SiN Gold

The two great late 90's and early 00's FPSes that time forgot! Everything else was remembered from this time period from HL1 to SS2, Deus Ex, etc etc. But these two games were arguably quite great! and were the most forgotten in my opinion. Especially the addon here which was vastly better than the main game. Even less people played it and even less know about it than the main game, which is a shame because it really was an improvement in every way. Fantastic gameplay and level design from this time period. I could add Daikatana to my little list here, but we all know the troubles that had at launch and with the bad AI team mates. Still, another very decent game. However Sin and SoF were the most polished FPS games of this era which were overlooked by most. For some reason. Anyway, well worth a play! And these games are very needing of remakes!

Sin is a pretty solid FPS from the late 90s that definitely stands out as one of the classics of the genre, and it offers pretty much everything that you'd expect out of a game from that era. An arsenal of big guns, wide variety of baddies to shoot, plenty of neatly designed levels with fun set pieces and gimmicks, objective based progression with some key hunting. The works. It's all good time, and the game is also pretty long for a shooter, with main campaign that can easily take about 10-12 hours to complete, with an additional story expansion called Wages of Sin thrown into this release for good measure. It's also a game that's very comfortable being stuck in the late 90s with its story and vibe. It's all very juvenile and silly, and it wears its comic book inspirations on its sleeve. It's a game that you will especially dig if you've been the enjoyer of the recent resurgence of boomer shooters. Sin is one of the games that all these modern shooters pay homage to and it was practically a blueprint for what these games are today. So, if there ever was a good time to rediscover this game, it's right now. Especially since this release works great out of the box and there's no need to fiddle around with any fixes, patches, or workarounds. You can just install and play in whatever widescreen resolution you see fit, and the game works great with zero issues from start to finish. Well, aside from the fact that the menu is tiny in higher resolutions, but that's not such a big deal.

One of the last great, gritty shooters, Sin was a little ahead of its time with its over-the-top storyline, great cast of interesting characters, varying locales and ass-kicking arsenal. It's almost as great as I remember. Even the old custom maps made by the Sin Community still work (if you can find them). Pulling my tests and tutorial maps off an old hard drive, I was surprised to run through map I hadn't seen in almost 20 years. Sins scripting language was powerful at the time, giving modders control over lights, doors, AI, shattering glass and even complex moving machines. Sin isn't just a game. It's a glimpse into gaming history. It's a technological feat, when 3D Graphics Accelerators were uncommon and games still supported software rendering mode. Maps were brilliantly designed with sub-500 world poly counts, to keep framerates consistent. Multiplayer wasn't new, but Sin brought a new meaning to deathmatch. Even if you don't intend to play through the entire game, do yourself a favor and look up the old cheat codes (yes, they still work). Skip to various levels, superfuzz to god mode, give yourself infinite ammo and blow the crap outta everything. Cuz thats what this era was about.

While it is very tempting at first look, this game lacks some things that would make it great. The visuals are okay, the problem is that the game is relatively low on variety. Entire streets are mapped with one single texture. Not a single crack on a wall or a smashed window or a graffiti or anything. I really wish they would have spent more time on level design rather than the ginormous bouncing boobs. It gets boring more often than not. The game tries to operate with environmental puzzles. Sometimes it works, and sometimes you wander around for an hour to find a single polygon you need to shoot in order to proceed. Half-life is doing a much better job at this. This, combined with the previously mentioned “lack of vision”, makes this a rather tedious endeavor and even the semi-interesting plot cannot help there. Perhaps the problem is that much better FPSs were released at the same age, which set the bar too high for this guy to jump. Quake(s), Unreal, Half-life, Turok (not the overpriced GoG version), even Kingpin is more enjoyable with its neckless mobsters. If you are really keen on retro FPSs, and have beaten all the above titles, I guess you can give it a shot. But I recommend waiting for a discount. Except if you go crazy for huge bouncing virtual boobs. Then this is your game.

If you played any other familiar games that use idtech2 (SoF, Kingpin, W: RTCW, Q2) then you shouldn't forget about SiN. It is pretty much almost same like in any other 90s FPS shooter. There's nothing like you wouldn't enjoy the gameplay or the weapons, story and such, because I enjoyed it as much as I could and I guarantee to you that you will enjoy it like me, you just have to play it and stop believing in what haters say. Characters are interesting, humorous and they never get boring. Traveling around the world to stop a woman (Mother of Nature, she calls herself..) that leads the evil corporation, SinTek, which is manufacturing disgusting substance. I won't tell much about it since that would be spoilers. Except there are some things that I don't like on this, and that's the rough start when you play the game for the first time. You are trying to change your OpenGL from 3dfx to default or any other ones but the game just forces you for the 3dfx. The resolution change will sometimes break and you will end up in the situation when the game will switch from resolution to resolution, over and over again. Your display will be for seconds black and for seconds normal again until it totally goes black and you have to restart (Turn off) your computer. I also experienced the stuttering, but it faded out soon quickly. Even some missing dialogs are replaced with text dialogs, but you can swear there were sound lines already, they are not just there. Some bugs too, but not too much game-breaking. Saving is must-do too since you can end up being wrecked so quickly without realizing it. Damage points are here too, so you can use your pistol to quickly eliminate your threat by headshot, or you can shoot their hands so they will drop their weapon, same goes for you! So overall, it's not bad how it looks like. The game can be enjoyable like any other old FPS games. It just got quickly overshadowed by its competition, Half-Life. Give it a try. This review was from my view.