Difficulty:

Hard

Time Spent:

20 to 40 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Grows on you"

XIII is one of those games where it´s really worth tolerating the game´s faults, in XIII´s case:
Flimsy and twitchy gunplay, suicide-mentality AI and out-dated health system.
These quirks might seem like they can severely impact the game experience, but it´s easy enough to iron out these inconsistencies if you have the mind to.

Because XIII offers an exiting story, great graphical style, and a gripping atmosphere.
Now, I won´t get into to much detail on the plot, but the basic premise is that the US president has just been assassinated, and you are an amnesiac waking up on a beach, with only a bank deposit box key.
Two levels in you´re arrested by the FBI, who claim you killed the president.
I won´t spoil any more, as the story is one of the game´s biggest selling points.

The graphical style, as I´m sure you can tell by the gameplay videos, takes after a comic book, so you´ll have cell-shading and big, comicky letters popping up when you kill someone or an explosion goes off.
These range from "NOooo!" to "Fump!" to "Booom!" to "Clickclickclick!, depending on what happens.
XIII´s gunplay falls a little flat, though, with twitchy aiming and suicidal enemies who run at you making it easier to blast their face off with a shotty. All in all, i highly recommend XIII, especially if you like a bit more "adventure" in your action-adventures.
Oh, and as a bonus, the game is very long too, and today, you´ll find it it cheap, so big value-for-money. KABOOM!