Developer: Ritual Entertainment
Publisher: Steam / Valve
Price: $19.95

Minimum System Requirements
1.2 GHz Processor
256MB RAM
DirectX 7 Compliant Video Card
Internet Connection

Test System
3.0 GHz Intel P4 with HT
2 GB of Dual Channel RAM
NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT 256
SB Audigy2



Ritual Entertainment has brought back the SiN franchise on the Source engine. Can it surpass its predecessor or will it forever remain in the shadow of Half Life? For the story background, check out the preview here.

The opening of the game takes place in the SinTEK labs from the first game. It was kind of fun to see the same building again. One of the greatest lines in a video game comes out in the first 5 minutes of the game as you are being driven away by your partner. When asked by guards where she is going, she replies with “the South corner of F**k and You.“ Without firing a single weapon I knew this was the game for me.

Gameplay

The movement in the game feels amazing. Fans of Quake 1, or even the original SiN game will feel right at home. Basic bunny hopping makes moving around fun and makes me a bit misty eyed for the days when Counter-Strike felt like this. The weapons fire the same even if you are moving, falling or standing still. Hopping down a hallway shooting the heads off SinTEK guards brought me back to the days when a Voodoo card was the envy of every gamer.

The game uses the Source engine, so the level of interactivity with the environment is on par with Half Life 2. Your crosshair changes color when you can interact with an object so there is no guess work. It is always a pleasure to throw enemy grenades right back at them. Even health canisters can be carried and replaced. If you must you can just shoot it open and stand in the refreshing healing goodness.

Personal Challenge System

This puts a little twist when talking about gameplay. The game keeps stats of everything you do and adjusts accordingly. If you start getting too many headshots you will start to face enemies with helmets. I have seen people tell completely different stories about the same part of the map because of the challenge system.

The idea is pretty good in theory but for me it turned a fun shooter into a tedious experience. I died more times in the lobby of SinTEK tower than I did the whole game. I died over 30 times just fighting in two rooms. The problem was that even though I died I was still killing the SinTEK grunts very fast and it was upping my challenge rating even though I was already outmatched. The Elite SinTEK Chaingunner earned its way to one of my most hated enemies. It takes quite a few shots to their head or their gun to kill them. When three or more are charging you when you have no place to run, you do not have much of a chance. After making it out of the lobby, I was rewarded with even more chaingunners to fight. Some areas became a slow crawl of peak, fire, hide and repeat. It was very rewarding to get past each part but it was blurring the line between fun and working really fast. I would of rather faced twice as many grunts than two chaingunners.

Here are my stats for the whole game. I almost want to replay the game just to try and get better stats, now that I know the best way to use the weapons.

exe.gotfrag.com/portal/sin/stats