First released in 2003, XIII was a fantastic shooter that became a cult classic thanks to its cel-shading aesthetic, which is largely based on French comics. In 2019 Microids announced a welcome remake of the game, and when it arrived… oh. oh dear.
Among the remake’s crimes were visual style updates that frankly missed the point. rice field. I mean, look at this. just look.
The remake was so bad and received such negative reception that Microids and developer PlayMagic issued an official apology.
The remake was so bad, in fact, that in June of this year Microid announced a remake of the remake, with a new studio behind it (Tower Five). and is now available as a free download to all existing owners of the game.
For some reason Microids’ YouTube channel only hosts the Switch trailer, which is what I’m stuck on, but from the first seconds it looks like this should have always been visible. , displayed in HD, just like the original game. The trailer offers glimpses of many locations in the game, and the bright palette is a world away from the faded look of the first remake.
It’s not just visuals. The original remake had many bugs and performance issues, and the audio his mix also did not live up to the original. Credit that requires credit. There was clearly something wrong with this project and instead of abandoning it, Microids decided to do it right.
XIII remake is now overwhelmingly negative reviews with steam. We’ll have to see if this massive rework can change its fortunes, but at first glance it looks like it comes very close to what fans of the original always wanted from this project.
