XIII is a strange beast. It feels like a much older game than it is but one that has aged well. I'd recommend it to anyone with an interest in shooters but I couldn't recommend it as a particularly great shooter in its own right. Parts of it are still very fresh like the comic book styling which goes significantly beyond the cell shaded graphics (to which time has been less kind than you might expect but still looks nice enough) but other parts such, as the near complete lack of AI, feels extremely dated. This does not look or feel like a game that came out a month after Max Payne 2 and four months before Far Cry. It sits more comfortably alongside games of the Half-Life era than Half-Life 2 and its other near contemporaries. The plot is actually really pretty damn weak conspiracy theory fluff and, dare I say it, overrated… vastly overrated. I’d say it was no better than say Bad Company 2 so I have to disagree with anyone claiming they don’t make them like this anymore. Unfortunately, as with BC2, I couldn’t bring myself to care about any of it. I’d actually prefer Far Cry which at least knew it had a stupid plot and was willing to poke fun at itself. It was still fun to creep about and hit people with brooms and or take them out from afar with the magic perfectly accurate scoped crossbow. That was the solid core of the experience for me. I don’t need smart enemies or good plots in an FPS as long as the action is sufficiently amusing and it is. It is also worth noting how varied the pace is. This is a game which will at times insist on you taking a stealthy approach, at other insist on running and gunning and then spend a good deal of time giving you a choice between two viable approaches. I had fun with it as a shooter and found it interesting enough as a historical curiosity to want to spend half an hour reviewing it but I doubt I’ll replay it any time soon. Now I have to decide if I rate it as 3 stars or 4 stars. I’m leaning to 4 because it was good fun and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to you if you think it might be your sort of thing where as 3 might be taken as warning you off.
I never played this back in the day so I didn't go into it with any nostalgia and I'm not going to cut it any slack for being old. Nox is a slightly strange beast, it is firmly tongue in cheek but it really needs it because at times it is brutal as hell. The camp humour made sure I was swearing good naturedly at the instant deaths rather than rage quitting. The campaign is long and varied with a wonderful number of little ideas thrown in and apparently varies quite a lot between the three classes which should add some relay value. The graphics are still perfectly nice and the interface is for the most part clear and concise. The loot isn't really very inspiring but it doesn't really matter because the dungeon crawling itself is fun and interesting enough to stand up even when you've completely lost interest in the loot. It is a game which manages that most wonderful of tricks of making you want to beat it. I think it actually manages that by not feeling particular polished and not having anything close to an even difficulty curve. You'll curse it at times but it keeps things interesting. I feel like I've more than got my monies worth of entertainment out of this game and I've a feeling I might return to check out the other two classes at some point. I'd definitely recommend this to anyone who fancies a brutal, light hearted, hack and slash.
