Sin Episodes: Emergence Review

By Tom Bramwell Published 18 May, 2006

Sin waves. Divisive.

Version tested: PC

You know when Sin came out at the same time as Half-Life and everyone thought, "man, I bet they're gutted"? I'm not convinced they were. Sin Episodes: Emergence, the first in a new line of five-hour first-person shooters set in the Sin universe, is so firmly stuck in 1998 that I'm not even sure they've played Half-Life now. They really should.

It's the sort of first-person shooter nobody makes any more. You wake up on an operating table staring at the evil, cackling Elexis' stupid cleavage, then escape thanks to rookie-Jessica. There's a touch of Half-Life 2 to the duck-and-jump chase sequence at the docks before you get a gun, but like the rest of the modern bits it's a nod rather than an actual shift. It's all about combat, and the combat's only about a couple of things - headshotting people with the pistol, from virtually any distance, or running away from the sound of a chaingun spinning up.

Bizarre, then, that it's actually pretty enjoyable. This being an episode rather than a full game, there are only a trio of guns and a handful of enemy types, and the handful of hours you all spend together quickly assemble themselves into an engaging formula. Most of the grunts can be killed with one headshot, and the pistol's very accurate, so most of the first-half encounters are straightforward. If they come toward you, they die. So, laughably, their best strategy is to move sideways, wandering along a gangway up above or strafing before they open fire. Then it's about readjusting the sights on both ends. Keeping an eye on that Half-Life damage indicator. There's no notion of enemy teamwork or taking cover; they're moths to the muzzle flare.

'Sin Episodes: Emergence' Screenshot jessica

Jessica. Unfairly tall? You decide.

The middle enemies, the mutants, are easily dispatched with a mousewheel flick to the shotgun. Their little headcrab-style friends are a nuisance but little more. The tougher enemies are the armour-plated chaingunners, which require at least a secondary-fire grenade-launch and a few rounds from the machinegun before you tag their explosive backpacks. With the difficulty spiralling out of control in the latter half of the game, you learn to flee from the telling audio cue. And you come to groan whenever you hear it the seventh or eighth time in a row, in the same room, which you do. Oh so much. Then, whenever Jessica joins you - usually as a means to spur the action on somehow - it's in indestructible-dimwit form, drawing enemy fire. Ultimately, Emergence is about waiting for people to stop side-stepping and using a girl as a decoy for huge men with guns. A far cry from Half-Life 2's improvised disc-gun and, well, Far Cry's sprawling openness.

What little the game does that's new is a side-show. Grunts and mutants can kick barrels and chairs at you, boxes fall over, there's the desperately occasional minor physics puzzle and the level of environmental interactivity and detail is up there with the other Source Engine games. Green barrels hold something called mutagen gas that engulfs you in bullet time, and it's largely pointless. Meanwhile the level design, with its endless knotted corridors in warehouses, docks, a tanker and a tower - all uniformly full of crates and locked doors to bounce off - doesn't gain much from the generational shift apart from a fairly nice glass-breaking effect. The bosses are about circle-strafing and firing as many bullets as possible before you run out of health; that was old when Sin was the norm. Shooting exploding barrels, which take a hit to ignite and then roll around and explode a second later, is deliciously Half-Life, but it's the FPS equivalent of being given a rattle to play with between spankings.

The one innovation, if you can call it that, is the way the health dispensers work. Like Half-Life, each is a med-station on a wall with a finite amount of health available. Unlike Half-Life, the health packs that they run off can be ripped out and replaced by others found nearby - perhaps in a desk-drawer or one of the myriad lockers sprinkled around. (Man - lockers, eh? Where have they been?) On the surface, it's a neat trick. You not only have to remember where the last health station is; you have to find health for it. Except, it's not neat, because carrying a health canister involves pressing 'e' to magically suspend it in front of you where it can get caught on doorframes and shelving units as you turn and run. Carrying it with you is impractical. At least you can stab it with the rifle-butt to break it for about half the benefit. But under duress, as the process is sure to be in one of these episode thingies before too long, dealing with the canister stuff is bound to annoy - particularly given the logic gap between "I can carry three enormous guns invisibly" and "I can't carry a liquid phial but I can levitate it in front of my face".

'Sin Episodes: Emergence' Screenshot driving

The driving bits are a bit fluffy, but at least you can go to sleep in the back.

Except obviously nobody's going to do that, because Sin's not a game to be taken seriously. In fact, it's best when you give it the benefit of the doubt. The stabs at humour - the endless Hammer Cola machines ("Get hammered!"), the phone numbers scrawled on toilet walls that you can type into Sintek phone booths - are as cheesy as the story. This being a story of a genetically enhanced man and two super-women in bondage gear fighting over a green drug in a script that includes the lines, "What's your destination?" followed by "South corner of 'F***' and 'You'." It's not stuck back in the days when everyone used to read John Carmack's .plan file religiously; it's there by choice.

Ritual's made a first-person shooter of violent attrition, where your main tools are sharp reactions and stout quick-save key. Where the guards all wander around blurting, "I'm sure he's around here someplace!" Where the puzzles are about turning valves to raise the water level. Where the main use of physics is an incongruous, out of control factory machine that spins around clubbing the opposition for the sake of laughs. Where there's never one room of too-many-enemies when there could be three. Where you're regularly forced to defend an area against waves of bad-guys while old-pal JC tries to hot-wire a nearby force-field. It's bound to get kicked around for doing this. It's a bland taste to a cultured palette. But it's fun, too, and self-aware. There are hidden areas that celebrate the fact they're hidden areas; walk up a ramp and you'll notice a door closing before you get there, but sprint there and you might make it.

Emergence doesn't quite work as an appetiser for a long series. As hooks go, not knowing what the main character's pumped with is a plastic clothes-peg in the mouth of a leviathon. What is here is a solid, conventional first-person shooter that plays to the strengths of the genre as they once were. And you know what? It's not big, it's not clever, but it is fun - and kudos to Ritual for making the game it wanted instead of trying to copy Valve.

Although, seriously, give Half-Life a spin. It's quite good.

7 / 10

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Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (54) Latest comment 6 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Nikanoru #1 6 years ago

    Proponent of episodic moneymaking scam creates mediocre game. Who would have thought?

  • neuroniky #2 6 years ago

    How big is this one? I have bought Red Orchestra on Steam and regretted after seeing it was a 2GB download I had to do on my 56k...

  • salvation #3 6 years ago

    sound's dull

    /putting on the not buying list

  • Darren #4 6 years ago

    The original SiN was excellent back in 1998 (or whenever it came out) but no way am I paying £13 ($20) for 5 hours segments of a game. A typical PC game on disc and in a case with instrunctions costs me £25 and typically offers me on average 20+ hours of gameplay. SiN Episodes in comparison represents very poor value for money in my opinion.

  • bionutz #5 6 years ago

    give a spin to half life 2? maybe I should try it...

  • jellyhead #6 6 years ago

    I agree with pretty much everything in the review except about the floating cannisters, they are REALLY lame. Why can't they just go into my inventory or at least appear closer to my body and please, please, please give me the ability to rotate them while holding them or make the item that uses them "snap" them into the correct orientation.
    There are areas where you can get caught against a seemingly insignificant piece of scenery meaning you have to make a big arc around it, which is a bit annoying nowadays especially if its only a strut for a railing.

    It is fun though, those are the only real flaws for me as i was expecting a pretty straight forward shooter. Enjoy. :)
    Edited by 1 at 18/05/06 @ 08:40

  • Darkedge #7 6 years ago

    not 5 hours - more like 4.. interface is terrible, gameplay dull, unpolished - uses HL2 sound effects and textures all the time.
    It's a poor mod really not a game. not worth 2 quid either.
    5/10 - avoid.

  • Schiraman #8 6 years ago

    The review is bang-on, it's a pretty bland game and certainly nothing new - but it's surprisingly fun in a solid, vanilla FPS kind of way.

  • Satan #9 6 years ago

    Awesome game.

  • Zerimski #10 6 years ago

    5/10 avoid? Oh for the days when a 5 out of 10 is considered "average", with anything above being considered "above average" and anything below being "below average".

  • smoison #11 6 years ago

    Well, i'm so glad I waitied for reviews before deciding. I guess when its out for a 10'er it will be more worth it.

    Its also not a great sign if no reviewers get to play before its released....

    Will HL2 'Episode one' get an early review? or is Valve to scared of that?
    Edited by 1 at 18/05/06 @ 09:45

  • TheMoonRat #12 6 years ago

    Those who say it isn't value for money; hey, Ico was barely much longer and was re-released at £20 recently? Metal Gear Solid games (played first 2) are are often around 10 hours, so at a full price PS2 game offered less hours per pound than this.

    So its hardly a rip-off at this price.

  • Satan #13 6 years ago

    And you're also getting the multiplayer part for free, whenever that is out.

  • Svecke #14 6 years ago

    Bahahaha! XD I'm so glad I didn't let the review decide for me when it came to this game. I love it to death, and I'm getting the other eight episodes when they come out too. Kudos to the reviewer for having his own opinion though. :)

  • Lovemoose #15 6 years ago

    One other point - It's hardly a good advert for the rest of the series. There's meant to be, what, nine more episodes of this? I enjoyed it, in a mindless blast from the past way, but it certainly did NOT encourage me to plonk down my hard-earned on the rest of the episodes.

  • Satan #16 6 years ago

    Awesome level design, awesome weapons. For ep2 I want awesome enemies aswell and this'll be a perfect game (series). Oh yeah, and it needed more weapons. I read somewhere I guy suggesting episode specific weapons, like subset of extra weapons that would be exclusive to one or two episodes to mix it up a little. It such a simple suggestion, but something that could really turn out great if they implemented it right, the 7 standard weapon types left, spread out over the next 8 episodes, could get a little eh.. boring. Looking forward to see what happens later on on that front.
    Edited by 1 at 18/05/06 @ 09:58

  • starmonkey #17 6 years ago

    "but it is fun - and kudos to Ritual for making the game it wanted instead of trying to copy Valve."

    Like they didn't copy valve. Police state, floating camera things, storm troopers, a female companion that progresses the story.

    Nothing like what Valve does.

    I didn't even finish this - it got so boring. 3/10. Not buying the next one.
    Edited by 2 at 18/05/06 @ 09:53

  • Pod #18 6 years ago

    The review seems to tottaly gloss over the Difficulty issues too. Theres no mention of the games overspawning of bad guys to increase difficulty or their over the top reaction times (I've been shot before I've seen them and I've been shot through walls). I've actually had them spawn in my vision. Might not be so bad if every gun in the game wasn't an instant hit weapon meaning that you're going to end up dead no matter what you do :(

  • DDevil #19 6 years ago

    I'm getting a huge vibe of "plant" from one of the posters on this comments thread. Can anyone else spot who I'm talking about? ;-)

  • Nikanoru #20 6 years ago

    TheMoonRat:

    Ehh, except for the fact that one hour of Ico or MGS is likely worth 20 hours of this.

  • LFace #21 6 years ago

    I got this game from some other means and Im glad I didnt pay for the sod. Its bland uninspired drivel on the same level as Daikatana if you ask me.

    There is nothing new here at all. I echo the opinion that its nothing more than a Mod and not a good one either.

    If I had paid for this I would be demanding a refund, its pure drivel.
    Edited by 1 at 18/05/06 @ 10:02

  • Satan #22 6 years ago

    We need some more people who have actually played the game in here.

  • Darkedge #23 6 years ago

    Have played it Satan and it's not good. Uninspired, unpolished and dull.

  • Satan #24 6 years ago

    Yeah, you did that post already. I'm not questioning it.

  • PearOfAnguish #25 6 years ago

    This doesn't read like a 7, after reading this review I don't even feel like getting it for free.

    A typical PC game on disc and in a case with instrunctions costs me £25 and typically offers me on average 20+ hours of gameplay.

    Buy off Ebay and Amazon and you can pay £15 for a game that's been released in the last couple of months. This episodic content shit is a giant scam, Valve and the rest must be wetting themselves laughing at what they've managed to do.

  • #26 6 years ago

    DDevil, I belive it's Lucifer by any other name!
    Considering the hype, average game really.

  • RedboX #27 6 years ago

    If you get bored and stop paying attention (like I did) you get careless and it can take longer than 4/5 hours.

    If this was a free mod to download, it whould be the best mod ever, if it were about 4 times longer than it is, youd not feel ripped off paying £9.99 for it.

    Its part 2 that is going to be the big question, we've seen the character models, you can be sure that a lot of the textures are going to get reused. Will part2 be as as good "value for money" when your paying the full price for an engine and so many assets that you already payed for.

  • UncleLou #28 6 years ago

    I am going to try it. Lots of people on the Steam forum seem to enjoy it quite a lot.

    I've got a soft spot for old-school FPS gaming anyhow, and it sounds like the original SiN - generic, derivative, but ultimately fun.

  • Tomo #29 6 years ago

    Hmm...I was really interested in thus, but seems like one to miss. As people have already pointed out, the pricing is just not worth it.

  • BlackJedi #30 6 years ago

    I preordered this, played it, completed it (twice) and thoroughly enjoyed it. With the pre-order discount it came to just over £11, and it took me between 5 and 6 hours to complete on my first play, so I count that reasonably good value for money.

    It does nothing new, but what it does, it does well. It's polished and fun. It's certainly no HL2; but then, what is? I'll almost certainly be getting the next episode anyway.

  • TheMoonRat #31 6 years ago

    Nikanoru: thats based 100% on your opinion on the game if you've played both games. All I was quantifying was game time, and the value of £ spent per hour of gametime.

    There will be plenty of people out there who just wouldnt take to Ico for its genre, and vice versa for Sin :)

  • Dr.Haggard #32 6 years ago

    Tom's review is pretty much spot on, although I would have given less than a 7 in the end. It's certainly stuck in the golden age of the FPS, and I don't doubt that's partly deliberate and partly Ritual just having rather dated ideas, but it's also far less enjoyable than some of the games from that era.

    There's no sense of being there and no reason to be there, it's completely bland and unmoving. There's just a very cheesy story, dull environments, dreadful music and lots of bad guys to shoot. There were times when it was fun, but other times when I just thought 'what am I playing this for?'.

    To be honest the overall package gave the impression of a well made HL2 TC rather than a stand alone retail game. There are lots of little things they haven't changed - even the odd sound effect - and as someone else said they've borrowed a few ideas from Valve as well, but the game lacks soul, and that's the difference between a throwaway game like this and something like Half-Life.
    Edited by 1 at 18/05/06 @ 10:53

  • Hunam85 #33 6 years ago

    Im glad that they never really got hit with the difficulty bug which just annhilates the player constantly, post patch, the game is a perfect challenge.

    I found the game quite enjoyable, and price wise, i allways compare this to things like ICO or Max Payne, i paid full price for both and they wern't much longer than this.

  • jellyhead #34 6 years ago

    Grape! Ninjas love it and so should you!

  • absolutezero #35 6 years ago

    I got this through Steam last night, im enjoying it.

    Its just like the original, which is not really a bad thing, its stupid but its alot of fun at the sametime.

  • Laserbream #36 6 years ago

    An episodic late 90s style FPS for the price of today's games (arguably more)? Think I'll give it a miss. To be fair, it's not even the price - I'd avoid this if I found it in a bargain bin for 50 pence.

  • Kazzahdrane #37 6 years ago

    I really enjoyed this game, I'm really close to the end but am having problems with huge numbers of chaingunners in one of the last areas. Suffice to say there's a lot of quickloading and replaying the same 10 seconds.

    But....it's weird. It doesn't make me hate the game, and I can't figure out why. I think it's like the review said, the game doesn't take itself seriously. The real added value in this game is from exploring and finding news reports etc that your team give comments on, building the backstory - and listening to the conversations of guards.

    It's an old-school FPS, but it's shiny and has some very nice touches - one of them being the difficulty that adjusts to your skill. The health canisters are another nice feature, though they *are* a pain to carry around. I'd like to see being able to add them to your inventory in Episode 2, but perhaps if you are hit while carrying one it bursts (you'd be able to drop them at will of course).

    On the contrary to others here, Emergence has made me want to buy the 2nd episode. I'm certainly not signing over my life to Ritual and I will take each episode as a seperate purchasing decision as they come, but so far I'm having fun.

    Ritual have also confirmed that they'll be adding co-op in the future, which is enough to give the game another 30% added value for me.

  • Satan #38 6 years ago

    You carry the health canisters around? Hehe. O-kay.

  • SimonM7 #39 6 years ago

    Well, I bought a pricey un-gamey laptop in the belief that this'd be announced for the 360 at E3 as part of Valve's supposed development for the console.

    I'm really excited about episodic gaming because it ensures that a game that never really changes despite engine upgrades can stay the same and not take several years to tell the next bit of the story. MMORPGs have been doing this for years, and people pay loads more cash to play those.

    Now I can't play it anyway, so fingers crossed for 360-ness. :/

  • Mho7276501 #40 6 years ago

    i really enjoyed it! The patch yesterday fixed the problem with certain sections being too hard and the health canister thing never really bothered me. I mosty just shot them anyway. All in all its fun game with gruesome head shots.

  • Azazel #41 6 years ago

    omg I actually used to read all those .plan files...

    I should have killed myself a long time ago.
    Edited by 1 at 18/05/06 @ 12:54

  • Fallen_Angel #42 6 years ago

    I love how a game like FEAR can be priced at around 25 quid, last around the same amount of time (I managed to finish it in about 2 days) and get critical acclaim, yet this gets slated by everyone for, well, the exact same thing but being a tenner cheaper. Hell, at least this has kept me playing by varying whats happening. FEAR just got dull about 1/2 way through when you realise the level design wasn't gonna change.

    Granted, the game isn't amazing or life changing, but its a decent old-skool style FPS with modern graphics, something I've been wanting for for a while.

  • Moonprince #43 6 years ago

    I don't think it's all the game but also what you bring to it. Your style of play. One of my fav things about Halo and Fear was coming up against a number of foes, running at them guns blazing, 'nades flying, taking down as many as possible, and then when the gun empties, twating them over the head.

    It's manic/intense, I loved it. If it wasn't for those elements, I reckon I wouldn't like the games as much.

  • Carrybagma #44 6 years ago

    Half-lite?

    With breasts.

  • Tyronne #45 6 years ago

    I shall consider getting this WHEN all the episodes are released and then i shall buy the actual game and not glorified shareware versions.
    Edited by 1 at 18/05/06 @ 17:42

  • Sko #46 6 years ago

    Have they guaranteed they're seeing the series through to the conclusion? If sales turn out to be poor, they're not going to quit half way through and leave people hanging, are they?

  • Dire #47 6 years ago

    £12.10 it cost for the preorder price (same price for HL2 ep1 if you buy early) so therefore it's not a ripoff as its around 5-6 hours it's not bad/ cheaper than two cinema tickets though.

    They are also releasing a multiplayer or a last man standing single player mini game in a few weeks apparently for free. so can't knock them.

    For budget price it can't be knocked and I'm sure other SiN fans will enjoy it. But I can't understand why some of the comments made have been so much full of bullshit!

    edit: Also you get the original SiN1 and multiplayer for free! thats a pretty sweet deal.
    Edited by 1 at 18/05/06 @ 18:38

  • retr0gamer #48 6 years ago

    It's kind of fun until the last hour and a half. The Sintek soldier robots then appear and are the most frustrating enemy in an FPS other than the Ubersoldier boss in RTCW. The game just loses all sense of fun and becomes a quicksave-a-thon.

  • Satan #49 6 years ago

    Don't worry retrogamer, your lameness has been noted and the difficulty have been culled via.. a patch. Just boot up steam again and you're home free.

  • Satan #50 6 years ago

    "Have they guaranteed they're seeing the series through to the conclusion? If sales turn out to be poor, they're not going to quit half way through and leave people hanging, are they?"

    I'm glad you've understood the point of games. Download the speedrun video and skip to the end. :-)

  • Grymdeth #51 6 years ago

    I love this. The reviewer basically complains about the entire game but GRUDGINGLY admits, "Bizarre, then, that it's actually pretty enjoyable."

    What happened to playing a game just for fun? Why does a budget priced title have to introduce revolutionary gameplay for the genre just to be good? I read the posts here and most of the people who have actually played this game seem to enjoy it. Admittedly not all - which is fine by me, if you played it and didn't like it that's your opinion and at least it was honestly obtained.

    For me, spending £13 for four-five hours of fun gameplay is fine - I've spent a lot more on games recently that only delivered slightly more gameplay time.

    Seriously, if you tried it and didn't like it - fair enough. If you're just jumping on the bandwagon and trashing this game because everybody else is... whatever. I hope that this pans out for those guys. I enjoyed the game on it's own merits, and I like rooting for the underdog. I hope Valve and Ritual finish the series off by laughing all the way to the bank.

  • Satan #52 6 years ago

    :)

  • MasterFunk #53 6 years ago

    A lot of people seem to be trashing the game because it's episodic, not because of the game itself, which is like critiscising a game because of the console it was developed for, rather than its gameplay. Then again I'm baised, because episodes are a good thing to me. Half the price for half the gameplay, with a quarter/fifth of the normal development time. As for this episode being bad value for money, with the original Sin included... it obviously isn't.
    Anyway, as soon as I actually aquire some money I'll buy it (after pre-purcashing HL2:ep1), playtime means nothing to me (it took me about 6 hours to get through Blue Shift - I have an aversion to dying in single-player games and will back track for 10 minutes to pick up a clip of ammo, and sometimes I'll spend 30 minutes just stacking objects on top of each other for the sole purpose of being able to jump around on rooftops), and it's about time someone developed something which doesn't try and fail to revolutionise the genre (which seems to be every dev's dream), and by doing so ignores the fundamental objective of games: fun.

  • Satan #54 6 years ago

    Much love for Levelord.