"XIII" was never a game I enjoyed. The 2003 FPS was artistically and
technically interesting, but its gameplay was underwhelming. It's been
over a decade since I played it last, but I mostly remember it as a
game with instant-death jumps over bottomless pits, instant-fail
stealth missions, annoying bosses and escort missions. Its
moment-to-moment gunplay was fine, but its mission design was
basically a list of all the worst things you could do in an FPS.

Still... you just gotta love that art design, right? It was one of the
first 3D games to use cel-shaded visuals (so much I was upset when
"Borderlands" - released six years later - stole its thunder for doing
the exact same thing!), and its unique picture-in-picture
comic-book-panel offsets and sound effects were stylish and neat. And
while it's narrative wasn't particularly unique (ever read any of the
Jason Bourne novels? Then you know the story already) it moved forward
smartly enough to keep me interested to the end.

(I could have done without David Duchovny's
just-in-it-for-the-paycheck voice-acting, though).

Still, I wasn't too excited when they announced a remake of the game
in 2020, and less so when that remake actually was released. Gone were
all the interesting bits from the original game - most notably the
cel-shading and all the comic-book trappings - leaving only a very
generic-looking FPS with the same flawed mission design that was so
plaguesome 17 years prior.

Well, I dunno if they've fixed the bottomless pits or stealth
missions, but at least the game's sense of style is back, thanks to a
free update. An announcement on the game's Steam page* revealed its
refreshed graphics and other improvements to AI and sound design. It
still doesn't quite match the original (the levels still look a bit
dull) but it doesn't seem quite as generic**.

Will this be enough to save this game? I don't know; my memories of
the original still make me wary of giving the remake a shot. But, on
the other hand, it could be I'm remembering it more harshly than it
deserves, and - now that some of the game's uniqueness has returned -
maybe I should give it another try.

======================
* announcement:
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1154790/view/3319737966744767712
** video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGice-hnKZs

On Wed, 14 Sep 2022 20:35:04 -0400, Spalls Hurgenson
<spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:

>
>"XIII" was never a game I enjoyed. The 2003 FPS was artistically and
>technically interesting, but its gameplay was underwhelming. It's been
>over a decade since I played it last, but I mostly remember it as a
>game with instant-death jumps over bottomless pits, instant-fail
>stealth missions, annoying bosses and escort missions. Its
>moment-to-moment gunplay was fine, but its mission design was
>basically a list of all the worst things you could do in an FPS.
>
>Still... you just gotta love that art design, right? It was one of the
>first 3D games to use cel-shaded visuals (so much I was upset when
>"Borderlands" - released six years later - stole its thunder for doing
>the exact same thing!), and its unique picture-in-picture
>comic-book-panel offsets and sound effects were stylish and neat. And
>while it's narrative wasn't particularly unique (ever read any of the
>Jason Bourne novels? Then you know the story already) it moved forward
>smartly enough to keep me interested to the end.
>
>(I could have done without David Duchovny's
>just-in-it-for-the-paycheck voice-acting, though).
>
>Still, I wasn't too excited when they announced a remake of the game
>in 2020, and less so when that remake actually was released. Gone were
>all the interesting bits from the original game - most notably the
>cel-shading and all the comic-book trappings - leaving only a very
>generic-looking FPS with the same flawed mission design that was so
>plaguesome 17 years prior.
>
>Well, I dunno if they've fixed the bottomless pits or stealth
>missions, but at least the game's sense of style is back, thanks to a
>free update. An announcement on the game's Steam page* revealed its
>refreshed graphics and other improvements to AI and sound design. It
>still doesn't quite match the original (the levels still look a bit
>dull) but it doesn't seem quite as generic**.
>
>Will this be enough to save this game? I don't know; my memories of
>the original still make me wary of giving the remake a shot. But, on
>the other hand, it could be I'm remembering it more harshly than it
>deserves, and - now that some of the game's uniqueness has returned -
>maybe I should give it another try.
>
>
>======================
>* announcement:
>https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1154790/view/3319737966744767712
>** video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGice-hnKZs
>
>

*--

Never heard of it.

-pw

On Wed, 14 Sep 2022 21:59:04 -0600, PW
<iamnotusingonewithAgent@notinuse.com> wrote:

>Never heard of it.
>
>-pw

Me neither.

>>Never heard of it.
>Me neither.

Here's my review from some 10yrs?! ago. Remember this is a 20yrold title
now, but due to the cell-shading looks bright and colorful:

"I'd been curious about this cell-shaded FPS title for awhile, and as it had
been sitting in my GOG account for ages, fired it up on Easy mode.

Compatibility issues first -- XIII works well in widescreen modes, simply
follow the instructions here http://www.wsgf.org/dr/xiii
3/4 of the way through I hit a gamebreaking bug, where framerate goes to
zero and the cpu is pegged. This appears to be sound-related, and the only
fix that worked is to set UseSound=False in xiii.ini for the remainder of
the level, then set it back; I had no further issues for the remainder of
the game. You might need to set XP compatibility for the shortcut. Save
often, BTW, as XIII has no autosaves.

The big draw of XIII is its art style: the comicbook presentation and
brightly colored cell-shaded graphics still look gorgeous, even on a big
monitor at 1900x1200. Too bad this did not carry over to the muddy
low-resolution cutscenes, ah well. I disabled music early on, but the
soundtrack is supposed to be pretty good.

The conspiracy-themed 007 plot complements the art well, while the James
Bond-ish FPS gameplay does not detract: The mix of stealth ability and
straight-forward shooting offer the player some variety, and are kept from
becoming tedious by the fairly small levels and frequent change of venue,
but I'd definitely play on Easy to keep moving forward quickly.

I'll give it a B+ grade. For a 10 year-old game, XIII looks and sounds
great. Older FPS can get very tedious, shooting the same nazi sprite over
and over, but XIII avoids this with way above average plot, art, and
gameplay variety. A modern gamer might prefer to watch youtube gameplay
videos instead of buying XIII, but it's definitely worth a look."

rms

On Thu, 15 Sep 2022 08:39:36 -0600, "rms"
<rsquiresMOO@MOOflashMOO.net> wrote:

>>>Never heard of it.
>>Me neither.

>Here's my review from some 10yrs?! ago. Remember this is a 20yrold title
>now, but due to the cell-shading looks bright and colorful:

(note: the 10-year old GOG version referenced here is not the remake,
but the original game with some compatibility updates. The remake is
now also available on GOG, and will receive the update)

> Save often, BTW, as XIII has no autosaves.

Argh. I remember that. It's probably a major reason why I found the
jumping and stealth so tedious.

>I'll give it a B+ grade. For a 10 year-old game, XIII looks and sounds
>great. Older FPS can get very tedious, shooting the same nazi sprite over
>and over, but XIII avoids this with way above average plot, art, and
>gameplay variety. A modern gamer might prefer to watch youtube gameplay
>videos instead of buying XIII, but it's definitely worth a look."

You seemed to have a better time of it than I did. It's one of the
reasons I'm sort of tempted by the remake, to see if it really was as
bad as I remember, or if maybe I was just having a bad week when I was
playing it. I don't expect it to be a great game (as you say, old FPS
games lack the polished gameplay that we expect from modern titles)
but surely it can't be as bad as I recall?

But is it worth paying 34.95 to find out? I don't think it is. Maybe
after the game drops in price (or, more likely, is added to one of the
inevitable give-aways) but until then my curiosity will remain
unsated.

On Thu, 15 Sep 2022 08:39:36 -0600, "rms"
<rsquiresMOO@MOOflashMOO.net> wrote:

>>>Never heard of it.
>>Me neither.
>
>Here's my review from some 10yrs?! ago. Remember this is a 20yrold title
>now, but due to the cell-shading looks bright and colorful:
>
>"I'd been curious about this cell-shaded FPS title for awhile, and as it had
>been sitting in my GOG account for ages, fired it up on Easy mode.
>
>Compatibility issues first -- XIII works well in widescreen modes, simply
>follow the instructions here http://www.wsgf.org/dr/xiii
>3/4 of the way through I hit a gamebreaking bug, where framerate goes to
>zero and the cpu is pegged. This appears to be sound-related, and the only
>fix that worked is to set UseSound=False in xiii.ini for the remainder of
>the level, then set it back; I had no further issues for the remainder of
>the game. You might need to set XP compatibility for the shortcut. Save
>often, BTW, as XIII has no autosaves.
>
>The big draw of XIII is its art style: the comicbook presentation and
>brightly colored cell-shaded graphics still look gorgeous, even on a big
>monitor at 1900x1200. Too bad this did not carry over to the muddy
>low-resolution cutscenes, ah well. I disabled music early on, but the
>soundtrack is supposed to be pretty good.
>
>The conspiracy-themed 007 plot complements the art well, while the James
>Bond-ish FPS gameplay does not detract: The mix of stealth ability and
>straight-forward shooting offer the player some variety, and are kept from
>becoming tedious by the fairly small levels and frequent change of venue,
>but I'd definitely play on Easy to keep moving forward quickly.
>
>I'll give it a B+ grade. For a 10 year-old game, XIII looks and sounds
>great. Older FPS can get very tedious, shooting the same nazi sprite over
>and over, but XIII avoids this with way above average plot, art, and
>gameplay variety. A modern gamer might prefer to watch youtube gameplay
>videos instead of buying XIII, but it's definitely worth a look."
>
>rms

*-

Not interested in comic book looking games or anything like that.
Borderlands 1 and 2 were enough for me but very interesting looking
and fun for a while. And funny.

-pw