XIII Remake - Review

Longtime gamers will surely remember XIII, a FPS inspired by the Franco-Belgian graphic novel of the same name. The 2003 Ubisoft title hit the hearts of many at the time, thank you to a balanced gameplay between action and stealth and high-level storytelling. To frame the electrifying soundtrack and splendid cel-shaded graphics accompanied by balloons, cartoons and other gimmicks that made the experience almost “cross-media”.

However, today I'm not here to tell you about this milestone but about its remake made by PlayMagic. It is now fashionable to take old games and "rebuild them from scratch", with a technical sector in step with the times and an expanded gameplay. Will it also be the case with XIII?

XIII Remake came out too soon

Reluctantly, as a professor who sees a promising student fail, I tell you that this remake suffers from too many problems that make the title seriously insufficient, problems probably related to a premature release.

The development team has warned us, via a press release, that they are aware of the game situation and will address these issues in future updates. For this reason this review is intended for the current state of the game.

I also specify that I have tried the code provided on a PlayStation 4 Pro system which compared to the PC version has a downgrade of graphics and stability.

Who starts badly ...

The events of XIII begin with the assassination of American President William Sheridan. Such an event is shown with the same movie as the 2003 title. It hasn't been redone from scratch but was taken and screened in a briefing subspecies in which a single random guard participates. It would have been interesting to review the same scenes with the new graphics engine.

Subsequently the protagonist, the main suspect in the murder, wakes up on a beach accusing him of amnesia. The only clue she has about his identity is a tattoo with the Roman numeral XIII. This is just the beginning of this daring political fictional adventure.

Here, however, that as soon as we take control of the character we notice the first problems of graphics and gameplay: a dancer frame rate, audio out of phase and a slight input-lag. I have a bad feeling!

A production faithful to the original but with a "new" design

Come Crash N. Sane Trilogy e Spyro Reignited Trilogy, XIII Remake it is proposed as a game that is very faithful to the original (at least on paper). The levels are the same, re-proposed one by one with some slight differences in gameplay and level design (for example the arrangement of some objects and enemies). Also present are all the weapons of the 2003 title, however I didn't feel the same feeling in using them. The voices of all the characters have even been reused (yes, even in español) and the outstanding soundtrack.

One thing that sets this remake apart is the choice to “lighten” the cel-shaded style to choose a slightly more realistic one. The characters and environments, more than comic, seem "plastic", a bit like Fortnite. Of course, the balloons and onomatopoeias for the visual effects remain but everything else, the transitions and the comics-like videos have been cut and replaced by more cinematic cutscenes. In my opinion, this way the game loses a bit of depth.

Too many, too many problems

If on the one hand there was a peculiar job in the recreation of the game on the other hand there are too many too many problems that prevent the title from being enjoyable. Essentially, I highlight two aspects: optimization e the AI ​​of the enemies. Let's analyze them individually.

AI (where the "A" stands for amnesia)

Apparently amnesia has also affected game enemies. They no longer remember how you react to the player! First of all, getting caught will be very difficult: even if you are in their field of vision in most cases they will not see you. Also the only thing they do is run into you and fire or call the alarm. In any case kill them or overcome them without getting noticed it's very simple. Especially if you have chairs available!

In the original title, without even having to say it, the opponents were much more reactive. First of all they were able to identify the player at a wider range, which made sense of a “stealth”, reasoned and varied gameplay. Even in the shootings the player had to be more skilled at hitting enemies, who dodged bullets in an excellent way. In the 2020 title all this does not happen.

A game not optimized at all (still looks like alpha)

As stated in the beginning, at present XIII is very badly optimized. First of all there is an unstable framerate, which, on consoles, it even drops below 20 frames, making this title tedious to play. Added to this are bugs: enemies, once killed, clump, deform or penetrate objects. Sometimes they also remain suspended in the air.

When we pick up a knocked out enemy, we have a good chance that he will squeal and position himself badly in relation to the camera. I could do so many other examples regarding bad optimization, I would never finish. In short, such low quality at the exit is not tolerable.

Verdict

At present, the XIII remake is not only a title without innovation compared to the original but also worse. Beyond the new technical sector, which you may like or not, there are too many problems affecting the gameplay and the general stability of the game. It seems to play more of a "downgrade" than a "remake". In the awareness of all the problems that have arisen in the development of the game such as the pandemic and the consequent delays, I have tried to be as understanding as possible towards this work. Unfortunately, however, the result is what it is. XIII remake will have to do the summer (or in this case winter) ripassino. We hope that with the announced patches it becomes at least a sufficient game.