The Remake of XIII off to a Nightmarish Start

XIII, initially released in 2003, has received a remake that was rolled out at the start of this month, i.e. November. Unfortunately, the refashioned game has received a negative response from enthusiasts.

The testament to these remarks is the Steam rating. Only nine per cent of users have given a positive review. The response has been referred to as “overwhelmingly negative”.

Players have had multifarious issues with framerate, AI, multiplayer mode, and audio. Not to forget your friendly neighborhood errors pop up here and there. However, the thing that has been most criticized is its art style.

The original game was praised for its ‘comic-like’ visuals. Therefore, when the news of XIII’s remake got out, expectations were high.

The creators promised, “A new artistic direction that respects the original work and its iconic cel-shading design”. However, what we have received is visuals similar to that of Fortnite.

Following such negative comments, PlayMagic (developer) and Microids (publisher) apologized to enthusiasts.

“First and foremost, we would like to offer our most sincere apologies for the game’s technical issues. In its present state, XIII does not meet our quality standards and we fully understand players’ frustrations. The pandemic has impacted the game’s production on many levels.

Pivoting to home working for the teams has added unexpected delays in the development schedule and the QA process. We hoped we would be able to provide a Day One patch fixing all the issues but the development of this update is taking more time than expected.”

Moreover, in their statement, the creators also guaranteed that in the coming days and months, new patches will be released. In the first update, problems related to controls, frame rate, collisions, rendering, and sound will be solved.

Here is a complete list of patch notes that have been released for XIII:

DAY ONE PATCH: ALREADY AVAILABLE FOR STEAM, PLAYSTATION 4 AND XBOX ONE VERSIONS:

• Fixed various crash issues
• Fixed various gameplay bugs and issues
• Fixed various issues surrounding AI and weapons
• Fixed various graphical issues
• Fixed and added various UI elements
• Fixed various gameplay bugs
• Fixed various issues surrounding AI and weapons
• Fixed numerous graphical bugs
• Fixed various issues when resetting from a checkpoint
• Fixed various UI elements
• Fixed issues with environmental lighting
• Fixed issues with character and enemy animations
• Fixed VFX issues
• Added Local Multiplayer Mode
• Numerous small balance tweaks to weapon damage values
• Minor difficulty scaling changes
• Tweaks to AI functionality
• Bug Fixes
• Fixes for weapon audio bugs
• Fixes for environmental audio issues
• Adjustments to cutscene audio

Issues & Their Fix in Upcoming Patch

Technical:

Framerate will be improved in the following locations:

• Rooftops – Departure
• Emerald Base – Insertion
• Emerald base – Rescue
• Kellownee Lake – Exploration
• Spads Base – Sabotage
• Spads base – Destruction
• Spads Submarine – Evacuation
• Resolute base – Intrusion
• Sanctuary – Sunset Sanctuary
• SSH1 Base – Forbidden Entry

AI:

• NPC AI improvement is planned.

Save System:

• Will be improved: the player should be able to load his progression at the last checkpoint and with his weapons saved.

Stability:

• Will be improved in following locations:
• FBI Headquarters (Games crashes when FBI agents kills XIII)
• Spads Base 02 (Game crashes when the character dies in the water)
• Emerald Base 02 (Game crashes when XIII dies 2 times near ladder with electricity.)
• Emerald Base 03 (Game crashes when XIII dies 3 times near electric surrounded area)

Graphics:

• Sometimes, 2D asset may stay on screen indefinitely if triggered before a loading
• Vsync setting will be added on PS4 and XB1
• Some 3D models will be improved
• Lights will be improved on PS4 and XB1

Design:

• Some issues with objective marker might be missing in some levels or stay active even though you finished the objective.
• “Finish Him” achievement – There are currently issues to unlock this achievement.
• You could be stuck if you switch the Spying Microphone for a weapon.
• Player can fail to grab ladder to go down and fall (Pressing A/X/Space mid air to grab the ladder while falling to catch it).
• Sometimes, ammo can not be picked up.
• Escort in Prison can be broken.
• Alarm in Prison/Asylum does not have the behaviour expected.
• Kellownee Lake Exploration – A deer fails to run away and can get stuck.
• Sometimes, you can go out of the world if you press the button for crouch at the starting of the mission.
• Sometimes, Game over message does not match with the condition.

Sound Design:

• Some voice lines are cut before the end of the dialog.
• In some parts, some SFX and musics are missing.

Xbox-Specific Issues:

• Switch profile from Xbox menu issue:

There is an issue if you change profile on the main menu by disconnecting the profile in the Xbox menu and connect to the another profile. If you are stuck on the main menu, please relaunch the game.

• Launching the game without first signing into Xbox profile issue:

There is an issue if you launch the game without signing into an Xbox profile. You could be stuck on the title screen. If this issue occurs, please close the game and relaunch it with a profile connected.

• Newly signed in user can continue the previous user progression issue:

There is an issue if you change your profile from the Xbox menu during an active gameplay. If you are able to continue the previous user progression, please relaunch the game with your new profile.

About XIII

XIII is a first-person stealth espionage shooter video game, that is loosely based on the first five volumes of the 1984 Belgian graphic novel series of the same name.

It was initially released in 2003 for PlayStation 2, GameCube, Microsoft Windows, Xbox, Classic Mac OS with a remake coming out on November 10, 2020.

The game follows an unnamed amnesiac that finds himself stranded on an island, being caught up in a conspiracy to overthrow the Government and being chased by a professional hitman!

The game features a variety of arsenal at the protagonist’s disposal, cel-shaded art style, and unique incorporation of single-player and multiplayer game modes.