XIII (Thirteen)

Publisher: UBI Soft
Developer: UBI Soft
Players: 1
ESRB Rating: Teen
Platform(s): PS2, Gamecube, Xbox 

Score: 5

Review by: Tim Harris

             XIII. The cell shaded shooter. Try saying that five times fast. The long awaited XIII has finally made it, and I gotta say, it was well worth the wait. First off is that XIII is the first FPS to be online for the PS2. And that's a good thing, because the game is so much fun. Some of the nultiplayer games include capture the flag, deathmatch, and my personal favorite, barfight. Now I see why my drunk uncle Larry loves them so much. Anyway the story starts off by our hero waking up in a New England hospital bed with that all too familiar cliché disease AMNESIA. Tell me something, why is it that in every FPS you have to have amnesia.

Anyway, back to the game, after you wake up you notice that you have the key to a New York City bank box in your pocket. Also all you have to identify yourself is the number XIII tattooed to your chest. A group of angry assassins is out to get and the president has just been killed. Too much for ya? After the nurse in front of you is shot by gunman that are outside of the room. You begin your romp through this fantastic game. You get the basic assortment of guns. Pistols, rifles, shotguns. But what makes the weapons great is that almost anything can work. Out of bullets? Why not pick up that shovel over there. Just used your last shell? Try breaking that bottle and stabbing that sucker in the face. I have to say Ubisoft did a fantastic job using the unreal engine.

Another cool aspect is that you really feel like you're in a comic book. During the levels comic cells will appear on the side of the screen to further the plot and let you know exactly what's going on. Also if you get a headshot, 3 cells will use a zoom system to show exactly how much pain you just inflicted. Including the AHH! That your enemy just yelled out. Words like "BLAM" and "POW" will appear whenever you shoot. This only adds to the games cool uniqueness. The cell-shaded graphics may turn hardcore FPS fans off. But I'm going to specify this now, this is NOT a kid game. It's high on the shooting, and LOW on the cuteness. In other words, it's your older brothers answer to Wind Waker.

Also I loved how this game has an "X Files" type of conspiracy story to it. Now you won't be shooting aliens, but who really cares. And speaking of the X files, agent Mulder himself provides the voice for XIII. And if you don't know the actor who played Mulder, it's David Duchuvnie. Also providing voices are NA NA NA NA Batman! Adam West, and EVE. Ok so the game does get boring after a little while. Ubisoft went a bit nuts with the stealth. There's too much and it really slows the game down. And the shoot outs are boring. Finally the multiplayer. While there are some cool modes, it just doesn't work This game had a lot going for it, but lost it in the middle. I'm giving XIII an average  5.