XIII preview

XIII

Based on a comic of the same name by Jean Van Hamme, XIII is a cel-shaded (cartoon style) first person shooter set to be released on multiple platforms. The demo I saw was roughly eighty percent complete and apparently very stable.

The cel-shaded look definitely gives XIII a cool retro look and feel. The game engine is used to animate the cut-scenes providing an integrated feel to the whole game experience. XIII generates its graphics with the Unreal II engine, which gives it a good starting point in terms of quality. I did find it annoying that you couldn’t seem to skip the cut scenes, certainly on the PS2 version, so after you’d sat through them a couple of times waiting for the action to start you did rather lose the will to continue playing. That’s bound to be sorted in time for launch though.

Style and substance

The style goes deeper than the graphics, however, and the game promises a deep level of gameplay. XIII will try to combine stealth and action in a way no other FPS has tried before. Sure, plenty of FPS games force you to use stealthy tactics to sneak up on opponents but XIII will actually force you to complete levels without killing anyone. As you struggle to regain your memory and solve the puzzle of the game’s story you will encounter a variety of missions requiring you to use different tactics such as stealth and, of course, plenty of shooting too.

Multiplayer mayhem

The Multiplayer options in XIII look like they could set it apart from the pack. With traditional modes such as deathmatch and capture the flag alongside co-operative game modes it looks set to become a multiplayer favorite. The range of weaponry could also make XIII something special. Not just limited to a range of guns and fists, XIII includes a collection of silent weapons, like the crossbow, for stealthy missions and melee weapons – chairs, bottle, ashtrays etc – for the missions where you can’t kill people. The bodies of enemy soldiers can even be used as weapons and other characters can be used as human shields. This was demonstrated in the demo I saw with a bank raid level where a bystander could be used to prevent your character from being shot at.

Get ready to rumble

XIII

XIII is set for a release in early October so we won’t have too long to wait to find out if it can live up to the hype surrounding it. To do well it needs to get to the market before its main rivals – Half Life 2, UT2004 and Far Cry. Whilst XIII is a different type of FPS it is still a FPS and I suspect that there are only so many of these games that the market can support. With the accolades being lauded onto all of these games it would seem that the next six months or so is going to be a golden time for FPS fans.