SiN

"FPS ecstacy"

Oh boy oh boy, It's Sin, or as Ritual prefers to capitalize it, SiN. I definitely can't get over how insanely fun this game is, but here goes...

GAMEPLAY - 8/10
Oh yes! When I bought Deus Ex, I expected a bit more gunfighting, but I was quite disappointed by the extreme lack of ammo, as well as the inability of J.C. Denton to perform well against more than about 2 simultaneous foes. Sin is the exact opposite. You are Colonel John R. Blade, a dreadlocked Hardcorps agent with a really big gun. Now this I like. Most of the game is spent walking through rooms, blowing away a ton of guys while they inflict pitiful amounts of damage on you. What could possibly be better? Oh duh! Gibs! Every FPS needs some gibs. And blood. And if you want blood, this game's got it. If you don't have a fetish for very violent video games, then this game's probably not for you.

Now then.... The weapons in this game are SWEET, and I mean all of them. Unlike almost all other FPS games, every weapon has a distinct purpose, and each one is really designed for a different scenario. Fun stuff. Really.

Oh, and the mission-based system works perfectly. Some missions even have concealed objectives until you reach certain points in it. Some missions are stealth missions, others are search-and-destroy, most are ''get from point A to point B while killing as many people as possible along the way''

So what's it get an 8 for? Well, there are certain bugs in the gameplay, especially due to the infamous Quake 2 moving entity block. That means you can take damage by being caught in between a locker door and the lock edge, and stupid stuff like that. Sometimes, you blow up stuff and debris flies everywhere, and you can be seriously screwed if you don't know that one of the big pieces is going to fly right at you. In later levels, you encounter submarine-style hatch doors, which can damage you if you're too close to the hatch when it opens.

STORY - 10/10
As FPS games have evolved, they've developed storylines. Of course, everyone should immediately realize that Sin is more about gameplay than story. Still, the whole cyberpunk-ish storyline is very creative, despite the inherent darkness of it. Elexis is hillarious to watch during the cutscenes, and the ending sequence was great.

AUDIO - 9/10
Every Sin review I've read complains about the audio. For me, the sounds worked fine. The gib sound is a bit weak, as are all of the sounds associated with the rocket launcher, but everything else is fine. The music in particular is great, speeding up when you get in fights and near exits, but much more smoothly than games like Deus Ex.

GRAPHICS - 10/10
This is Quake 2? This game has better graphics (and better graphical performance) than most games I've seen using the Quake 3 engine! Okay, so there are no mouth movements, and if you look closely, you can see the limits of Quake 2's md2 animation, but aside from that, this game's graphics couldn't have been more perfect. Blood splats on the wall after I cream a guy, the enemy animations are smooth as silk, shell casings flying everywhere, excellent particle effects, and the levels are architectural FPS masterpieces.

REPLAYABILITY - 8/10
What's to be said? The game claims to have ''action-based outcomes'', but that's not really true. The furthest I've ever seen any ''action'' matter was for 5 minutes after I did it. Oh well. Definitely worth going through more than once, just to see how much faster/better you can be at it.

MANUAL - 2/10
I'm not going to average this in, but Ritual must have been insane to release such a crappy manual. Most basic gameplay functions are not even explained, being more of a scrapbook of Blade's stuff. Hello? Its weapons section shows 4 weapons (and one that you can never get), and the manual makes brief mention of 3 more. There are 3 very important weapons not even hinted about in the manual.

BUYING ADVICE
I'd be willing to pay $35 for this game, new off the store shelves, $40 if I was desperately bored.

OVERALL - 9/10
Okay, so it's not as good as Half Life. So what!? I got Sin and Wages of Sin (Great expansion pack) for $30. Easily worth my money.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 02/18/01, Updated 02/18/01