There were a lot of good games for the Playstation 2, but the one in particular for this review has t o be one of my favorite first-person shooters called XIII. Ever heard of this game? A game created by Ubisoft, it is based on the Belgium comic series of the same name. The game is based off of the first fifteen comics. The game truly feels like you're in a comic book because it has that cel-shaded look, whenever you kill someone in a gruesome way, there's little panels showing you his ultimate fate, and it's just got that cartoony feel to it with its humor and appearance. Sadly though, this game didn't get a sequel, so you don't know what happens next unless you actually read the comics. I thought that the live-action show they're doing with Stuwart Townsend would be a great way to bring the series back to the fans, however, I hated the show.
Let me actually talk about something that isn't hated by me.
You take control of a character named Steve Roland, or so you think. Your guy is being framed for assassinating the president, he must try to clear his name in a way to prove that he's innocent. But then you realize something as you progress throughout the game. You're not actually Steve Roland, you were made to look like him to get back at the Twenty organization for their betrayal. One bad guy named the Mongoose, is up in your grill because he KNOWS that he placed three bullets in you, and that you shouldn't have been alive after his encounter. Little does he know, you're not the Steve Roland everyone thinks is alive, you're Jason Fly, taking Steve Roland's identity and scaring the Twenty... You're also trying to figure out who number One is as well. Walter Sharidan, the brother of the late president, takes over his brother's campaign and becomes president. General Carrington and Jones are the only two people that knows of your innocence and wants to help you out. Amos, at first, believes you're guilty for killing the president, but then changes during the remainder of the game when Carrington later explains to him what's going on.
That's a little bit about the story, how about the game?
You don't get to kill all twenty of them, a few of them do die under your hands, other died under other circumstances, and some of them kill themselves. But the boss fights aren't really that impressive, they normally all act the same. The boss moves around really fast, has a dangerous weapon in their disposal, and you mainly have to find cover almost entirely throughout the fight. I feel as if there's really no specific strategy to these bosses because they all act the same. The second to the last boss, (sadly, I cannot look up his name because I'm constantly getting Final Fantasy XIII popping up) is one of two bosses that I find really challenging. Mainly because there's not enough cover to hide behind. You're in this room with a giant table in the middle, glass panels covers the corners of the room. You can hide behind them for a little bit, until they get shattered, for cover. Then the Mongoose fight is challenging of them all. You're roaming around this giant hanger with rockets that are about to launch, but if you shoot them, they spill out this gas that slows you down for a little bit. The Mongoose runs around really, really fast, and has a mini-gun in his disposal. I mean, he's not freakishly hard, it's just that most of the time, you're going to be finding yourself shooting next to him rather than at him because of how fast he moves.
The gameplay feels like any normal first-person shooter. At times, there's a bit of stealth moments where you cannot let yourself get spotted, otherwise the guards will call in HQ and have them be aware that you're in the area. This mission. where you need to infiltrate the Sanctuary, always ticked me off because of some of the areas that they have you sneaking around. Like this one spot, you have to climb out of a well and take out two guards that are roaming around the area, and you have to be quick because they move just as fast as the bosses. Allow them to successfully alert HQ or whatever, your mission has failed. Another spot is where you're in this large courtyard area. If you take someone out in the sights of another guard, they're alerted and they go running off and tattle-tale on you. You know when they're alerted when you see the exclamation point hovering over their heads, as well as a question mark, letting you know that they're suspicious of what's going on.
Another thing that kinda bothers me is the use of the sniper rifle. It's one of those games where you have to wait for the character to stop moving to actually get a good sight on the guard you're targeting, and this gets annoying because you have to wait like ten seconds before XIII stops moving finally. I get what they're trying to do, but it's annoying with these first-person shooters that do this. You don't hold down anything specific for him to hold his breath for a steadier aim or whatever, you just have to wait. And of course, once you shoot, you have to wait again if you're trying to aim once more.
The game does bring some good comical points to it. There's a part very early in the game where thugs that the Mongoose sent on you, are making a snowman. IF you shoot the head off of the snowman, you'll see that it's a deceased person they probably killed with the Psycho music playing in the back ground for three seconds. That part kills me, literally. I don't really get the significance of the song several characters are singing, unless it has something to do with the name "Fly" and flying since that's the first part of the lyrics. "You can fly, you can fly..." Yeah, I still don't know the significance with that song, and several characters sing this song... You also hear some funny conversations such as a guard thinking that the newbies are "goddamn John Rambo." I always laugh at that part. Oh, and did you know that these characters are voiced by people that you know? Adam West stars as Carrington, and he's not AS funny as he normally is, David Duchovny stars as XIII, and Eve plays as Jones. So this game brought a few known people into this game as stars... but what happened to this game?
You see, the ending ends in a cliffhanger. You're assuming that the way this game ends, it's going to have a sequel to pick up where it last left us. Unfortunately, due to poor sales and terrible reviews, Unbisoft didn't bother making a sequel. There is a point and click game out there for the PC, Mac, iPhone, and iPad back in 2011, however, it's not the same. It got mixed reviews, but some of the negatives sure hurt this game, such as "don't expect this to be the FPS of the year." "The graphics make up for everything this game lacks, such as the lackbuster weapons and story." They just thought this game was dull, that it didn't bring anything new, that it's just your typical first-person shooter that has nothing special other than making it seem like you're in a comic book.
How does this game end in a way that there SHOULD have been a sequel? Well, you're on a boat, and you were asked to located Walter Sharidan, the president. So you're searching throughout the inside of the boat, and you happen to overhear number Seventeen, Kim Roland, Steve Roland's widow that you helped out in a previous level, screaming as Walter to give her back her son. You then hear her get slapped and Walter is screaming about some deal that they made together. You stumble upon an office and you get a flashback (which occurs every now and then, showing how you became XIII and some previous missions that you did during these times) having Kim asking you who number One is. You never really get to see him during these flashbacks, nor do you ever get to see him... Well, you do, that is if you actually read the comics, or English version of them. Walter Sharidan enters the office after the flashback ends with him talking to you in a deeper, more serious tone. He asks you, "Are the fireworks not to your liking?" And then... DRAMATIC MUSIC and the panel "To be continued..." shows at the bottom of the screen.
I saw a Youtube video saying that this game had the dumbest ending ever. How though? Unisoft followed the comic book, this ending is an ending in one of the comics. I actually made a response to the person, telling them that if they really wanted to know what happened next, go read the comics. Ubisoft just didn't make a sequel, that's not stupid, the game didn't sell well. Don't hate upon the ending, really, don't.
Overall, this game isn't that bad as many made it out to be. It doesn't get boring if you really enjoy this game, I certainly do. The game brings somewhat of a challenge in the later levels, but it also gets more fun as well. I truly feel that Ubisoft, one day, should make a sequel to this game, and hopefully people didn't forget about this game. I thought that there should be, despite many people were talking down about it. Yeah, the game didn't have interesting weapons, but so what. The only thing that they should have improved on, is the multiplayer. Yeah, this game's multiplayer really wasn't all that great, and I wasn't too fond with it either.
If you ever want to check this game out, go ahead. I certainly don't mind playing it every so often, that is if I'm around a Playstation 2. I definitely would recommend you to get it if you're a fan of the comics, if you're a fan of first-person shooters, and a fan of goofy games. That's all I gotta say!
>'-'<
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