By Adam Smith on November 18th, 2011 at 10:14 am.
In a remarkable feat of reversed expectations, it was revealed that the new XIII game would not be a first person shooter. This is at a time when there’s a real chance that Peggle 2 will involve unicorn terrorists, a cover system and a screen-swallowing rainbow-themed HUD. Headshots = Ode To Joy and the rabbit is a wand-waving medic. So, an FPS becoming a puzzle game shouldn’t necessarily be reason to despair, right? It could allow narrative to dominate and make the world really stand out. And then a trailer occurs.
Well, that sure is a hidden object game. It’s probably more at home on a tappable device than our mouse-driven domains, but wherever it’s played, I imagine it’s going to disappoint those who enjoyed the original. That’s not to suggest that it isn’t possible to tell a worthwhile interactive tale in a game with the kind of sequences shown in the trailer, but will even a well-made hidden object game appeal to people wanting more XIII, or does the license become incidental?
Time shall tell if there’s anything decent to be discovered in these kleptomaniac adventures but I can’t help but imagine all tension will be lost if I’m forced to search for six dominoes and a rusty faucet in order to load a sniper rifle.
It’s out tomorrow. Does anyone care?
18/11/2011 at 10:24 Twilightx says:
Why is green goo flying out of everything you touch, with that awful sticky noise? Yucks
18/11/2011 at 10:54 coldvvvave says:
You are playing as the Champion of Nurgle.
18/11/2011 at 12:11 alh_p says:
LOL, you win the internets today good sir.
18/11/2011 at 10:31 Tunips says:
XIII was a solidly entertaining shooter. More importantly, it got me reading French comics, and as an end result I read Metabarons. So I’m quite grateful to it. This game, I don’t see any reason to care about.
I think as a compromise I’ll listen to Johnny Cash’s Thirteen again.
18/11/2011 at 11:47 Rinox says:
Goddamn French surreptitiously claiming the few Belgian icons we have! First Tintin, now XIII…and the Smurfs and Asterix, and Thorgal, etc.
(I know you didn’t say XIII was French, just wanted to rant ;-) And the Metabarons is amazing indeed. Not sure if you tried any Bilal, but his Nikopol Trilogy is an absolute must-read. One of my favorite comics ever)
18/11/2011 at 13:07 cauldron says:
Mmm, you’re right for most of them but I’m pretty sure that the authors of Asterix are french…
18/11/2011 at 13:24 Rinox says:
You’re right, I got a little carried away there…
18/11/2011 at 20:10 El_Emmental says:
well, we can say these comics are “french” (language), and sometime French (country) sometime Belgian (country)
… wait a second, are we debating about nationality on a website in 2011 ?
ps:
My real-life reaction to the trailer :
” WHAT THE F*** ?! o_O
Hidden-objects !?! What ?!
But it’s XIII ! It’s about the plot, the story, the conspiracy-atmosphere, the strange characters you can’t really know who they are, the whole friendly/enemy/something-else crazy setting…
It’s not about finding objects with a magnifying glass like Inspector Gadget, what the hell were they thinking !?! that’s even quite the opposite !! o_o ”
If they weren’t going for the action-packed game, at least stick to the IP, make it centered around characters interactions (including dialogues) and real investigation, not the cheapest form of casual gaming we call “hidden-objects”…
Poor IPs, when it’s not about making a Call-of-Duty clone, it’s making something that has nothing to do with the IP in the first place (in the wrong way) :(
18/11/2011 at 10:39 Squirrelfanatic says:
What? Why? Noooooooooo!!! What have you done? *tears of rage* D;<
18/11/2011 at 10:40 phlebas says:
It has ‘lost’ in the subtitle, so a hidden object game was almost inevitable. Boo, I was really hoping for a proper adventure. Either way it was unlikely to satisfy anyone wanting more of the previous game, but could have been excellent for fans of the comic.
18/11/2011 at 10:56 Zeewolf says:
Still have absolutely no idea why anyone expected this to be an FPS.
18/11/2011 at 17:17 KaptainKnails says:
Because it is using the license from a FPS maybe?
Edit: I was unaware of the original comic. Forgive me.
18/11/2011 at 11:05 wu wei says:
This would probably be due to the fact that the original source is a comic book, there’s no reason why all licenses would have to be FPSes.
18/11/2011 at 11:13 Adam Smith says:
Indeed. Being a fan, I even surreptitiously linked to the comic!
I’d much rather have a puzzler or an adventure than another FPS, but clicking on comic book panels to find arbitrary objects doesn’t seem like a great use of the license either.
I may even play it and see if I can be persuaded otherwise.
18/11/2011 at 12:05 wu wei says:
clicking on comic book panels to find arbitrary objects doesn’t seem like a great use of the license
No disagreement there at all, but the easy asset recycling would’ve made this a cheap production effort.
18/11/2011 at 11:06 Bluerps says:
Your description of Peggle 2 sounds like the most awesome game ever.
18/11/2011 at 11:22 MadTinkerer says:
This reminds me that XIII is on GoG.com right now. It’s been on my wishlist a while. I should get it some time.
Oh! It’s an Ubisoft game. But one made in the era before they went mad and decided to perpetually shackle their customers to their DRM “service”. I really should get it, in that case.
Edit: If the new XIII game uses U(can’t)Play, I will laugh so hard.
18/11/2011 at 12:42 Squirrelfanatic says:
It doesn’t contain Ubisofts always-on-DRM. And if it did, it probably wouldn’t be available on GOG. :)
19/11/2011 at 10:17 StarkeRealm says:
Ironically, one of the things I specifically remember from the game was the rather draconian DRM, for the time. On the PC it shipped on three disks, the disks wouldn’t instal their video files, so you’d have to rotate out the disks as you played.
Speaking today about DRM it seems kind of ludicrous to complain about that, but it’s nice to know Ubisoft has always been on the leading edge of pissing with their customers.
18/11/2011 at 12:12 Kleppy says:
Seriously though, I would unironically buy and play the shit out of the Peggle game you described.
18/11/2011 at 12:30 Acosta says:
“It’s out tomorrow. Does anyone care?”
Not me.
Why couldn’t we have an adventure or something interesting based on the comics?
18/11/2011 at 12:34 Aspongeinmauve says:
Anyone else notice the Fallout 3 noises?
18/11/2011 at 13:33 grundus says:
Didn’t the XIII FPS basically just turn into a ridiculous orgy of rocket launchers and little else? I seem to remember playing it up until a bit that was in a canyon type area and every single enemy had a rocket launcher, am I making this up?
18/11/2011 at 18:38 FalseMyrmidon says:
I find hidden object games to be one of the worst forms of casual.
19/11/2011 at 00:08 TheGameSquid says:
Well, I literally recognize every single sound effect in the trailer. Not sure if that’s a good thing…