XIII

Title: XIII
Platform Played On: PC
Release Date: November 18, 2003
Date Played: November 2003
Time Played: 9 hours
Completed (Y/N): Yes
Score: 4/5



Opinion:
Thirteen is game I associate with starting college. I distinctly remember sitting at my desk in the dorms and playing this game.

XIII grabbed my attention immediately with its unconventional cell shaded approach. In fact I am pretty sure it was the first cell shaded game I have ever played. The art direction was pretty impressive.  The way cell shaded technology works it allowed Ubisoft to craft an incredible looking world, which still looks pretty good 9 years later. The visuals are very clean and the animations are well done.

Playing through XIII is a pretty unique experience, even to this day no one really attempted to craft something like it using cell shading.  The story bits and in game dialogue is presented in a comic book style.  When enemies walk around you can see the "TAP TAP TAP" from their feet, explosions trigger "BOOM" moments. It reminds me of the 90's Genesis game called "Comix Zone", except its a first person shooter. All of these popups and comic book boxes make actions you do feel really bad ass.

The presentation makes XIII stand out even today. Its graphical style looks great at 1080p even now in 2012, and overall it is a pretty unique experience. My only complain about it is that although presented very well, the actual story itself is very forgettable, but even still I would definitely recommend XIII to any fan of the comic books and/or cell shaded style.