XIII is Ubisoft's first-person shooter experiment that combines an interesting single player storyline (that begins with an amnesiac who turns up in the middle of nowhere with an empty head and a tattoo on his chest) with full-blown cel-shaded graphics. The result is a mixed bag that is entertaining, but falls short in a number of areas which we'll talk about shortly. You have to admire Ubisoft's bravery in attempting to bring a relatively obscure comic book series (at least in the United States) to the realm of interactive entertainment and use a graphical technique that has never been utilized to full affect in a first-person shooter. The end result is a good game that probably could have been a lot better given more time and refinement. What consumers end up with is a palatable first-person shooter game with a great single player storyline and a mediocre multiplayer experience. But enough of the jabs, let's throw down and talk about what both good and bad about Ubi's comic-book style shooter.
The basic storyline of XIII is about a man (played by David Duchovny) who wakes up on a beach, devoid of his memories and marked with a tattoo. No, he didn't get hammered at Coney Island with his biker buddies - this guy is in a serious world of trouble because he does remember a small fragment of something - an assassination of the President of the United States. But that small memory only brings forth a flurry of questions and no answers. If this sounds slightly like the beginning of the Bourne Identity, that's because there are striking similarities - a highly trained spy who's mind is blank, a mysterious key that opens up a deposit box at mysterious bank and the ability to kill people as easily as pouring a spot of tea on a Sunday morning.
The greatest thing about XIII is its story, and although the narrative is sometimes delivered with all the excitement of watching paint dry the overall plot is pretty impressive. The plotline will take players on a harrowing journey as you try to figure out who killed the president - was it you or was it another agent? The journey is a fascinating one and the storyline is enough to immerse players in the single player game to the end.
Gameplay, on the other hand, isn't perfect but it's palatable enough to get you through to the end. There are some good things about the game's overall presentation that make it fun. For instance, the story is delivered using comic-book style panels that pop up with narrative or a scene of importance. Other parts of the story are delivered in cutscenes and add a nice and different vehicle for delivering plot. Another comic-book style element that makes the game fun are the text blurbs that pop up in certain situations - for instance, when you've killed some guy off in the distance, you might see him scream a catchphrase which will be animated ever so slightly within the game as a word - or when you fire off a weapon like a rifle. The comic book style presentation side of the game is nearly flawless.
The gameplay itself is your standard FPS fare, and that's one of the problems with XIII. Players might enjoy the presentation, but the gameplay is nothing really new or innovative. Players will shoot down enemies, find ways to unlock doors, occasionally take a hostage and use a myriad of standard FPS weapons to get the job done. The game doesn't suck but it also doesn't deliver any gameplay elements that are awe inspiring or innovative. The other big problem with the AI is that it is dumb in most situations and inconsistent in others. The AI is programmed in a way that it doesn't have the good sense to take cover in most situations, and simply rushes into situations like the extra that dies on almost every episode of Star Trek - fools rush in, where wise men fear to tread. Putting the game on a higher difficulty level makes the AI slightly more accurate when in a fire-fight with the player, but it still isn't smart enough to take some cover. The AI also doesn't do a very good job of chasing the player down either - slip into a room, hit your target and exit, and you'd think the AI would follow - but that's not the case. Instead the enemy stays where it started and gets taken out eventually.
Moving on to graphics, the Xbox version is slightly better than looking than the PlayStation 2 version, but not by great lengths or depths, and you have to give credit where its due to the developers for making the game look as good as it does on the PlayStation 2. One of the biggest graphical drawbacks to XIII are the backdrops you'll traverse through during the game - they just don't look as great as you'd expect them to. Cel-shading works very well for creating a comic book feel when it comes to character models and even objects, but the jury's still out on whether it works or is even appropriate when it comes to texturing game levels. In this particular game, it gives the environment a visual downgrade - probably not the effect Ubisoft was hoping for. The game world's visuals are certainly palatable but perhaps using cel-shading for specific elements in the game would have been a better gamble. Overall the game looks good, but not exquisite as many fans following this game's development had hoped.
David Duchovny (X-Files), Eve (pop star) and Adam West (Batman) all lend their voices to the game, and do so with moderate success. Duchovny's delivery as XIII is kind of weak and comes off like he just doesn't care about the character he's supposed to be portraying. His lines are delivered with all the emotion and sincerity of an old woman reading off numbers in a bingo hall. Luckily the story is so interesting that not even Mulder's delivery can impact it negatively impact it.
Multiplayer is also a mixed bag. While there's a lot of variety both online and offline for players, the game levels and the over-abundance of objects on each map make online play a little less refined than it could have been. Multiplayer levels consist of a series of familiar locations culled from the single player game and the typical weapons, health, and armour are widely available on most levels. For those folks that don't want to go online there's a split-screen mode that allows you to play against friends or against the AI in a variety of gameplay modes including DM, Team DM, CTF, power-up, etc. Props to Ubisoft for thinking of players that don't have a PS2 Network Adapter or Xbox Live - at least they can enjoy the multiplayer side of the game without having to fork over some cash. While the multiplayer layer of the game is nothing to write home about, it's there if you choose to partake of it and it's an enjoyable experience overall.
XIII is a nice single player experience - not a flawless one but well worth the price of admission. Multiplayer is not quite as exciting but at least there's something for both online and offline console players. There's no denying that the game's presentation overall is pretty cool and that once you get past the game's minor design and gameplay issues it can be a lot of fun.
