Unit 13 feels more like a group of people who only show up to do their jobs instead of a tight group of operatives.
The only thing you know story-wise is there's an active terrorist organization known as Awlaad Al-Qouh interspersed throughout Asia. You start the game off as Animal, a bearded man cool as ice, who has to pass through a training course to show that he has the skills needed for live missions. You then join a group of five other operatives with names like Python, Zeus and Chuckles. Instead of a formal introduction to your characters, you're thrown directly into a mission select screen and any information you want about your operatives needs to be retrieved from a webpage linked on the game's LiveArea screen. It's a shame you don't get any kind of interaction from them, and it makes them completely devoid of any personality.
All but one mission is locked when you first start the game and as you finish missions, adjacent ones open, allowing you to take different paths to the final mission. There are four different mission types: Direct, Covert, Deadline, and Elite. Direct is your basic mission type where the main objective is to get the mission completed by any means necessary. You can be stealthy or go full-on Rambo if you choose. Covert encourages accomplishing your objective without being scene and will end your game if your presence raises an alarm. Deadline contains a time limit, giving bonus time when you reach checkpoints. Elite is the most thrilling of all, as this mission type is the only one that doesn't give out checkpoints nor allows for health regeneration; you must do it all in one shot.
The core gameplay is actually pretty fun, despite some flaws. Its most important mechanic is actually its most annoying feature, and that is being able to snap to your target when aiming. When taking cover behind an object, you can poke out and quickly aim at the enemy's head for an easy head shot, but it doesn't always work. When it fails, such as missing the shot entirely or hitting them in the shoulder instead, your mission can suddenly go haywire. When the aiming behaves itself, you'll find yourself moving very quickly from one enemy to the next.
Even though you're given enough ammo to take down every single terrorist in each level, it's advised to play more cautiously. If you alert your enemies, reinforcements will usually appear, making your mission all the more harder. Shooting from behind cover works well, although sometimes your operative requires a second press of the button before he sticks to cover. You can regenerate your health in three of the four mission types, but your overall health is rather low. You can't bullet sponge your way through a firefight in this game. You can also customize your load out to equip the right two-handed gun or explosive for the job.
Unit 13 is more than just killing while avoiding detection. It's also about scoring points. Every action you do gives you a chain meter for such actions like head shots and CQC kills. Performing these actions in quick succession increases the number of chains, and you also have a multiplier meter that increases with every action performed. Missions also rank your performance from one to five stars, and this is largely determined by your in-game score, how quickly you finished the level and how accurate your shooting was. For those itching to conquer leaderboards, Unit 13 becomes a seriously addicting game. Plus, there are daily missions of which you only have one chance per day to set the highest score.
The game does have several problems, though, with inconsistent AI being one of the largest. Enemies will somehow be able to hear your muffled shots at certain distances, but not hear you shoot out a security camera right overhead. They're even oblivious to a smoke grenade being thrown at their feet or a dead body lying on the ground, never once wondering, "Maybe I should ring the alarm?" Unit 13 also recycles levels, making it feel like new missions are just remixed and not really new. Even though the game does contain on-line cooperative play, there are no exclusive missions designed for this mode. Lastly, there's a nasty glitch that causes the audio to quit playing, which will eventually cause your system to hang.
Unit 13 shows off a bit of what the Vita can do as far as textures and lighting go. The environments are well detailed as a result, and your character model looks quite good from over the shoulder. The special effects are pretty much average with bullet damage and explosions being rather forgettable. The one area the game needed a lot more work on was the animations. Sometimes they seem jilted, enemies tend to shift a foot or two before they fall, and even your corpse collapses in unbelievable ways. Still, the graphics of Unit 13 are good enough to give you a preview of what third-person shooters on the Vita will look like in the future.
The audio of the game is done well enough. The music is exactly what you would expect as it makes the game feel like you're in a military action movie. Sound effects can only really be appreciated through headphones, and if you decide to listen to them this way, you'll enjoy distinct reports, bullets taking chunks of plaster out of walls, and ear-ringing blasts from flashbangs. Voice acting from your command and your operatives sounds fine, but idle chatter from enemies gets repeated quite frequently.
Unit 13 is in a comfortable position. It has the advantage of being the only tactical shooter on the Vita at the moment, so it can get away with having just enough good gameplay to satisfy the average player. The game's mechanices do an admirable job making you feel like a bad ass operative, but the total lack of any narrative or structure makes it hard to recommend this title for full price. Score chasing invites replayability and although online co-op is great, competitive multiplayer would have been perfect for this game. Zipper Interactive clearly didn't have enough time to make Unit 13 better, but it has all the makings for a great sequel.