The President of the United Sates has been assassinated. Did you have something to do with it? You don't remember, you don't remember anything. You could've even been the one to pull the trigger. You simply don't know. All you know is that this 'XIII' tattoo on you means something, and you've got the skills and mentality of some kind of CIA secret agent. It's one hell of a beginning to a game. Welcome to XIII.

With a start like this, you know the developers will be putting big weight behind the games storyline, and you'd be right. Described as a mix of 24 and Alias, with a little bit of X-files thrown in for good measure. So as you discover more about your mysterious past and the assassination, expect shrouded government conspiracies, twists, turns, revelations and more than a few shocks. You'll uncover details about your past in cool flashbacks, as well as remembering abilities from your old profession that are lying dormant.

XIII (pronounced 'thirteen') is based on the French comic book of the same name, written by Jean Van Hamme. And while the plot may be intriguing, the main thing XIII has going for it is the attempts by the developers to emulate the media through cel-shaded graphics, giving characters and objects thick black lines. Not only does this give the shooter a unique and distinctive look, but it doesn't end there. In further attempts to blur the line between comic book and game, storyboards will pop up in certain situations (e.g a close-up of your latest sniping victim) and sound effects appear as words. So a rocket exploding will result in 'BOOM' appearing in thick white letters, accompanied of course by the actual sound. This comic-effect helps in one of the hero's extraordinary abilities, a 'sixth sense'. So if you see 'tap, tap, tap' slowly emerging from around the corner, you know someone's there. And a handy indicator will alert you to approaching guards.

Ignoring the gorgeous style of the game, lets move on to the actual components of any first-person shooter. Firstly, the weapons. You'll have the satisfying automatic guns, and more stealthy ones like a sniper rifle, zoomified crossbow and knives. And brilliantly, you're not just limited to your arsenal. You can pick up idle objects like shovels, chairs and glass bottles to hurl at enemies. And also shards of glass, allowing a glass-flinging frenzy of blood. Very sweet. Like Dead of Rights, you can use enemies as shields, grabbing them with one hand and shooting with the other, and when you're done you can just snap their neck nice and conveniently.

This isn't the only thing 'borrowed' from MGS though. You're going to have to keep your wits about you, hiding dead bodies, making sure doors aren't left open and creeping about Solid Snake-style. Your character can take damage to specific parts of the boy, and so it's only fair that your enemies can too. So while going in guns-blazing may seem appealing, it's a far better option to take guards out with well-placed headshots. But if you're done with sneaking about, action junkies will love the massive set-pieces (e.g taking down a helicopter with a rocket launcher).

Ubi Soft aren't giving away a whole lot about the game. We don't know the number of missions or anything, but this secrecy isn't very surprising considering their desire to keep the plot firmly under wraps. We do know that there'll be a multiplayer, including classic modes like Deathmatch and Capture the Flag and a co-operative one named 'Cover Me'. Four-player XIII is something we're really looking forward to.

Regular readers will know of my preference of more unique visual styles to realistic ones, and so, coupled with my love of comic books, XIII is right up my alley. A well-formed plot will keep the pages flipping and the comic book styling of the game is really interesting. Hopefully the look is more than a gimmick, but it looks like Ubi Soft are onto a winner.

Cube Europe took a look at XIII a couple of months back, for our earlier preview of the game follow the link below.:
- First Preview