Ureview by: Eraser
Ureview points: 28
Ureviewer since: April 2006
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Reviewed On: Wednesday April 26, 2006
Price paid: $50.00
| Rating: 9 | Recommends product: Yes
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Introduction
XIII (pronounced as "Thirteen") is a game that's based on a series of comic books written by Belgian writers and illustrators J. van Hamme and W. Vance. The story of the game goes through the events of the first five comics in the series, although the creators of the game changed a few things in the story to make it more suitable for a videogame.
Graphics
XIII is powered by the Unreal engine which certainly delivers in this game. The entire game makes use of a technique called cel-shading. The engine draws black outlines around all geometry and models in the game. This, combined with the use of textures without much detail and a specicific lighting technique gives a very cartoonish look which is exactly what the developers tried to achieve (for more info, read this interview with the XIII developers at ownt.com).
To further enhance the comic book feeling certain sudden events are visualized by those typical exclamations you'll see in comics. If a grenade or rocket explodes, it's explosion will be paired with "BAOOM" written in large red letters. Planes flying by will show a "Whoooosh" coming off their tails. It all gives a little extra feeling of comicness.
But we're not done yet. The developers made interesting use of insets in the corner of the screen showing important events like a guard patrolling an area or one of your allies talking to you through voice communication.
It's safe to say that XIII is the only game that truely looks like a comic, and when compared to the original XIII comics you'll immediately recognize the graphical style. But XIII has a few other tricks up it's sleeve. A large number of visual effects show off the great power of the Unreal engine. In the game there will be a number of flashbacks which show incredible blur, glow and lighting effects to give it a very mysterious look.
All in all, XIII is a great looking game with a very original twist to it's graphical style. You'll find nothing else like it.
Gameplay
The gameplay of XIII is very good. At it's heart it's your basic First Person Shooter, but it also involves a number of missions where you'll have to sneak around. Fortunately, it will not be a pain in the arse like Ubisoft's last stealth based game, Splinter Cell. If a guard spots you, then all you have to do is make sure he's dead before he can ring the alarm or call in for reinforcements. Sometimes a difficult task, but in most places it allows for a simple head on rambo style bash into enemy lines. Whatever suits your style, it's possible most of the time.
Those who go for the stealthy approach will somewhat have an advantage as the game does promote the use of stealth through added actions you can perform. For instance, you'll learn the skill to instantly knock someone out when approached from the back or you can take them hostage by grabbing them from behind. This will allow you to move past enemy guards without having them taking shots at you. If you turn your back at them, however, they'll open fire, so you have to be very careful.
The game also features a number of gadgets like lockpicks, microphones and my favorite, the grappling hook. This combined with a well balanced set of weapons allows for incredibly diverse and interesting gameplay. Never will you be doing the exact same thing for more than 15 minutes.
One annoying thing about XIII is the save system. You can save where ever you want, but there are checkpoints throughout each level and you'll start at the last checkpoint if you save the game. This in itself is not such a bad thing, were it not for the placement of those checkpoints. Most checkpoints are quite a bit before bosses, so if you die at the boss, you'll have to retrace your steps again which usually includes taking on a bunch of guards as well. Sometimes it's frustrating, but in general the checkpoint save system is preferable to not turn a game into a save/load fest like Max Payne or Tomb Raider games.
Story
In the game you play as XIII, a man that suffers from amnesia and has no clues to his past, apart from the number "XIII" being tattooed on his shoulder and a key for a bank vault. The story starts when you wake up on a beach and are saved by an attractive blonde coastguard. There's not much time to enjoy this, as heavily armed warriors soon come looking for you. After fighting your way out, you head for the bank. You find a suitcase which contains some interesting information. Then a bomb goes off and you have to flee the bank, only to end up getting arrested by the FBI on the charges of assassinating the president of the United States. That's when the search for your identity and the unravelling of a conspiracy bigger than any before begins.
The story progresses in linear fashion but whenever your character sees something that reminds him of something in his past, you'll enter a flashback moment and you'll see a conversation or other event taking place. These flashbacks will give you more information about your past and slowly you'll discover who you really are. The game stays interesting because of good story telling. You really want to know what will be happening next.
The game takes you to various locations, including the bank, a forest, an asylum/hospital, a military camp and a secret base. Between each mission you'll be shown a short cutscene in true comicbook style which all looked incredibly cool.
Weapons
XIII has a wide variety of weapons to use. Starting off with your bare hands, you can sell someone a good punch in the face. Later on in the game, you'll learn the skill to instantly knock someone out from behind, very useful. There are also knives which can be thrown or used to slash at enemies, a standard pistol which can be fitted with a silencer, a .44 magnum which is very powerful, your standard pump action shotgun, M16 with fitted grenade launcher and AK-47 (which probably due to legal stuff are called "Assault Rifle" and "Kalas" in the game), a sniper rifle, a crossbow, Ingrams (or uzi's, but named minigun in the game), rocket launchers, hunting rifles, spearguns (for underwater) and grenades.
But you can use all sorts of things in the game as weapons as well. Knocking out an enemy by smashing a chair or beer bottle in their face is not uncommon in XIII.
Multiplayer
XIII features good multiplayer as well. The game features the standard Free For All, Team Deathmatch and CTF modes, but also an (almost) new gametype named Sabotage.
Sabotage is very similar to the bomb/defuse modes found in games like Counter-Strike, Urban Terror or Soldier of Fortune 2. The objective of one team is to place three different bombs at three different sites. When they have succeeded at doing this, then they win the game. The objective of the other team is ofcourse to stop them from achieving this. Players will also instantly respawn if they die.
There's also a twist to Free For All mode included, where there are packages scattered all through the map which all look identical but contain a random item, which can be a weapon, ammo or armor, but also items that'll make you walk faster, deal more damage, slowly die yourself or other things.
Unfortunately, XIII only supports up to 8 players in multiplayer, but this should be enough for the maps that are included in the game. The game comes with a level editor (based on UnrealEd so most Unreal Tournament mappers should be familiar with it). More custom made maps are already widely available.
Conclusion
XIII is a truely unique work of art. The comicbook style look is not only a gimmicky look, it actually sucks you straight into the game making it a pretty unique experience. The graphical effects are very well done and fit well in the comic theme. The gameplay is good with almost no real flaws. It has a strong multiplayer component and it comes with a level editor. What else do you want? There's little bad you can say about XIII, so if you haven't tried it yet, pick it up and play it
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| Pros: Original and good graphics, strong story, good gameplay |
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| Cons: Annoying save system |
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