XIII ("thirteen") is a first-person shooter video game, loosely based on the first five volumes of the 1984 Belgian graphic novel series of the same name.

[10][11] The characters and weaponry in XIII are rendered with cel shading, giving a deliberately comic book style appearance, including onomatopoeic words contained in bubbles for sound effects.

[13] The developer felt that the appearance reflected the comic book and innovated in its portrayal of violence; blood splatters are shown in a cartoon manner.

While the plot itself borrows major elements from all five volumes to create singular narrative - the attempt to uncover the identities of a group of conspirators seeking to overthrow the US government, and the involvement of a man with no memory to achieve this - the adaptation of the comics features notable differences and situations in various places.

Suffering from amnesia, the man can only recall being shot at while trying to escape from a boat, and learns he possesses a bank deposit key and a tattoo of the Roman numeral XIII on his right shoulder.

Forced to escape in the chaos, XIII finds himself arrested outside the bank by the FBI for the assassination of the President of the United States, William Sheridan.

After the Mongoose attacks the FBI headquarters, XIII finds himself aided by a female soldier named Jones, whom he remembers working with, and escapes from the city.

Jones informs XIII that the pair were working with war veteran General Ben Carrington, who was conducting a parallel investigation into the president's death and had unearthed a conspiracy against the US government.

Learning that Carrington was arrested and taken to a base station in the Appalachian Mountains, XIII proceeds to rescue him in order to uncover his past.

XIII manages to escape, killing the asylum's director, Edward Johannsen (identified as Number XX), before reuniting with Jones.

Informed of a meeting taking place in Mexico, XIII is sent to eavesdrop on it within the base of a special forces group called SPADS.

During his infiltration, XIII finds out, while listening to a pair of SPADS soldiers' conversation, that he is actually Jason Fly, a squadmate of Rowland.

Gathering evidence that the conspiracy involves a coup using SPADS soldiers led by a powerful group, XIII deals with two conspirators Seymour McCall (colonel of the SPADS identified as Number XI) and Franklin Edelbright (captain of the submarine USS Patriot and Number VII), while eliminating a stockpile of weapons meant for the coup.

Carrington reveals that Fly agreed to assist by undergoing plastic surgery to replicate Rowland's appearance; XIII recalls he had been close to identifying the leader, before something went wrong.

With sufficient evidence, XIII, Amos, and Carrington meet with William's brother Walter, and explain to him the conspiracy - a group of powerful people in the United States, calling themselves "The XX" ("The Twenty") - due to the Roman numerals tattooed onto each member - planned a coup during a war simulation exercise using loyal SPADS soldiers, who would replace US democracy with a totalitarian government.

While seeking him out, XIII overhears Kim arguing with Walter and enters the latter's private office to hear a weakened Mongoose on the speakerphone trying to contact Number I, the leader of the conspiracy.

XIII then has one final flashback in which he recalls that he was on that yacht previously when he came close to identifying Number I; realising the person he saw in the office he is currently standing in was Walter.

Ubisoft's vice president of marketing, Tony Kee, stated that she was the perfect choice for the role, admitting that she has "a combination of style, sexiness, and attitude—perfect attributes that describe the Jones character.

"[17] Two months later, two other major voice acts were revealed: David Duchovny would play Jason Fly (XIII), while Adam West, General Carrington.

The album opens with an introduction and then includes songs in the likes of typical 1970s-era music such as soul, funk, jazz, while also incorporating hip hop.

[37] IGN said "XIII has a great story-driven sheen, but at its core, it's weighed down by some occasional bewildering flaws, in addition to the lackluster weapons and simple combat".

[33] GamesTM said "It's one of those mixed-bag situations – flashes of genius and genuinely enjoyable moments of success, occasionally mired by unbalanced weapon damage, clumsy AI and the odd bit of unfair level design that requires astounding feats of memory".

The magazine's Greg Ford, who provided the third review, said that its "style, cut-scenes, and story are all great, [but] the actual gameplay is pretty mundane"; he concluded, "But if all you need is a solid shooter fix, XIII will do just fine.

[45][46] On April 18, 2019, a remake of the original game was announced for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One, which was developed by PlayMagic Ltd and published by Microids.

[48] It released on November 10, 2020 and was received extremely poorly by both consumers and critics, with Metacritic naming it the second worst game of the year, behind Tiny Racer for Nintendo Switch.