XIII

The game looks interesting and the comic style is what makes this game attractive (although the faces that all look the same, and weird at that (all men with strange lips) ) . However, as it is basically a shooter, it falls flat - there is something really off with aiming. I can shoot better by just moving sideways rather than aiming with the mouse, and I have experience with a lot of shooters. The efficiency and accuracy of weapons is really strange too. Enemies are really bullet spongy against most of the arsenal. The best thing to do is to just try headshots all the time to reduce the frustration. The dialogues are rather infantile and maybee it wouldn't be so noticeble, if the voice acting were not so infantile too (it is not just bad - there is also something weird about how the dialogues are read - it sounds very amateurish, as if they took some random guys from a table RPG session). What is the worst thing is the saving system, of course. You can only save after you reach an arbitrary checkpoint and even then there are sometimes situations, when you have to replay the whole level again, if you forget to save manually. The game DOES not save progress on its own. I have had to replay the same level (I play on higher difficulty) several times just because something random, which got mee killed, happened at the end. Overall, I expected much much more of this game. It is a huge disappointment.

Don't listen to the negative reviews. This is a solid and fun game. It has a classic action-movie-like story. Though easily completable it is still fun and definately worth a play through. The story and narration makes it worth it. The cartoonish and comic'ish animation is nice and much different than your usual shooter. This makes the experience into a special and enjoyful one. It even has rogue like elements like crawling and listening/spotting foots steps. Shoot or sneak you decide. All kinds of environments, desert, submarine, snowbase and even a nuclear bunker. All nicely set up. Overall a solid game. Enjoy!

I should mention I got the game for free on Gog and it is a 2003 game. XIII holds surpisingly well, because it is very story driven, and there are some incredible gameplay mechanics which make it special. If you add the very interesting conspiracy story the belgian comics provide, it clearly becomes more engrossing than following bald 47 on missions or watching Sam Fisher clear foreign bases out of patriotism. This game is cinematicaly fun. But there are major issues which might break the deal for others. The graphics, while holding up, show the limitations of their time. The savegame mechanism is an abomination. You restart from the beggining on the level you saved. Be prepared to play until you see a level completed in one sitting and save on the start of the next one. The soundtrack was too jazzy for my taste. It felt like elevator or lounge music peppered with my gunshots and explosion. People praised the voice acting but while Adam West and Eve delivered, I got really annoyed by David Duchovny's grunts and sighs. The main menu itself is confusing. You unlock skills and lore by finding folders. You only see unlocked skills as checked while in-game, while the lore somehow progresses faster than your gameplay, spoiling the next level for you if you read it. In addition weapon swapping is not really an option, because it is too slow. You have to decide how to approach a situation and hope the bullets last. The final boss is not just a bullet sponge, but a grenade one too. I was on the easiest difficulty, ran out of ammo and switched to God mode.. This allowed me to see the finale which is the biggest dealbreaker of the game. To be continued and never was. The comics provide the answer and are a great read. For me it was a great game because it is unique and I had low expectations. I liked the story, the Jason Bournegameplay and the comic book effects.

One of my favourite games. Yes, she really has problems with balance and sometimes it may seem too easy, and sometimes overly difficult at the same level of difficulty. But overall, this is a good game with excellent visual style, an interesting story about the conspiracy and a good fighting (mostly).

It was free on a giveaway, i am old and dig old-school FPSs, so sure why not. It's got good moments of stealth and shooting, plus a few cool gimmicks like the zipline hook. Graphics are a twist on the usual. But man oh man -- ye olde invisible-checkpoint save system is atrocious. Get ready to replay long stretches. And to again sit through unskippable cutscenes. Truly awful. Which reminds me of Duchovny's voice-acting -- laughably awful. "A guy with amnesia? I'll just say everything in a flat monotone, that'll be perfect." I'm having some fun. Gun precision is sketchy. (Best typo so far: guy says "they think they're John Rambo," and his speech bubble says "John Rainbow.") But checkpoint-save creates very frustrating gameplay.