If XIII were a summer movie, it would star Vin Diesel, take the number one spot the weekend it opens, and then quickly fade into obscurity where it is only discussed on internet message boards as it is bashed mercilessly. Indeed, XIII is all about the style, rather than the substance. It has a few highlights, and some quirks here or there that might grab or attention for a moment, but just like Vin Diesel, it will end up putting you to sleep. There is nothing really this game has to offer that other FPS haven't already offered a million times before. Despite the fact that this genre hasn't really evolved in the past few years, many other games of this type usually have some kind of catch, some kind of gimmick in the game-play to make you want to play it. Red Faction has the Geo-mod, Timesplitters has a massive amount of play modes and Medal of Honor lets you take on Nazi's. But the gimmick in XIII is purely superficial, and that is the reason this game fails.
The game opens up with your character washed up on a beach, with no memory of who he is, or anything at all in his life. He has a full blown case of amnesia. He's rescued by a Baywatch babe and taken to a beach-house hospital, which is suddenly attacked by a group of special forces. It turns out your character is proficient with blades, and takes out these men with throwing knives, and collects their weaponry. He hasn't forgotten how to use a gun it seems, as he mows down his attackers. He makes a dash for the mainland, as a man from a helicopter screams: "You can't forget run forever, XIII!" Apparently, your name is XIII. Add to that the fact that you can handle any type of weapon placed in your hand, it would suggest that you are some sort of a spy or a soldier, caught in a deadly game of cat and mouse. You say you've heard this one before? Undoubtedly. But has it ever been this pretty?
Vin Diesel is pretty until he opens his mouth, and then it all goes to hell. The same can be said for this game. First person shooting games have been on the PS2 for a long time now, so there is really no excuse for a shoddy aiming system. Whether or not it would control better on the PC is no longer an acceptable reason in my eyes. The analog stick is extremely sensitive, and the only aiming reticule is a small white dot, not unlike Max Payne. In Max Payne, you mowed your enemies in super slow motion, making aiming unnecessary as long as you were in the basic vicinity of your enemy. This is not the case in XIII, as everything happens in real time. Quite simply, it's a pain in the ass to get a good bead on your enemy, despite a lock-on system that seems to work only when it feels like. Rather than focusing on the center of the targets body, like any respectable auto-aim should, it just locks onto an area around the target. If the sensitivity wasn't so high, this would have been a good idea, since a slight tap would leave you in prime shooting position at any part of the body. The character also moves rather slow, and most of the level really aren't full on shooting levels. Half-Life is nearly 5 years old, and still runs at a much, much faster rate than this game. Granted, Half-Life isn't your average FPS, but you think developers would have enough sense to learn from that engine and create some truly furious gunfights. Instead, you'll end up waiting around a corner for the dumb A.I. to come running out so you can blast them. Running in guns blazing will surely result in your death. Despite the fact that you can have three levels of health (a vest and helmet can be acquired), it can still be depleted amazingly fast if you get caught.
The weapons and gadgets aren't anything special, they are the standard fare. You get throwing knives, pistols, machine guns, shotguns, rocket launchers and sniper rifles. As I played the game, the only weapon I really trusted was the shotgun, due to the fact that you really can't miss with it. The gadgets are sort of cool, especially the grappling hook, which you can use to raise and lower yourself. There's a lock pick, though it takes no skill to use, it's as if the developers simply threw it in to waste your time. You can carry medkits around with you, which means you can heal whenever you want to. This makes the game relatively easy, but without this feature, the game would be unbearably difficult. It just can't seem to find a happy balance when it comes to difficulty. The only unique game-play feature is set of skills XIII has, such as taking objects from the environments and using them as weapons, or taking a person hostage. However, many of these skills are simply not implemented well. It's much easier to shoot an enemy with a crossbow from across the screen than sneak up on him with a bottle you want to break over his head. Sneaking around is something I'm not particularly fond of in FPS games, so I'd rather just go ahead and blast him than go through a bunch of complicated maneuvers to get close to him. There simply isn't anything here that really separates it from the rest of the crowd.
Unless, of course, you're counting the unreasonably stylish atmosphere this game presents itself with. It's a cel-shaded game, and told like a Graphic Novel. Little boxes will pop to illustrate another scene, such as a head shot, which shows your enemies being violently decapitated. Dialogue boxes appear over characters heads as they speak, and words appear to illustrate the sound. For example, and explosion will result in a big 'BOOM', and a dying soldier will result in a 'NOOoo.' The coolest part about this is the 'Tap Tap Tap' of the soldiers walking. You can use this to see how far away they are, based on how large the type is. If it's small, you can sneak by them or take them out from behind. Most of the environments don't even look cel-shaded, unlike Wind Waker, where it was always apparent. In XIII, it all blends together an creates relatively bland areas, depending on what type of stage you're playing. The beach is an awesome example of how good it could look, and the snowy levels show how bad it can be. The weapons are all very cel-shaded though, and done so quite well, but after you've seen them once or twice, it won't even matter. David Duchovny of 'The X-Files' does the voice for XIII, and does so with all the enthusiasm of a little boy getting on a bus the first day of school. Or with me going to see a Vin Diesel movie. Simply put, it sounds as if he's about to fall asleep. Not that I can blame him. The weapon sounds are terribly average as well. The truly great thing about this game is the music. It's a subtle jazz tune, rather than full blazing rock n' roll. It works for XIII, and creates a really good mood, even if the game can't back it up.
There are a few multiplayer modes, but you can only have 2 players, and the variety of modes is fairly standard. It doesn't even come close to the amount of modes found in Timesplitters 2. There's even an online mode, but the controls are just as bad as they are in regular mode. I wouldn't want to think about trying to take out a human-controlled target with the shoddy aiming system.
XIII isn't a bad game per se, but it is far from good, and doesn't even try to pump any innovation into the genre. I think gamers are at that point where cel-shading will no longer instantly make a game great. Sure, it's rare, but for the most part, the fascination is over. Wind Waker perfected this graphical style, and any game that thinks it can imitate it will probably end up failing unless it is a genuinely good game. Just because it looks good, it does not make the overall product good. If XIII were a summer movie, it would have lots of bullet-time and a lot of dumb actors trying to sound smart. If you've played Goldeneye, Half-Life or Timesplitters, then you've essentially already played this game. There is absolutely nothing new to this game that it must be played for. Hopefully, it will serve as a wake up call to developers. Allow me to say that if XIII had been rendered in normal graphics, it would have been a downright terrible game. As it stands, it is a mediocre one. Just like Vin Diesel.