XIII, Unlucky For Some... (XIII (PS2))

Member Name: liquidus1000

Product:	XIII (PS2)
Date:	06/01/06 (95 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Lovely to look at and fast frame rate

Disadvantages: Can be tediously difficult at times

First Person Shooters (FPS) are a very popular genre. With the likes of Medal of Honour becoming very well known and Halo just around the corner things were never looking so good! But FPS's tend to be very similar in the style and story (Mainly World War II). For those of you not aware of what an FPS is, it is a game played from the eyes of the character that uses guns and other weapons. So this means that you can only see the gun in the characters hand.
Ubisoft decided to be a bit more original and create a FPS based on a comic book, XIII (13). And to be even more original they even decided to make it look and feel like the comic!

Plot
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The game starts with a rather attractive animated comic strip showing the assassination of the President. He was shot in the same way as JFK; in an open-topped limo driving down a parade.
You wake up on a beach with amnesia. The only clues you have to your identity are a key to a bank vault and a strange tattoo reading "XIII". A life guard spots you and takes you back to her cabin. Almost straight away the cabin is ambushed and the life guard killed. You must escape before more back-up arrives....

After escaping you go to the bank that the key belongs to. The bank clerk recognises you instantly and leads you to your safety deposit box where a bomb is armed once opened. At the same time the bank is taken under attack and once again you must escape...

You are then arrested and taken to an FBI building. Your name is "Steve Rowlands" and the FBI has in their possession photographic evidence of you shooting the President!!!

Why did you assassinate the President? Who are these men after you? And why are they so eager to have you and your associates killed???

Gameplay
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The game is set in around 30 levels, some of which include snowy mountains and laboratories. Basically you have to get from one end of the level to the other completing certain tasks and eliminating any enemy obstructing your path. Some missions require you to travel to the next destination, while others involve escaping from buildings. On your travels there are hidden documents that tell a small part about the conspiracy. These can be viewed on the main menu page. As you progress through the game, Steve Rowlands remembers how to use his trained skills which will help your quest immensely. These skills include Sniper Skill (A steady aim when sniping), Silent Walk (Sneak up on enemies easier) and Sixth Sense (The most helpful, see below).
Use of stealth is very important if you are to stay alive as the enemy come packing! Creep up behind a guard and press the fire button to knock them out. Or use the crossbow to stealthily shoot your opponents in the head from a distance. Once you learn the ability to silent walk, sneaking up on your enemies is even easier!
There is a hell of a lot of action to be played in this game. Lots of baddies and lots of guns and some great music to go with it! If there are no enemies around then the music is quiet and calm. But disturb a guard and the music kicks in making it much tenser and letting you know that you have been spotted.
To help you out slightly, XIII lets you know of hidden guards or key points by bringing up little pictures that show enemies up ahead or round corners.
The guards themselves have some pretty good AI. Shoot at them and they will duck and hide. They will also pick up a gun from the floor from one of their dead colleagues if they need it. They can see as far as you can (no Metal Gear "I can't see my own two feet" Solid on here!) so be extra careful on stealth missions not to be in the open.

Some Nice Touches
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There are some excellent little touches to XIII that make it more original and true to the comic theme.
As most of you probably know comics use onomatopoeia to express the noise and effects in the pictures. Well XIII uses this method also, and it works much better than you might think. A good example is the rocket launcher. A big curvy "Whoosh!" follows the rocket as it flies across the screen, the words getting smaller the further away it is. On impact the word "BAOOM!" appears in big bold letters. It gives the action scenes so much more character and is very appealing to the eye.
Sixth Sense: If an enemy is behind a wall or object, you can see the word "Tap" with every footstep that he takes. The writing follows footsteps so that you can see where each enemy is before you go into a room, for example. And so that you know roughly how far away your foe is, the "Taps" are smaller the further away they are. This is probably the best feature of the game! It makes ambushing rooms simpler and tactical.
During Steve Rowlands journey to find out his true identity he goes through a series of flashbacks. These flashbacks are in a dark world with all objects and people giving off a blue-white light. This is a nice effect taken from flash backs in, wait for it... comics!
Another comic addition is the three-screen-shots that show sniper bullets, darts or knives ripping through the enemies head! A very gruesome feature that makes it that much more pleasing to get the men in the head!
One of the best little touches to XIII is the noise in your ears after a close explosion. If you fire a grenade and it goes off too close to your character you get a dull sound in your ears, like if you were to go in a swimming pool. This means that you can't hear approaching troops or gun fire, as well as just being a great touch that I have not seen in a game before this.
If you kill a foe, the amount of ammo gained is equivalent to how much they have fired, so if you are in desperate need for some sniper rifle ammo make sure you eliminate him before he can get any shots off!
There are loads of weapons in XIII to keep you interested! One of my favourites is the throwing knives. Sneak up behind an enemy and aim the knife at his head (you get a proximity bracket so you don't have to be too accurate) and let it fly! If you get the head shot the three-screens will appear at the top of the screen showing you your achievement. Cool!
Other weapons include dual handguns, machine guns and a rocket launcher, as well as grenades and your fists!

Graphics
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When I first heard that XIII was going to use cel-shading (the cartoon effect used throughout) I was a bit unsure about how the game was going to look and feel. This is supposed to be a first person shooter, it will look rubbish and childish surely.
Wrong! XIII actually looks superb! While some people may not appreciate it, Ubisoft have done a fantastic job!
The problem with a comic book is that it is only 2D as it is a series of cartoon drawings. Using cel-shading techniques and some onomatopoeic effects, Ubisoft have managed to capture all the visual properties of the comics, as well as make an attractive 3D world.
The intro of XIII is a prime example of how Ubisoft have incorporated the comics into the game. The first thing shown is the President riding in his limo with crowds either side. The camera pans out showing that it is a moving picture in a comic. Now all the other pictures can be seen and they move in time to when you look at them. It is very impressive and works very well!

Sound
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There are some excellent, up-beat music scores in XIII. All will be silent when nobody is around, but be spotted and the music will up the pace until the entire enemy is neutralised.
Gunfire and explosions and big and impressive and add perfectly to the atmosphere of the game.

Difficulty
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There are three modes of difficulty: Easy, Normal and Professional. Fairly self-explanatory, but really it should read: Hard, Professional and Oh-My-God-This-Is-So-Hard!!!!! Yes, XIII is exceedingly difficult. Easy isn't too bad I suppose, but Professional is near impossible! It takes a lot of patience to learn where the enemy is situated and how to avoid the RPGs, because get hit by one of those babies and you're toast! Professional Mode is for hardcore gamers only!

Multiplayer
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XIII allows up to 4 players play head to head in split screen. There are 5 modes to have a go at, the best being deathmatch. You can play on your own by adding some computer bots, which you can adjust to your level of skill. There are some nice levels but it does suffer from slow down, especially in 4 player mode.
Suggestion: Get 5 or 6 mates, a couple of packs of Stella, some Pringles and a take-away pizza and add this to your games to be played (winner stays on works well)

Online
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XIII can be played online on your PS2! Yey! I personally have not played it as I don't have the connection or resources. But apparently you can play up to 3 other people just like you would on multiplayer, but this way it's with complete strangers! If you have the online ability then this is an added bonus!

Flaws
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Despite the very enjoyable game play, there are some rather annoying flaws. The most annoying has to be the seemingly random checkpoints in the levels. A good example would be on one of the levels where the checkpoint is at the start of the air vent before the boss. So when you die on the boss you have to go through the whole vent every time!!! Grrr! Why couldn’t the checkpoint be at the end of the vent? There are other times when there is a particularly hard scene that doesn't have a checkpoint at the start like you would think, meaning that you have to go back and do the previous bits again and again until you get past the difficult scene!
Unfortunately there is a trial and error feel to the game. You have to learn where the enemy is situated and then how to get past. A good example are the men wielding RPGs. Get killed by one, learn where he is, get past and then get killed by another....
Professional mode is tediously difficult and for experts only! If you are shot sometimes you can lose almost half your health!!!
Rockets can kill instantly on harder difficulties, which is very frustrating because half the time you didn't even see the bloke!
To get past the rocket launchers, you end up edging round corners with the sniper rifle until you can just see their head. This is done very often throughout the game and it can become a chore....

Summary
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To summarise, XIII is a good FPS with superb sound and graphical effects. It is by no means outstanding, by it is still very enjoyable thanks to the lovely looking graphics, original effects and features and the size of the game. The main game itself will take the average player around 15 hours to complete on medium difficulty setting, with the multiplayer options adding hours of play, whether it's by yourself online or with a group of mates and some beers. It is very difficult at times, and the trial and error style lets it down slightly, but it is very playable and looks gorgeous! Original games are often a let down, but XIII proves that originality, when used properly with attention to every detail, can produce a great game!

Overall
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My final thoughts of XIII are mostly positive. It is lovely to look at and has very good physics. The range of weapons stops it from being too repetitive and the conspiracy-rich plot ensures twists and confusion. I really enjoyed playing the whole game, and the multiplayer is great fun for a couple of hours. The difficulty is an acceptable flaw, but the checkpoints get very tedious at times, especially when you are really stuck on a boss. But the great look and feel of the game makes up for it all!
I would recommend XIII to all fans of the genre, but it may not appeal to everyone else.

You can pick this up for about £10 from most places! Definite bargain!

I hope I have helped your insight to XIII, please feel free to leave me a comment! : D - Paul

Summary: A flawed but highly enjoyable FPS. Looks lovely!