XIII

Best.

I'd love to give this more stars, I really would. I have great memories of this title however the port is a massive let down. If you don't believe me, just try navigating the menus for more than 5 minutes.

I played and enjoyed XIII on the PS2 way back in 03 so when it comes to the story and graphics I knew what to expect. Who doesnt love cell shading? The real problem is the controls. Dear lord they are so bad.

XIII is a game I'm mixed about, more than any other. Great visuals, soundtrack, good story, not-so-good gameplay. I'm assuming you can tolerate jank since you're reading this review right now on GOG, but the amount of jank makes it feel more like a late 90's game. I played the game on XXX (the hardest difficulty) since it was too easy for me otherwise. First off, despite having a quicksave feature, the game uses checkpoints. I can understand checkpoints for a console game, but checkpoints in PC games annoy more than aid. Second, the unfair difficulty spike after the first boss. Most enemies can die in one shot, making the game easy for experienced FPS players with one HUGE catch, the bosses. They're bullet sponges made even worse by you dying in a few hits. I changed the difficulty to Realistic (second hardest difficulty) by the ending, and the difference between it & XXX is appalling. Save yourself the frustration, change difficulties before boss fights if playing on XXX. Third, stealth mechanics. This game has terrible stealth mechanics. You could shoot a guy right next to another, and the other guy won't notice unless he's facing him. If you get spotted, the AI instantly knows where you are, no matter how hidden, while they stand there, sometimes shooting before you kill them. You can easily cheese the AI with doors. Fourth, without spoiling anything, the game ends on a cliffhanger only resolved in the comics. I still enjoyed the story overall, but it's something to be weary about if you're looking for a completeness. And finally, fifth. This is more of a nitpick, but you have to restart the game to play previous levels without NG+, killing the replay value for me, with secret documents hidden all over said levels. There's also a pretty fun multiplayer with servers available if you install the unofficial 1.4.2.1 patch. I'd still recommend the game for $2 on sale, but I probably won't play it again.

Using GameHub on Ubuntu, I was able to easily install and run XIII using Proton 5.0 without any additional tweaking. This may also work with Proton by adding the executable to Steam and force it that way, but GameHub had no issue in downloading and running it!