XIII

"The Next Gen Answer to Golgo 13 and Goldeneye?"

If you're like me, you'll remember a game for the NES called Golgo 13, in which you played an assassin trying to foil a SPECTRE-like (as in the evil organization in James Bond movies) agency. The striking thing about Golgo 13 was that it was approached with a combination of comic book style with a '60s James Bond movie feel. Flash forward to the latter part of the '90s. Goldeneye for the N64 became one of the new gold standards for first person shooters, with its combination of both a single player and pick up and play multiplayer mode.

Nowadays, the emphasis seems to be on "realism" and overly dry Tom Clancy-style games in the FPS arena. Ubisoft, however, decided to release a game that for once does not require the player to manage a team of Army Rangers trying to hunt down terrorists, or to observe excruciatingly touchy stealth meters to infiltrate an embassy (although the game does have quite a few stealth parts). Instead, we were given XIII, a comic-book style FPS with an emphasis on atmosphere and improbable yet fascinating storyline twists.

Simply put, in XIII, you are thrown into the pages of a violent graphic novel. Your character wakes up on a beach with no memory, and soon finds himself the target of some very bad people. Throughout the game, you'll find yourself fighting from the deserted beach, through a city's back alleys and rooftops, through a remote snowy military base and the nearby frozen woods, an insane asylum, a desert canyon, a jungle stronghold at night, a submarine, and more. What's even better is that you can interact with the environment in a number of ways other than the old "switch & key" routine. Pick up metal plates and brooms, and use them to knock people out, sneak up on and take hostages, or use a grappling hook to swing across a chasm on the side of a cliff.

A word of warning- this game is heavily scripted, and the enemies are sometimes ridiculously accurate. In addition, some of the "stealth-oriented" sequences are too easy to blow for reasons which are hard to tell. Nonetheless, this game has style enough to make up for these faults. No matter what some say, this game is far from the typical FPS.

In regards to multiplayer, Ubisoft has bucked the recent trend of not including bots. As a result, split-screen multiplayer is something you can experience even if you don't know anyone else who wants to play. The bots range from sort of dumb to fairly smart. Gameplay modes include deathmatch, team deathmatch, capture the flag, and a mode called "sabotage", which pits a team of saboteurs trying to set bombs versus a team trying to foil them.

Graphics are pretty good. The fact that the graphics are cel-shaded means the game doesn't need hi-res textures in order to look good. Some may see that as a cop-out, but it's a cop-out that works. The lighting and "set design" are pretty good, especially in levels such as the conspirator's mansion grounds and the snow levels. Sound is also well-designed; however, David Duchovny seems to have little interest in doing more than collecting a paycheck. The scenes in which your character has flashbacks use both graphical and audio tricks to great effect.

Of course, there are negatives. I've already mentioned some of them. One particularly annoying aspect of the game is that you can't simply pick and choose levels to revisit after beating them, thus hurting the replayability of this title. Even so, this game feels like the heir apparent to Goldeneye, with atmosphere and scope from Golgo 13 thrown in. If you're looking for something different than a run-of-the-mill tactical FPS, this is something you should consider.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 05/09/04