"Great but not quite perfect..."

Graphics: Graphically, this game cannot really be faulted. The cell-shaded effect works really well and takes no adjusting to at all. There isn’t much else to be said about the graphics apart from all the graphics are well done (characters, guns, environments, etc). The shadowing is very good and the tonal works (skin, clothes) have been worked on with incredible attention, which is strange for a cell-shaded game to do. There are only a few graphical glitches in this game, and believe me. They are very minute.
All the weaponry, as I said, has been re-created in the cartoon style very well. There is quite a lot of attention to detail, too. (10/10)

Sound: The sound overall is very good. The weaponry is very much spot on and it’s lovely to hear that satisfying CRACK as you smash a bottle over someone’s head! The background music plays a vital role in this game; letting you know if you are in danger or if everything is calm. (9/10)

Controls: Despite not having a custom option, the controls are pretty much user friendly. They are tight and responsive, and the sensitivity can be altered. There are two controller layouts and the option of inverting the Y-axis.

Story: NO SPOILERS: I don’t want to give too much away but it really is amazing. One of the best storylines on PS2! You are framed for the assassination of the president, William Sherdon. As far as you recall, you did in fact kill him. The story unfolds revealing many flashbacks which determine whether or not you are in fact the killer.

Game play: Let’s face it- cartoon style, good sound, good controls and a good level of gore, do sound very interesting. Overall, XIII does have good game play. The story keeps the player gripped in, the graphics keep you gripped in and so do the gimmicks and novelties of a cartoon. However, this game throws you straight in at the deep end (littered with enemies) and only lets the player save at certain points. This results in the player often re-playing many of the later levels over and over again. The AI can be very poor in some places yet very good in others. Eg: standing in front of an enemy and them only realising when you start attacking them! The game is pretty hard and the multiplayer is described as ‘set up a game, play for 3 minutes and then sit in the corner and scream!’ (SEE MULTIPLAYER BELOW)
Overall: It has its game play faults but this is no reason to not give it a chance. It’s fun and the story is truly something. The lifespan is super. (1 month +)
Variety: There is a lot of variety in the levels. There are Military bases, beaches, snow filled levels and many, many more. Another good point with these huge levels are that all though they are fairly free roaming, you aren’t continually wondering around trying to figure out where to go.

Multiplayer: I haven’t played this game on-line so I honestly cannot say anything about the online mode. However, I can review the split-screen mode.
The multiplayer offers no choice of who you play as, no choice of weaponry, and a few ‘shoddy’ game modes. The real let down is the difficulty. I chose all the bots as easy and I was truly slaughtered, yet I had completed the game on normal! This wasn’t due to me being bad at the game, or the AI being too good. The developers simply tried to make the AI seem good by making the computers rules very biased. EG: 1 shotgun shot at point blank range kills you, yet 3 at point blank range only just kills the computer bots and that is on EASY!
However, some fun can be had. There is a mode called the hunt where players must battle it out to kill a grim reaper whom constantly becomes smaller and smaller!

Multiplayer Game Modes:

Deathmatch: ‘Every man for himself’
Team Deathmatch: ‘2 teams battle it out’
The Hunt: ‘Players must kill the grim reaper to earn points’
Power Up: ‘The higher the rank of the player, the fewer pick-ups available’

Overall: A most enjoyable game and just over 32 levels of fun, gruelling action. XIII really isn’t a bad game and it lasts a very long time! It has on-line features, a multiplayer, good comic book effects, 3 levels of difficulty, an amazing storyline, many weapons, 6 melee weapons, variety in enemies and some interesting objectives. There is quite a lot of repetition, but the player still wants to play on to find out the outcome of the story.

I would advise you to play the demo, play the game at a mate’s house or rent it before buying. The reason being that you may not like the cell-shaded approach, and you may find the game too difficult.

Life span: 1 month + (also has replay-ability: MULTIPLAYER)

Overall score: 8/10
Thankyou

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 01/11/04