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XIII Review (Xbox)

The first thing that will strike you about this game is its visual appeal. From the menus to the cell shaded 3d models, to the extremely inventive use of comic book panes and onomatopoeia, this game looks and feels like pages from a comic book. Sadly, the plot also leaves something to be desired, and many of the characters are a bit over the top, much like many comic books. Fortunately, there’s many many chances to overlook these shortcomings.

So, you start the game as an amnesiac (yay originality :-/) and have to piece together your past and purpose by constructively and creatively killing almost any and every male character you come across. The femmes in this game, with the exception of your sidekick (voice acted by pop star Eve), all play damsel in distress type roles. Major Jones (Eve) serves as little more than a walking tutorial, and frequently left me wondering why she insisted on following me around.

As far as game mechanics go, it was standard first person shooter stuff. Normal weapons, normal 4000 pound carrying capacity, weapons with alternate fire, and the ability to bunny-hop around like a madman. I like it, and I was never once feeling like a fish out of water. The one departure though from normal games is that you’re able to �see� with what the game attributes to you six sense skill the footsteps of approaching people, provided you’re moving quietly yourself. Each step is iconified by the words �tap� overlaid on walls or objects between you and the offender. Also, there are some missions which are slight departures from the norm, so it’s welcome when you undertake the stealth, timed, kill the boss, or other mission types. They did a decent job of mixing things up. On a couple of occasions, I even found out there were multiple ways to solve problems. It’s something quite nice that rewards people who don’t want to go in guns a blazing.

Sound effects, voice acting, and music were outstanding and perhaps one of the best things about this game. Your character is voiced by David Duchovny, and really doesn’t stand out. I’m sure it took him an hour and a half to record the grunts and wound noises, along with his other thirty seconds of dialouge. Nothing’s wrong with his performance, but it was so minimal it carries little weight. General Carrington voiced by Adam West, is perhaps the best use of voice acting throughout the whole game, and makes for the most believable of all characters in the game. Interestingly enough, I never noticed the music while actually playing the game, but when friends or room-mates played it was great. I guess there’s something good to be said for good unobtrusive music. Other sound effects were right on in the game, and I never once was wondering what was going on. There’s even some humorous conversations and �solos� by your prospective cannon fodder.

The deathmatch multiplayer modes are fun, nothing special, but enough to make me play against the bots or others for around 5 hours, something quite rare in a console shooter.

Basically, XIII isn’t unlucky, but it’s quite solid fun. A relatively short game that leaves you satisfied at the end, but a bit dissapointed plotwise. Take that with a grain of salt mind you, because I rarely have found the end to a video game plot that I liked. All in all though, XIII is a good way to pass the time.

Graphics/sound: 4.5
Gameplay: 4
Story: 3
Value: 3
Final Score (not an average): 4