"Would have been a 9 but...." Ah, Sin. The land of mutants, drugs, and well-endowed villainesses. In other words, much like any summer music festival, except that you have a gun. For those unfamiliar with the game, Sin was originally released October 1998. It was a great shooter with a few innovations to the genre. It had plenty of atmosphere and character. The story revolved around John Blade's struggle to bring down Elexis Sinclaire, the top-heavy CEO of Sintek and self-proclaimed "Mother Nature." The developer, Ritual, had a problem at that time; they were faced with the fact that a game known as Half-Life was also due to be released and was expected to be huge. Faced with the impending Half-Life juggernaut, a decision was made to rush this game to market in order to avoid being trampled underfoot. Unfortunately, in the rush to get it out, some glaring bugs were left behind. Even with a patch released one month later, the damage was done, and Sin faded into obscurity with only one expansion pack and a story-related anime to mark its passing. However, the game developed enough of a cult following for Ritual to release a sequel, or more appropriately, 1/9th of a sequel. In an ironic twist, Ritual turned to the same people who trampled their first game in order to utilize the Steam network to deliver the first episode in what is a planned nine episode set called the Sin Episodes. So how did the first episode, Emergence, fare? Story Sintek has grown even more powerful than in the previous games. The company is now able to institute its own zones in Freeport under Sintek control. In the beginning, John Blade is captured by Elexis Sinclaire and her flunky (?) Raddick. He is rescued by series newcomer Jessica Cannon but not before he is injected with something mysterious. So Blade and Jessica set off to take down Raddick and recover the antidote for whatever is in Blade's veins. This is difficult to grade as this is the first of nine scheduled episodes, making this episode essentially a big introduction with many elements of the story intentionally left in the dark or subject to interpretation. As of this writing, there isn't a manual available through Steam with background information, so those who haven't played the original may be missing out on some points. However, these points are minor and not integral to enjoying this game. The story is fleshed out well enough and gives the player the rationale for why he is slaughtering a small army, but those who are buying this game should be aware that, being the first episode, very little will be tied up at the end of it. While this does not bother me, it may bother others. Therefore, I will not give the story any form of grade at this time. Graphics Many have stated the graphics are disappointing, especially considering it's being released at a time when the next wave of consoles are making an appearance. I disagree with this assessment. The graphics are actually quite good. While they do not measure up to the next-generation wonders being displayed at E3, they more than hold their own against games currently on the market. With the exception of one object near the end of the game that looks like it was hastily doodled onto a storyboard and slapped into the game, plenty of detail and color illustrate the world of Sin. Sound and Music With the exception of the intro, the music is..... there. It is effective in signaling the beginning of a high intensity situation, but there is nothing particularly memorable. Furthermore, in some of the later areas, where you have to proceed more cautiously, the music fades before you have eliminated all your opponents. Sound is serviceable in the early part of the game as NPCs deliver their lines, enemies die with either satisfying thumps or juicy explosions, and phone services deliver their Easter egg lines. In the second half of the game, sound becomes an integral part of dealing with chain gun soldiers. This places a greater emphasis on avoiding grenades or explosives as, not only will you lose a chunk of health, but you will lose one of the greatest assets you have in surviving those encounters. In future episodes, I hope Ritual makes more use of sound as a survival asset. Gameplay The most important aspect of an FPS is the gameplay and Ritual does not disappoint. One of the selling points is that Ritual heavily emphasized an adaptive AI, not unlike Max Paine's, but more advanced. This means that, the better you do, the better the game will do. Not only will this affect things such as accuracy, but it also alters AI to cope with your tactics. For example, if you continue to deal out headshots, your enemies will increasingly wear helmets. If you rely on the game's explosive environmental hazards, the AI will adjust by having your enemies keep their distance from anything that can be detonated. Ritual boasted that they took two members of their team, one who was inexperienced in FPS games and one who was a hardcore FPS gamer, and had them both play the game with a timer. Due to the adaptive AI, the hardcore gamer finished only minutes before the newbie. Having played the game, I can say that Ritual delivered on their promise admirably. The AI truly does live up to the expectations that were set for it. This makes for a game that never felt too overwhelming or underwhelming in difficulty. Like all good things, this one has a flaw. When you start the game, there are two sliders that adjust difficulty. The first slider, which determines initial level of gameplay, becomes almost meaningless as the game continues and adjusts to your skill set. I played it once through on the lowest setting and I played through part of the game twice more on differing difficulties and the difficulty would eventually level out to roughly the same ability level each time. This is great for people who like a challenge, but for people who just want to breeze through the game to see the story, this could be frustrating. The only way to mitigate this is with the second slider which determines how quickly the game starts easing off if you get stuck in an area where the enemy is mauling you. This can be set from ‘Quickly' for those who don't want to be stuck in an area too long to 'Never' for those who have a serious death wish. The only thing that drags the game down in the gameplay department is the occasional clipping, mostly around doorways. While this isn't a huge problem, it can lead to cheap death if, during a firefight, you try to get through a doorway to avoid a grenade and you get stuck. The worst of these errors has to deal with a section in the game where you have to get into a car to pursue Raddick. The first time that this happened was a hindrance, but there was one point where the car had both passenger side doors blown off and it would not let me enter the car. I finally had to stand on the roof of the car, point my crosshair at the passenger side and click around to be let in the car. This issue is made worse because there is a point where you will want to exit the car quickly. The first time, Blade just kept popping in and out of the car until he was killed. After a couple tries, I learned how to position myself correctly and to anticipate when I had to get out of the car so I wouldn't be a sitting duck. While these issues may be addressed in episode two as Ritual has promised that subsequent episodes will also provide fixes for issues with previous episodes, if not in an earlier patch, this does drag the gameplay score down. I also beleive that there are two factors that need to be considered in terms of the overall score of this review: The first is that this is the first of nine episodes. This game is, in many ways, an experiment. There are currently many debates as to whether this approach is a good or not. Detractors point out that you can buy an entire game for $50 while Sin: Episodes, barring a price drop in later installments or a change in the number of episodes, will cost $180. Supporters point out that, at roughly 6 hours of gameplay an episode, the ratio of dollar amount per hour of gameplay equals or surpasses the $50 shooter in entertainment value. At the time of this review, it has yet to be seen whether episodic content will turn out to be the next big thing in how we play our games or if it will turn out to be another failed experiment. I am not bothered by this but I am aware that it greatly bothers others. The second is the game's reliance on Steam. Even if you buy the game at retail, you must install Steam, register the game with Steam, and download files to unlock the game. Furthermore, even if you make a backup, any future reinstalls will still necessitate a functional Internet connection, Steam, and your username and password for Steam. While Valve sees this as necessary to prevent piracy, I find this type of protection scheme to be both invasive and an almost draconian way of punishing customers into buying the game. The main reason I bought this is that I have a dislike of programs such as Starforce or Steam installing themselves on to my computer before I can play. While Steam isn't as bad as Starforce in that the game is upfront about having to install their program, I cannot, in good faith, avoid taking such invasive copy protection schemes into account when rating a game. Conclusion Sin Episodes is a great way to start off the episodic content experiment but, more importantly, it is a great game that is marred only by clipping errors and an invasive copy protection scheme. If Steam or the concept of episodic content does not hinder your enjoyment of a game, I would encourage all FPS fans to look into this. At roughly $20, this is well worth your time. Remember to stick around for the end credits for a few comedic clips, some of which are deliberate, while others seem like errors made during the voice acting sessions.