Preview: XIII

You ever have one of those days? You know, where you wake up and you don't recognize your surroundings and you can't remember your name and the person who's bandaging your wounds just got shot? Then please, call the authorities. Cause, hey, someone's been shot. Well, if you've never had a day akin to this and want to experience it - without the bloodshed and involvement of the police officials - you may want to look at XIII, the latest shooter from UbiSoft. You know, the people that pushed Tom Clancy out of the way of that speeding car, so they automatically get the game rights to all his stories? Yeah, them.

Anyhow, in a departure, XIII is based off the cult-famous comic of the same name, chronicling the life of a government operative with a piecemeal memory and a tattoo of the Roman numeral "XIII" on his arm. You begin the game washed up on the beach with nothing to clue you in on how you got there other than the tattoo, a key to a safe deposit box in New York, and a handful of squads of goons attempting to kill you. As you go on, you learn that the President has been assassinated, and that you are the prime suspect set up by the cabal that organized the shooting. You now have to move on, rebuilding your memory, working to clear your name and setting wrongs to rights.

UbiSoft has worked hard to keep XIII true to its comic roots, using cel-shaded graphics and special effects to give you the feel of walking through a comic book world. For instance, a skillfully-made kill shot will cause a three-panel sequence to appear, rerunning your success in a frame-by-frame style replay. Case in point, Silver played this at E3, and he got someone with a throwing knife right between the eyes. A row of three panels popped up: the first was a snapshot of the target with the knife heading in, the second was pretty much obscured by a spurt of blood, and the third showed the guy starting to go limp with the knife sticking from his forehead. Naturally, they're all animated, with motion linking one panel to the other. If you have a weak stomach... this may not be the best game for you.

Instant replay on sniper rifles... that'll get Army recruitment up.

Further effects include action words floating in from the screen edges (like "SQUEAK!" if someone is on a catwalk above you, or "TAP-TAP-TAP" if there's a guard walking close by) and physical simulation of battle effects. For example, if you are too close to a grenade as it goes off, there will be a distinct ringing sound that will persist for a few minutes (i.e. the ringing in your ears you'd hear were you really there), and the screen will blur for awhile until you recover (slight concussion). The overall graphics, as I said, are cel-shaded. However, they are darker than what you may have seen in the Wind Waker. In keeping with the tone of the comic, UbiSoft has kept a film-noir nature to the game: a lot of shade and dark color tones are the most prevalent. If when you think "cel-shading", you think of the Wind Waker, you'll be surprised. Remember Comix Zone for Genesis? Think that, but darker and in 3D. To help out in the presentation of the game, UbiSoft has recruited some nifty voice talents - namely rapper/actress Eve and TV's "Batman" Adam West as two generals in the game, and X-Files' David Duchovny as the numerical hero XIII himself.

Billy was told not to wear his tap shoes to work, but his love for them knew no bounds...

In respect to gameplay, UbiSoft is sticking to their formula of "Guns blazing or super-sneaky - your choice" that made Splinter Cell such a hit. XIII's objectives shift dynamically, the recovering of documents and rescuing of important people featuring most prominently, as these things can help halt the overthrow and/or help you rebuild your memory. The game definitely rewards one who respects patience and stealth in getting to the objective, allowing for silenced weapons and the ability to move the fallen corpses around to keep a roving patrol from stumbling across them. All of this gives you a better chance of noticing a guard coming up around the corner or someone up on another level that could see you and alert their buddies. However you could just as easily go buck-wild with an Uzi or M-16 (two of many weapons in the game), slaughter those that stand in your way, mow down those that come running at the sound of the slaughtering, and stroll up to wherever you have to go. If you are lacking in cover or ammo for a drawn-out firefight, hostages can be taken from among the enemy to get you to a better location, where you can then just snap their necks and find some rounds.

Is that "BAOOOMM" gonna stay there? Cause, you know, I'm trying to keep it on the down-low here...

One of the things I respect about XIII is the interactivity it presents the player. As a longtime comic book fan, I've always nourished the desire to be in that world where anything goes. With the excellent job on the graphics, UbiSoft has really done great work in making this dream come true. For me, I am a diehard Spider-Man fan. Now, whenever Spidey would run out of webbing in mid-swing, would he flail around like a goon until he hit 57th Street? No, he'd improvise, and so can you. One of my favorite parts of the game is the honest-to-God bar fight level. You have no guns, no ammo, you have to rely on fists and wits. In the melee, you can run over and grab a pool cue, use it to smack around people, or smash a window with it. The broken shards are more than able to be picked up and hurled at the foe like shuriken stars. Barstools are as easily swung in XIII as they are in real life, and the time-honored beer bottle works in the game just as it normally does - swung to the head for a blunt-force weapon, or smashed against the bar to make a right nice stabbing weapon. Now, this is not just limited to the bar fight level, but applicable everywhere. The dominant theory with the scenery and background objects seems to be "If it ain't nailed down, it's probably lethal."

UbiSoft is still a fan of the platform-exclusive feature, this to most likely be realized in XIII on GameCube in the form of Cube-exclusive multiplayer maps. Reports have UbiSoft devoting quality amounts of attention to the multiplayer feature in XIII, seemingly learning its lesson from Splinter Cell. Competition styles, other than simple deathmatch, are said to include a "Cover Me" mode, where you have to protect a friendly target from enemy fire, and a rumored "Scarecrow" mode, where you have to locate and rescue allies. This, of course, makes me happy. There's nothing I like better than inviting unsuspecting friends up to the console and proceeding to pump them full of lead. It's very therapeutic.

All in all, this game is set to be a great hit. Even after Splinter Cell was ported, I have never really seen a whole lot of great examples of the FPS on the Cube to date. Some of the keys to a great shooter are replayability, deathmatch campaigns, and the ability to play over and over and still get that thrill from besting an enemy whose move is impossible to detect before it's made. XIII looks to change all that, and I can only welcome it.