demo: XIII (single player)

I finally got around to playing a couple demos I have been meaning to try for a while: Silent Storm and XIII. I downloaded them last weekend but really only got to play in small, condensed doses during the week and managed to finish them off this weekend. I want to end on a positive note so I'll get to XIII first.

I hate to put out that type of negativity up front without actually getting to the game, but that's the way it has to be. Seeing the previews that were so cleverly put together and proudly displayed at this year's E3, I expected XIII to redesign the way we interpret the visuals of a first-person shooter. Everyone was quick to throw around terms like "cel shaded" and "comic book shooter", but really, what are words without action?

The visuals are unique enough, though a little too bright for the subject matter. You're supposed to be someone with a shady past who wakes up with no memory and at the heart of a sinister plot with people trying to kill you. It may be a highly stylized emulation of a comic book, but the sense of danger and atmosphere was not there. There is interesting usage of comic-style panel-in-picture to show off-screen or distant action, but it doesn't look that great. The small panels that pop up are blurry and kind of ugly, which most likely are a result of this being a console port. A think another design carryover from the console port were the outline boxes that appear to highlight important objects or enemies that come into view. This kind of handholding definitely detracts from the experience.

In XIII you can "see" sounds, such as the crash from a window breaking or the final gurgle from your latest kill. This came in particularly useful in the military base level where you have to sneak around, paying careful attention to the "tap tap tap" of guards walking nearby. However in this game sneaking around with hamfisted AI gets annoying pretty fast; the only way I could get past the mission was to snipe one of the guards with my crossbow and then blast my way through once the cover was blown. And even then it took multiple attempts - not being able to save mid-level proved to be quite the pain in the ass here.

One thing the game does well is the original soundtrack that was put together by San Fransisco music collective Future Primitive Sound. It's a catchy fusion of jazz, hip hop and 70s funk, adding to the game's arty feel. According to the latest issue of PC Gamer XIII's soundtrack is a hot commodity, seeing the same type of success as the soundtracks for the Grand Theft Auto games. You can check out some MP3 samples at the official site.

Besides the gimmicky trappings, there really isn't much about XIII that I like. Sure it's stylish but as that old bitch from the Wendy's commercial says, "Where's the beef?". There is nothing in this game's mechanics that can distinguish itself from another FPS. I might as well be playing Quake II. Of course the merits of this game are open to discussion; you can grab the demo here if you must determine them for yourself.