Is it a cartoon? Is it a game?

By Martin Kingsley

The interactive comic-book is now a reality

There are some things that never get old, and one of them is cel-shading. I just can't get enough of it.

If you cel-shaded a small gerbil, odds are I'd probably eat it [He's not lying- Ed].

As such, the prospect of a game made up entirely of cel-shading made me, to be quite honest, drool unreservedly at the mouth.

When the gaudy box arrived on my doorstep by way of being parcel-dropped by a low-flying cardboard aeroplane, the first thing I did was cry big tears of joy, seconds before shredding the shiny packaging with my bare hands, stuffing the first of four similarly shiny CDs into my computer.

After much CD-swapping and an install process that took, by my reckoning, more time than the repainting of the Golden Gate bridge, I was faced with a comic-book styled menu screen that reminded me, ever-so-subtly, of the graphic novel glories of Max Payne.

Playing as popular French comic-book killer XIII (a.k.a Cpt. Steve Rowland, supposedly killed in action south of the Mexican border), Ubisoft's latest shooter drops you into the middle of a gigantic global Conspiracy, starting with the assassination of the President and moving from Brooklyn to the Appalachian mountains and back again, with no time to stop for breath or even think.

Up against you are Special Forces, goons, black-suit wearing thugs a la the X-Files, a strange bald man, and even the FBI.

"I swear I didn't say that!! I said 'Kick my ass.' Kick godammit!"

Of course, no highly-trained fugitive would be contemplating matching these big boys pound for pound without a big damned arsenal to back him up, and XIII has that in spades.

While the weapons aren't, in truth, all that creative -- 9mm pistols, .44 revolvers, a harpoon gun, some assault rifles, a rocket launcher and maybe a grenade or two -- the improvised melee hardware more than makes up for this lack of inspiration.

See, in some circles it's considered bad form to make Swiss cheese out of an FBI agent just because he happens to be trying to put a bullet upside your head, and so it is to your advantage to smack him one with whatever happens to be lying around and knock him arse-over-head into the Land of Nod rather than ventilate him with an AK.

Whether it be a chair, a spade, a broom, or even a thrown brick or bottle, there's generally always something you can use to belt seven shades of smelly brown stuff out of an adversary.

Add to this the fact that a glass shard picked up off the floor can be embedded in a nearby thug's head via Captain Rowland's amazing talent when it comes to chucking things at people, and I'd say we're onto a winning formula here.

An interesting trait of the XIII storyline and, by extension, it's presentation, is that it both takes itself seriously and yet always makes the viewer aware that this is a comic book.

"My chair of justice will dispatch thee!"

Footsteps are accompanied by funky white 'TAP TAP' sound bubbles, smashing someone with a chair brings forth cartoon stars and a exploding red flash graphic, while thwacking a trenchcoat-wearing goon in the head with a .44 round brings up a series of comic panels revealing the full extent of your long-range skull-excavation.

Speaking of comic panels, XIII is a fresh graphical experience, with emphasis placed on style and atmosphere rather than actual visual trickery.

Models are stylised and almost low-poly in their simplicity, yet have the fluid animation qualities you would normally associate with a visually high-end production like Unreal 2.

This helps to craft both an interesting game world and keep system requirements down, which is always a plus, as we all know.

The one big downside of XIII is that it comes on 4CDs, rather than one DVD, and this is annoying, because every three or four levels you end up changing CDs. I thought we'd left this behind with Riven, but it seems that some people never learn. Ubisoft, this means you!

Anywho…

XIII does a lot of things right, with it's stylised and really quite endearing cartoon graphics, comic-styled presentation, clever assortment of weapons, nice voice-acting and tongue-in-cheek script. However, it is not exactly breaking new ground here, but still, it's a fun ride while it lasts, and I much recommend it.

Game: XIII
System: PC
Players: 1-multi
Online: Yes
Developer: UbiSoft
Distributor: UbiSoft

Rating: 85%

(Ratings Key/Explanation)

XIII is on the shelves now.