XIII

XIII its a great game worth bying.

XIII is well known game that is mainly praised for unique art. However, this could potentialy trick you into thinking that the gameplay is good as well, when in reallity, it is full of issues. Shooting feels very strange, save game feature is not working, enemy AI is very basic, mission design is not that great, stealth parts are not interesting, movement is not precise, levels look empty, and so on... You can still try the game, especially if you got it free on GOG, I'm glad I did in the end, but it is too boring for me to spend more than couple of hours playing it.

When ‘XIII’ first came out back in 2003, it stood out among its FPS contemporaries with its cel-shaded graphics. Its graphic-novel-like presentation was also unique for the genre at the time, too -- using comic panels to show close-ups of actions or concurrent events, and comic-book-style text of varying sizes to show proximity of enemies. Yet back in those days, I spent so much time playing games like ‘Knights of Old Republic' and ‘Call of Duty’ that ‘XIII’ was soon off my radar. So with ‘XIII’ available on GOG, I finally tried it. While its graphics still look great in 2020, I find it just shy of being mediocre when comparing it to FPSs of early 2000s. My biggest gripe with ‘XIII’ is its save feature. Although I am allowed to save the game anywhere and at any time, saved games load from checkpoints. Why didn’t the developer implement a proper save-anywhere feature when many other PC FPSs did? Still, the great looking cel-shaded presentation has its drawbacks. Because characters look like cardboard cutouts, striking enemies -- whether with bullets, fists, or objects -- never felt convincing and satisfying. Consequently, I never felt the game’s action to be intense or thrilling. It also didn’t help that the narrative payoff at the end of each mission wasn’t enticing enough to convince me to keep playing. I couldn’t finish ‘XIII’ because my save file got corrupted mid-game. I would be inclined to restart the game if it wasn’t for the controls. One fun possibility of ‘XIII’ is taking a hostage or using an enemy as human shield. Yet, movement with a hostage, while trying to complete other actions like opening a door, is clunky. I really want to like ‘XIII’, but despite its presentation, I can see why the game never took off. Compared to its contemporaries of the same genre, it just wasn’t very polished. Unless you’re truly curious about ‘XIII’, I would recommend for you to pass on it.

⠀

I remember this game from my childhood (as many of us - thanks to graphics) but I forgot how bad experience it was. Honestly I just can't understand how on earth does this have so many supporters. Came here to laugh after seeing some reviews of remake and it seems like nothing has changed. Gameplay in both is just terrible. I cannot point what part of this game is worst but I'd assume that it could be something inbetween of controls, aiming, stealth system or AI. No sentiments at all.