Day 24, Game 24 - XIII

Tonight, for no apparent reason, I decided to go back and play one of my favorite Xbox games ever, XIII. Actually, it may even be one of my favorite First Person Shooters ever, and after playing it again tonight, I remembered why that is.

I bought the game when it was first released on the original Xbox back in the day. I lost it when I had a fire sale of my entire gaming collection when I went on a video game hiatus, but when I finally got back into the game and bought am Xbox 360 for my son, I knew what I had to do. I looked up to see if XIII was backwards compatible with the Xbox 360, and when I found out it was, I rushed down to GameStop and managed to find a used copy.

Honestly, it is the best $3 I've ever spent.

As cool as the 360 was, and as pretty as all the new games were, all I wanted to do was play this old Xbox game over and over again. It's been several years since I've touched it, but boy did I have fun with it tonight.

The controls are flawless (which is tough for most FPS even in today's gaming spectrum), the story is unbelievable and the fun factor is through the roof. But above all else is how beautiful the game looks. It is designed in the cell shading style, which to this day, still holds up as having a great visual design. Since the game is loosely based on an old comic book of the same name, there are tons of comic book effects throughout the game, such as story panels for cut scenes (and even through some game play), and pop-out comic-style words throughout your adventure.

This was the first FPS that I loved since Goldeneye 007 on the Nintendo 64, and honestly, it is still top 5 five for me all time of FPS.

The one thing I hate about this game, which I also remembered (thanks to old save files) was the ending. It ends in a cliffhanger, setting it up for a sequel that would never happen. I don't know if they forgot about this franchise because it didn't sell well, or what the deal was, but if there was ever a game in need of a reboot, this would get my first vote.

Apparently there was a point and click adventure game called XIII 2, supposedly a sequel of sorts, that was released on mobile devices back in 2011, but that's like saying Super Mario Bros. 2 is a true sequel to the original masterpiece.

I'm super glad I went back and played this game, and enjoyed what made it so special for me all those years ago - before my gaming hiatus.

Speaking of which, that is an awesome story. A story I might just write about on this blog one day. One day down the road. But not tonight. I have some more XIII to play.

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