There were a lot of additions to the genre of first person shooters at this year's E3. Nintendo's Geist provided unique gameplay with a twist, while Valve's Half-Life 2 wowed gamers with its complex environments and stunning graphics. Often times, a game is passed over by way of saturation. Ubi Soft's XIII could easily have been one of these games, but seems to have garnered a certain respect as it pushes the envelope on style and story. Despite some issues with the demo, I think the October 10th release will provide a welcome addition to the coming year's lineup.
Ubi Soft's details say, "You wake up on a desolate strip of New England beach. The near-fatal impact of a bullet has left your head pounding, and your memory erased. What's more, the number 'XIII' has been mysteriously tattooed on your chest, while your pocket holds a key to a New York City bank box. Head swimming in amnesia, you struggle to your feet only to encounter more assailants intent on finishing the job. To your shock, you handle the hitmen with the killing skills of a professional - before heading to the bank in search of any shred of information about your lost identity and your involvement in the President's murder."
Ubi Soft had a great idea in this title, and followed through very well with it. Cel shading a first person shooter seemed like a very bad idea to me until I actually saw it in action. The comic book feel of the game couples with the seriousness of the plot to make a near perfect experience. Comic book style panels that appear when you kill someone in an especially gruesome way give a reprieve to the endless running and shooting. The "sixth sense" feature adds a lot to the atmosphere, as being able to hear and see cues from approaching enemies is simply fantastic.
Hopefully the Xbox and PC demos they showed off weren't representative as to the final control scheme of the game. The complete inability to invert looking up and down was a huge problem for me, and I assume it would be an issue to a lot of other gamers as well. The fact that it's based on the Unreal II engine shows promise that this will be fixed in the final version. Aside from the aiming, the control was tight, well done on both of the consoles, and lent well to the PC version.
The weapons you'll be aiming range from silent crossbows to shovels. You can pick up whatever weapon an enemy soldier drops, and you can also pick up an enemy to carry around as a human shield. I can see this leading to various scenarios throughout the game requiring the use of such a mechanic. I welcome the challenge.
Multiplayer environments will provide another level of gameplay, allowing for several new modes alongside old standards. Barfight hasn't yet been explained to me, but I assume it involves players being thrown into an area with bottles and forced to duke it out. Cover Me seems self explanatory, and should be a good co-op mode to play through. Capture the Flag and Deathmatch are also included for old times' sake.
Ubi's follow-up to Splinter Cell should be a good mix of sneaking and head-on combat. Their relative youngness to the arena of FPS games should give some credit to their unique additions to the field. Despite the control issues present on the show floor, I can certainly see the potential for greatness in this game. XIII will be a great addition to every system for which it's released. A fantastic graphical style couples with good sound and an overt traitor-centered storyline to make XIII a unique and fun game.
