Games You Should Play - 8/16/09

Games You Should Play - XIII

XIII is the first cel-shaded FPS in gaming history. The graphical style is excellent and is one of the two reasons you should play this game. The soundtrack/voice overs is the other. The game has a very unique style because of the cel-shading, and actually looks like a comic book. However, the plot, AI and control all suck. Bad. For me, if a FPS cannot control like I want it to control, I don't even bother. There are plenty of other games out there I could play instead that can control exctly how I like (Halo, Bioshock and Call of Duty spring to mind). The gameplay is standard FPS, but becuase the AI is so unbalanced, sometimes they won't hit you from 5 feet away but hit you dead on from 50 feet away. The plot is your basic amnesiac who can't remember he is a secret agent plot (basically a Bourne Identity rip off). However, there is good in this game.

Check out the fantastic graphical style of this game. The comic book action words ("POW", "BAM", etc.) and the panels within the game. This was one of the first games to do that. At the 4:00 minute mark is a cool example of how this game was at its best.

Check out a sample of the soundtrack here.

It's a funk-electro fusion and it is outstanding. I managed to score the soundtrack CD and used to listen to it all the time. It really stands out on its own. The voice acting is also very good, with a good David Duchovny (not like his Area 51 bullshit performance), Eve, Adam West and the supporting voices were also excellent.

It's worth a play, and can be had for under 10 bucks on Xbox, PS2 and PC. I recommend the PC or Xbox versions. It's also based on a French graphic novel, and there's a miniseries movie too, starring Stephen Dorff (it suckssssssss so bad).

Next week: Power Stone 2