So Half-Life achieved widespread critical acclaim upon release in the late '90s, but SiN received little attention due to the various bugs and no doubt it was overshadowed by the latter, but SiN is a game you should definitely play because it's a fun retro-First Person Shooter, and a really good one at that.
You play as Colonel John R. Blade, a vulgar, trash-talking cop who wants to know who is putting out a DNA-altering mutagen drug called U4, a clever anagram for euphoria(nice to have a game with lots of personality)/ After investigating and tracking down one of her cohorts, Tony Mancini, a mob boss in fictional Freeport City, he soon learns that it was none other than Elexis Sinclair, a rogue geneticist/mad scientist with a sexy allure, with gorgeous looks and a killer body(by '98 PC game standards). But there are many twists and turns in the plot that keep things very interesting.
What's really fascinating about this game is that Elexis Sinclair has both beauty and brains to match; a perfect foil for Blade. And the rest of the cast round out this sci-fi story terrifically, especially J.C., Blade's resident computer hacker who works for Hardcorps, a private security force that has taken over local law enforcement in Freeport City. Their constant banter with each other makes for some interesting and hilarious moments, and it gives this game a sparkle of charm in a sea of serious, modern FPS. The story and writing is great and comic-book like with a dash of Demolition Man and Robocop for atmospheric good measure. The level design is concise and cohesive. In fact many of the locations in the game have a realistic layout, making it seem as if it can take place in our world; a nice touch and the weapons have lots of punch in the sound department.
I recently bought this game along with Sin: Episodes. It's an episodic game series, but sadly only one episode has been released so far due to Ritual Entertainment closing it's doors; leaving the franchise in indefinite limbo. It would be nice to see the series on the next-gen of consoles because the story has a lot of potential to be something really great. An expansion pack, called Sin: Wages of Sin has been released, but it's a bitch to get it working on current PC platforms. So if you're willing to buy this, prepare to do a lot of tweaking in order to get the game to work.
Sin is a great, FPS that is charming in it's characters and plot. Although the graphics are dated by today's standards, they're nevertheless colorful and smooth with lots of nice looking environments that still look good even to this day. If you want a retro First Person Shooter, then look no further than Sin.
