REVIEW : XIII Remake (PS5)
Before we discuss the positive aspects of the game itself, we need to talk about the interesting history of the first-person espionage shooter XIII. The 2003 original of XIII was based on the same-named Belgian comic book. It was released for the PS2, Gamecube, and Xbox as well, but we played, finished, and liked the Windows version. Despite receiving some mixed reviews, the game developed a respectable cult following thanks to its cel-shaded, comic-like presentation and reliance on pretty much every spy-thriller cliché you can think of (right down to the fact that you start with amnesia, a plot point that would later be borrowed to great effect by the Bourne films). However, it didn’t exactly top the charts.
So it came as a bit of a surprise when the game’s publisher Microids said that a remake was coming in 2019. The remake, however, was partly doomed when it was released with a terrible new art style, terrible screen tearing, out-of-sync or missing sound effects, a missing online feature, and many technical issues due to the loss of the source code. Because of how horrible it was, Microids issued a sincere apology, let PlayMagic go, and hired Tower Five to make everything right.
The good news is that the game is largely more similar to 2003 original now that the remake of the remake is finished and available as a free upgrade for current owners (although the level design, plot and enemy placements are exactly as they were as this is more of a remaster than a remake). As a result, you take on the role of Agent XIII, who wakes up on a beach with no memory of how he got there and is voiced by a sleepy-sounding David Duchovny.
You will discover a conspiracy with many twists and turns over the game’s 13 chapters, and for the most part, it’s all very interesting. We enjoy a good espionage thriller, and as we previously stated, the movie has lots of set pieces and hits all the typical Bond-esque themes (even if sometimes there are opportunities for more of them). Even if you could become a little tired of shooting the same enemy agent archetypes over, you’ll have a good few days’ worths of entertainment from it thanks to the fact that everything moves along nicely and doesn’t drag on for too long.
This reminds me a lot of ’00s shooters. You are given the standard assortment of pistols, sniper rifles, throwing knives, rocket launchers, and just much everything else that John Matrix may have on his shopping list. It is delightfully linear. Two years ago, there was a lot of criticism about the guns, but things have improved somewhat since then, and we found using them to be fun, especially the sneaky crossbow, which was our go-to weapon whenever we had ammunition for it.
Nevertheless, the overall stealth gameplay is still lacking. There are several ways to kill quietly, but you usually have to creep near foes to avoid alerting them. If they are patrolling a particular area, you won’t be able to outrun them, and it’s difficult to see the prompt for stealth assaults. As a result, we found ourselves running and gunning quite a bit. If you want any genuine challenge, you might want to up the difficulty because, on the default setting, you can take a lot of damage before dying.
The only time that achieving specific goals was tough was when they weren’t marked. Without using a walkthrough, we were able to complete the game, but there were occasions when we thought something had gone wrong before we realised what to do next. There is a scene when we knock out a guard at a vending machine, then hide him in the restrooms, but no matter what we tried, the alarm would sound. Even if all subtle manoeuvres had failed, in the end, we simply sprinted for the door, and that was sufficient to terminate the tale. These occurrences are rather infrequent, though, and we were able to thoroughly enjoy XIII without experiencing too much annoyance.
We can recommend XIII to gamers of a certain age, but we haven’t played it in almost two decades. Kids will be asking themselves, “WTF is this?” With its absence of open-world exploration, vehicles, and gadgets, this linear shooter proves that there is still a place for games that tell a story and don’t require a map. At least for us.
The game still has a fairly beautiful visual aesthetic. Even if XIII’s cel-shading isn’t quite as distinctive as it was in 2003, it still seems unique. Your greatest long-range headshots are rewarded with in-screen panels that show the adversary dying like a peasant, and the comic-book text was always employed to great advantage (you can see where enemies are from the written “tap” instructions as they walk). However, the audio quality varies quite a bit. Although Duchovny’s voice acting is still terrible, we liked hearing General Carrington, played by the late, great Adam West. Additionally, the game’s original wacky jazz soundtrack, which is frequently amazing and gives the action actual momentum, is included.
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