XIII

aka: Shashou Shisan, Thirteen, XIII: Classic, XIII: le jeu vidéo
Moby ID: 11251
Windows Specs
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Description official descriptions

XIII is a cel-shaded first-person shooter based on the popular Belgian cult comic created by Jean Van Hamme and illustrated by William Vance. The game is loosely based on the first five comics. The main theme of the game is based on Robert Ludlum's book The Bourne Identity, and features a man who is suffering from amnesia and quite possibly involved in the recent assassination of the President of the United States. The hero knows almost nothing except that he must be important, since everyone is trying to kill him. Gradually uncovering the mystery, the hero, learns more about his secret agent past and his curious name: XIII.

The player unravels clues, trying to solve a conspiracy set in an environment that breathes a comic book ambiance. Footsteps and shots are visualized in text and actions: for example, head shots are shown in a series of still images. Aside from that, the game has all the typical FPS elements: both stealth and action, more than fifteen weapons (shotguns, crossbows, rifles, ...), interaction with environmental objects and plenty of enemies in levels spread all over the world. During the game, the player can learn a number of skills such as silent walking, lockpicking and dual weapons handling.

Spellings

  • 杀手十三 - Simplified Chinese spelling

Groups +

Screenshots

Promos

Credits (Windows version)

380 People (324 developers, 56 thanks) · View all

Producer
Co-Producer
Data Managers
Associate Producer
Game Marketing Manager
Junior Game Marketing Manager
Localization Manager
Project Closer
Online Moderator
Lead Artist
Artistic Director
Lead Character
Lead 2D Artist
Character Textures
3D Artists and Special Effects
Pop-up Windows
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 78% (based on 66 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.5 out of 5 (based on 120 ratings with 6 reviews)

Superb graphics, good gameplay

The Good
Firstly, the cell-shaded graphics are excellent, and are what will undoubtedly draw most people to the game. Rather than being cartoony (like The Wind Waker), XIII - read 'thirteen' - actually looks and feels like a real graphic novel. It's a 3D comic and it works brilliantly. Hitting an enemy with a head-shot spawns a box-out window showing some white-bordered stills of the bullet finding its target which, although getting repetitive after a while, are hugely satisfying. Ubi Soft have tried hard to make the graphics mean more to the game than just eye-candy, though; explosions and enemy footsteps are displayed as a Batman-style 'Boom!' or 'tap-tap-tap...', meaning that the player can visually follow enemies that are obscured by buildings, etc, which is a useful feature.

The story takes amnesiac Steve Rowland across the US in an attempt to unravel a conspiracy surrounding an assassinated president. Locations are always interesting and varied (of particular note is the clifftop mansion towards the end of the game with beautiful ocean view) and the mix of stealthy, weaponless and blast 'em missions is good.

For GameCube owners coming to XIII after a spell away from the FPS genre, an improvement in enemy AI is immediately noticeable. Soldiers hide around corners, wait in ambush behind crates and inside doorways and actually notice (most of the time) that their partners have been taken out right in front of them. No more will the TimeSplitters2 strategy of popping your head round the corner and then waiting for baddies to stumble blindly into your line of fire bring you success.

Special mention must also be made of the game's ending of which, of course, I can say little here, other than than certain graphical effects are very cool indeed. Oh, and that it's playable!

The Bad
On the negative side, some may find that XIII's story is a little too complicated. The plot is unveiled in spurts and starts with cut scenes at the end of some levels, leaving those without a good memory for character's names in the dark. There's no way to replay these cut scenes, even after finishing the game, which is a shame as they are certainly worth a repeat viewing. It is possible to watch a 2D comic style presentation of the story, but in contrast to the cut-scenes this serves to shed very little light on the conspiracy and the identity of Steve Rowland.

What's worse is that it isn't possible to replay your favourite levels without resorting to saving a new game after each. This is particularly frustrating given that there are hidden 'secret documents' to collect throughout the game - if you miss one, there's no opportunity to go back for it. Ubi Soft should have looked back to Goldeneye 007 for a lesson in how to manage this properly.

Also - and when will developers learn - why are the controls so odd? For some reason, 'B' is secondary fire, 'A' is action and 'R' and 'Z' are primary fire and crouch respectively. This will catch players out even after several hours of play. Surely primary and secondary fire should be 'R' and 'Z'! And why not give us the option to change it? Streetfighter II, back in the 16-bit era, gave us this freedom!

Ultimately, though, what lets this game down is just how unextraordinary it is. Sure, the graphics are superb, but once you see through them you'll realise how little it brings to the FPS table, borrowing heavily from Deus Ex and the other games by Rare and Free Radical Design that I mention above.

The Bottom Line
The bottom line is that XIII is a supremely enjoyable game with superb graphics, excellent sound effects and acting (including an underused David Duchovny, a nice choice for a conspiracy game). Just don't expect it to add anything new to your collection. FPS starved GameCube owners should definitely look into it.

GameCube · by Paul Jones (274) · 2004

It looked great and played terribly.

The Good
XIII's graphic novel look is brilliant. It looks beautiful (though a generation or two behind other shooters released around the same time) and the game play's smooth as one could ask for. The first 15 minutes met the high expectations I had set for the game...

The Bad
...but soon after I found that my hopes were MUCH too high. When the developer's of XIII announced that it would play like a comic book, nerds across the nation began salivating over what looked to be the ultimate "Hybrid of Nerdities." But soon after it's release fan's realized that by "comic book structure," the developers meant a linear bore of a traditional shooter, stuffed with panel intro's and outro's, and the irritating sound effect text's (a la batman) to give it a comic books feel. The gameplay is average, offering nothing extraordinary. I would like to know how a developer can make a FPS that has more in common Blake Stone than modern shooters of the time, and expect it to blow the mind's of gamers around the world. The story begins with a cool introduction to the world of Agent XIII, who seems to have forgotten everything about his previous life. Had the game kept the intriguing story as it's foremost concentration, I would have enjoyed it much more; but alas, it seems that shooting soldier after soldier with an M-16 is the proper way to regain one's identity. Pshh. The game doesn't even include region sensitive damage on an enemy besides the head. Pass this one up; the occasional flash back might have been cool if XIII delivered a story that pulled you in through the game play, but an intelligent game like Farcry or Doom III is a better way to spend your money.

The Bottom Line
Shoot, shoot, bang, kill, flashback, story information, shoot shoot shoot, bang, kill, blood, text, panels, end game.

Windows · by Ricky Pugh (6) · 2004

Best attempt at a playable comic book yet

The Good
The graphics were what first attracted me to this game. The comic book style is not only visually pleasing but also integrated into the gameplay elements. For example if you wait by a door the words "TAP TAP TAP" represent the presence, and also the location and direction of any guards moving on the other side. Also panel overlays often show views of important items or dangerous situations. Hopefully a sequel will expand on these elements.

Underneath all the comic book gloss is a solid story and some good gameplay elements. My favourite sections were the stealth sections which are done very well even with the absence of a MGS style enemy view cone. The AI on the average soldiers is quite good which makes up for the disappointing AI on the boss characters. This is not a game where running in and blasting away will get you very far.

The ability to knock-out guards with things you find around you is a nice idea. Unfortunately, the tedious throw aside animation means that if you miss you'll have to stand there in a hail of bullets before you can perform a follow-up attack.

The music tracks help to complete the mood of the game and are in keeping with the overall style. The idle chatter of the guards are also an amusing diversion when you have to play the same section several times.

The Bad
I didn't get off to a good start with this title. Firstly I couldn't install from the discs - I had to copy the files to the hard drive first, and then install from there. Secondly, the copy protection system wouldn't let me play the game even with the disc in the drive! I contemplated cracking the game but eventually found out that the copy protection data doesn't exist on the install disc and you have to use the first game disc. I regretted my decision to persevere with the legitimate system later when it turned out you still had to disc swap even if you installed the entire game (what's the point of having the option if you still have to disc swap?) These pathetic anti-piracy efforts are only annoying for legitimate customers of course!

While most of the levels are well balanced, the boss levels are another story. They aren't hard because they have better AI or skills than the normal bad guys: they're hard because you have to hit them so many times. For example a direct hit with a rifle grenade will barely touch most of the boss characters, yet the splash back from this same grenade could well kill you! You are more likely to fail these levels through lack of ammunition than through lack of tactical skill. Only persistence will eventually get you through.

The save game system is quite flaky too. Several times I had to play the same level two or three times because the game didn't save properly.

The Bottom Line
It is an interesting twist on the first person shooter, with a distinctive graphical style, and well designed plot. But beneath the style it brings very little new to the genre.

Windows · by Paul Sinnett (502) · 2004

[ View all 6 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
Game with MSI! Fred VT (25953) Feb 19, 2014
Cine14.bik Daniel Saner (3503) Aug 12, 2007

Trivia

Characters

Not all the enemies in the game are pure fantasy. The look of at least two of them is based on real persons. One of them is Niels Bogdan, German PR-guy from Ubi Soft, the other one is more interesting: In cooperation with the German games-show NBC GIGA GAMES, the designers gave the viewers of the show the chance to get themselves into the game. They just had to send pictures - and the other viewers decided, which was the meanest looking villain, you could imagine.

Well, in the end, they didn't choose some mean looking guy - but a very, very mean, in a strange way, looking, young, ultra-nerdish guy. So, if you come across some really questionable villain who looks a bit like Bill Gates, you know why...

References

In the Canyon level, you can find three deserted graves. Unlike the tomb in the garden of the mansion, later on in the game, the names written on them do not refer to in-game characters, but to members of the development team: Olivier Dupin (2D), Marc Chevalier (3D Artists and Special Effects) and Nath Moschetti (Artistic Director).

Soundtrack

The groovy seventies music is composed by artists associated with the San Francisco's Future Primitive Sound art collective. The soundtrack has been made available exclusively in a XIII game bundle that could be ordered from the Ubisoft site. There are no song titles, just 13 unidentified tracks that flow one into the other in one continuous mix.

Awards

  • 4Players
    • 2003 – Best PC Story of the Year
    • 2003 – Best PC Innovation of the Year
  • Computer Gaming World
    • March 2004 (Issue #236) – Special Achievement in Art Direction

Information also contributed by Felix Knoke

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Related Sites +

  • Official Webpage (Mac)
    The official product page for the Mac version of XIII on the publisher's website, which provides trailers, an overview of characters and weapons within the game itself, desktop wallpapers, a demo, and purchasing information, among other such particulars.
  • Treize
    Official comic book site
  • UBI Soft XIII site
    UBI Soft website for XIII
  • XIII - le site non-officiel
    Unofficial XIII comic book site

Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 11251
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Sciere.

PlayStation 2, GameCube, Xbox added by Corn Popper. Macintosh added by Kabushi.

Additional contributors: Unicorn Lynx, jean-louis, Stillman, Zeppin, Patrick Bregger, Plok, 64er.

Game added December 8, 2003. Last modified March 7, 2024.