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SiN
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SiN is a computer game developed by Ritual Entertainment and published by Activision in late 1998. SiN is a first-person shooter based on a modified version of the Quake II engine. The game was later released over Valve Software's Steam Platform on April 5, 2006, either as a standalone product, or bundled together with its sequel, SiN Episodes.
Plot
Set in the near future of 2037, many of the levels and locations are reminiscent of their current day equivalents.
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Encyclopedia
SiN is a computer game developed by Ritual Entertainment and published by Activision in late 1998. SiN is a first-person shooter based on a modified version of the Quake II engine. The game was later released over Valve Software's Steam Platform on April 5, 2006, either as a standalone product, or bundled together with its sequel, SiN Episodes.
Plot
Set in the near future of 2037, many of the levels and locations are reminiscent of their current day equivalents. Banks, building sites, sewage works and other everyday recognisable buildings form the basis of many of the levels in SiN. One major difference in the world of SiN is the lack of a police force. 10 years prior to the game, it is revealed that the police force collapsed due to inefficiency and ineffectiveness against the rising tide of crime. Private security companies have taken their place, some patrolling the streets like the former police, some in charge of protecting their employer's assets.
One of these companies which employ their own armed security forces are SiNtek, a large multi-national biotechnology firm owned by the beautiful and charismatic Elexis Sinclaire. Elexis took over the firm following the disappearance of her father, Dr. Thrall Sinclaire, who formed it in 2005.
The protagonist of the game, Col. John Blade, is the commander of one of the largest security forces in the city of Freeport, HardCorps. Prior to the beginning of the game, John is working to rid the streets of a potent new recreational drug named U4, which is gaining in popularity in Freeport. Yet, the source of the drug is still unknown, and its effects not entirely studied. As the game begins, the player is placed into the shoes of John Blade as he responds to a full scale bank heist and hostage situation perpetrated by a well known criminal, Mancini. But as the player progresses and pursues the criminals behind the heist, further questions are raised: Who is really behind the heist? And is this linked to the reported appearance of mutants in the city?
Throughout the missions, Blade is aided via radio link by a hacker working at HardCorps, JC. JC is a skilled hacker, capable of breaking into even the tightest of networks. In fact, Blade first found out about JC when investigating a hacker who had broken into the HardCorps system. After tracking down the hacker, Blade, recognising the perpetrator's talents, decided to make him a job offer at HardCorps instead of arresting him. Thus, JC became one of HardCorps most valuable assets.
Features
Action-based Outcomes - A player's progression through SiN was not entirely linear. Many levels had multiple ways in which to complete them, and actions could trigger drastic changes in future levels. This feature was intended to add a level of replayability to the game and force the player to think before acting.
High levels of Interactivity - SiN featured one of the highest levels of interactivity of any first-person shooter at that time. Much of the environment could be interacted with, computer terminals could be manipulated through a DOS-like command prompt, and various objects could be destroyed. For example, in a bank level, it is possible to hack into the bank's computer, obtain the archenemy's bank account password, and transfer all of her money into the player character's own account.
Drivable Vehicles - Although drivable vehicles did not play a big part in the game, there were some sections and levels which required it. The camera viewpoint remained in first person mode during these sequences.
Easter Eggs - SiN contained many Easter eggs. These easter eggs ranged from fairly obvious signs and graffiti, to various secret rooms.
Critical reception
Critical reception for SiN was mixed. While PC Zone gave the game 91% and a "Classic" award, praising its inventive level design and engaging plot , most other publications did not have such a glowing view towards it. One common complaint was the long load times, which measured in the minutes between each level, death, or quickload. Even on a then respectable 500 MHz PC with 128 MB of RAM, load times were reported to be around one minute long . This naturally caused much frustration, and may break the flow of the game depending on the player. With later patches the long load times were greatly shortened, although compatibility with old save games was lost, forcing players to play through the game from the beginning or use cheats to progress to their previous point in the game. Another major concern was the abundance of bugs and glitches littered throughout the game. Some of the more widely reported bugs include a total lack of sound in the game, an end of chapter boss which couldn't move, a level on one path through the game not being finishable and general game crashes. Although these bugs were quickly patched up, the damage of the negative publicity had already been done, especially with the majority of the gaming press reviewing the unpatched version. The patch was exceptionally large. At the time it was normal to expect a game being patched up with a file approximately the size of 5 MB. SiN however had a 31.23 MB patch.
A likely explanation for the multitude of bugs, is that the game may have been rushed. The game was likely released prematurely to meet the 1998 Christmas season, possibly as an attempt to beat Half-Life to market. These shortfallings, coupled with the near simultaneous release of the universally acclaimed Half-Life, resulted in SiN not achieving as much success as the developers had hoped, although it did attain a moderate amount of sales during the 1998 Christmas period .
Other media in the SiN universe
A mission pack was released for the game in 1999 by 2015, Inc., entitled SiN: Wages of Sin. The player reprises the role of John Blade, and the story picks up after the conclusion of the main game, pitting the player against Gianni Manero, a notorious crime boss looking to take over Freeport city.
In 2000, ADV Films released their first self produced anime film, Sin: The Movie. Although loosely based on the game, with similar characters and plot elements, there are some big differences. For example, a major character from the game is killed off in the first few moments of the film and it takes place in the 2070s, in stark contrast to the games, which take place in the late 2030s- early 2040s.
A sequel, SiN Episodes, was made by Ritual and was intended to be released episodically over Valve's Steam network. The only episode, titled "Emergence" was released on May 10, 2006.
An alternate reality game based in the SiN universe was launched in 2005 to promote the announcement of SiN Episodes. Various cryptic puzzles could be found on the website, and solving these would lead to new pieces of media and art. However, support for this piece of viral marketing by Ritual Entertainment did not last, although it has been claimed by Ritual that the final puzzles still remained unsolved.
SiN was also re-released on the Steam platform on April 5, 2006 bundled together with SiN Episodes: Emergence. This version of SiN (v 1.12) includes fixes for audio and video playback problems as well as integration with the Steam multiplayer server browser. Several textures have been modified in this release apparently due to copyright issues; the original images of many being replaced with SiN Episodes artwork. Also, all instances of nudity and drug references in the game have been censored.
External links
- (archive.org) (still working - 10/09/08)
- (unofficial)
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