this is a high quality product and a state-of-art fps game. i highly recommend this game to non-childish gamers.
to me, the most appealing aspect of this game is the gameplay and the story. it is not like many of the classic FPS games which have repeating run-and-shoot missions through-out the game. it has logical story background and well designed, different styled missions. as fast paced action is never my strong point, stealth missions are my favorite.
many kinds of the actions in the game are well programmed and feel realistic. for example, when u hold an hostage, u can not reload a weapon. if the string of grapnel hits a beam when swinging, the grapnel will come off. those may seem easy but the developer's paying attention to small detail in a shooter game of 2003 should be praised. (this review was written in Feb. 2006)
u can take this game for fun, or u can also take it serious. it let u experience the caution, intellence and precise skills of a real agent - not to the extent of the real thing, of course. if u take it for fun, u may turn on the game music and play at the easiest difficulty. if u want some serious experience, turn off the music, choose the highest difficulty, cool down your head, listen, watch, move slowly, aim precisely, and try to not get shot or get spotted, or u may die instantly if u were an agent on duty in real life. OK, there maybe some more serious games out there, but this one has missions that never make u get bored.
the only thing i don't like about the gameplay, is fighting the bosses face to face. it is arcadish! OK it is only my personal preference - i am not good at that and i find it hard even at the easiest difficult. ;-b
BTW, if u like this type of game, also try 007 games. I tried 007 nightfire on PC. it is interesting as XIII, or even more, but XIII the game has much higher quality - i don't find a bug in this product.
graphics are beautiful, not to mention they are cartoon styled which is fresh - never before on FPS games. the environments are realistic and pleasant. further more, the graphic interface is somewhat a piece of art, as is always the style of Ubisoft.
sound is pretty good. but the music is too loud so as to be distracting - there is no music volume adjust. i prefered to turn it off after i finished the game for the first time.
there are several multiplayer modes some of which are creative. that adds some value to the product. but hey, i am never into fast actions, i enjoy the story-based singleplayer mode much more.
since this product is "polished" (as another reviewer put in) or in my words, every thing feels solid and smooth, this game is bug-free and stable, playing this game is a pleasant experience. (i hate bugs in games as i hate seeing horrible monsters in games - i hate doom, quake or unreal type of games)
SETBACK -
there is a major setback of this game - the saving function, as was mentioned in other reviews. i also found it annoying when i play the game for the first time. i only advise is, get familiar with the objects and rules in this game, then turn off the music, concentrate, play it for another time, u will get more sastisfaction and less frustration out of the game. but, anyway, please give us the proper saving function in the next product, Ubisoft.
oh, speaking of the next product, when will u release the next XIII game, Unisoft? didn't u say "to be continued..." at the end of this game?