"Talk about SiN-full..."

This game marks the first of many “episode” style game releases. Instead of a full sequel to the original Sin game, Ritual partnered with Valve to release multiple shorter episodes. This is the first of those episodes. Regardless of whether or not this new system ends up working or not, lets just look at this game by itself. Other than it being a little shorter than you would hope, this game is impressive to say the least.

Graphics
The game uses the Source engine, which also powered a little game known as Half Life 2. The character models are not as detailed as they were in HL2, but they are still very pretty. The foliage is also a little blocky up close. Other than that, this game is very pretty, and I'm not just talking about Elexis. The whole game is very nice, especially Elexis's b…ah I mean, the water. You will want to make note of the screen-shot key, which is F5, before you begin playing.

Sound
First of all, the theme song is awesome, as well as most of the music during the game. The other sounds a done nice too. Especially when you light up your enemies with fire and they start dancing telling you to put it out. The most interesting sound is the chain gun revving up to gun you down.

Controls
The controls are basic FPS controls. Right-click for alt fire on each gun, and Z is zoom. You can use E to pick things up, like health canisters, and to open doors. Very basic, an FPS veteran should have no problem, and beginners are given hints as the game goes on.

Game play
First, let me start by saying that this game was a blast to play. The enemies got rather hard toward the end, but this game was very enjoyable. Having said that, the game is over too quickly. It took about 5-6 hours first try with medium difficulty. Which brings up another thing, this game lets you choose the rate of the AI auto-adjust, so the game will get progressively harder or easier depending on how good you are. You might regret this at the end of the game, because the final type of enemy you encounter is a pain.

One thing that I was disappointing was that you only have 3 guns. You have your magnum, from the original game, a shotgun and an assault rifle. Each has an alt-fire, but you still only have 3 guns. You also have grenades that are quite cool, as they seem to incinerate rather than blow up. You can also do melee attacks, but those are used mainly for breaking crates open rather than killing enemies.

The enemies you encounter are your basic goons. Most only vary by the weapon they carry, either shotgun or rifle. You do, however, encounter some mutants along the way, as well as some security probes and auto turrets when you get into the high security buildings. The enemies have decent AI that is comparable to HL2 AI. The same can't be said for your teammate. You do not fight alongside her very often, but she pretty much just stays next to you the whole time.

Something else that really lowers this games score is the physics. Sure, “most” of the time the physics are just as great as in HL2, they both use Havok after all. However, there are plenty of places where things get “stuck” including me. The collision programming was not exactly top-notch; too many times I got stuck on a column or pillar when I should not have, therefore resulting in my death because I did not dodge. One other problem was trying to climb up a ladder that was partly underwater. I could not get on the ladder from the surface, I had to swim down and grab it at the bottom of the ladder. This only happened once, but I think it is worth mentioning.

One thing that I do like is that the health stations that are scattered around, don't give you full health per say. They have canisters that you must refill. Most of the stations you encounter will have an almost empty canister. There is usually a full one hidden nearby that you can replace it with. All you have to do is look around a little, and you are rewarded for you extra time. It's a little better than the system in Half-life where you just find health stations with a set amount. I think that was a very nice touch.

Overall, I though this game was pretty good. Sure, it's an “episode” not a full game, so it's only about 5 hours instead of 10, but its 5 great hours. There are a few glitches, but since it's controlled by Steam, fixes should be out soon and installed before you know it. With a price tag of only $20, I think it's a good deal. Not to mention that it will come with the original Sin. The ending will make you want to play the next episode, but that's what it's supposed to do. If you liked the first game, or if you are an FPS fan, you will like this game.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 05/17/06