| Game Reviews From a Parental Perspective! | |
|
|
|
| Home | Forums | Review Archive | Columns | Feature Articles |
|
Home >
Review Archive >
Video Games
> Results: XIII
Format For Printing | Tell A Friend | Digg | Slashdot | del.icio.us Scroll down for our Kid Factor. 
Style Over SubstanceﾅAbuseFor reasons that become obvious after a few missions, playing XIII brings to mind an old adage once coined by Dolly Parton: "you don't know how expensive it is to look this cheap". While this is not completely fair to the game, it does go a long-way to describe the impression of XIII I built in my head after hours of play. XIII is that cool-looking cel-shaded, mature-rated FPS game that you have been seeing in magazine ads and annoying pop-ups on your favorite gaming sites for the past 9 months or so. The game is based on a French comic-book, and to be honest, it really seems like it should be the wet-dream pinnacle of gaming that all the trench-coated, D&D playing high school freaks I hung out with 15 years ago have been waiting for all their lives. To some of them, it might actually serve that purpose, but to most it might fall a bit short. The game begins like a cross between The Bourne Identity and snuff film. You wake-up on beach, with no recollection of who you are or where you have been. You are rescued by a sexy, female, lifeguard, and minutes later the action begins. I donﾒt want to give anything away, but donﾒt get too attached to any of the non-player characters in this game, as they are dispatched at an alarming rate, most of the time to drive the story forward. You soon learn that the president has been assassinated, you were some type of super-secret-agent, and, oh, that you have been framed for the crime. The story is told in a series of flashbacks, and comic-book-style cut-scenes between levels. It all works fairly well for the first few levels, as the story is gripping and the unique visuals have not worn-out their welcome. The game itself is played like almost any FPS from the past several years. There are several types of weapons, head-shots are the best, you take far-too much damage for the game to be realistic (but is realistic really fun anyway?), and there are tons of baddies to dispatch. There are a few unique elements added to the game to try to set-it-apart from the shooter-pack. Your character has sort of, 6th ﾓspideyﾔ sense that allows him to see danger coming. It manifests itself in the form of a cross-hairs that zeroes in on danger mere milliseconds before it arrives. As well, you can pick-up large objects, including people, and this ability comes in very handy to solve some of the puzzle missions. However, there is not enough new and innovative ideas to really make the game play stand-out. Once you get used to the graphics and the unique presentation, it all starts to seem routine. Now, onto the visuals. The cel-shaded graphics are stunningﾅfor a short-while. For the first few hours playing, they add to the surreal nature of the story. The game takes place in an alternate universe, albeit one very close to our own, and the graphics go a long way to making you feel part of it. However, when this feeling wears off, and believe me, it will wear off, you are left feeling like something is missing. The cel-shading certainly is unique, and it suits the proceedings at the very beginning, but as the game gets more and more mainstream in its story and action, it almost begs for regular models and textures. I started getting frustrated at the graphics. I wanted them to be more detailed, and crisp. As the novelty gave-way to my built-in gaming instinct, I started to feel like I was playing the game while wearing a pair of dark, heavily fingerprint smudged sunglasses. The most annoying part was that they were glasses I simply could never take-off. In that sense, the graphics actually hold back a game that, by all rights, should be more involving and engrossing. The game is a great example of style over substance. Not that there is not any substance here, but it seems like the innovative look and feel is only window-dressing to mask a rather familiar contest. Itﾒs not a bad contest by any means, but it does not stand-out from the pack either. It seems like the developers spent so much time trying to get the cel-shaded visuals perfect, that they might have forgotten some very important questions like; Should we be doing this in the first place? Does it suit our game? What can we do to make this game really stand out? Obviously this game was created with loads of care, as it seems like the developers made exactly what the game producers intended. The budget was probably enormous, but in the end, Dolly Partonﾒs self deprecating comment is all that comes to mind. The developers spent a lot of time and energy to make this game look and feel like a cheap comic book from the 80ﾒs, while making it play like an FPS from the late 90ﾒs with all the violence from games of the 21st century. In 2004 that all adds-up to ﾓinterestingﾔ, but not necessarily a ﾓmust-haveﾔ title. Kid Factor: This game, while having a mature rating, has a halfway decent soul. The action is highly graphic and gory, but many missions require that you spare the lives of innocent people, and your real-life friends and allies. To be honest, most of the blood and gore is unnecessary, and in reality, not very affective because the graphics are so ﾓstylizedﾔ. Iﾒd even go so far as saying the developers added more blood and gore in because the presentation was not all-that adeptat displaying it. The game offers ﾓparental controlsﾔ, but only a password-protect feature, with no ability to tone-down the violence. I certainly think this is a Teen game dressed-up as Mature because the publisher thought it would sell more copies being ﾓcontroversialﾔ. In the end, itﾒs not good for kids because of the heavily violent content, yet a little too simplistic for adults who may be titillated by the mature rating, but will get tired of the stylized graphics too quickly, and wonﾒt stay around long-enough to see how the story comes-out. Reviewer's Recommended Ages: 17+ ESRB: M - Mature Publisher: UBIsoft Developer: Reviewer: Steve Fulton Score: 3 of 5 
This game, while having a mature rating, has a halfway decent soul. The action is highly graphic and gory, but many missions require that you spare the lives of innocent people, and your real-life friends and allies. To be honest, most of the blood and gore is unnecessary, and in reality, not very affective because the graphics are so ﾓstylizedﾔ. Iﾒd even go so far as saying the developers added more blood and gore in because the presentation was not all-that adeptat displaying it. The game offers ﾓparental controlsﾔ, but only a password-protect feature, with no ability to tone-down the violence. I certainly think this is a Teen game dressed-up as Mature because the publisher thought it would sell more copies being ﾓcontroversialﾔ. In the end, itﾒs not good for kids because of the heavily violent content, yet a little too simplistic for adults who may be titillated by the mature rating, but will get tired of the stylized graphics too quickly, and wonﾒt stay around long-enough to see how the story comes-out.
Kid Factor by Steve Fulton
Format For Printing | Tell A Friend | Digg | Slashdot | del.icio.us Home > Review Archive > Video Games > Results: XIII |
Read the GamerDad 2007 Holiday Guide!
|
Please Note: GamerDad is not intended to be read by anyone under 18. We stay clean, but be warned! Content Management System developed by Redbird Solutions. |
