XIII

"James Bond eat your cell shaded heart out and die"

Alone, confused and in pain, our hero awakens to find himself washed up on a desolate beach, his head spinning and no idea who is he or what he's doing there - very much like most young gentlemen after a nights hard drinking, but alas, XIII's past is far more sinister.
For that, in a stroke of pure genius is the name of both the game and the main character as the only distinguishing feature on his body is the number '13' in roman numerals tattooed upon his chest. Most people may have guessed from the hype and the style in which the game was created that it has firm foundations in an obscure Belgian comic series following the exploits of our unlikely hero and this game is based on the first 5 of these very books. Nobody knows if the game remains true to its expansive source material, as the series has yet to be translated into civilized tongue and be shipped over here to the isolated rock many call England.
GRAPHICS : I've never been a fan of cell shading, it really is the lazy mans approach to creating a game and in the past I have seen fit to shun all such games (Sly Racoon, that horrible driving one) as mole people do the sun. But XIII takes the idea to a new and better place, and for the first time, I can appreciate that less really is more. The similarities this has with the games comic book origins is unmistakable and essential for establishing the tone of the game, and also allows the creators to get away with some really cool moments such as firing a harpoon gun into someone's face and watching them reel away with the offending spear poking out of the opposite side of their skull. Fantastic stuff, and had this game been made with everyday graphics as we've seen in many recent shooters (Mace Griffin/Medal of Honor) this level of gore would have got an 18 certificate slapped on faster than you can blink.
But its not all cake and ice cream with XIII's graphics, as though the style perfectly suits the game, does it suit the expectations of an eye candy hungry PS2 audience? Well, no....... Many people (as I myself used to do) will fear XIII because they do not understand it, and this can be appreciated when you see some of the character models up close and personal. They are ugly. In fact, ugly isn't strong enough a word. And the weapons aren't much better, blocks of colour that bullets come out off grasped by a huge pink hand bordered by an offensive black line. Its the sacrifice you have to make for style - and it is worth it, think how much worse our lives would be if Jesus hadn't made a sacrifice and been crucified for us. Its a bit like XIII really.
SOUND : The music is awesome, perfectly matching the feel of the game and whatever is going on at screen at that point in time, be it a frantic battle along a deserted dockyard with a helicopter, or sneaking through a row of enemy tanks before stabbing some unfortunate fellow in the face, the mood is enhanced through the music and sound without fault. The music itself is the type you'd expect from 70's spy shows such as The Man from U.N.C.L.E and is a joy to listed to.
The sound is just as good, gunshots sound realistic and the impact sounds on different surfaces are second to none, be you shooting up brick walls, snowfields or human skin, nothing has been left to the imagination. The voice acting is also a huge success with the sole exception of David Duchovney (who also has a bloody difficult name to spell correctly) who provides the voice of XIII and sounds as though he's only just woken up and has yet to have his bowl of cornflakes. Besides him, the other actors are cast perfectly and its especially nice to hear the enriching tones of former caped crusader Adam West as the games Ben Carrington.
GAMEPLAY : This is truly the field in which XIII proves itself to be worthy of your money and quite simply one of the best shooting games to appear on the PS2 for such a long time. The idea that you are actually playing a comic has been stressed far too much by other reviews when another aspect hardly touched upon is how much like a spy you feel while playing XIII. Without a shadow of a doubt, XIII captures the spirit of being a secret agent far better than anything EA can slap together and slap James Bond's face on. The game is pretty evenly split between stealth and all out action sequences and this change of pace keeps XIII interesting for the duration of its 30+ levels. This may sound like a lot, and indeed it will take even an experienced gamer a fair while to plough through to the credits, but the length of these levels alters dramatically, some being quite huge, while a far too many can be shot through in a mere five minutes. The lack of a level select means that the good levels cannot be revisited at will and replayed which seriously decreases the games replayability as playing through the entire game again just to get to one you liked is a bit of a burden really.
The weapon selection is also a bit sparse with no more than 10 weapons available in the entire game, though these weapons are perfectly adequate for getting the job done in terms of ploughing down wave upon wave of enemy minions, none of them are particularly interesting from a design point of view. But XIII does not limit you to shooting your foes, and besides smacking them around with your irons fists, many household objects can be taken up and used as God intended, as weapons of minor destruction. While chairs are primarily used for sitting, XIII being the resourceful fellow he is picks them up and uses them to knock seven shades out of anyone he doesn't particularly like the look off, as well as with bottles, ashtrays, spades and jagged fragments of glass that can be thrown frisbee style into the face of an unsuspecting opponent.
But what use would such a gruesome armoury be without legions of enemy grunts to use them on, and there is more than enough cannon fodder in XIII to take your anger out on. But beware, for XIII is not your standard 1 Man V.S the World style affair as your character loses health at an alarmingly realistic rate if he charges into a firefight unprepared. Planning ahead is the key, because your opposition aren't stupid. Allow them to spot you and they'll circle round or take root behind cover rather than charge stupidly upon your position allowing you to mow them down in a hail of gunfire causing much embarrassment all round. The also have access to all the weapons you can pick up, so all manner of projectiles from throwing knives to rocket propelled grenades will be heading your way in an attempt to put XIII out of their misery.
A liberal sprinkling of boss characters keeps the action fresh, altough these are uninspired and generally consist of you and a sole enemy trapped in a room together blasting away until someone dies. Obviously these baddies have more health but that is about it for their contribution to the game.
As you progress through the game, a little extra exploration on certain levels will yield documents that unlock some of XIII's special skills, such as being able to equip two handguns at once or doubling the amount of time you can breath underwater. While these are usefull, none of them add that much to the gaming experience.
STORY : I have been told the story strongly resembles The Bourne Identity (book, not film) but I haven't read it myself so I cant be 100% sure, but I wouldn't be suprised. Its your average spy nonsense, a whole load of face swapping and goverment conspiracies, but for once it is pulled of realistically and in the final stages of the game you do actually feel that the safety of the world rests in your hands. The characters are well defined, not really suprising considering the popularity of the comic books they have been lifted from and the villains are just as fascinating as the guys on your side. The plot twists and turns more times than a man hanging from a tree, but unfortunetly it has one of those silly 'to be continued' endings which everyone hates. WHY?!?!?
MULTIPLAYER : There is a multiplayer option, as seems to be the case with all games nowadays when there time would have been more productively spent finishing the one player game in a fashion that made sense. As it stands, the multiplayer mode feels tacked on at last minute to qualify the game for online play. The levels are generic and fairly basic, and there is no sign of a character select or any other variables that would have spiced up and personalised the firefights. Nobody could have realistically expected something to the standard of Time Splitters, but this mode is not enjoyable in the least and the handfull of levels you have at the start is it, nothing else can be unlocked in the game at all which is rather dissapointing.

On the whole, XIII is generally a very impressive game, but it lacks that final polish that could have put it up there with the greats. Undeniably one of the best shooters of the year and probably the best spy game ever to grace the PS2, yet it is dwarfed by the likes of Hitman 2 and Timeplitters which knew where they were going and went there without relying on gimmicks to do so. Without a doubt, for fans of the comic Christmas will have come early when they get there greasy Belgian hands on a copy of the XIII disc, but for the rest of us, maybe a sequel adressing these faults could convince those adults that comics aren't just for the kids.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 12/07/03