Platform - PS2
Publisher - UbiSoft
Age - Mature (17+)
Released in America 2003
Genre - Shooter
Sub Genre - Stealth
Website - www.whoisXIII.com

When X-Play reviewed this game it was touted as being "pretty".
Uh... yeah. Pretty is the visuals playing Final Fantasy VII, X or X-2.
Pretty is the visuals in Star Ocean : Til the End of Time, (dot)hack, Sly 2 or any of a number of games that have far prettier visuals than XIII.
It's nice, but by no means is it "pretty". Definitely not.

Besides which if you wanted visual eye candy you'd be playing any of a number of games other than this.
The point of my review, however, is how good is it gamewise.
Using a "comic book-ish" style of animation (right down to the comic book-ish way the cut scenes are presented) we have this standard shooter that tells the tale of a conspiracy between brothers in power.
One was the President before he was assassinated, the other his brother who wants to be elected as the new President (and no doubt had a hand in shuffling off his brother into the great beyond).

You are XIII, one of a set of 20 who are involved in some covert stuff. It seems you are on the good guys side, but I haven't played the game through to the end yet so there might be some twists left.
After waking up on the set of Baywatch with no memories you are set on a quest to find out what happened to you which first takes you to this bank, where you have to retrieve something but end up in a fight for your life (which is complicated since you have to restrain yourself throughout the entire level and not kill any bank guards trying to kill you).

After you are arrested and charged with the murder of the President you have to break out of FBI HQ and meet up with your associate who'll take you to the next level (a complex break out scheme to get your "boss", a General Carrington, freed from this military base under siege).

And that is where I am now. After freeing Carrington now I have to escort him to safety which is a lot of fighting and effort in itself. Where I go next is something I'm still trying to figure out as I put this review out... oh, well. Now, then, how does this game hold up? Let's break it down.

XIII Breakdown
What's Hot?
Sorta reminds me of the thing they posed during the X-Play review.
"XIII - Hot or Not".
Uh... it's not that hot visually. It's different and a nice change to have something like this, but I've seen prettier

no questions asked.
Anyway I'm not here to play for visual enjoyment, I'm here for good gameplay.
It has it's moments. Though abit of a standard shooter it does offer some challenge and I liked the whole comic book style visual aids (the sound of guards walking, the "?" and "!" when guards notice you, small panels alerting you to off screen action, etc) which is quite unique.
Basically I kind of had fun playing this, but I wish it was more interesting a shooter than it is.

What's Not?
My first Not goes right to the "heart" of the main character, mainly XIII's voice actor, David Duchovny.
Did David Duchovny need a nap or was his free complimentary pre-reading dose of Nyquil extra strength when he came in for his three hours of reading his lines for this game?
If you didn't think he could be anymore sedated in his acting after playing X-Files : Resist or Serve for the PS2 then this game is out to prove you wrong.
His acting is so sedated I felt as if he could have put me to sleep with his dialogue. Lucky for me he didn't deliver (to this point in the game I'm in) any long speech patterns because I couldn't take a long speech in that emotionless drawl he refers to as acting. It's just not a bearable thing for me. Not at all.

However, on the opposite end of the scale, we have the bang up job by Adam West (Batman) as General Carrington. Now that I got to him (and got a good long dose of his voice acting as Carrington) I can clearly see how good he swings the role, which is quite nice considering how badly Duchovny did XIII.
Maybe Adam West should have been the star of the game. I would have bought that no questions asked.

My second Not concerns the gameplay itself. To be more precise it concerns the ENDLESS amount of stealth missions required in this game! And endless is an understatement! Practically every other action in this game seemingly requires stealth to be accomplished! That is way too much stealth for anyone!
Even a game like Sly 2 : Band of Thieves which is thievery at it's very best didn't require this much stealth, and that marks a major flaw with this game.

I know, I know, as a conspiracy game there's going to be a lot of skullduggery as you lurk around looking for answers and fighting for survival. That, yes, I can grasp. HOWEVER, that being said, it is way too slow and time consuming to have to go through so many stealth missions and

moments!

As you know, by the mere definition of the word itself, "stealth" equates having to do things silently and slowly... VERY slowly at times. So a game that, according to PSM, is supposed to be "Unique, stylish, and remarkably fluid." tends to lose it's fluidity when it stumbles into one stealth mission after another.
I don't know about the stylish thing though.

As X-Play noted, and I agree, some stealth is good... too much is a drag and a pain in the butt! This is most certainly true if you botch something mid-mission and have to replay the whole section over again because you made ONE tiny mistake! That is definitely where the whole stealth thing becomes a bother.

Then again stealth isn't the only problem. Another is the lack of "checkpoints". Some areas require a long chain of complicated things you have to do to complete it, and sometimes it's a pain to have to do it over and over again (after being killed over and over again) until you finally get it down pat and get to the checkpoint. Ugh. I don't even want to think how many times I went through the first level of the Emerald Base area before I finally got it down pat. It's not a good thing, oh no.

As for the whole "pretty" thing? Yeah, yeah, the game is kind of pretty, alright, but not THAT pretty! Far better made games (visually speaking) are out there and a lot are games that Mr. Sassler just doesn‘t like because they‘re Japanese RPGs... boo-hoo, too bad (so sad)... not.
XIII is kind of unique, and it's interesting visually, but by no means is it "pretty".
I'm still not certain about this "stylish" thing either.

Moments to Remember?
You mean I actually have to remember this game? Must I? Isn't it just enough that I bought this game and reviewed it? Oh-kay... the gameplay is kinda memorable... when you are not being frustrated by having to play levels over and over again because you got stuck somewhere or made a mistake and got killed or something. Then I don't want to remember.

Then again considering my genre likes/dislikes in video games I guess it's a wonder why I'm not completely won over by XIII.
Shooters are one of a few genres I am totally not into when it comes to video games.
Sports games, fighting games and horror games (with a few exceptions) are also not my thing.

It has it's moments, but I am not a total convert when it comes to this game.

What to Ignore?
Somehow I am not getting into this game if the person I'm playing doesn't even

sound like he's getting into this game. Is it me or is this some sort of trademark for David Duchovny? This low key sedated "performances" he's been doing lately in games? It worked in X-Files : Resist or Serve but only barely because that is the way he was in the show. Here, however, is a different thing. He could have shown some enthusiasm for this.

It is pretty much as X-Play put it. It sounds as if he'd rather investigate the odious goings on at a Rent-a-Center... actually it sounds as if he took a large swallow of Nyquil and is well on his way to sleepyland.
So good night, Mr. Duchovny. Sleep well. (And ignore him.)

Overall?
For a game that's supposed to be so "pretty" I wish it was something else... more exciting.
But with gameplay that is standard with only marginal uniqueness, and a "star" that seemed to have came in just for the check and not much else (due to his sedated acting in this game) I'd have to say it's middle of the road gameplaying. (Several names come to mind in terms of people I would have chosen to play XIII, including Bruce Boxleitner (Babylon 5 and Tron 2.0), Bruce Willis (upcoming Sin City movie), or even Bruce Campbell (Evil Dead : Fistful of Boomstick). Anything but Duchovny's sedated acting!

If it wasn't for some of those unique aspects of this game (16 weapons including the ability to pick up chairs and certain objects as weapons), and the performance by Adam West who came in with his gameface on that day to do some serious work, this game would be an underachiever waiting to happen.
As it stands, however, it is worth checking out... renting at first if you must, but if thoughts of buying are in your future then probably a best buy once it goes into the bargain bin at marked down prices... which is how I bought my copy.

It's nice, Adam West is the best part of the voice acting, and it's worth trying out, but don't hold your hopes up for a runaway hit because it's just not going to happen with this game. It's middle of the road gaming, yet unique enough to give it a chance. Especially if you are a fan of shooters and want to try something abit different visually than you might normally be used to.

Oh, and I hope this means we'll see Adam West again in future video games. That would be something I would most definitely be looking forward to.

Anyway that's my position on this and I'm going to stick to it.