XIII - Remake

Good thing I'm Australian. I'm sorry but this is literally the first time I've requested a refund on GOG. The game has odd animations, feels wrong, feels janky, ignores v-sync options (it's own I might add), seems to require ALOT of GPU power for what it's doing, feels broken, the NPC faces look weird and quite frankly the original feels like it has alot more character. Plus the original feels alot smoother. I can't recommend this and I played the original and still own the original on GOG.com. I'd recommend the original even with the issues getting it running on a modern PC over this one. Like the review title says I uninstalled it and have requested a refund. Sad as I was looking forward to this but I don't think a day one patch could fix it. It requires rebuilding from the ground up. At least it's not Star Citizen.

Starting with the intro: it's an insult. Replay of the original intro in an FBI cinema with an agent watching. But there is no context as to why. First thing I noticed is, that the game is riddled with bugs - like even the main menu stops responding. In contrast to others, ESC didn't even work. Then in-game there are a few others, like alternate fire didn't work for quite some time when I had a hostage, so I had to restart the mission a few times to stay alive. Now, if you are new, there is nothing that shows you the controls and "traches" you the game, as it is a standard now. Instead, you have to look up controls in the menu (which, remember, sometimes just stops working). But never mind, the controls are pretty bad anyways. Like there is some sort of "cooldown" before you can actually see the icon which allows you to pick up corpses. And aiming is gruesome. But the biggest insult are the models and animations. The animations are on a standard that was perhaps state of the art 20 years ago - but not today. Also the models just look like really bad models and do not resemble the style of the original XIII. I tried to give the game a chance, but it really is so bad. I am going to try a refund.

What a buggy ride. Textures missing, animations running wild, enemies spaning from nowhere, horrible AI and NPCs clip through walls. I can not finish the game, because something just won't trigger. The multiplayer is not working as it is not possible to select a character. Why someone would release this is a mystery to me.

Finally the game is as it should have been from the start. The new art style is very faithful to the original drawings of Vance (in my opinion more faithful than in the classic game, as the 3D models are more refined), from the bullet impacts, to the blood splatters. The weapons are more satisfying to use, and the levels are even more pleasing to go through, should you decide to go stealthily or guns blazing, thanks to the very solid level design. The multiplayer is a good addition, but be aware that the player count is pretty low, so don't expect to join full lobbies. A really engaging game, for fans of the comics, or nostalgics of the "goldeneye" style era of FPS.

Just watched GmanLives' review and they completely removed the comic book look that made us all fall in love with the game back in '03. That and the combination of bugs, it's hard pass. I'll stick with the classic version.