"An intriguing FPS, it works quite well."

XIII is a first person shooter for all three next gen consoles. It is a cell-shaded comic book designed game, that isn't all that bad.

Controls 7/10
Im one of those people who want good controls in a game, and sometimes stop playing a game, if the controls are really bad. XIII was average in this department. I didn't care much for the weapon switching set-up, but then again, there's not much of a way to make it really good. Most of the controls, were nonetheless, pretty good.

Graphics 10/10
Man, Ubisoft sure did a tremendous job here. They went out on a limb mixing a comic book style with cell-shaded graphics, and the result was astounding in every way possible. They go perfectly together. There's nothing better than seeing a comic strip of a bullet through a mans head at the top of the screen while sniping.

Music and sound effects 8/10
There's not that much to say about the music, but thankfully the sound effects were so great, they brought this score up. The sound of the enemies screaming when they die is spine tingling. Add the voices of the great batman hero Adam West and X-files mastermind David Duchonevy into the mixer, and you get one good tasting smoothie.

Story 10/10
Political turmoil is the center of this game. Quite a mysterious story. The president is assassinated, and you wake up on a beach with nothing more than XIII tattooed on your arm. You are soon assaulted, and caught up in a whirlwind of espionage and action.

Gameplay 8/10
Somewhat repetitive, but thrilling nonetheless. There are plenty of weapons, and you can use everything from broken bottles to smashed chairs. With multi-player, you and three friends can go up against four bots, in capture the flag, team deathmatch and much much more. There's also a nice blend of stealth and straight shoot-em-up mission. The gameplay is very fulfilling.

Overall Rating 8/10
Ubisoft has managed once more to make an awesome game. This game was just shy of a 9, but a few problems, brought it down. This is quite an extraordinary first person shooter, that most gamers will like.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 07/18/05