SiN

"SiN" is a first-person shooter game developed by Ritual Entertainment, originally released on November 4, 1998.

Storyline
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 new bill giving individual corporations the right to form their own private security forces, called sec-forces. These sec-forces would be able to provide private protection to the corporations and citizens of the cities. This bill was passed and a new order of law enforcement was born.

Several well respected sec-forces emerged and one hard hitting group calling themselves HardCorps led the way in crime prevention and elimination. The chaos slowly subsided as the sec-forces brought peace and order back to the city.

Now in 2037, Colonel John R. Blade, the owner of HardCorps and his sec-force teams are currently investigating the source of a highly addictive drug called "U4". This drug has been around for some time now, but lately, strange things have been happening to its users. It is up to Blade to figure out who or what is behind this unexplained phenomenon now plaguing the streets and put a stop to it.

As the game begins, John Blade and his partner J.C. respond to a bank heist and hostage situation perpetrated by a well-known Freeport criminal boss, Antonio Mancini. During the heist, the elaborate puzzle slowly unfolds and points towards the brilliant biochemist Elexis Sinclaire, owner of the large multi-national biotechnology corporation known as SinTEK. Elexis is an enigma, a maverick in the business world who shows no mercy behind those gorgeous features. She works in the shadows at times and this mysterious vixen is attempting to push the evolution of mankind ahead by a thousand generations and will stop at nothing to get what she wants. It is gradually revealed that the whole thing was funded by Elexis Sinclaire, Sinclaire only intended for Mancini to steal a safety deposit box from the bank's vault, and upon learning that he launched a full-scale heist instead, she injects him with concentrated U4. He transforms into a mutant, and is sent after Blade. Blade manages to defeat the huge creature, discovering his identity and the origins of the drug afterwards. All these unavoidable facts force Blade and his team to embark on an investigation into SinTEK's vast industrial area located in the outskirts of Freeport.

Blade later learns that Sinclaire's main goal is to poison the Freeport water system with vast quantities of U4, transforming all of its inhabitants into mutants. He manages to thwart the plan, but discovers it was just a diversion for SinTEK's troops to steal nuclear warheads from a U.S. military base. Sinclaire threatens to fill them with U4 and launch them at specific targets, turning the entire world's population into mutants. Blade heads to SinTEK's main headquarters in order to stop her.

Blasting his way through security forces and mutants at the base, he finally reaches Sinclaire, only for her to escape by transferring her entire body into a rocket before being launched and splitting apart. J.C. is unable to locate them, and Blade furiously smashes a button, causing the remaining missiles to abort their launch. Sinclaire disappears through the rockets, her fate unknown.

Characters

 * John R. Blade
 * J.C.
 * Elexis Sinclaire
 * Antonio Mancini

Gameplay
SiN features a character-driven story and revolutionary multiplayer gameplay powered by an enhanced version of id software’s Quake II engine. You will blast your way through complex levels of unholy terror as you investigate the secret source of the crime epidemic plaguing the city.

Transport yourself into the crime ridden 21st century, which is seething with mutating characters, and blood-curdling violence. Immerse yourself into the intricately woven story line as you weave your way through 6 unique missions. Each mission is intricately connected and brings you closer to finding out the truth about what is truly going on in the shadows of Freeport City. Your actions will always have a consequence as you work through more than 24 levels of intense action.

Gameplay is influenced by your actions - there is no set path. Each time you sit down to play Sin you will have a new experience. Sin's action-based outcomes add increased replayability as players discover that the choices they make influence the game's flow, and consequently the way they reach their destinations. Every decision affects subsequent missions and may result in perilous situations that will draw you in and never let you go.

Sin is a fully-integrated first-person 3-D action game utilizing id software's revolutionary Quakeź II 3-D engine with enhancements such as...


 * 16-bit Color graphics in both hardware and software - The increased color depth allows for amazingly diverse textured environments. With the increase of vivid color textures, the visually gripping action truly comes alive.
 * Colored lighting in both hardware and software.
 * Masked textures - Such as grates, catwalks, and chain-link fences.
 * Translucent textures - Such as windows and water surfaces.
 * Advanced alpha blending methods for killer explosions and outstanding special effects.
 * Script based animation system - Allows each level to have completely unique scripted sequences. This adds a level of realism and interactivity never before seen.
 * Full 360-Degree environment mapped skies.
 * Hardware support for all popular 3D accelerators via OpenGL.
 * DLL-based game code, allowing for amazing expandability opportunities.

Battle against an AI that thinks of more than just kill, kill, kill. Sin’s AI will react to the surrounding situation. If they take too much damage, they’ll duck out and go find a way to heal themselves. Make too much noise while exploring and the nasty hordes will descend upon you. Choose stealth and you might even make it through the area without firing a shot.

Music truly sets the mood for any game and Sin will attempt to change what you’ve seen before with its new music system. This new system will change pace with you as you play the game. If the action is intense the music will begin to boil right along with you, if you’re sneaking around looking for the perfect sniper spot the music will creep along with you. With as many as eight unique moods, the music will keep pace with you along with creating a more rich and interesting environment as you explore the world that is Sin.

Transmission from JC:

"The city archives have been ransacked to gather all of this background information. We called in a few favors to get it. Some other hackers tried to break into the HARDCORPS main frame to get at it but we put a world of hurt back on them. Scan through these files and see if you can find anything that will help you uncover the madness on the streets."

Freeport is broken up into multitude of sections that are patrolled by various sec-forces. HARDCORPS covers the widest area in the city but their competitors over at SinTEK Security seem to be biting right at your heels. HARDCORPS covers the southwestern portions of Freeport, close to the harbor, but has contracts with many other allied sec-forces whom HARDCORPS will sometimes team up with.

Join Colonel John R. Blade as he travels through the perilous streets of Freeport City as he tracks down the mysterious source of madness that is ravaging the streets.

SiN introduced some 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 drivable vehicles did not play a big part in the game, there were some sections and levels which required the player to drive certain vehicles, including an ATV, a patrol boat, a forklift and a helicopter. SiN also featured 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 was getting hit.

SiN featured one of the highest levels of interactivity of any first-person shooter at that time. Much of the environment could be interacted with, computer terminals could be manipulated through a DOS-like command prompt, and various objects could be destroyed. Also, a player's progression through SiN was not entirely linear. Many levels had multiple ways in which to complete them, and actions could trigger drastic changes in future levels. This feature was intended to add a level of replayability to the game and force the player to think before acting. Some of these actions could even force the player to go through entirely different set of levels while progressing through the game. SiN also contained many Easter eggs, more so than most other games, ranging from some fairly obvious signs and graffiti to entire secret hidden rooms and even whole levels.

The artificial intelligence of the enemies in the game was on a high level for its time, with the foes being able to run for cover, call for reinforcements, locate the player throughout the levels, respond to specific scripts etc. However, there were some issues with the game code which prevented the enemies to act completely in the way they were supposed to and unleash their full potential.

Most of the single-player levels were real-life locations like power plants, dams, banks, subway stations, oilrigs etc. Besides them, there were also more sci-fi oriented levels like genetic laboratories, biomech assembly facilities, missile silos, and more. One of the innovative levels featured an entirely underwater landscape in which the player had to find oxygen supplies in order to survive. The weapons that the player could obtain in the game ranged from near-future equivalents of present-day conventional weapons to experimental devices that required power in order to operate.

Missions & Levels
many of the levels and locations are reminiscent of their current day equivalents. Banks, building sites, sewage works and other everyday recognizable buildings form the basis of many of the levels in Sin.

Sin features six distinct game world regions enriched with convincing graphic detail and a rich interwoven story line.

The environments were designed around real world or near future designs. Venture through abandoned buildings, construction sites, a dam, a power station, and a dozen other areas that are so real that you’ll swear you’ve been there before.


 * Six unique and exciting environments to explore and destroy. Ranging from the inner bowels of the city to the serene underwater crevices of the deep ocean.
 * Travel through over 20 diverse and demented areas. We’ve painstakingly created an in-depth world for you to explore. Each area that you move through has a distinctive and recognizable feel to it.
 * Interactive environments may be the death of you. We’ve got a super-charged beast under the hood here. We’re proud to boast one of the most interactive and innovative games around. Our own unique scripting language allows us to really make the world come alive with working machinery, dangerous traps, interactive consoles, breakable walls, and anything else that we can think of.

Weapons
Players wield a deadly arsenal of weaponry. You are outfitted with a standard array of weapons that all soldiers carry along with some more unique weapons. This arsenal includes sniper rifles with long range capability and laser sighting; remote control detonation devices; and many more. There are also new extreme weapons so powerful and untested that the results may literally rip you apart.

Weapons are your best friends. Focus your eyes on all of the important information that you'll glean from the background spec's on these weapons. Your arsenal is quite diverse and along the way you may find other more interesting and powerful weapons to help beef up that attitude of yours.


 * Fists
 * Magnum
 * Shotgun
 * Assault Rifle
 * High-Velocity Chaingun
 * Helicopter-Mounted Chaingun
 * Rocket Launcher


 * Sniper Rifle
 * Pulse Cannon
 * Quantum Destabilizer
 * Speargun
 * Spider Mine
 * Thrall Gun

Items
To be Added

Enemies
"A new computer update has been downloaded. Scan through the HardCorps main frame and get an eye full of some of the minions that you'll be facing as you travel through the demented world that has erupted in Freeport".

Sin is populated with some of the most intriguing and vile creatures that have ever roamed the streets of Freeport City. Grab your gun, lock and load, and prepare to meet your maker if you don't take the time to examine the enemies that you'll be facing in the very near future.

Labworker

Downloaded from the Cube at HARDCORPS: These guys can be found at many of the SinTEK facilities throughout the SinTEK campus. These workers maintain and design many of the newest products pouring out of SinTEK Industries. If you had the time to watch these guys, you’d see that their work consumes them and are not very aware of their environment. Startle them and they’ll run for the alarm system or just cower in disbelief that someone other than security is roaming around.

Technician

Taken from the Freeport Profiler: Looking for someone to handle that high tech equipment, look no further than these qualified group of technicians here at Tecno-Corp. Highly trained and extremely knowledgeable in a multitude of fields these individuals will give you 100%. Should you decide to hire some of our staff, you must be sure to verse them in all known security protocols for your facilities along with any emergency procedures that must be followed. We require that all of our staff attend memory management seminars and are quite proud of their skills. Should someone need to ask assistance or need information these helpful technicians will always help point you in the right direction. All of our staff is equipped with the latest XRZ-1012 data pads and can link in and coordinate with your own systems. If you should have any further questions, please feel to contact us.


 * Terrorist
 * Thug
 * Construction Worker
 * Grunt
 * Grunt Captain
 * Securton
 * Metal Worker
 * Vultorn
 * Reconah
 * Pinphat
 * Sniper


 * Oilrig Worker
 * Seabonite
 * Seabonite Captain
 * Nautic
 * Guerilla
 * Manumit
 * Elite Guerilla
 * Dark Captain
 * Bacrodai
 * Peon

Multiplayer
Deathmatch levels that are separate from the normal game. With our intricate story line woven into our game, we knew that we wanted to make some even more demented areas for you to obliterate yourself in so we let the dogs loose to create even more cool levels just for Deathmatch. In the end you should have more than 10 Deathmatch levels to challenge both you and your friends in bloody Sin-fests.

You will have the chance to annihilate each other over Modem, LAN/WAN and seamless Internet play. Sin boasts some of the most intense Deathmatch levels ever created. Each of the Deathmatch levels has a unique theme and design behind it as you battle to annihilate each other. You can battle as one of the three main characters in Deathmatch: John Blade, Elexis Sinclair, or J.C. (Blade’s sidekick).

Development
The game itself was built on a modified version of the Quake 2 engine.

Due to the amount of patches which made the game more CPU intensive, primary Amiga developer and later AmigaOS developer Hyperion Entertainment had to eventually cancel the AmigaOS version due to the lack of hardware at the time.

Release

 * See Also - Version History (SiN)

The game was released a month before the critically acclaimed Half-Life, causing it to be heavily overshadowed with low amounts of sales. The game demo was found to have a CIH virus infection in one of its mirror links. Activision has advised players only to download the game demo from their website.

Critical reception for SiN was mixed. While PC Zone gave the game 91% and a "Classic" award, praising its inventive level design and engaging plot, most other publications did not have such a glowing view towards it.

Common negative feedback included long loading times, which could last up to several minutes. 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 couldn't move, a level on one path through the game not being completable and general game crashes. Although these bugs were quickly patched up, the damage of the negative publicity had already been done, especially with the majority of the press reviewing the unpatched version. A likely explanation for the multitude of bugs is that the game may have been rushed to meet the 1998 Christmas season, possibly as an attempt to beat Half-Life to market. These shortcomings, coupled with the great success of Half-Life, resulted in SiN not achieving as much success as the developers had hoped, although it did attain a moderate amount of sales during the 1998 Christmas period.

SiN was re-released on the Steam platform on April 5th, 2006, bundled with SiN Episodes. This version included fixes for audio and video issues, as well as integration with the Steam multiplayer server. However, several textures had been modified or outright removed in this release, due to copyright issues or instances of nudity and drug references.

Wages of Sin

 * See Also - Wages of Sin

A mission pack was released for the game in 1999 by 2015 Games, entitled SiN: Wages of Sin. The player reprises the role of John Blade, and the story picks up after the conclusion of the main game, pitting the player against Gianni Manero, a notorious crime boss looking to take over Freeport.

Both the main game and the mission pack would later be bundled together and released as SiN Gold.

Notes & Trivia
To be Added