Sin Episodes: Emergence Review

I really didn’t know what to expect heading into the first episode of SiN. I had seen some people try to play down the game but when I first started it up I knew I was in for something fun. Emergence is an entertaining episode that puts up quite a challenge and ended up seeming longer than what I had originally expected.

I’m new to SiN altogether and haven’t had a chance to play the original game yet that comes with Emergence, so this review is coming from that standpoint.

The episode starts off when your character, Colonel John R. Blake of the HardCorps, wakes up strapped down on a medical table with Elexis Sinclaire and Viktor Radek standing over him – you’re enemies. Elexis is the sultry CEO of SinTEK, a successful international scientific corporation, but unfortunately she desires to recreate mankind in her own image and unknown to the public, mutants have resulted in her activity. Radek, a leader of the drug cartel whose intentions are somewhat unknown, injects Blade with a material that is not revealed. A few seconds too late Jessica Cannon, Blade’s new sidekick, explodes into the room rescuing Blade. Your new goal is to find out what you have been injected with and to take down Radek, and his operation, which has some ties to Elexis. Along the way you’ll also have the help of JC, a computer veteran who at one time worked for criminals but after being captured, now works for the HardCorps.

It all takes place in Freeport City:

“A futuristic clash of San Francisco, Tokyo, and Seattle; Freeport City is leviathan of a metropolis, providing a home to the super rich elite, the poverty stricken masses, and an every shrinking middle class, struggling to maintain a lifestyle in a shifting morass of economic and political warfare.”

SiN Episodesisn’t the first game that is being delivered in episodic form but it is one of the first major titles to do so. It seems like an interesting approach and will certainly help developers compete with some of the MMORPGs that have a monthly fee. If you are wondering, the current price of $19.95 definitely seems fair, especially since the original SiN is included. I’m not sure if Ritual plans on sticking with this price but it might seem logical to lower following episodes by a few dollars or extend the length of them because there will likely not be any extra content such as this in the future. The two main issues I’m concerned with are: time lengths between episodes and outdated technology by the time ninth one rolls around. I’m not as worried about the latter in this series because I’m sure Valve will continue to update its Source Engine to compete with other upcoming titles and Ritual will probably implement these updates.

As you already know, the SiN series uses Valve’s Source Engine.  I’m fairly biased towards it and I love the way the gameplay feels in Emergence. Movement and controls seem so crisp and fluid that it just makes for an extremely enjoyable experience. The gameplay is comparable to every standard FPS and it won’t take any time to adjust if you’ve played Half-Life 2 or play any mods on the engine regularly. I did have one issue though and that was that it seemed as if there were a couple of collision detection problems. The game gets quite difficult towards the end and as I would run backwards, I would get caught on non-existant objects – especially around doorframes. Again, it happened only a couple of times but it caused me to die more than once.

Speaking of the difficultly level, the game is more unique. Before you begin Emergence you have the option to change the setting; I raised mine to a bit under the half-way mark. It started off quite easy but over time the Personal Challenge System tunes the difficulty level to how you have been playing so far. By the end of the episode it was very difficult and I actually ended up taking advantage of the AI in a couple situations by blocking doorways with objects and shooting enemies from a long distance. The enemy that makes Emergence difficult is the SinTEK Heavy Gunner. They are very similar to the Heavy Weapons class in Team Fortress Classic - equipped with a mini-gun - and also seem to have quite a bit of armor. After facing one of these enemies I was hoping that I wouldn’t run in to many more. That wasn’t the case though as you end up facing an army of them. It definitely gets to be quite challenging but I don’t really think that is a bad thing at all.

Another noteworthy enemy includes the mercenary with a jetpack. Shooting one of these guys out of the sky can be quite entertaining thanks to the Havok physics engine. 

Similar to many FPSs, Emergence offers constant action. Just when you think you’re going to get a break for a bit you’ll run into a room that is chock-full of opponents. There are approximately three “bosses” in this episode which put up a challenge and are somewhat frightening to face (the mutant monsters). My only complaint as far as these challenges are concerned is that it didn’t seem that there was enough ammo at the final one. I definitely had to play it over several times and was looking all over for stray bullets with not much luck.

Blade’s arsenal consists of three firearms in Emergence:

1. M90 Magnum: It’s a powerful handgun that is great to use at long distances. Secondary fire fires a D.U.A.G. round which is powerful and comes in very useful while facing a large mutant-like boss you’ll be up against more than once in this episode.

2. X380 Prototype Scattergun: This is a shotgun-style weapon that can be good at close range. The secondary round consists of pellets that won’t penetrate walls. I didn’t use secondary much and actually ended up hurting myself in a couple of circumstances.

3. M590 Assault Rifle: This rifle is useful when you are being attacked by many enemies at once. It offers a steady stream of 9mm rounds and secondary fire shoots an RPG.

The graphics in Emergence are what you’d expect from the Source Engine: good but nothing overly impressive at this point. I did really enjoy the cityscape view towards the end while climbing up to the top of a skyscraper, on the outside of the building. Even though the graphics are very similar to Half-Life 2 and its mods, Ritual did do a good job in creating a mostly unique environment.

I really enjoyed the music in this episode and the soundtrack is actually available to purchase on iTunes. You can get a preview of what it sounds like by following this link (assuming you have the program installed). It helped to give the impression of a high production value, something I felt right from the beginning. Voice acting is also well done in Emergence and the characters were all believable.

Other sounds in the game are good and the only reason I don’t give this category a score of nine is the stutter problem. It was supposedly fixed for some people by a patch that was recently released through Steam. I did experience this issue at first and fixed it by lowering the sound quality to medium but it was quite annoying before that. Hopefully it will be sorted out for everyone very soon. 

I really enjoyed playing through Emergence and I would assume most fans of the FPS genre would as well. I don’t ever read the reviews from other publications but did notice some lower scores so far. I think Ritual did a good job. I’m looking forward to the following episodes and strongly stick to my overall score.

As a final note and as a warning to parents, there is some profane language and mature themes--the episode has been appropriately rated.

Pros

+ Constant Action

+ Challenging

+ Music

+ Voice Acting

+ High production value

Cons

- Stutter bug

- Not enough ammo at the final battle

- Might feel short to some players

- How long until the next episode?

- Slight parallels to HL2

- I gave this episode a value rating of 8 because of the inclusion of the original game, which is a good addition.