SiN Episodes: Emergence Review

Playing SiN again sure takes me back. If you recall, the original game was powered by a modified version of the Quake 2 engine and it was a hit amongst the hardcore crowds. Of course, at that time the FPS genre was still an "emerging" one, and yeah, anything with boobs, guns and a bit of attitude would immediately catch the attention of the shooter junkies. You know, back in those days, people were still really into Duke Nukem (I loved Duke Nukem you jaded bastard! -Mo).

Don't let this intro throw you off however. While SiN Episodes - Emergence still may have the mentality of a nineties shooter, Ritual has done a good job of using today's technology (a modified version of Valve's Source engine) to bring John Blade, Elexis Sinclair, J.C., as well as a couple of other sidekicks and villains into the 21st century.

While you may argue that the rest of the FPS world has moved on since the macho crap of the nineties, and that the games have become a bit more mature in terms of the subject matter, the fact still remains that solid game design is what ultimately makes games fun to play. Obviously, Ritual can get the job done in that sense, so it's no small wonder that many gamers will like SiN Episodes and what it has to offer. Yeah, it's a bit corny to just throw busty babes for no apparent reason in a story, but hell, no red-blooded male gamer will say no to it, and going back to the crux of the matter - it's the game design that really counts.

That said, I can tell you that SiN Episodes starts out really slowly, in a true fashion of old-school FPS games - with lots of generic bad guys to kill and some less than thrilling opening levels - but, it gradually heats up as you keep at it, following the general principal of FPS design seen in games like Half-Life. The player will feel like he is acting out the story, rather than being a passive observer of the events unfolding. The game does a good job of shifting between indoor and outdoor environments, as well as gradually increasing the difficulty and the variety of enemies, introducing new characters, environments and weapons into the story as you progress. Level design is good enough to keep the gameplay dynamic and engaging at all times (though very linear). This used to be the hallmark of old-school FPS design and it's sort of good to see it implemented so well in a modern game. Visually, SiN retains the cartoonish look and feel of the original, while offering a vastly more interactive and physics-based environment, courtesy of the Source engine. The fact that it runs on the Source engine also means that the frame rate will remain very solid, even on mid range rigs.

On the other hand, the old-school approach does have its disadvantages. You could say that Ritual went a bit overboard with it, as the enemy AI is often very unresponsive and plain dumb, reminding me a bit too much of the bad old days. Also, if you've played the original game, you'd know that it was marred by some really horrible, show-stopping bugs. In fact, if I remember correctly, I had to actually wait for the first patch before I could even play the game. Talk about shoddy programming. History repeats itself in that sense (though not to the same extent), as I ran into a show-stopping cut-scene that nearly ruined the whole experience for me. Simply put, a very important cut-scene won't play out as it should in the game, and this will subsequently put the game world in a state of limbo. The first fix I found didn't work, so I actually had to load the next map (which also reset my dynamic difficulty level), like I was giving a presentation of the game at the E3. Lame. Just lame, Ritual. Supposedly, the fix I found here should take care of all your problems (and keep your difficulty level), so give it a try if you run into this issue. This coupled with the often unresponsive AI (that would sort of fall asleep if the scripted sequence didn't play out EXACTLY as it should have) ruined some of the magic for me.

However, these downsides do not outweigh the game's good sides, which are plenty: Solid gameplay design, nice voice overs, and a story that though clichéd, is presented in a way that intrigues you enough to keep going.

SiN Episodes costs around 18 bucks and is available both via Steam and in retail. There will be nine of these episodes altogether. The first episode can be finished in one day easy, and you'll have to pay a little over 160 bucks to play the full game, so that might be a bit too much (Ya think so, Mr. Moneybags? -Mo).

But did I mention that the digital babes look really cool, and um, fleshy in this one? Yeah, I mean us *mature* gamers find that very important when gauging the price tag. Nothing spells out maturity quite like a craving for scantly clad female-like objects that don't talk back. A real man goes after the boobies, and those words coming out of the mouth area of that strange being that has the boobs pinned on it, well, all that sort of becomes mumbled as you put your hands on the prize. Or so they tell me.