May 23, 2002 - Making a seemingly stagnant genre more interesting is tough to pull off. First there comes the innovation, then comes the development, balancing, and so forth. In the case of the first-person shooter, many questions that sound an awful lot like these must at some point be answered.... Should it be tactical? Should it blend genres? Should it incorporate vehicles? What gameplay component will most distinguish our title from the competition? How will we develop this? But why bother with any of this hard work when innovation and originality can be achieved by simply switching up the graphics?

Even though the cell-shaded look is currently being done to death and maybe even implemented in some questionable places (analogous to a horse perhaps being awkwardly beaten to death at the top of a skyscraper), it's still relatively untapped in some genres. Sure, Jet Set Radio, Robotech, and Zelda are making waves in the industry because they look pretty, are trend setters, or are just controversial. But is there more life and diversity to be found in the cell-shaded craze?

Ubi Soft hopes so. In fact, the compnay is banking that it will be able to capitalize off of it all with its own pride and joy, XIII. As Laurent Detoc, president of Ubi Soft Entertainment boasts,

"We are constantly striving to push the gaming envelope, and XIII will create a world so unique and enthralling that gamers will become instantly engaged. From the revolutionary first-person cel-shade animation, Unreal technology and unique storyline, XIII reaches the limits of interactive gameplay never experienced before."

I saw XIII and it's a bit more impressive and ambitious than I originally expected it to be.

The cell-shaded look only applies to the characters and weapon models, but the environments are rendered in a cartoonish way, something akin to Batman Vengeance's backdrops, I suppose. What's interesting is that the cell-shading makes the game look very sleek and not at all clunky. Shadowing, which is now solid and clearly defined, drapes across the appropriate faces where light does not hit and the animation is on par with the look. But then most games of this aesthetic style are all rather polished in that way. Believe it or not, the graphics model doesn't seem to be the seller. The most interesting aspect of XIII should prove to be the gameplay Ubi Soft is building into the product.

Stealth will be critical, and in conjunction with a sixth sense that cleverly allows players to identify threats from behind walls, should help to brighten up what might otherwise be a game birthed straight from the No One Lives Forever gene pool (not necessarily a bad thing). A lot of the game also seems to take a very James Bond approach to life. Grappling hooks, lock picks, gadgets, and silencing will be found throughout.

Aside from carrying bodies, avoiding cameras, shooting, stabbing, using the sixth sense to "hear" baddies behind walls, and doing all other manner of pseudo to super stealth first-person shooter activities, XIII also allows for humans to be taken as shields. This plays on what Ubi Soft is promising will be advanced AI that will assess threats and situations and then react accordingly, which pretty much rounds out the visit.

AI, stealth, clever gameplay additions, and a distinct look... That's XIII in a nutshell. We'll see how it all turns out Q1 2003.

Expect more information to be forthcoming, but for now, please enjoy the media contained below. And for the record, as far as I can tell (or should that be smell) XIII is actually the name of the game's main character.