Ludography
SiN: Reloaded cover

1998 · Ritual Entertainment · Adventure · Biopunk

SiN: Reloaded

Nintendo console exclusive

When the CEO of SinTEK Industries begins injecting the streets with a DNA-altering drug, it's time to reassess the laws of morality. When the same twisted biochemist plans to conquer the world with her army of mutated abominations, it's time to rewrite the golden rule.

Released
31 October 1998
Platforms
ArcadeLinuxNintendo Switch 2WindowsmacOS
Genres
AdventureBiopunkCyberpunkFirst-person shooterShooter
Developers
Ritual Entertainment
Publishers
—
Modes
MultiplayerSingle-player
Perspective
First person
Themes
ActionScience fiction
Engine
id Tech 2
Country
United States
Age ratings
ESRB M
Time to beat
6hwith extras

About

Sin is a 1998 first-person shooter video game developed by Ritual Entertainment and published by Activision. It uses a modified version of the Quake II engine. Sin is set in the dystopian future of 2037, where John Blade, a commander in a security force named HardCorps in the megacity of Freeport, is tasked to rid the city of a recreational drug that may be tied to the rival biotechnology megacorporation, SinTek.

Sin was released to generally positive reviews, with praise going towards its level design and premise, but criticism for technical issues that resulted from a rushed release. It sold poorly as a result of competition with Half-Life.

›Story

Ten years ago in 2027, the city of Freeport was on the verge of collapse. The inefficient and under manned police forces were losing in the long hard battle against crime. The city needed help, but the overburdened government could no longer cope with maintaining peace on the streets. The government proposed a bill giving individual corporations the right to form their own police/security forces and they in turn would provide protection for the companies and citizens of the cities.

This bill was passed and a new order of law enforcement was birthed. Several well respected sec-forces were established and one hard hitting group calling themselves HARDCORPS helped lead the way in crime prevention and elimination. The chaos slowly subsides as the sec-forces bring peace and order back to the city.

Colonel John Blade, the owner of HARDCORPS, is currently trying to track down the source of a drug distributed on the streets called "U4". This highly addictive drug has been around for some time, but lately strange things have been happening to its users. It is up to Blade to find out what is happening; figure out who or what is behind the weird problems now plaguing the streets; and put a stop to it.

This elaborate puzzle eventually leads back the mysterious Elexis Sinclair. A brilliant biochemist who is attempting to push the evolution of mankind ahead by a thousand generations and she will stop at nothing to get what she wants.

Keywords

  • cyberpunk
  • organized crime
  • death
  • run and gun
  • futuristic
  • hacking
  • artificial intelligence
  • dark humor
  • easter egg
  • black protagonist
  • swimming
  • boss fight

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

Sin introduced some new features to the first-person shooter genre, such as the ability to knock the weapon out of an opponent's hand and to take area-specific damage from enemies. Although driveable vehicles did not play a big part in the game, there are some sections and levels which require the player to drive certain vehicles, including an all-terrain vehicle, a patrol boat, a forklift, and a helicopter. There are three different types of body armor – for the legs, for the torso and for the head, with each of them depleting separately according to where the player is hit.

Computer terminals can be manipulated through a command prompt. Many levels have multiple ways in which to complete them, and actions can trigger changes in future levels. Some of these actions can force the player to go through an entirely different set of levels.

Story

In the near future of 2037, the police force collapsed due to corruption and ineffectiveness against the rising tide of crime. Private security companies have taken the police's place, with some of them patrolling the streets like the former police, some in charge of protecting their employer's assets. The protagonist of the game, Colonel John R. ("Rusty") Blade, is the commander of one of the largest security forces in the city of Freeport, HardCorps. Prior to the beginning of the game, Blade is working to rid the streets of a potent new recreational drug named U4, which is rapidly gaining popularity in Freeport and is rumored to be able to cause genetic mutations to its users.

One of the companies that employs its own armed security forces is SinTEK, a large multinational biotechnology corporation specializing in medical and chemical research. The company is owned by Elexis Sinclaire, who took control of SinTEK following the disappearance of her father, Dr. Thrall Sinclaire, the company's founder.

Development

Development started in 1997, on the Quake engine. When the Quake II engine was completed some months later, the developers switched to that engine.

A skeletal animation system was used for the characters.

Reception

Sin received above-average reviews, according to the review aggregation website GameRankings. While PC Zone gave the game a "Classic" award, praising its inventive level design and engaging plot, most other publications did not have such a glowing view towards it. Next Generation said, "while we feel the game may be a little light in the originality department, it certainly shines where it counts – gameplay – and [is] definitely worth your time."

One common complaint was the long load times, which measured in the minutes between each level, death, or quickload. 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 could not move, a level on one path through the game not being finishable and general game crashes.

Releases by platformdates and regions as published

PlatformReleasedRegions
Windows4 November 1998North America
Linux1 November 2000Europe
macOS12 December 2000North America

Editions and related releases

Included in
SiN Gold
Derivative works
Q138634287
Expansions
SiN: Wages of Sin
Remastered as
Sin: Reloaded
Built on it
Sin Mission Pack: Wages of SinSiN Reloaded
Editions
SiN Gold

Games like this

Collections2 collections

Platform libraries

Years

Description adapted from its source, CC BY-SA 4.0.