Unit 13


Unit 13 is a third-person shooter video game for the PlayStation Vita. This is the last game to be developed by Zipper Interactive before the studio's closure. It was released on March 6, 2012 in North America, March 7 in Europe and March 8 in Japan.

Gameplay

Unit 13 plays much like the SOCOM franchise. The camera stays directly behind the player character in third-person, or otherwise shifts to first person aim if the player selects the option to zoom in with guns that have the compatible attachments. Objectives can be completed in any order in each mission, with some missions allowing taking any approach to accomplish a goal while others have certain conditions, such as requiring stealth.
All missions can be played co-operatively, and each mission features an unlockable "Dynamic" Mode, which changes objectives and objective locations, enemy weapons and locations, to random values and points in the environment.

Demo version

A demo version was released for download of the PlayStation Network. It features the opening tutorial mission where players learn the controls and how to otherwise play the game, as well as the complete first mission, named 'Operation Open Flame'. The demo also provides a leaderboard for this mission, both regional and global, as well as being able to play this mission in "Dynamic" Mode. However, Dynamic mode does not support leaderboard ranking, as the mission has random insertions and objectives. The demo version allows for six playable characters, Commando, Technician, Pointman, Gunner, Infiltrator, and Marksman. All characters may progress up to level 4 by completing the single mission well and gaining experience for performance.

Reception

Unit 13 currently holds a 71/100 on review aggregate site Metacritic. Game Informer gave the game a 6.5/10, saying that it "controls admirably", but heavily criticizing the game's lack of innovation, poor enemy A.I., and limited gameplay variety. They found the random enemy A.I. particularly frustrating given that getting spotted results in mission failure in most cases.