Retro Game Walkthroughs For
"Xiii"
(PlayStation 2)

This is a walkthrough for anybody who needs the edge over their friends in the amazingly compelling and addictive multiplayer game mode in XIII.

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The levels
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One of the best things about the multiplayer XIII is the diverse and intricate arenas of death that are available to blow the living crap out of anybody who stands in your way.
There are plenty to choose from and they are largely taken from the levels in the single player game (although obvious addaptions and additions have been made).
What level you choose is influenced extremely by the type of game you choose to play (more information on the game types is mentioned later in this walkthrough), for example, a wide uncovered space isnt particularly suitable for a tactical team deathmatch so a more secluded and corridor oriented level might be a better choice (i.e. New york rather than Platform 04).
Whatever level you decide to host your massacre in, remember this; weapons, ammo, body armour and medikits always regenerate in the same place - so make sure you know the level well to find these essential items and keep out your enemies' firing lines!

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Bots
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The artificial intelligence (AI) of the bots from XIII is excellent, so be aware that they have the power to 'think' through their actions just the same as you can, whether the bots are set to easy or insane level, they aren't that simple to dispose of once in the battle field.
The bots come with four difficulty settings (easy, medium, hard and insane), their names obviously correspond with the kind of resistance they will offer to anyone attacking them although none of them stay still very long. This is why you should always be profficient with the controls beford tackling the more difficult bots (i.e. Hard and insane).
When beginning, stick with the easy bots as they will put up quite a fight, once you have developed more skill with weapons, move on to the medium bots. Medium bots aren't a great deal more tricky to dispatch than the easy but it might be an idea to balance the scales with an easy bot or a second player on your team if you are finding it difficult to cope on your own.

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Game modes
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There are several game modes up for offer, namely:

Deathmatch - simple fight to the death, no teams

Team Deathmatch - pretty self-explanitory (duh)

Capture the Flag - Classic team game with two teams fighting it out to
steal the other teams flag and bring it back to their
own base

Power-up - A seemingly simple shoot-out but with the added complication
of having to get 'pick up' power up crates containing
non-specific weapons, items and special abilities
(i.e. invisibility, invunrability, super damage)

The Hunt - An amusing and original game mode; you and your opponents
(no teams) must chase and try and cause damage to a figure
(the grim reaper/death) who is extremely fast, kills you when
he touches you and gets smaller with every shot that hits him!

All game modes are simple to gt the hang of but nether-the-less challenging to even the most experienced players. Even so, here are some simple hints to help you on your way:

Deathmatch - Remember that all other players are out to get you, shoot
anything that moves! It's best not to wait aroud
stockpiling weapons, if you do, the chances are that you'll
get killed before you have a chance to use them, just find
a reasonably powerfull weapon (i.e. shotgun or assult
rifle) and blow your opponents away with sheer force (in
the heat of attack from all sides, there isn't much time to
aim). Hiding in small spaces and sniping anyone who walks
past is also not really much of an option; with no allies
to watch your back, it's easy for someone to creep right up
behind you and put a shotgun shell throught the back of
your head fast hit and run attacks with high power weapons
is really the way to go. Above all, keep moving!

Team Deathmatch - Pretty similar really, just this time you have time on
your side as you have team-mates to occupy the enemy
whilst you get fragging!!! Maybe the sniper rifle isn't
completely redundant in this game after all...

Capture the Flag - Again like the Team deathmatch (providing that you're
not playing one-on-one) you have friends with you; the
best stategies are either let your team gaurd your
flag and take on the enemy or vice-versa.

Power-up - There aren't really any set ways of playing this one. As it's
just basically a big melee you'd better follow similar tactics
as in the deathmatch mode, only this time, it's worth taking
the time to get the power-ups as they can be very useful
(especially considering the lack of other sources of weapons).

The Hunt - A dificult game for beginners as careful movement of your
character is crucial, one wrong step and you could come face
to face with death (literally). The aim is to get points by
shooting the death, so concentrate on the little singing
fellow rather than the other players. The only weapons
available (except the hidden ones) are the hunting gun (a
double barreled shotgun: powerful but a bugger to reload),
9mm pistol (fast but relatively weak) and frag grenades.
Use the shotgun as much as possible for the death and switch
to the pistol if you get bogged down in a fire fight with
other players. Grenades are useful for killing the death
(oodles of points) but you have to be quick to get them into
play. On the whole, stay covered but make sure that you're
free to escape quickly if trapped and concentrate on the
death.

The recent pairings of video games and other visual media has offered gamers new ways to experience licensed material. No longer are game companies as limited when they create games; studios and companies are working a lot more alongside game developers to give games the most faithful representation of their licensed materials possible. So is the case for Ubisoft's "XIII," born from the French comic book of the same name. With the modern buzz over cel-shading, Ubisoft was able to create a visual experience that so closely matches a comic book (or "graphic novel," for those with Literature degrees), that you won't mind not turning the pages yourself. Does a well-used license translate into solid gameplay? I don't know...does it?

Shoot first, ask questions before, during and after! The story centers around the player ("Thirteen"), who's washed up on the beach with partial amnesia, save for some confusing and spotty memories of a secret organization's dealings. Meanwhile, the president's been shot and you're at the center of the investigation. Problem is, now that you're alive and mobile, you're being chased by the cops and the secret organization. As you move through the game, you'll experience flashbacks and uncover clues to the twisted story. Did you assassinate the president? I don't know...did you?

The gameplay is a mixed bag; although the game will bring you to many locales and does keep you interested with its twisting story, some of the game's elements keep it from being a total hit. For example, "XIII" has the sleek visual style that makes you feel like you really are gunning through a comic book story. The levels transition well from one to the next, but meanwhile, you'll be killing largely dumb AI and using fairly standard-fare weaponry. In fact, playing "XIII" feels a little too much like old PC first-person shooters that just have enemies advance on you, using no real strategy. Even AI on your team is hinky. One level has you rescuing an agent that refuses to shoot at enemies, not because he has religious beliefs against killing...just because the game wants YOU to kill everyone. This gets more confusing as at the end of that level, the agent hands you his...gun. Sigh. Granted, this is a simple FPS and it's silly for me to expect too much AI strategy, but at the same time, the game's flat Point-A-To-Point-B style leaves me wanting more of SOMETHING. And sadly, that something never shows up.

One of the most interesting things in the game, however, is the fact that you can pick up shards of glass, chairs, and other environmental "pieces" and use them to attack other players. This sort of thing adds a nice element to the game, and acts to supplement the semi-boring weapons. As for those weapons, you'll be firing a pistol, rifle, sniper rifle, grenade launcher, and submachine gun. Yawn.

What does end up in the game is an excellent sense of style. Alongside the cel-shaded characters is a framed story that segments the screen as if you've got a comic book in hand. Even in action, you'll eat the comic style up--when you score a head shot on an enemy, a quick three-frame set pops up on the screen, showing the enemy taking it between the eyes and falling. Also, you'll enjoy how enemy fire is played out on the screen, in actual words: "TAT-TAT-TAT", "BANG" and other onomatopoeia. Extra bits like that accentuate a game like this, and I'm glad that they're in it, even if they get tiresome and repetitive at times. Otherwise, the cel-shaded elements in the game, coupled with the not-as-cel-shaded backgrounds create an excellent world for the story.

The most complicated thing in the game is the sound, which is uneven: the music is excellent, but the rest leaves me feeling hungry. You know...sound-hungry. The music is a mish-mash of funk, electronic, and hip-hoppy tracks that work well together. In fact, the soundtrack works both in and out of the game. But the sound effects are the same old thing, and even more, they're blanched down and don't feel like they completely fit. The weapons don't sound like they're being fired at the distances they're being fired at, and they just don't sound natural, even for an emulation of comic book style. What helps the sound is the fact that you'll literally SEE the shots being fired through the "TAT-TAT-TAT" text on the screen, so it tricks your brain into thinking the sound is a lot better. But rest assured, it's not. The voice acting itself is a mixed bag. Most of the characters seem to fit their voices (even Adam West, from the old "Batman" live-action show), but David Duchovny's XIII character seems to be lacking. His deadpan style doesn't fit the game as well as it should. For someone who's lost his memory and is being chased and shot at by two groups of people, he sure is calm and bored with the situation. The deadpan reading works for his Fox Mulder character on "The X-Files" because his character is a cynical guy who knows his past. And deadpanning lines CAN work in a video game; one need look no further than James McCaffrey, the actor behind Max's drone in the "Max Payne" series. But again, Max knows the conspiracy around him and has a full knowledge of the dirt he's living in. In "XIII," Duchovny's character is being shot from in every direction and makes it sound like it's boring him to sleep.

And then there's the Multiplayer mode. Though this is fun in your first few games, you'll quickly get bored (and start sounding like David Duchovny: "Wow. I got shot."). There are a lot of multiplayer modes--Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, and Sabotage being a few of them. While you've played Deathmatch and Capture the Flag in many games before, Sabotage is something that can only be described as a poor-man's "Counter-Strike." One team tries to blow up areas with dynamite while the other "sabotages" the terrorist's plans. Or were the terrorists "sabotaging" the other team's checkpoints? Who knows? I didn't stick around long enough to find out. Overall, you've seen these multiplayer modes before in other games, and their iterations of the deathmatch are more interesting than that of "XIII." Unless you're hardcore into this game's style, you'll want to steer clear, if only because the levels are packed with weapons, and you know someone there is going to be insanely better than you at finding the sniper rifle and rocket launcher.

Overall, "XIII" is a good game, but doesn't reach past that initial goodness. There's nothing about the gameplay engine that particularly stands out among all of the other first-person shooters out there. The graphics and the story are the high points, but with the average sound and a general sense of malaise once you rip through the game, you can't help but feel like "XIII" could have been so much more. What an excellent use for a comic book license...and if games take a cue from Ubisoft and learn from the problems in "XIII," we're in for a great gaming future. Don't get me wrong, "XIII" is a fun game. But up against other first-person shooters, it's more of an afternoon's guilty pleasure than a stay-up-all-night firefight.

Ratings (1-10):

Graphics: 7. Comic book style and graphics make this game enjoyably unique.

Sound: 6. Iffy voice acting plus stock effects.

Gameplay: 6. Slightly awkward controls on top of the same old gameplay.

Story: 8. Interesting to watch unfold, comic-style.

Replayability: 6. Multiplayer might hold your attention...but probably not.

Overall: 7 (not an average). Uninspired at times, amazing at others.