SiN Episodes: Emergence [Game Review]

Many companies, not just gaming ones, take other people’s ideas as a basis and make their own product based on this material. Most often telling that he will be the potential killer of the famous hit. There are quite a lot of such companies; for most, such thoughts come either from lack of ideas or to make money from a well-promoted brand. Most often, such pacifiers do not stand on a pedestal instead of a famous product. Many more developers buy a game engine, completely rework it and release an original product based on it. Which doesn’t even have similar textures or effects. But there are also freeloaders who take everything from the mastodon of the genre. Today I would like to talk about a similar game.

SiN Episodes: Emergence is a game that has little of its own. The resulting source engine was used almost unchanged. Only character models, opponents, some rooms were added, and many textures were completely downloaded from Half-life 2. The gameplay is very similar. There is a partner, there is an evil corporation, there is also a dark tower in which the main villain is located, and not even one, but two antagonists. Victor and sexy girl in red.

The plot is unclear, with the caveat that this is a sequel to a 1998 game that I haven’t played, maybe after completing the original it would become at least a little clearer what’s going on here. I guess many who start a game without a number in the title don’t think that this is a sequel to some old lady from eight years ago. Let’s talk briefly about the plot.

The game begins with us waking up on the operating table. There are two people in front of us, a girl in red, from whom you can’t take your eyes off, and a guy with a beard. They talk about something for a long time, inject our character with some kind of serum and escape from the former special forces. What was unclear before this. What we were injected with is unknown. In short, some questions. Our partner doesn’t really say anything, she just directs. Go there and find out. Throughout the episode we run after Victor, trying to find out what they injected us with, but we never find out. Maybe everything would be told in subsequent episodes.

A total of nine episodes were planned. All of them would be sold gradually, every four¬¬-five months. For each such segment they asked for 20 dollars, and they would take from three to five hours, if calculated in rubles, even at that time it turned out that the product was not cheap. This was the first project on steam with such a sales system. Unfortunately, or fortunately, we will never see a continuation. Yes, after the end of the plot we are shown what will happen next, but this is the only grain of the second part.

Graphically the game is worse than half-life 2, from which the engine was borrowed. The main characters are made well, but everyone else is a little angular, the developers spared textures for the warriors. Special effects are full of color. Open spaces are beautiful, but you don’t get to enjoy them much. Most of the time we will be making our way through the sewers and a large laboratory.

The game content is also not up to par. Ritual Entertainment remained in the late 90s. Few interesting finds. The whole game is a simple run and gun. But a couple of memorable moments can be highlighted. For example, when you fight off special forces on jackpacks on a cargo crane and your first meeting with a large mutant on a construction site. There are also clichés, for example, a shootout in an elevator.

In the same Half-life 2, not https://royalswipecasino.co.uk/ only in the original, but also in subsequent episodes, there were more memorable moments in a short period of time.

The variety of weapons and enemies is rather limited. Such a small amount of diversity can be attributed to episodic. During the entire passage we will have in our hands: a pistol, a machine gun and a shotgun. All weapons have an alternative firing mode. A pistol has a pulse shot, a machine gun has an under-barrel grenade launcher, a shotgun has shells that can ricochet off walls.

There are grenades in the arsenal. Their behavior resembles rubber balls combined with a Molotov cocktail.

Little can be said about the opponents. Dumb and deaf. Sometimes the makings of reason appear, such cases are rare. You can count the types of enemies on your fingers. Ordinary soldiers, the same soldiers only in a helmet, a machine gunner, infected, where would we be without them, there are also ordinary turrets and flying ones, they appear only at the end.

Usually in good TV series the first episode should be catchy, give some kind of intrigue, show what the writers and directors are capable of. From all of the above in Sin episodes there is only a broken narration. It was as if the developers themselves were drowning their project. At the development meeting there probably was a dialogue like this:

— We made an amazing game. It has everything: chases, shootouts, hiding places, beautiful open locations. Look here. —

– Yes, everything is great, but it’s drawn out. I have a good idea, let’s break the whole game into parts and sell it gradually. —

– OK then. Then you need to put the most interesting moments into the first episode. —

– No, what are you talking about?. How then to fill out the following, well, for example, nine parts. —

– Fine. Then open locations, beautiful scenery. —

– Darling, you don’t understand. The player needs to show the minimum. Let him run through the sewers and laboratories. And by the end there are a lot, no, a lot of soldiers. And if you really want open spaces, let him wander along the cornice of a high tower. And there is a sexy lady there, we should show her more often. —

– But she appears only at the beginning. —

– I don’t know anything. Add as you wish. —

This is how Sin Episodes: Emergence turned out. After completing it you don’t even know well that the sequel didn’t come out or it’s a pity. Shootings are not always, but dynamic. There is a trip by car, It’s a pity that soldiers are not being driven, but in the passenger’s seat. There are not many types of enemies. The choice of trunks is disappointing. The sequel might have everything it needs to be a hit, but we’ll never know.