First Person Shooters are a dime a dozen. The genre has been milked heavily these past few years, with some golden hits and major flops. Ubisoft’s entry into the FPS world has something incredibly unique however, the game is cell-shaded. While you might think that cell-shading is to kiddy for a mature shooter, I assure you, it only adds to the style and flair of XIII.

The story of XIII is elaborately told through comic book like panels. The music follows an almost 70's style spy theme. Ubisoft recruited some incredible voice talent as both Adam West and David Duchovny fill the rosters. The music follows the action on the screen, with the beat speeding up when your in danger, and slowing down when your sneaking you way through enemy territory.

The mission variety is a strong point in XIII. Some missions will have the player sneaking through enemy bases, and some will have you blasting every enemy in sight. Weapons are in no short supply, with your basic set of assault rifles and pistols at your disposal, common objects can also become weapons. Chairs, bottles, picture frames, all useful and deadly in the hands of a trained killer. Some missions require you do not kill your enemies, so knocking them over the head with a chair becomes your priority. The boss battles have players face off against members of an evil conspiracy group who plot to take over the country. The missions will take the player all over the world, from the Grand Canyon to a jungle in Mexico, or to the bottom of the ocean in a submarine. The storyline is exciting and will keep you on the edge of your seat all the way to the surprise ending.

XIII is challenging, especially the sneaking missions. Patience, puzzle solving, and marksmanship will be some useful skills you may want to carry with you into this game. The main character (a spy code-named XIII, voiced by David Duchovny) has a soldier’s “sixth sense”. He can sense enemies when they are close to him. This helps a little when wondering if an enemy is waiting for you around the corner, but the game could have benefitted much more from a Metal Gear Solid like radar. Enemies have a long range of sight, and can see you most of the time before you even see them. This makes the sneaking missions difficult to the point of extreme frustration. Patience (not one of my virtues, admittedly) will play a key role in the player’s success here.

A great portion of the game is good old-fashioned gun battles as well. The auto-aim function is handy, but can make headshots a little hard to pull off. Players are rewarded by sniping or doing long range shots by a stylish panel that comes on the corner of the screen showing the slow motion death of your enemy. This game is by all means bloody, and with extremely strong language it easily earns it’s mature rating.

XIII has over 20 missions of varying length and difficulty. Sometimes you can blast through the levels easily, other times you might get stuck for an hour. Checkpoints are few and far between in the lengthier levels, which causes some backtracking. The enemies are smart, diving for cover and calling for reinforcements. Ammunition is never in short supply, and the variety is great. The sound stays terrific throughout the game, and the voice acting and dialog are incredible.



The multiplayer has plenty of modes and options to choose from, including the addition of bots. Up to four people can play, at the sacrifice of a good bit of speed. The game suffers from slowdown when four people are playing, but runs pretty smoothly with only two. Multiplayer maps can be unlocked during the story mode, opening up as you complete new levels.

All in all, XIII has much to set it aside from the usual FPS crowd. With a unique graphic style and flair, and a storyline that will keep you pulling the trigger all the way to the end, make for a really enjoyable game. Slight problems keep it from being perfect, but XIII definitely deserves a place in your game collection.