A game with great concepts, but falls too short.
The graphics are nice. The cel-shaded comic look compliments the game nicely, and seeing words like "TAP" and "CLICK" show up like in a comic are a nice touch. Some foreground items such as bushes look very pixelated and not very detailed. Oddly enough, certain characters, like Carrington, you can go straight through them as if they're a hologram or ghost. Also, the faces look somewhat distorted and weird, and the mouth movements aren't synced very well.
The sound is also nice. The music, a mix of orchestrated jazz flare like a James Bond movie, fits the game. The rest of the sound fits as well. Although it's weird that the enemy firing sounds are different than the firing sounds from your own weapon. And this game even features a voice cast consisting of people like Adam West and David Duchovny. However, Duchovny as XIII was not a wise move, because he sounds dull throughout the entire game.
The gameplay itself is pretty simple, where you'll use a pretty simple interface, which tells when you have to break something or use a switch. Most of the weapons having an alternate fire (even if some of them are just melee attacks) is a nice touch, but nothing new. Opposed to other FPS games, you use medkits when you wish, which means you could save your medkits for an upcoming boss or whatever. Other things like a lockpick and a grappling hook add to the "gadgets" you can use, besides simple keys.
Onto the Multiplayer. The multiplayer features levels based off the singleplayer campaign, and all the weapons. Adding bots was a nice feature, with varied skill levels to add some variety. Along with your common Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch and Capture the Flag, there's a new mode called "The Hunt". The Hunt is a weird but interesting multiplayer game mode, where you must find a running target and hit it to score points. A nice twist on Multiplayer. Too bad the levels themselves are pretty plain and not very wide open. Since this is the Gamecube version, it lacks the online multiplayer that the PS2 and XBox versions hold.
There are other problems I saw with the game, one of them was the constant load times. Get used to the loading screen because it appears up a lot when you need to restart, change levels, heading back to the main menu, etc. The game also doesn't "auto-save", so if you do the first three levels and don't save, you have to start all over.
Another problem this game has is the dreaded "stealth levels" where getting spotted and having an alarm go off means starting the level over. What's kinda dumb especially in certain levels like the Submarine, if you get caught, you have to start over, but the next level shows you getting caught anyway. Didn't the developer at least think that one through? Unless the title of your game begins with "Thief", "Splinter Cell" or "Metal Gear", leave stealth missions out of your game unless you can implement them well.
I noticed some slowdown at times, but it doesn't happen very often, if at all, so it should not be a major concern. Another problem is that the A.I. is a bit too perfect. Almost every shot is a direct hit, and that's a bit unfair, even on "Arcade" mode (the easiest skill level). This made certain bosses like the final boss be a bit too hard at times.
When you make a game off of a book/movie/TV series, it tends to not do very well. And that can be proven to XIII. The game's main "gimmick" is its cel-shaded comic-style graphics with sub-par gameplay. That doesn't work.
Overall, this game would be good if some problems were fixed, but otherwise, this is another FPS lost in the shuffle.
Pros: Cartoony-style graphics, decent voice acting. Good multiplayer concepts
Cons: Bad load times, no auto-save, challenging A.I., evil "stealth levels".