"Competent, not impressive"

XIII is adopted from a Belgian comic book series of the same name (or would that be number)? The game itself is functional, but uninspired; the plot is pretty good.

Plot: 10/10
The plot is deep and detailed; the game plays a little like an interactive comic book. You wash up on a beach with bullet wounds and total amnesia; within minutes you're being shot at yet again. You appear to be operative XIII of the Twenty, but the Twenty are trying to kill you! The plot hinges on a successful conspiracy by the Twenty to assassinate the President of the United States; you are being chased by the FBI as the assassin. By the end of the game, you'll have uncovered your real identity and the names and faces of the conspiracy. If you don't want to read the comic books, the game itself is an excellent presentation of the source material. It only adapts 5 of the 6 volumes, though, and ends on a cliffhanger.

Gameplay: 7/10
The game plays as a fairly standard first person shooter. You are a one-man army tasked to shoot down hundreds of enemy soldiers and thugs; fortunately there are convenient ammo and health pickups scattered everywhere. The game's comic-book roots shine through in a few places: a small comic-book style panel pops up to show you the motions of the guard just around the corner, and when you make a headshot a window showing the kill splashes atop the screen. The normal FPS mechanics are solid, but generic, as if they were make from off-the-shelf parts that Ubisoft had laying around. The lack of an aiming function, however, is very noticeable: only weapons with a zoom can be aimed without moving your entire view. Accuracy degrades quickly if you just hold the trigger down; the game very much emphasizes shooting in bursts instead of leaning on the trigger.

The game also incorporates stealth elements, almost always “kill the guards quietly so they don't set off the alarm”. Multiple silent weapons make this easier, but the difficulty in aiming some of them makes for unnecessary difficulty. In a few places, you have to move the bodies of guards out of sight, which takes far longer than it really should. The control scheme is adequate for stealthy movement, but the hit detection is spotty when trying to stun enemies from behind.

The AI is very inconsistent. Most enemies are smart enough to listen for you, and alert their comrades before attacking…but some of them are apparently blind. If you can see them to hit them with a throwing knife in the forehead, they probably should have noticed you…

One other oddity: most items, with the sole exception of boxes of ammunition, are picked up regardless of whether you need them. This means you waste armor by walking over an armor pickup, it just evaporates. It's almost silly that they programmed in a little box saying “I can't carry more ammo” for the plentiful ammunition, but not for the much more valuable body armor…

Presentation (Sound and Graphics): 8/10
The music in this game is great. It is very drum heavy and appropriate to the “threat level”, it ramps up suddenly when an enemy notices you.

The normal sounds are passable, except for one very bad enemy warning call. Many enemies call “alert!” to warn their comrades that you're there, but one of the versions of the call sounds awful, like a matador shouting “Ole”.

The graphical styling and plot are good only in the artistic sense. It isn't great polygon wise, but it all fits together well. Like the rest of the game, it's functional but not exceptional.

Replay value: 0/10
The game has no real replay value. The game is so plot-driven that it would be a lot less interesting when you already know what happens next. There are three difficulty levels and a multiplayer with one or two bots.

Miscellaneous points:
Pros:
+ I paid USD $4.50 for this, that's about the cost of a rental. It's worth a playthrough.
+ Explosion physics make bodies fly around the room, the laugh is worth it.
+ Bazooka rockets come in units called “buckets”
+ Entire voice-acted conversations between enemy soldiers add ambiance

Cons:
- Little replay value
- VERY LONG load times, and the game reloads every time you die and continue from a checkpoint. I've successfully checked my email during load times, and my computer and GC are in different rooms.

Overall score: 6/10. Worth playing if you're bored, but don't expect brilliance.
Points deducted for: pathetic load times, lack of replay value, lack of independent aiming for most weapons (making stealth difficult), blind AI

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 08/14/06