Considering the XIII remake’s unique launch was a catastrophe, it is admirable that writer Microids tried to make things better. Following the launch from developer PlayMagic, a brand new crew, Tower Five, has been introduced in to try to rework the discharge into one thing extra interesting. The outcomes are blended, but it surely’s positively higher.

XIII’s legacy revolves largely round artwork path. You play an amnesiac spy with all of the character of a chunk of bread attempting to uncover a authorities conspiracy, as you sink again into the world of espionage. Hyper-stylised with a cel-shaded look to resemble its supply comics, the unique model of the remake stripped a lot of that character away. The new replace restores it to a level, however now it simply seems like all cel-shaded recreation, fairly than one thing distinctive. The title has a extra constant imaginative and prescient, but it surely’s not one to create an everlasting or memorable legacy.

The efficiency is noticeably improved. The unique was suffering from bugs, crashes, and body charge issues. The new model hits a steady 60 frames-per-second on PS5, and crashes appear to be a factor of the previous. There are occasional bugs, however they’re relegated to texture issues or different innocent oddities which might be simple to disregard.

With the sport operating properly for the primary time in two years, the gameplay will get an opportunity to shine, and that is the place issues falter. The gameplay simply is not very fascinating. There’s a powerful number of weapons — and improvising with stray chairs or ashtrays is neat — however the shine wears off as you’re employed by way of the eight-hour marketing campaign. The stage design would not assist, because it’s principally bland. You go to a pleasant array of locales, however the missions aren’t thrilling. This contains many sequences of pressured stealth and arbitrary fail-states, additional hampered by poor, inconsistent AI. There’s by no means a necessity for technique, as enemies run at you in a single file line.

Online multiplayer is a pleasant addition, however given how few individuals got here out to see the unique launch of this title, we won’t think about this can draw many again.

So is that this an enchancment over the unique model of the remake? Absolutely. Tower Five appears to have accomplished its greatest to re-work the expertise with out fully beginning over, but it surely might solely take it thus far. This is one remake we actually do not want.