The stylish shooter XIII is coming back as a remake slated for release on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch this year. The original 2003 game was known for its mind-bending story, and the remake is said to be borne out of a desire to introduce the story-driven game to a new generation who may have missed it more than a decade ago.
An announcement on the PlayStation Blog includes a few pieces of concept art for both the environments and one character, showing off the new visual style. Among other things XIII was known for its cel-shaded aesthetic, which has been maintained here but updated with a lot more detail.
In XIII, you play as an amnesiac soldier named Thirteen. You've been accused of killing the President of the United States, and the story revolves around your efforts to uncover the truth with only a few clues to go on. This remake is said to be based on the first five volumes of the comic series.
"XIII has a unique and potentially interesting premise, and some will certainly want to drag their way through the single-player campaign just to watch the story unfold, but the game doesn't really differentiate itself from the wide array of other first-person shooters on the market," said critic Jeff Gerstmann in GameSpot's 2003 review. "The cel-shaded graphical style works in the context of trying to re-create a comic book, but the models and other graphical elements fall short. Given the extreme amount of competition in this genre, fans of first-person shooting are advised to spend their time elsewhere."
The remake of XIII is coming November 13, 2019.