Alongside Beyond Good & Evil and Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, Ubisoft showed the world a game that would be the first fully cel-shaded first-person shooter.  That game was XIII (as in "Thirteen," not Ex Triple I).  The cel-shaded effects alone were attention-grabbers, both at E3 and at the various public venues that the game appeared at.  A game can't get past a five-day rental if the gameplay can't come close to matching (or better yet, surpassing) the visuals.  Would XIII have what it takes to blow us all away?

Conceptually, XIII lives up to the hype.  The preliminary work that the developers did practically flies off the game and dives right into your room.  There's a lot of brilliance to be found within this title, primarily in its story presentation.  Trying hard to be like a comic book, XIII will remind you how much fun it is to play a game that's actually cool.

Computer-generated movie sequences develop the story in between missions.  In a unique, comic book fashion the game breaks up various camera angles with several square and rectangle-shaped boxes.  At times you may also see multiple events that are taking place simultaneously, bringing to mind the intense demonstration of real-time storytelling in 24.  With a presidential assassination, the lead character apparently framed, and numerous convoluted plot points, players will be scratching their heads, curious to know more.  However, it's not as much the story that got my attention as it is the way the story is presented.  We've all seen movies where the star is framed.  We've played games like that, too.  XIII has a really unique way of presenting each aspect, making the same old story seem new and interesting.

During play, gamers will find out that they are, in fact, stuck inside of a comic book.  This part has nothing to do with the story.  When you make a stupid mistake, like standing too close to a time bomb, the camera will zoom out a little.  When zoomed out, a white, comic book-style boarder is revealed.  The boarder shakes vigorously, giving the illusion that you are within a comic book.  It sounds simple and maybe even boring in text, but when you see it occur in the game all complaints will be silenced.

There are a lot of subtle things like that.  You can watch enemies converse, kill each other, and do other daily chores via a pop-up window (comic book box) that appears at specific times.  You have to be in a specific spot for the action to be seen, but the game is well balanced in this aspect, making it impossible to miss a sequence (unless you leave the area while it's playing).

Great kills will sometimes be rewarded with pop-up windows that show the shot from three different angles.  This doesn't occur during the hefty gunfights, and thank goodness!  If it did, you'd be spending too much time watching the graphics to be able to retaliate. 

Before I get further into the gameplay I want to talk about the graphics.  Cel-shaded and gorgeous, XIII is graphical masterpiece.  If looks could kill, this game would have your head hanging on its wall.  The characters, the weapons, the environments – everything has a realistic cel-shaded touch.  It's not realistic in the sense that the characters look human (they look like they came from a graphic novel).  But if a graphic novel could come alive it would probably look something like this.  The special effects – blood, gunfire, explosions, etc., are all very cool.  If nothing else, XIII is one of the top games to "see" this year.

If nothing else made this game worth praising, you'd probably be concerned with its quality.  If nothing else, you'd probably not want to spend $50 on it.

XIII is an almost game.  It almost achieved true greatness.  It's almost worthy of standing next to Ubisoft's big winners for 2003 (Prince of Persia and Beyond Good & Evil).  But this first-person shooter isn't always a shooter, and when it is, it doesn't always shoot well.

XIII involves a lot of sneaking, a lot of escaping.  When sneaking, you can't use guns because they're just too loud.  When escaping, you can't use guns because they're too loud and could harm an innocent bystander.  Police officers aren't exactly innocent when they're shooting at a man who's unarmed, but they too are labeled innocent.  If you kill one, even on accident, be prepared to start the mission over again.  Check points make this start and re-start gameplay less tedious, but it's still a pretty big annoyance.  In an intense gunfight it's not always easy to tell the difference between cops and robbers.  The cops aren't always in uniform either, which makes it even more difficult.

That was frustrating, but acceptable.  I ended up liking the diverse gameplay, something that could turn out to be an acquired taste for most gamers.  You don't spend as much time shooting as the advertisements may have you believe.  In fact, all three of the pictures on the back of the box show the lead character holding a gun.  That's the equivalent of a slow drama film that uses its brief car chase sequence as promotional tool for the trailer.

At times the game will, without warning, switch from chair combat (in which you are attacking enemies with a chair) to gun combat.  You could be shot and killed before you even have a chance to pull out the gun!  Lucky for you, the enemies suck at aiming.  Sadly, you will too.  The controls are acceptable, but the game is not good at detecting where an enemy is standing.  Worse yet, the game is terrible at determining when an enemy should be dead, or at the very least lying on the ground, covered in blood.  Shoot an enemy in the chest and see what happens.  Nothing!  He just stands there, no flinching, no dropping to the floor, nothing.  Where's the reaction?  The game is easy where it shouldn't be and frustrating where it should never be.

Not nearly as perfect gamers hoped it'd be, XIII will go down in history for its revolutionary graphics and unique story presentation.  An abundance of clones are destined to follow, and maybe, just maybe one of them will have some rewarding gameplay that makes it worth buying.  XIII is great game to look at, and it is fun to play if you can appreciate an FPS that isn't all about shooting (or deep puzzles).  But its gameplay belongs to other titles.  You've had experiences like this before, albeit less graphically impressive ones.  But if the gameplay is your main reason for buying a game, this isn't what you're looking for.

Gameplay: 7
If not for the graphics to carry the game through, XIII would have been a boring game.  Gunfights are the best part of the gameplay.  It also happens to the most unbalanced part.  Aiming is not always accurate, not for you and not for your opponents.  "Oh, that's great, my enemies can't shoot well!"  Sure, that sounds appealing.  But do you really want to play a game where your enemies are dumb, or just technologically challenged?  I want to have full control over my gun and where its bullets are shot, and I want my enemies to have the same privilege.  XIII gave me neither of my desires.  There are better shooters out there.  Not all of them are on the 'Cube, but that doesn't make XIII worthy of any additional praise.

Graphics: 9.5
Cel-shaded goodness for all to see, XIII comes equipped with the second-best cartoon graphic effects.  (The best cartoon graphics can be seen in The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker.)  Super-fluid animation, great death sequences, awesome explosions, terrific backgrounds, etc.  Ubisoft went to great lengths to make this game look as stunning as possible.

Sound: 7.9
Moderately deep and powerfully intense, XIII's sound is worth listening to.  It does, however, sound a little too much like the music from Metal Gear Solid 2

Difficulty: Medium

Concept: 8.5
An FPS for people with a general love of games, not diehard shooter fans.  The deathmatch battles almost seem like an unnecessary extra since the game is not really about shooting.  You have guns (sometimes), but you don't have a license to kill, which takes away the right to kill a cop or any other innocent person.  That adds to the realism, but in a heavy gunfight accidents happen.  To eliminate cops and ensure no one is permanently hurt, XIII offers chairs and other non-lethal objects as weapons.

This game would have gotten a 9.5 and possibly a 10 if the gameplay had lived up to its story presentation.  The graphic novel aspects are awesome.  You're gonna love to watch this game.  Though I'm not sure you'll always love playing it.

Multiplayer: 6.5
I can shoot, I can run, but do I care?  Shooting barely existed where it would have really counted – in the single-player story mode.  The thing is, even if it had been a bigger part of the game, it needs more polish.  The controls are good but never felt right.  The aiming was off, which I believe is a technical issue that has more to do with the programming of the game itself than the programming of the controls.

Overall: 7.9
XIII deserves a 13 (out of 10) for effort, but its gameplay falls short of achieving a perfect 10.  The story presentation couldn't have been more brilliant, and while the music is a rip-off of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, I still thoroughly enjoyed it.

It's a shooter, but it's not.  It's a spy game, but it's not.  It looks beautiful, but most gamers will not be able to figure out what the gameplay is.  You could play it for five minutes and pick out a genre, but as a whole the game doesn't really fit into any particular category.  More often than not such a concept does not work, and that is unfortunately the case here.