XIII - Classic
Recommended but with some caveats. It’s a fun game, and unique, and certainly cheap, and seems to be a good port (I didn’t encounter any issues aside from the two mentioned below) though there are better games out there for sure. If you’re curious about the comic book style, or if you, like me, have always wanted to play it since it came out but never got around to it, then it’s definitely worth the play. Otherwise, you won’t be missing much.
The main issue with the game on PC is the default low resolution and issue with no sound in cutscenes. So check the discussions for the necessary changes that need to be made to a couple of the config files before playing. The other issue is that if you want to play with controller, you’re going to want to use the Steam controller config to map it for K+M and you’ll probably want to manually adjust the look sensitivity, otherwise it’s near impossible to aim because it’s too sensitive or it takes forever to turn around because it’s not sensitive enough. It’s disappointing they took a game that was initially designed for controller use and made it K+M only so that it requires all that just to make it playable. Now on to the issues with the game itself.
– Real player with 22.6 hrs in game
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In 1984, the Belgian writer named Jean Van Hamme and artist William Vance released the first volume of a spy comic series called XIII. As more and more volumes came out, the popularity of XIII rose and it quickly became one of the best selling Belgian comic series with over 23 volumes released to this date.
In 2002, Ubisoft announced they secured a license for XIII and that they were working on a videogame adaptation. The game was eventually released in November 2003 for PC, PS2, OG Xbox and Gamecube, starring the voice talents of several major A level stars such as the singer Eve, David Duchovny and Adam West.
– Real player with 14.2 hrs in game
XIII
★☆☆☆☆ Terrible!
Action
The 2020 remake of XIII is a cheap, lazy, broken cash-in on a once fascinating name.
It really makes me feel bad to have to say that because I had high hopes for this. But it’s true! In the same year that 2K gave us an amazing remake for the original Mafia, XIII stands in its own class of awfulness. That anyone could release a game in this state and try to charge 40 Euro for it, let alone goat people into pre-ordering it, is appalling.
At first, I thought the ‘very negative’ review status on Steam was a little overboard. I had followed the discussion boards before release and boy, some people did not like the style change. Having played this for an hour and then gone back to the original, I can say with a certainty that I should have listened to those people more. Not only have the developers ripped all of the charm from the original game, but they have also failed to replace it with anything of substantial worth. I think this is the most apparent in the half-a$$ed attempts to tie some of this remake’s style into the original’s. In the original, was frequent and eventually blended into the background. Here it’s reserved for very few things. It’s noticeable that its inclusion feels inconsistent at best.
– Real player with 18.6 hrs in game
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Graphics aside, what the remake was INTENDED to be was the original game’s campaign and levels more or less faithfully recreated (with the original cel-shading replaced by more of a Fortnite-like cartoony art-style), but with new, more “modern” Call of Duty-inspired gameplay, including aim-down-sights, a limited inventory, a simplified health/armor system, and partial regenerating health. Rather similar to what happened with F.E.A.R. 2/F,E,A,R, 3, Bioshock Infinite, Aliens Colonial Marines, etc.
– Real player with 16.9 hrs in game