It doesn’t seem like that long ago that XIII first made its way into my life. I remember reading about it in PSM (PlayStation Magazine, I believe they turned into GamesRadar) and it being hailed as the first cel-shaded FPS (whether true or not I can’t say, but I don’t remember there being any others at the time). Promoting a game for its art direction may sound silly, but cel-shading was seemingly huge at the time, and it has a way of making things age a bit better than “realistic” art directions. As of writing this, you’re probably better off playing the original, as it’s a better experience than this remake.

I’ve waited a few weeks to write this; as with Microid’s previous Blacksad, this hasn’t had the best launch. Granted, this year has had a huge impact on the way teams are functioning, so it’s hard to blame the developer or publisher outright, but QA should’ve been able to funnel up the issues which are constant to see if a delay in launch could’ve taken place. I understand the game needs to launch to start recuperating funds, but in a state like this, it’s likely going to sell much worse than if it was polished. Then again, some people like playing games that are broken for the sake of it, and this certainly got enough press, so maybe it’s better it launched as it did, because I’m sure sites wouldn’t have covered it as extensively if it was mediocre and forgettable.

As you may or may not have seen, a letter was issued on November 13th apologizing for the state that the game is in, despite the day one patch, which resolved a lot of issues according to the list (including offline multiplayer). However, that list was far from comprehensive, as I couldn’t believe how frustrated with the game I was in the first hour of it. From screen tearing to enemies getting stuck in objects, falling through floors, or not triggering events, there’s a lot to make players wonder why they’re spending their time with it.

I didn’t love the game the first time around, but I have fond memories of it. I remember beating it and wanting to know what happened next. I never got around to reading the series, but I started the shows a couple times before realizing I wasn’t in the mood for them. When I saw the game was being remade, I was ecstatic, thinking we’d finally get a follow up and a conclusion. Under different circumstances, I’d love for this to happen, although I’m not confident it will after this. I’m not sure what exactly was all done for this remake, but at this point, the term “remake” in a game opposed to “remaster” means something entirely different. With Final Fantasy VII in particular, the idea of a remake is huge. But even games trilogies like Spyro and Crash Bandicoot, or the PlayStation specific MediEvil, Shadow of the Colossus, and most recently Demon Soul’s show what a remake should be. On a visual level the cel-shading ages well enough, but this doesn’t look like a remake – it looks like the resolution on the original models were bumped and they called it a day. And it plays like the QA team took a vacation for the development of the game. No disrespect meant to the team, but the issues I ran into shouldn’t be present in a launched game.

Something I’m starting to grow away from with the PS5 is load times, but that’s difficult to do with PS4 games that still have excessive downtime because of them. While better on the PS5, they’re still inexcusable and numerous. I started this prior to having my PS5, so I wasn’t expecting the best use of vibration, especially being a PS2 game, but even that feels wrong. There’s no sort of impact from killing enemies, the vibration often comes at weird times, and the whole experience feels like an early alpha (I’m not talking the “alphas” that are really just stress tests these days). The game is also much harder than I remember. I have no problem saying that I’m not as good at games as I used to be, but if I’m playing the game on the easiest mode, which essentially makes me a god, I shouldn’t be dying after a few hits. One of the more memorable deaths set me outside of a fence on a rooftop early in the game, and I had to wait about two minutes for my partner to catch up to me as she was put way back at a previous event and I couldn’t move on until she was with me to trigger the current event. I didn’t know what was going on, but then I realized and I had to laugh that my checkpoint wasn’t the same as the NPC’s.

If you enjoyed the original voice acting, that is still intact, for better or worse. It’s kind of fun to play the game to see it as a type of time capsule to older FPS games, and the advances we’ve had since. It’s quaint in a way, and I can appreciate that. But the sheer amount of technical issues that I don’t remember ever facing in the original really is a deal breaker. Nostalgia couldn’t help save this one, as much as I wanted it to. The multiplayer isn’t something I played much of originally, though I recall liking the rubber band type of Mario Kart weapon system, giving the worst player rocket launchers to boost their kill count, unlike Call of Duty which would reward the best players with additional toys for murder. I couldn’t reliably get into a multiplayer match without the game breaking though, so I can’t speak to it here.

Post patches, I’m sure this game will be as enjoyable as it was the first time, or maybe even more so. I hope those patches come sooner rather than later, not only for the teams that worked on this so they can actually sell the game, but for the players that spent the money and want to have a functional experience. When that happens, hopefully the game will once again see the style that was so exciting when it first launched. Right now though, XIII doesn’t have style or substance, and it’s a damn shame.

2 out of 10

Pros

• Nostalgia

Cons

• Technical Issues Everywhere You Look
• Progression Bugs
• Looks About How I Remember on PS2 but Plays Worse

XIII was developed by PlayMagic and published by Microids. It is available on PC, PS4, and X1. The game was provided to us for review on PS4, and was played on PS4 and PS5. If you’d like to see more of XIII, check out the publisher’s site.

 

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