Arc Fatigue: Myth Stall: The first album came out in 1984 and XIII only find out his identity in the penultimate, which came out in 2007.
They Copied It, So It Sucks!: There are criticism for the similarities with Robert Ludlum's Jason Bourne book series regarding the early albums.
Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: Let's just say that this comic, from the first issue, isn't exactly very cheery. The fact that three kindly old folks are killed through the story is quite depressing as it is, and the list of tearjerkers goes on.
The original video game (2003)
Adaptation Displacement: As this whole page can attest, the game is what most non-Europeans think of when you mention XIII... and also most Europeans outside of Belgium, really. It may not have sold well, but somehow most gamers in the appropriate age bracket have at least heard of it while many don't even know it's based on a graphic novel.
Captain Obvious Reveal: Wally Sheridan is Number I. Even if you know nothing about the original books, you can clearly hear his voice is flashbacks and phone calls and even before the final reveal, there's just something suspicious about his fake honesty and desire to get into the White House.
Enjoy the Story, Skip the Game: Many critics lavished praise on the game for its unique visual style, story, voice acting and soundtrack, while also criticizing it for its lacklustre gameplay.
No Problem with Licensed Games: The game received mostly positive reviews following its release and sits at a very impressive 95% rating on Steam ever since it was offered in the Steam Shop more than a decade laternote although it needs to be said that most reviewers are returning players that already loved the game when it came out way back when. Almost twenty years after its original release it still remained popular enough that a full-bore remake with updated graphics was made. It likely helps that the comics the game was based on are fairly niche outside of Belgium, so during development the game had to stand on its own merits instead of solely relying on the license name alone.
That One Boss: Johannsenn, though Standwell and the Mongoose also make good claims for it.
Good Bad Bugs: The remake has noticeably made it easier for players to complete the infamous Stealth-Based Mission stages that were frequently That One Level for most people in the original, unfortunately this is because emptying an unsilenced assault rifle at point blank range into a patrol of guards simply puzzles the survivors. Even wounded enemies might not immediately detect you, standing in the same room, in front of them.
Obvious Beta: The remake was released with numerous bugs and glitches, ranging from braindead A.I. to shoddy and broken animations. The dev team have released a statement indicating the COVID-19 Pandemic had negatively affected their progress on the game, forcing them to release it in an unacceptable state, and have promised to address the many issues the game has.
Sequel Difficulty Drop: The remake is significantly easier than the original XIII, which was made when the average difficulty of FPS games was noticeably higher than today. Not only do enemies do almost half as much damage as they did in the original, but your armor is significantly more powerful in the remake; in the original, a full armor bar can be stripped away by about 20 assault rifle rounds, while in the remake it takes several dozen bullets to do so. The remake also uses Body Armor as Hit Points, while in the original you'd still lose some health when shot even with armor. Enemies in the remake can be staggered by gunfire and bosses can also be stunned by headshots, making them considerably easier to kill. Overall enemies have slightly less health than in the original, and a headshot from any weapon is a One-Hit Kill whereas in the original only powerful weapons such as the magnum or crossbow could kill with 1 headshot. Finally, in the game's current Obvious Beta state the A.I. is braindead and significantly less effective in the remake.
Though the fact the game DELETES YOUR ENTIRE INVENTORY every time you load from a manual save, giving you only a basic starter loadout, does somewhat justify the rebalanced difficulty.
After the 2022 rework, you can take a lot less damage than before, no longer have Regenerating Health, and the enemy A.I. has been improved, but the game is still easier than the 2003 original due to modern game mechanics such as laser-accurate aim-down-sights with automatic weapons and instant-kill headshots on enemies.
They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: The remake without a doubt has number of design choices that have upset even casual fans, including:
The unique cel-shaded artstyle was replaced with a generic semi-realistic/semi-stylized visual (which has been negatively analogized to Fortnite), while the loud Written Sound Effect text of the original with big, bold, bright text is now much smaller, darker coloured, often discretely placed, that players can be forgiven for thinking its not working half the time.
The change from semi-animated comicbook panels as cinematics, to mostly over the shoulder perspective cutscenes with mostly stiff animation, and at times no lip-sync or mouth movements.
A limited weapon loadout was added, so that you are now unable to carry multiple weapons of the same type (i.e. you have to drop your pistol to pick up a revolver, or drop your sniper rifle to pick up a crossbow or machine gun). The weapons have been rebalanced to be more versatile (i.e. improved accuracy and the addition of ironsights zoom), but it's still disappointing compared to the original which let you use all weapons you could find.
Ambient audio tracks and sound effects that would play in some cutscenes or levels are gone, notably the prison scene which had a gloomy foreboding ambient audio with screams of other prisoners being tortured, is now just silent except for the dialogue between characters.
Even the signature 3-panel sequence that plays across the top of the screen on One-Hit Kill sniper, crossbow or throwing knife headshots is replaced with a picture-in-picture feed of the enemy reacting, their gun phasing out, and then the death animation playing, the nosedive to graphical frame rates this causes doesn't improve things.
Character models don't ragdoll in the remake, they go through recycled death animations that are noticeably delayed and sometimes unrelated to their death, as if they were terrible actors who forgot they were supposed to die after being blasted by a rocket, or shot in the head with a sniper rifle and just went with whatever they felt like.
