Publisher and developer apologize for quality XIII remake

The publisher and developer of the XIII remake, an FPS that was released a week ago, apologize for the quality of the game. They call the criticism of the game’s poor technical condition ‘justified’ and say they are working hard on fixes.

Players in Steam reviews complain about poor artificial intelligence, a lot of clipping issues, crashes, misbehaving ragdolls, low frame rates and sound effects and music not playing. There are also substantive changes that do not like: the cel-shaded style is largely absent and there is a limit to how many weapons the player can carry. The game has also gotten a review average of ‘overwhelmingly negative’ on its Steam page since release.

According to developer PlayMagic and publisher Microids, the corona pandemic plays a big role in the quality of the release. “Switching to teleworking has brought unexpected delays in development and testing planning.” They wanted to release a day-one patch, but it didn’t work out either. Several patches should follow in ‘the coming days and weeks’, they promise. The first is to fix the issues with operation, performance, clipping, rendering and sound.

The XIII remake is based on a game from 2003 and costs 39.99 euros. The title refers to the game’s main character, a soldier who has lost his memory and is accused of murdering the President of the United States. With a small key and a tattoo next to his collarbone as the only clues, the soldier must find out what happened.