XIII (computer game)

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XIII
XIII Logo.png
Studio FranceFrance Ubisoft Paris SouthEnd Interactive (Xbox) Zonic (macOS)
SwedenSweden
EnglandEngland
Publisher FranceFrance Ubisoft Feral Interactive (macOS)
EnglandEngland
Senior Developer Elisabeth Pellen
Erstveröffent-
lichung		 North AmericaNorth AmericaNovember 18, 2003 November 28, 2003
European UnionEuropean Union
platform GameCube , Xbox , PlayStation 2 , Windows , Mac OS
Game engine Unreal Engine 2
genre First person shooter , stealth
Subject Conspiracy , XIII
Game mode Single player , multiplayer
control Keyboard , mouse , gamepad
system advantages
preconditions		 Windows
medium CD-ROM , DVD-ROM , download
language German
Current version 1.3, 1.5 (unofficial)
Age rating
USK approved from 16
PEGI recommended for ages 16+
information Some packaging is PEGI-12 approved. This is a misprint.

XIII ( Roman for 13 ) is a first-person shooter from Ubisoft based on the Franco-Belgian comic series of the same name from 1983. The action game with stealth elements was released in autumn 2003 for the GameCube , Xbox , PlayStation 2 , Windows and Mac OS .

In mid-April 2019, a remake of the game was announced, which will be released in 2020 for Windows , MacOS , PlayStation 4 , Xbox One , and Nintendo Switch .

action

At the beginning of the intro, the President of the United States is shot dead. The protagonist wakes up on a beach with a gunshot wound. He is rescued by a woman and taken to a beach house. He has lost all memories and all he has is a locker key and a tattoo with the number XIII on his left shoulder. Suddenly he is attacked by several men who aim to kill him. Before they succeed, however, he is captured by the FBI as the prime suspect in the President's murder. A photo proves that he looks exactly like the perpetrator. XIII manages to escape from the FBI headquarters with outside support. In the following, you learn that the protagonist has assumed the identity of the president's murderer. The murder is part of a conspiracy designed to overthrow the United States government. The 20 conspirators wear numbers to hide their identities. XIII was one of them, but was betrayed and murdered when the deed was done. A group aiming to prevent the coup d'état made one of their comrades-in-arms look like XIII in order to confuse the other side and make them commit mistakes. The protagonist in the guise of the former number XIII succeeds in unmasking most of the conspirators, killing them and preventing the conspiracy for the time being.

The conspirators

number Surname position
I. Walter Sheridan Presidential candidate
II Calvin Wax Defense Minister
III William Standwell Chief of Staff , White House
IV Phillip Gillepsie Interior minister
V Clayton Willard senator
VI Irving Allenby Judge
VII Franklin Edelbright Admiral , USS Patriot
VIII Dean Harrison Congressman
IX Jasper Winslow CEO , Winslow Bank
X Orville Midsummer Owners , Press Groups
XI Seymour Mac Call Colonel , SPADS
XII Lloyd Jannings Consultant , White House
XIII Steve Rowland Captain , SPADS
XIV Harriet Traymere CEO, Federal Steel Corporation
XV Jack Dickinson CEO, American Legion
XVI Norman Ryder Colonel, National Guard
XVII Kim Rowland Agent , FBI (Rowland's wife)
XVIII Edwin Rauschanberg CEO, CBN News
XIX Elly Shepherd Board of Directors , Ministry of Defense
XX Edward W. Johansson Doctor / Director, Plain Rock Institution

Gameplay

General gameplay and single player campaign

One of the special features of the game is the use of the cel shading technique , which gives the game a comic-like look. In addition, various game scenes (e.g. injuries to opponents) are shown in the form of comic strips in the image and noises are reproduced on the screen using onomatopoeia. The single player campaign consists of 34 straightforward levels. There are 15 weapons available to the player throughout the game, which are predefined for the individual levels. The repertoire consists of close combat, various handguns, rifles and automated firearms, hand grenades, a crossbow and throwing knives. There are also eight objects that can be used as weapons (e.g. tray, chair, bottles, ashtray, etc.) that can be used to stun opponents. In many cases, the game character can also move slowly through the game world and knock down opponents from behind or take them hostage. If the player drives such a hostage in front of him, some opponents, such as police officers, stop fire. Opposing characters have a simple alert system. For example, if they discover the corpse of a killed comrade, they trigger an alarm. To prevent this, the character can carry away killed opponents and hide them. In some levels, the game requires that the character remain undetected during the course of the mission or that the guards stop a major alarm in good time after discovery. In addition to fighting and sneaking, there are some simpler skills such as jumping or climbing / abseiling from high points with the help of a grappling hook.

Multiplayer mode

The multiplayer mode can be used in different ways, via network (LAN), Ubisoft's online game service or alone in the so-called bot challenge against computer-controlled opponents. A split-screen mode is also available for consoles . Here has XIII the following multiplayer variants:

  • Deathmatch : everyone against everyone.
  • Team Deathmatch: Deathmatch between two teams (red and blue).
  • Capture the flag
  • Sabotage: A team has to blow up different targets with a bomb. The other team tries to prevent this.
  • Ghost hunt: You should kill as many ghosts as possible with a hunting rifle and hand grenades. With every shot, the ghost shrinks, making it difficult to hit.
  • Power Up: Deathmatch, boxes are scattered around the area:
    • Ammunition box
    • Armor / health box
    • ?-Box
    • Weapon box: light weapons
    • Weapon box: Heavy weapons

A total of 14 maps are available for multiplayer mode.

The "Ubisoft Online Game Service" servers have now been switched off. The online multiplayer mode is therefore no longer available.

synchronization

In the English language edition, XIII is dubbed by actor David Duchovny ( The X Files ), the rapper Eve sets the female lead of Major Jones and Adam West General Carrington to music . In the German version of the game, actor Ben Becker lends the title character his sonorous voice, while Dennenesch Zoudé took over the role of Major Jones . The well-known voice actors Rolf Schult (as Mongose), Otto Mellies (as General Carrington) and Niels Clausnitzer (as Colonel Amos) lent their voices to some of the supporting characters. There were also Jürg Löw (III alias William Standwell), Fabian Körner , Volker Wolf , Ilya Welter , Stefan Schleberger , Fritz Stavenhagen , Vittorio Alfieri , Karlheinz Tafel , Renier Baaken , Rainer Delventhal , Hans Holzbecher , Hans-Detlev Hüpgen , Dieter Maise and Anja Niederfahrenhorst can be heard in other roles.

reception

reviews
publication Rating
GC PS2 Windows Xbox
4players 83% 84% 86% 85%
Eurogamer k. A. k. A. k. A. 8/10
IGN 8/10 7.7 / 10 8/10 8/10
Meta-ratings
GameRankings 75.65% 76.62% 73.73% 76.31%
Metacritic 73% 73% 72% 74%

XIII received mediocre to good ratings ( Metacritic : 72% (Win), 73 (PS2), 74 (Xbox), 73 (GC) / GameRankings : 73.83% (Win), 76.62% (PS2), 76, 31% (Xbox), 75.65% (GC)).

Despite mostly good reviews, the game sold rather slowly, which is why the successor announced at the end of the game has not yet appeared. In the magazines Computer Bild Spiele (Gold Edition 4/2007 XIII) and GameStar (Edition 5/2007) the full version of XIII was included on the DVD booklet, and XIII is included in the Gold Games 8 game collection .

successor

In a 2007 sequel with the title XIII 2: Covert Identity (stylized as XIII 2 ) published by Gameloft for J2ME- enabled mobile phones , the player learns even more about the background of the protagonist and his role in the great conspiracy. Unlike XIII , however, this is a side scrolling shoot 'em up . The game received several positive ratings (GameRankings: 89.67%).

In 2011 the French publisher Microïds published the game XIII: Lost Identity, developed by Mzone Studio and SOLILAB for iOS , Mac OS and Windows . However, with the exception of the license, it has no connection to the previous two games. It was a mini-game collection of hidden objects and smaller puzzles.

Remake

XIII
Studio MaltaMalta PlayLogic
Publisher FranceFrance Microids
Erstveröffent-
lichung		 2020
platform Xbox One , PlayStation 4 , Nintendo Switch , Windows , macOS
Game engine Unity engine
genre First person shooter , stealth
control Keyboard , mouse , gamepad
medium Blu-ray Disc , download

On April 18, 2019, the publisher Microïds announced a remake of XIII , which is being developed by PlayMagic and will be released in 2020 for Windows, Xbox One , PlayStation 4 , Nintendo Switch and macOS. It is strongly based on the original, but will modernize playful components and contain a new synchronization. The Unity Engine will be used in the remake of the first-person shooter . The first screenshots were published as part of Gamescom 2019 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Announcement "XIII" from the publisher Microïds on Twitter. In: Twitter . Retrieved April 18, 2019 .
  2. ↑ XIII Remake - Release postponed to 2020. In: NAT Games. August 9, 2019, accessed on August 31, 2019 (German).
  3. ↑ http://www.pcgames.de/Ben-Becker-Person-74960/News/XIII-mit-hochrangigen-Synchronsprechern-210980/
  4. ^ Paul Kautz: Test (evaluation) to "XIII". In: 4Players . Computec Media Group , accessed March 8, 2018 .
  5. ↑ Tom McNamara: Test "XIII". In: IGN UK . Ziff Davis , accessed June 11, 2014 .
  6. ↑ Tom McNamara: Test "XIII". In: IGN UK . Ziff Davis , accessed December 6, 2017 .
  7. ↑ Tom McNamara: Test "XIII". In: IGN UK . Ziff Davis , accessed December 6, 2017 .
  8. ↑ Tom McNamara: Test "XIII". In: IGN UK . Ziff Davis , accessed December 6, 2017 .
  9. ↑ Kristan Reed: Test "XIII". In: Eurogamer . Gamer Network , December 11, 2003, accessed June 11, 2014 .
  10. ↑ a b meta evaluation "XIII". In: GameRankings . CBS Corporation , accessed June 11, 2014 .
  11. ↑ a b meta evaluation "XIII". In: GameRankings . CBS Corporation , accessed June 11, 2014 .
  12. ↑ a b meta evaluation "XIII". In: GameRankings . CBS Corporation , accessed June 11, 2014 .
  13. ↑ a b meta evaluation "XIII". In: GameRankings . CBS Corporation , accessed June 11, 2014 .
  14. ↑ a b meta evaluation "XIII". In: Metacritic . CBS Corporation , accessed June 11, 2014 .
  15. ↑ a b meta evaluation "XIII". In: Metacritic . CBS Corporation , accessed June 11, 2014 .
  16. ↑ a b meta evaluation "XIII". In: Metacritic . CBS Corporation , accessed June 11, 2014 .
  17. ↑ a b meta evaluation "XIII". In: Metacritic . CBS Corporation , accessed June 11, 2014 .
  18. ↑ http://www.gameloft.de/handyspiele/xiii2/ ( Memento from February 29, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  19. ↑ GameRankings : Average rating of the game , based on 3 articles. Retrieved March 30, 2013.
  20. ↑ http://www.pocketgamer.co.uk/r/Mobile/XIII%3A+Covert+Identity/review.asp?c=4973
  21. ↑ XIII: Lost Identity at MobyGames (English)
  22. ↑ XIII | Microids on microids.com
  23. ↑ Johannes Gehrling: XIII: Impressions of the shooter remake from gamescom - Preview on PC Games (accessed on September 28, 2019)