As a veteran of Sin from back in the day, I’m happy to report that Sin: Reloaded feels just how I remember it, warts and all.
I played the hell out of Sin when it was released back in 1998. At least I did for the month-or-so up until Christmas, when my parents were kind enough to get me Half-Life. That release pretty much killed off Sin‘s over-the-top action, and its certainly fun, albeit buggy experience. Half-Life came along and revolutionised first-person shooters, whilst Sin almost felt like the last gasp of the old guard of shooters. That isn’t to say it’s bad. Far from it in fact! Sin was about the most late-90s shooter you could imagine, complete with stupid one liners, excessive gibs, and fast paced combat. The less said about the antagonist being a somewhat unpleasant reminder of how female characters were portrayed at the time, the better.
Anyway, Nightdive Studios have done what they do best once again, dragging a forgotten “classic” out from yesteryear, and bringing it into the modern era. Sin feels exactly how I remember it. Whether that’s because Nightdive are good at rose-tinted glasses or not, I don’t know, but this is what Sin is like in my memory. It looks, plays, and sounds just like it does in my memory. And that’s what I want from these remasters. Clean them up, make everything work well on modern computers, and let the nostalgia flow. Throwing in the Wages of Sin expansion pack is a lovely inclusion too, even if it doesn’t hold up to the main game so well.
You play as John Blade — a man with the most 90s action name there is, along with biceps and a gun to match — who is investigating the clearly evil SinTEK who are seemingly pumping drugs onto the streets. He’s assisted by his 90s nerd sidekick J.C. who provides exposition at key moments whilst he tracks down the head of SinTEK, the absurdly-proportioned and hyper-sexualised Elexis Sinclaire. Through a series of events, Blade discovers that SinTEK are creating biomechanical killers and mutant monstrosities, and only he and his array of weaponry can take them down.
There’s the unfortunate fact that the plot never really gets resolved. You have a cliffhanger of sorts at the end, which isn’t cleared up in the expansion pack. This is due to the Sin Episodes sequel that never really got going beyond the first episode, so if you want closure at any point, you’ll be disappointed.
Still, this isn’t a plot-driven game. You’ll fight your way through a bunch of real world locations, from banks to building sites, and then a whole lot of industrial and laboratory areas. Find keycards, complete objectives, and blow up everyone in your path. The levels are fun enough, but Sin is very much frontloaded, with the best levels being early on. The bank that you start with has some real promise, with you being able to affect the next level by blowing up parts of the scenery from your attack helicopter. Sadly, stuff like this doesn’t happen all that much later. Yes, you can get into later parts of stages in different ways by completing secondary tasks or finding a different entrance, but there are only a couple of moments the live up to that impressive early display.
Thankfully, the combat itself is quite fun. You have your standard array of first person weapons, along with a few specialist ones, but even with the basic equipment you’ll have a good time. The shotgun feels as beefy as a shotgun should, and the chaingun absolutely shreds targets. You feel powerful and able to take on a slew of foes yourself. The locational damage system is alive and well, with enemies showing injury in different body parts as you shoot them, whilst armour pickups from their fallen bodies will be of greater or lesser use to you depending on where you attacked them. Land a headshot, and the torso armour will be near undamaged. It’s still neat that you need armour for specific body parts if you want maximum protection. Helmets are a must if you manage to find them.
It seems that most of the bugs from the original release have been ironed out, though there are still a couple. The vehicles react in odd ways sometimes, and there are still a handful of instances where you can get stuck in the scenery, so things certainly aren’t flawless. I love that the console is still available and that the cheat codes from the original work as they always did.
As a nice little bonus, you can go through old concept art for the game and its media campaign. Nightdive seem to have a good habit of doing that with most games they work on, so it’s a nice inclusion for people who remember the game when it originally came along. It’s not as extensive as something like the DOOM remasters, but there are some nice things to read through.
With all this said, Sin is absolutely aimed at people who remember the original. I can’t imagine someone seeing this and finding an amazing experience. If you were there, then rest assured that this is the game you remember, just with a few rough edges sanded off. If you don’t, then you can still have a good time with Sin so long as you realise that what you’re getting is a late-90s game in all its glory.
Sin is available now on PC, Xbox, and PlayStation.
