XIII

The Good
XIII's most impressive defining factor is the confidence of its storytelling. Shamelessly wearing its influences on its sleeve, the game manages to meld elements openly borrowed from 24, The X-Files, Metal Gear Solid and other obvious sources, as well as the mythology of recent history, and in doing so, create a whole that is graced with a life of its own, rather than the pastiche of dead second-hand parts that may be expected.
One of this year's great disappointments in cinema, for me, was Sokurov's Russian Ark. That film attempted to tell a large, overarching story entirely in the first person, with quiet, melancholic narrative brushstrokes applied by its unseen narrator (here echoed with ghostlike similarity by David Duchovny as the eponymous protagonist).
Comparison between cinema and videogames, as art forms at large, are usually a risky business indeed; but XIII manages to succeed precisely in many of the ways Ark failed: the first person, usually a clunky, viscerally distant perspective (cf. Ellroy's White Jazz, EA's Rising Sun, and, of course, Russian Ark), is here employed confidently and adeptly to tell a story filled with twists, double-crosses, flashbacks, hallucinations, even the odd tried-and-true visual cliche of "this person is on drugs"-cam.
Perhaps it works so well because the visual style is so confident. XIII's graphics are not excellent. At times, the game looks downright silly: large, unwieldy polygons attempt to emulate explosions, mazes of hedge and brush in later levels are rendered in unsophisticated meshes of texture (videogames just can't do foliage, particularly up close, but to see failure after failure is disheartening, particularly when there are so many things the medium can do ably). However, this doesn't matter as much as it would, perhaps because the game doesn't sell itself on any tired ideals of visual realism or graphical smoothness. Like the intentionally rough, mixed-media collage that forms the visual style of Miller's later Batman works, or the stylized-to-11 look of any Western cartoon worth the time of day (Samurai Jack, Spongebob), XIII may not always look spectacular, but it does manage a look all its own, setting itself next to Timesplitters 2 or The Wind Waker in steadfast refusal to be measured on any terms except its own.
And when it does look good, XIII looks very good. Washed-out, glowing dream sequences; comic-book panels slamming across the screen to alert the player to pertinent events or reward for a stylish action. The visual and sonic flair evident in the game propel this highly story-driven piece well, keeping the player hooked from moment to moment, unfolding like the graphic novel from which the game takes its basis.
And like a good pulp comic book, the action is immediate, flashy, taking pains to always have a task in front of the player: a gunfight, a row of guards to sneak behind, a sequence of hooks to swing between (in an admirably-realized manner that takes a cue from Metroid Prime while managing to not do that game any disservice). There is little free-range challenge-finding in this game. A game that openly states its intention to propel you via its narrative, XIII is prescripted to the nth degree, but most of the time, here it's done right. You know you're walking along a path someone else has laid out for you, but in this case, it's too much fun for you to mind.
The fact that the first-person is a perspective that, by definition, must run in constant real-time and without the luxury of editing or camera placement to enhance visual or experiential flair, means that when it's done well, such as here, it's an impressive and note-worthy exercise in any media.

The Bad
The question that must be asked of XIII, that rears up early and recurs often, threatening to justify or damn its every gambit both narratological and ludological, is this: If this looked like Half-Life, would I be playing it? Do the welcome excesses in stylistic adventure justify yet another game where I walk around a warehouse shooting guards, another maze where I must use - yawn - Stealth to dispatch my opponents with a well-placed - deeper yawn - headshot, subsequently - groan - hiding their bodies so the enemy won't - anguished howl - sound the alarm and end my mission before I've really done anything?
And the answer is: maybe. If XIII didn't sound like a cosmopolitan spy thriller and look like a gorgeous violent cartoon, it would be the bastard child of Metal Gear Solid and Deus Ex, stealing so many ideas from them, adding nothing and providing little thrill in the process.
I play XIII because if I see one more first-person shmup with realistically-textured bricks and fetishistically-realised real-world weapons, my back teeth will be swimming; but I like a good story, and I like a fun videogame, and XIII is both those things. But that doesn't mean I can't admit that if the game is a tricky exercise in influential alchemy: take this element from here, present it as seen in that movie there, and then add the life, the magic, that gels it all together.
And that magic doesn't work on everyone. And if it doesn't work on you, you'll find yourself playing a game that boasts originality, but not in spades; and pastiches elements of countless other games, but not in a manner that thoroughly overshadows the source material.
A game where enemies can take three shots to the face at close-range before dying; a game where you sneak past five soldiers, remembering the several dozen other times you've done the same thing here and elsewhere, only to be spotted and greeted with an unceremonious "failure" message and made to do it all again; a game where an old man's importance in the story can augment him with quadruple the health of a soldier who should, by rights, be a much tougher opponent, but isn't, because hey, this is a videogame, and you need boss battles, right? A game with crates, and switches, and - for the love of God - escort missions.
This, then, is several things that haven't been done before, a lot of things that have, but are in fine form here; and a handful of things that have been done far, far too often.

The Bottom Line
As a good story well-told in a medium that often overlooks both qualities, it's a standout and a joy. As a first-person shooter, it's high-quality MOR. As a showcase of things that videogames really should get over already, at times, it's sadly comprehensive.

The Good
You wash ashore like so much drift wood carrying only a key to a safety deposit box and the number XIII tattooed on your collarbone. Faint memories… a boat… a helicopter… are all you have. Somewhat dazed, you are led to a lifeguard shack by the woman on duty. Then the sounds of a helicopter and gunfire bring you around. Gunmen are moving in on the shack and all you can find to defend yourself is a knife. It's a good thing your muscle memory is combat-ready.

In XIII, the player takes on the role of ----- --- (David Duchovny), a man believed to be Steve Rowland, or XIII,—the assassin who gunned down President Sherridan. Since the only clue points to Winslow Bank, XIII begins his quest, both for his identity and the truth about the assassination, there. Instead of clearing the matter up, XIII finds himself embroiled in a conspiracy with government agents trying to capture him and rogue elements working to kill him. Caught between these two forces, XIII finds himself rescued by Major Jones (Eve) and is soon rescuing General Carrington (Adam West) from a renegade military force.

XIII is a fast-paced cel-shaded first-person shooter, based on a series of French graphic novels. Its resemblance to a playable comic book is its strongest feature. The cel-shading looks like a cartoon image, but offers more detail than other cel-shaded games have managed. Dialogue takes place in word balloons over the characters' heads, sound effects are presented in comic book fashion—machine guns fire out ammo with a visual "RAT-A-TAT-TAT"; footsteps are shown with "TAP TAP" (which is also an aid on stealth missions); explosions show a "BOOM." More impressive are in-game effects, like sniper shots that are shown with a pull-out panel effect and conversations that XIII can hear but cannot see, are shown via comic strips.

As XIII uncovers more of the conspiracy, he finds himself working through the twenty (I to XX) members of a clandestine group whose ultimate goal is the overthrow of the United States government. The variety of levels range from the aforementioned bank to a military base he must infiltrate, frozen tundra that conceals a cabin where Steve Rowland's wife is hiding, a submarine base, and more. In general, the outdoor levels look better than the indoor levels. Moving through levels typically involves finding magnetic security cards to open locked doors, but there's also a good deal of duct-crawling or plain old running and gunning. Mission objectives also strike a nice balance between all-out action or silent infiltration.

XIII is a trained killing machine—whoever he really is. If he sneaks up behind enemies he can quickly take them out or take a noncombatant hostage. He's quick with his fists, but he can also pick up chairs, ashtrays, brooms, and other objects to score a quick KO. As he progresses through the game, XIII finds shotguns, machineguns, pistols, crossbows, throwing knives, grenades, and a good old bazooka. He also can dual-wield pistols and miniguns (UZIs) for those special times when filling the air with lead is more important than accuracy.

The more XIII does in the game, the more he remembers about his past. Key areas or phrases trigger flashbacks to the events leading up to his amnesia. He regains his memory and recalls special skills: lock picking, diving, moving stealthily and more. He also remembers how to use gadgets, especially a very useful grappling hook. XIII can hook hotspots and then use the grapple's control to hoist himself up or lower himself down to an area. He can also swing back and forth on the cable to build enough momentum for a longer jump.

With few exceptions, all of XIII's enemies are gunmen: basic fodder, sharpshooters, or bosses who aren't afraid to pull out the heavy weaponry. While there are some AI issues, the player can change the difficulty setting on a sliding scale from Arcade (easy) to Realistic (one shot, one kill). XIII can find armor to reduce the damage he takes and while the game really doesn't use locational damage, headshots are usually the most effective.

The Bad
The shortest possible version of my hour-long installation saga is to say that XIII and my anti-virus software didn't get along. Since this is the first time I've encountered this conflict, I blame XIII. Anyway, disabling my anti-virus software let me fully install XIII—the first full installation I've seen that still requires disk swapping. Another interesting programming feature is the quick save. Quick saves don't bookmark your position in-game, they act as a quick version of the regular save function that takes you back to the start of a level or the closest checkpoint. Also the game lacks any autosave function, so if you want to leave the game, make sure you've saved first.

XIII also relies too heavily on event triggers. At several points, XIII needs to escort people to an area. Just getting them to the area isn't enough, though. He also has to stand in the correct spot (usually right in front of them) for the next event to occur. At one point, I was defending my location against waves of enemies and eventually I killed them all. Then I waited… and backtracked… and tried jumping on everything… and shot some stuff… and checked a walkthrough to learn that I killed a bazooka man before he had the chance to blow a hole in a wall.

If you've seen The Bourne Identity or read the book, then the whole amnesia thing-go to a bank-find a conspiracy thing might sound familiar. I believe the French source material for the game acknowledges Robert Ludlum as an inspiration, but with the Jason Bourne movies being so big right now, XIII feels like a retread. It doesn't help that Duchovny has very few lines and his talents and the role's requirements don't match up. XIII does have a great story, but the game play is focused on the action not the plot. At times, I wasn't sure how I got to an area or how I knew to go there, except for a brief blurb.

The Bottom Line
In this age of graphical realism, I was impressed by the visual flair found in XIII. Call it style over substance, but I found the dynamic visuals in XIII refreshing. I've played other games with cartoon-like graphics or presented as an interactive graphic novel, but XIII pulls it off the best. While I have problems with the core gaming experience, I think XIII is a winner in terms of presentation. As a game though, XIII doesn't bring anything new to the table (except for gorgeous fireworks).

The Good
The graphics were what first attracted me to this game. The comic book style is not only visually pleasing but also integrated into the gameplay elements. For example if you wait by a door the words "TAP TAP TAP" represent the presence, and also the location and direction of any guards moving on the other side. Also panel overlays often show views of important items or dangerous situations. Hopefully a sequel will expand on these elements.

Underneath all the comic book gloss is a solid story and some good gameplay elements. My favourite sections were the stealth sections which are done very well even with the absence of a MGS style enemy view cone. The AI on the average soldiers is quite good which makes up for the disappointing AI on the boss characters. This is not a game where running in and blasting away will get you very far.

The ability to knock-out guards with things you find around you is a nice idea. Unfortunately, the tedious throw aside animation means that if you miss you'll have to stand there in a hail of bullets before you can perform a follow-up attack.

The music tracks help to complete the mood of the game and are in keeping with the overall style. The idle chatter of the guards are also an amusing diversion when you have to play the same section several times.

The Bad
I didn't get off to a good start with this title. Firstly I couldn't install from the discs - I had to copy the files to the hard drive first, and then install from there. Secondly, the copy protection system wouldn't let me play the game even with the disc in the drive! I contemplated cracking the game but eventually found out that the copy protection data doesn't exist on the install disc and you have to use the first game disc. I regretted my decision to persevere with the legitimate system later when it turned out you still had to disc swap even if you installed the entire game (what's the point of having the option if you still have to disc swap?) These pathetic anti-piracy efforts are only annoying for legitimate customers of course!

While most of the levels are well balanced, the boss levels are another story. They aren't hard because they have better AI or skills than the normal bad guys: they're hard because you have to hit them so many times. For example a direct hit with a rifle grenade will barely touch most of the boss characters, yet the splash back from this same grenade could well kill you! You are more likely to fail these levels through lack of ammunition than through lack of tactical skill. Only persistence will eventually get you through.

The save game system is quite flaky too. Several times I had to play the same level two or three times because the game didn't save properly.

The Bottom Line
It is an interesting twist on the first person shooter, with a distinctive graphical style, and well designed plot. But beneath the style it brings very little new to the genre.

The Good
Firstly, the cell-shaded graphics are excellent, and are what will undoubtedly draw most people to the game. Rather than being cartoony (like The Wind Waker), XIII - read 'thirteen' - actually looks and feels like a real graphic novel. It's a 3D comic and it works brilliantly. Hitting an enemy with a head-shot spawns a box-out window showing some white-bordered stills of the bullet finding its target which, although getting repetitive after a while, are hugely satisfying. Ubi Soft have tried hard to make the graphics mean more to the game than just eye-candy, though; explosions and enemy footsteps are displayed as a Batman-style 'Boom!' or 'tap-tap-tap...', meaning that the player can visually follow enemies that are obscured by buildings, etc, which is a useful feature.

The story takes amnesiac Steve Rowland across the US in an attempt to unravel a conspiracy surrounding an assassinated president. Locations are always interesting and varied (of particular note is the clifftop mansion towards the end of the game with beautiful ocean view) and the mix of stealthy, weaponless and blast 'em missions is good.

For GameCube owners coming to XIII after a spell away from the FPS genre, an improvement in enemy AI is immediately noticeable. Soldiers hide around corners, wait in ambush behind crates and inside doorways and actually notice (most of the time) that their partners have been taken out right in front of them. No more will the TimeSplitters2 strategy of popping your head round the corner and then waiting for baddies to stumble blindly into your line of fire bring you success.

Special mention must also be made of the game's ending of which, of course, I can say little here, other than than certain graphical effects are very cool indeed. Oh, and that it's playable!

The Bad
On the negative side, some may find that XIII's story is a little too complicated. The plot is unveiled in spurts and starts with cut scenes at the end of some levels, leaving those without a good memory for character's names in the dark. There's no way to replay these cut scenes, even after finishing the game, which is a shame as they are certainly worth a repeat viewing. It is possible to watch a 2D comic style presentation of the story, but in contrast to the cut-scenes this serves to shed very little light on the conspiracy and the identity of Steve Rowland.

What's worse is that it isn't possible to replay your favourite levels without resorting to saving a new game after each. This is particularly frustrating given that there are hidden 'secret documents' to collect throughout the game - if you miss one, there's no opportunity to go back for it. Ubi Soft should have looked back to Goldeneye 007 for a lesson in how to manage this properly.

Also - and when will developers learn - why are the controls so odd? For some reason, 'B' is secondary fire, 'A' is action and 'R' and 'Z' are primary fire and crouch respectively. This will catch players out even after several hours of play. Surely primary and secondary fire should be 'R' and 'Z'! And why not give us the option to change it? Streetfighter II, back in the 16-bit era, gave us this freedom!

Ultimately, though, what lets this game down is just how unextraordinary it is. Sure, the graphics are superb, but once you see through them you'll realise how little it brings to the FPS table, borrowing heavily from Deus Ex and the other games by Rare and Free Radical Design that I mention above.

The Bottom Line
The bottom line is that XIII is a supremely enjoyable game with superb graphics, excellent sound effects and acting (including an underused David Duchovny, a nice choice for a conspiracy game). Just don't expect it to add anything new to your collection. FPS starved GameCube owners should definitely look into it.

The Good
I didn't even know this game was released until recently. According to Mobygames, it was released in the beginning of October? I found that very strange, since this game was hyped to Hell and back during developement, and yet when it was finally released I heard absolutely nothing about it. That really led me to believe that the game was a huge flop. And I read some rather unsettling reviews on top of that, and a lot of people complained about terrible stealth missions. Oh, and the lack of a savegame feature...ugh. Everything I heard of this game just made me think more and more that it wasn't worth it. But thanks to online game trading sites, I managed to get ahold of a copy quite easily, and I must say that after finishing the game, I'm just astounded that this game isn't getting more attention.

This is the first cell-shaded game I've played, and boy did they take the time to make it absolutely perfect. The comic book graphics, the panels that appear on-screen, the three-panel still shot when you kill someone from a distance, in particular, is just wonderful. I've never been a big comic book fan, but I just love the style in this game. In almost any part of the game, were you to take a screenshot, you may not be able to tell whether it was in-game or part of an actual rendered comic book. Bravo, Ubi Soft!

XIII is a first person shooter. Despite its comic book style, it's still just a first person shooter, but it doesn't fail there at all, either. Plenty of guns to keep you occupied, head-shots (almost always) are instant-kills, walking makes you quiet, and lots of vents to crawl through. You sometimes take on enemies one at a time, sometimes you take down fifteen at a time. Lots of things you hide behind, and you can even use parts of the environment (knives, chairs, bottles) to aid you in combat. If you're not a first-person shooter fan, the game probably won't entertain you, but if you are a FPS fan, this game is great.

Also for use in your arsenal is a grappling hook, which, unlike many other games, works wonderfully. You can't use it anywhere, and in fact, it's only used in key parts of the game, but it works. You might have to use it to swing to a ledge, and you'll find that it works great. You won't be surprised by some strange force of physics that throw you around like a rag doll in the wind. Using it to sneak down to some bad guys talking about their evil plans was great fun.

There are about thirty-five levels in all. The levels are varied enough, although the sequence of advancing through each level doesn't change much. Outdoor areas tend to lead you through the environment, up hills, through swaps, accross snowy fields, etc. Indoor areas lead you through vents, computer rooms, smashing windows. What I mean is, you pretty much know what you're going to be doing in any level based on what kind of environment you find yourself in. Call this a good or bad thing, if you want.

The storyline is also intriguing. The whole "d00d I can't remember who I am!" thing has been done to death, but thankfully the story isn't really about that, so much as it is about the "Number" guys and their evil plots. Learning about yourself and regaining what little of your memory you can was a lot better when it wasn't the main focus of the plot. XIII is one of the few first-person shooters I've played lately which really had me glued to my seat. I didn't beat this game just to beat it, I beat it because I wanted to see the entire story.

It helped that the game isn't very hard at all. Bosses are tougher than normal guys, but not THAT much tougher. You won't spend an hour trying to beat a certain spot. At least, I didn't. I found the game to be very easy, and I liked it that way. I'm tired of realistic "die in one or two hits" FPSs, just because they make you exercize the quicksave/quickload buttons until your fingers bleed. No, this game isn't realistic, it's a run-and-gun game that's loads of fun to play.

I heard a lot of people complaining about the stealth missions. I can only think of one level in which took me more than three tries to beat because of the stealth elements. Seriously, I don't get what the big deal is. Yeah, if you want to just run in and kill everything, then you're probably going to really suck at the stealth missions...but heck, you don't even really need to be that stealthy. All you have to do is knock out the guards before they can reach an alarm, or hide the bodies well enough that a passing guard won't find it. I loved the stealth missions. They were easy, they were exciting, at times very tense. Bring on more stealth missions like these!

The Bad
The only thing I really didn't like about this game was the voice acting. Everybody does a fine job except for David Duchovny. I don't know why they spent the money to hire the guy to do the voice acting, considering he has about a total of ten lines in the entire game that aren't "Oh" or "Unf!" or "Who am I?"

Also another thing that annoys me is that there is no lip-syncing. When a character talks, it looks like they're chewing some bubble gum.

The Bottom Line
XIII is one of the best first-person shooters out there. The storyline is great, the graphics are breathtaking, and the style is everything it's hyped up to be. Don't believe the poots that found the stealth missions too hard, because honestly, they're not hard at all.

Aside from Duchovny's voice acting ability and the "bubble-gum chewing" lip-syncing, I find this game almost flawless.

The Good
XIII's graphic novel look is brilliant. It looks beautiful (though a generation or two behind other shooters released around the same time) and the game play's smooth as one could ask for. The first 15 minutes met the high expectations I had set for the game...

The Bad
...but soon after I found that my hopes were MUCH too high. When the developer's of XIII announced that it would play like a comic book, nerds across the nation began salivating over what looked to be the ultimate "Hybrid of Nerdities." But soon after it's release fan's realized that by "comic book structure," the developers meant a linear bore of a traditional shooter, stuffed with panel intro's and outro's, and the irritating sound effect text's (a la batman) to give it a comic books feel. The gameplay is average, offering nothing extraordinary. I would like to know how a developer can make a FPS that has more in common Blake Stone than modern shooters of the time, and expect it to blow the mind's of gamers around the world. The story begins with a cool introduction to the world of Agent XIII, who seems to have forgotten everything about his previous life. Had the game kept the intriguing story as it's foremost concentration, I would have enjoyed it much more; but alas, it seems that shooting soldier after soldier with an M-16 is the proper way to regain one's identity. Pshh. The game doesn't even include region sensitive damage on an enemy besides the head. Pass this one up; the occasional flash back might have been cool if XIII delivered a story that pulled you in through the game play, but an intelligent game like Farcry or Doom III is a better way to spend your money.

The Bottom Line
Shoot, shoot, bang, kill, flashback, story information, shoot shoot shoot, bang, kill, blood, text, panels, end game.