ESRB Rating: M[Blood, Intense Violence, and Mild Language]
Publisher: Ubisoft
Platform: GameCube and PlayStation 2
Year: 2003
XIII Review.
Alright, welcome, GameCubers. This is my first GCN Game Review, and I hope you enjoy it.
“As most gamers have probably heard by now, XIII is a cel-shaded first-person shooter based on a French comic book--excuse moi, "graphic novel"--about a military operative who's suffering from amnesia and is being chased after by both the authorities and a shadowy group of Bad People who want to do Bad Things. It feels like a bouquet of Hitman 2, No One Lives Forever, and the movie The Bourne Identity, but manages to distinguish itself, just barely. The question remains, however, if XIII can provide a compelling experience, no matter what its pedigree, and it has a tough time pulling away from familiar territory.”
Alright, so, the basic Backstory of XIII is playing a key agent in an assassination plot against the current President of the U.S. However, once the deed is done, you are nearly killed by the leader of the plot, and are shot of the boat. You wake p later on a beach shore, and are found y a lifeguard. She wakes you up, and explains how she found you. After the small cutscene, she hands you a Safe Deposit box key. Your sight then starts to blur, you faint, and you black out.
Gameplay Alright, Gameplay is like most FPS', R for shoot/attack, A for an action,[such as taking hostages, or picking up items], and X/Y for Weapon Swap.
Graphics The graphics aren't that bad, as it is done in Comic-Book Style animation, leading to 2.5D Characters. The Voice acting is rather on Par, for a GameCube game.
When you see a new weapon, or key item, the game will shoot out a little inset window, like in a comic book, to show something important in a large setting. This also happens when an enemy is on a cliff, or boat far away from you, you get a little inset w/ them inside.
Here’s IGN’s take on the visuals;
“The visualized sound effects are pretty neat, though. When the lifeguard gets killed by a sweep of gunfire, the letters "TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT" go sweeping across the screen in comic books letters. A patrolling nearby enemy will "TAP TAP TAP" down the hallway. It's pretty cool to watch and also allows you to pinpoint their location when you can't get a line-of-sight on them. Also, when there's an enemy in the distance, they will be briefly bracketed by a red box, and sometimes given a comic book inset in the corner of the screen.”
Audio
Here’s what IGN had to say about the Audio;
“
The best aspect of the sound is the music. Instead of a symphonic, rock, or techno thing, the developers went with jazz. It's actually pretty cool, and the mood switches dynamically as you move in and out of the action. The weapon and environmental sound effects, however, are overshadowed by other recent action games, such as those from the Medal of Honor series. In fact, the shotgun sounds decidedly weak, and from a distance sounds no more threatening than a pop gun, despite its serious damage capability. A little more thump would have helped across the board.”
Overall
I think this is a pretty okay game, I’m not a fan of Shooters, but it’s not bad.
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