Review By

Mike Bracken

Developer Ubisoft Montreal has quite the impressive track record when it comes to hit games-they were responsible for not only Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, but also titles like Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell and Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3. However, not everything the company touches turns to gold, as the much-hyped first-person shooter (FPS) XIII so capably demonstrates.

XIII is a fine example of artistic convergence in action—it's a game based on a French graphic novel, plus it draws inspiration from films like The Bourne Identity and games like Hitman and Thief. Unfortunately, these disparate influences never quite gel in any meaningful way, leaving XIII as a frustrating exercise in style over substance.

The game's calling card is its graphical presentation. XIII presents its first-person mayhem in a cel-shaded world. This is an excellent design decision, given the game's comic book origins. XIII looks like a graphic novel come to life in terms of characters, and the inclusion of inset panels showing action happening beyond the player's line of sight and onomatopoeic effects only add to the ambience. This makes it all the more unfortunate that the gameplay just doesn't measure up.

Playing XIII is a largely schizophrenic experience. While the game is a first person shooter, heavy with plot and political intrigue (the main character awakens with amnesia and is accused of assassinating the President), the game moves away from the run-and-gun mechanics so prevalent in the genre. XIII's biggest flaw is that it relies far too heavily on a poorly implemented stealth mechanic that pales in comparison to the one found in the Thief series. Many of XIII's missions find the main character skulking around trying to avoid being spotted by the enemy, despite possessing enough firepower to take over a small nation. This wouldn't be bad if the game had logical artificial intelligence (A.I.) for the enemies and a decent control scheme, but since the title has neither, the stealth segments are more an exercise in aggravation than in excitement. Enemies will spot players who are almost completely hidden, sending up the alarm and forcing the player to restart the level. This is a common occurrence throughout the game.

The A.I. and control issues do more than mar just the stealth segments, though—they mess up the main gameplay with a great amount of regularity, too. XIII features an assisted aiming set-up to compensate for the fact that no matter how much the player tweaks the analog stick sensitivity, they'll never actually get it to the point where it's as good as a mouse and keyboard. The sensitivity vacillates from too tight to too loose without ever hitting that sweet spot in the middle where things are just right. Trying to snipe enemies from a distance or even attempting to empty a clip into their head at close range is a lot harder than it should be.

Of course, since the enemy A.I. is so stupid, players will still wind up killing their prey despite the wonky aiming. Once players trigger a fight sequence, the enemies will take cover and return fire but that's the only thing they do. If the player then flanks the bad guys, they'll still sit there firing blindly from their cover position even though it's no longer providing cover. Worse still, why is it that the bad guys in these games invariably run right at me as I mow them down? XIII is filled with kamikaze enemies who apparently have decided that running into machine gun fire head on is a sound military strategy

Of course, the enemies aren't the only stupid non-playable characters in the game. In at least two instances, players will be forced to partake in the infamous "escort mission". These are missions where the player must guide a story character through danger and to safety. In this instance, Agent XIII is guiding a general from his cell, out a building, through a forest, and to a nearby helicopter. This wouldn't be such a terrible thing if the General actually acted like someone who was being escorted instead of employing the kamikaze tactics of the enemies—minus a weapon. The General has apparently been programmed to run ahead of the main character, right into harm's way time and time again. He's also incapable of picking up a weapon and helping out. Since these missions are deemed failures if the General dies, this odd bit of programming seems even more unfair. No one, whether they're a general or not, is going to run headlong into hostile fire while unarmed, leaving their armed escort bringing up the rear. Gaffes like this kill any kind of enjoyment factor in the game.

As mentioned earlier, the graphics are cel-shaded, which is quite nice when looking at the characters. However, the backgrounds didn't fare nearly as well in the game. When there's no character onscreen, one would be hard pressed to tell this was actually a cel-shaded game since the environments and backgrounds are rather low-res in their presentation. Some of the backgrounds, when viewed up close, look about as bad as early Dreamcast games, which is not something one expects to see on an Xbox title. Factor in some clipping issues (wherein one solid object will partially appear to be going through another solid object) and the graphics take a bit of a hit overall.

All is not disappointing with the game, though. The story is entertaining, and the music and voice acting are great. The game's soundtrack features a lot of jazz, and the grooves are smoking. I couldn't help but be reminded of Sega's Gungrave at numerous points—another game with a really great jazz soundtrack.

The voice talent is top notch, with David Duchovny (who's best known as Mulder from The X-Files) handling the lead. Rapper Eve and Batman legend Adam West also turn up in the game, with West in particular adding to the overall camp factor in a pleasantly surprising way.

As it stands, XIII is a mixed gaming experience. It's not a terrible game, but one marred by a number of design flaws that should have been addressed before releasing the game to the general public. The game's aesthetic design choices are great, for the most part, but they can't entirely overcome the clunky control system and overly simplistic A.I. With another few months of tweaking, Ubisoft Monteral could have had another hit on their hands—instead, they'll have to settle for a merely mediocre game that shows the occasional flash of brilliance.