It's a sin... or is it?

Future Crime

Picture this… Freeport, 2037. Crime has risen to such a degree that the police can no longer be effective, so the city has passed a law allowing civilians and companies to form their own private police forces. Everything seems to run smoothly for a while, but then the city is shocked by a brutal bank robbery…
You are colonel John Blade, member of a private police force, and your buddy JC – a wiz kid hacker – calls upon you to stop the armed robbery. A police helicopter flies you to the scene of doom. After having mowed down some armed bad guys off the roof, you’re deposited their with nothing but your fists and your gun… and then the trouble starts.
After two regular levels, you are attacked by Mancini, one of the gang leaders, and he has turned into a bloodthirsty monster. Later investigation reveals he was contaminated by a powerful, addictive drug – a drug with a nasty side-effect: it turns people into monsters. But why, and who is behind this all?
Soon you find out that behind this madness hides a beautiful, cunning woman called Elexis Sinclaire, head of SinTek Industries. Once it’s clear that she is the culprit, you think that’s the end of the story… but it’s only the beginning of a game full of chases, attempts to foil her plans, and unfriendly dialogues with your buddy JC, who will give you clues along the way.

Is that a Quantum Destabilizer in your pocket or…

Every level has primary and secondary mission assignments. A cool feature of Sin is that the nature of the next level that you play depends on how successful these missions were; it also depends on the routes that you take, and things like whether or not you left a tap (faucet) open. So it’s possible that the next level will have a certain room flooded… This feature adds some surprising twists to the story, and greatly adds to the replay value of the game.
There are about 24 levels to struggle through, and I had to face some tough opposition in the form of Elexis Sinclaire’s henchmen, be it willing or unwilling. A gun and fists alone won’t do the job, but luckily there’s a plethora of weapons to be acquired. These include a rifle, a machine gun, a rocket launcher, a harpoon, and some… “heavier” additions like a Quantum Destabilizer and a Pulse Attack Cannon. Cool weapons, and they do have their uses.
So I had my hands on enough firepower… and boy did I need it! In the beginning you face your standard vermin, but soon enough these are exchanged for mutated buggers that are so ugly you’d like to get rid of them just for the sake of aesthetics. Of course they feel the same way…

Artificial Intelligence or Artificial Stupidity?

I was quite impressed with the game’s Artificial Intelligence. When I shot at an opponent, he would shoot back and then dive for cover, waiting for me. Or they spotted me and started chasing me… though they don’t always do that. The first level boss hits you a couple of times, then gets out of there. Sort of a hit-and-run strategy, which is nice. But when I had finally chased him down, he just stood there while I kept shooting at him! This wasn’t always the case (I played the game several times), but it happened often enough to call it a bug.

Don’t shoot me, I’m on the toilet!

Most 3D shooters don’t have any puzzles to speak of: find a key or lever, that’s it. Not this game; Sin gives you a lot more interaction with the environment. You have to log into terminals to find information or open secured doors, or find passwords to get access to other terminals. There are levels where you can see other people laughing or talking to one another. When you’re discovered, they start shouting, or press an alarm button. You can find coins to use in a payphone, with funny dialogues as a reward.
You often have to blow up part of the background to gain entry to the next part. There is plenty more stuff, like flushing toilets, working showers, and a combination of traps. You can even drive vehicles like a motorcycle, a crane or a bulldozer.

A graphic delight

Sin was built using the Quake II-engine. And yet the creators have obviously tried to lift the graphics to a higher level. And they did a nice job of it too, because Sin looks wonderful. Everything looks very solid (no moving walls here), and the enemies look quite convincing. The cutscene clips are very good and add an extra dimension to the storyline.
One gripe though: the water could have been a bit more realistic. The makers probably don’t know what swimming is, since I could just walk to the other side through a blue haze. But nobody’s perfect.

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The sound effects and the music are spot on: they keep the game interesting and add tension wherever it’s needed. I jumped up often enough when a psycho suddenly attacked me, and the music really went along with the action.
But the sound isn’t perfect: often it’s quite hard to understand all the dialogues, in particular when there are other sounds at the same time somebody’s talking. I really had to put my close my eyes and concentrate to make out what they were saying. The voice acting’s pretty good though.

Huge game, huge patch

Before playing Sin, I had to install a patch. A whopping 18.5 Megabyte patch! This had to solve the problem of enormously long load- and save-time, which would have taken over a minute and a half otherwise. The patch did solve this problem (and some other bugs), but if you don’t have access to the internet, you’re up the creek without a paddle.
Make sure you have plenty of space on your hard drive. I chose the “large” installation – 600 MB – but I also had ten saved games, taking up another 300 MB or space!

Conclusion

Except for some minor cons, Sin is a good game. No, it’s a great game! It has funny dialogues, great graphics, and plenty of action for 3D-shooter fans. Because of the variation in levels and the way they progress, the game has lots of lasting value. The sound keeps the tension level high and the graphics will keep you glued to your screen. Add a nice and original storyline, and you have a keeper for anybody looking for non-stop shooting fun.