particularly wonderful, but you and your pals can run around the city and shoot each other online and I bet some of you will really like it.

eToychest

It's not completely without merit, especially if you are able to find a few friends online to play with.

VGPub

If you have Live, this can be an incredibly enjoyable game once you get used to the profane and immature nature of players that frequent the lobbies.

GamerFeed

Boring, boring, boring. It's like a life sentence unto itself...only you can control when it ends by hitting the power button.

Game Informer

You know the drill: extremely linear level designs that stitch together corridors, open areas, and dull objectives with all the refinement and subltlety of a drunken quilting circle. [Mar 2006, p.100]

GameSpot

25 to Life is a lifelessly generic shooter that, at times, feels like "Max Payne" without the fun.

Extreme Gamer

Sadly, besides the online portion 25 to Life is a dated effort that seems too generic, and overall dull.

Loaded Inc

The linear gameplay and the poor shooting mechanics prevent it from getting anywhere close to being fun or interesting.

Gamer 2.0

The boring graphics, the (mostly) garbage sound, and the obscenely boring story will leave you in a non-marijuana induced daze.

Worth Playing

25 to Life is the kind of hideous trash that damages gaming's reputation, resulting in the genesis of the Jack Thompsons of the world. I need to go play Pokemon or something, to get this awful taste out of my mouth.

Gamers' Temple

25 to Life just doesn’t have anything going for it that warrants a look at the game unless you’re gangsta obsessed or bored out of your mind after playing every other available Xbox game out there. Save yourself the frustration and spend your gaming dollars elsewhere.

Team Xbox

It’s not that 25 to Life is bad, it’s actually just awful. Terrible in fact. There is not a single aspect of the game, less the soundtrack and Xbox Live play, which should be copied by another game.

The Onion (A.V. Club)

You have to struggle with touchy controls and flaws in the game logic. For example, if you hang onto a human shield for too long, the cops will just shoot your hostage to get him out of the way. How is that fair to anybody?

IGN

The single player is boring, arrestingly conventional and entirely forgettable. The multiplayer is slightly better, though mostly because of its options and not because of its gameplay.

1UP

Pandering to every college student and aspiring rap artist's deep-seated "Scarface" fantasies, 25 to Life is a 3D action-shooter that not only fails to innovate on any level, but rolls back design and technological advancements to the early PSone era.

GameSpy

25 to Life is almost like a dirty joke -- You're laughing at how bad it is and feeling guilty at the same time. Don't waste your time or money on this game, it'll make your think-bone hurt.

Digital Entertainment News

The only slightly redeeming qualities of 25 to Life are the soundtrack and game play over Xbox Live.

ZTGameDomain

The controls are busted, the AI is pathetic, and even with online play you will grow tired of it within an hour of game time.

Edge Magazine

If there’s one thing that 25 To Life gets to do right, let it bring an end to this destructive preoccupation with the cross-media lure of gritty, crime-flavoured urban violence, and the unacceptably low standards it so often brings with it. [Mar 2006, p.89]

Official Xbox Magazine

At least there’s an online-enabled multiplayer mode, but it sure isn’t worth suffering through the dismal single-player campaign for. [Mar 2006, p.82]