Sin: Reloaded appeared to be abandoned in recent years. Its Steam page first popped up six entire years ago, but the game has been sitting on the backburner ever since for whatever reason. But alas, i’s finally upon us, and I had a mostly good time with it, save for some balance issues and softlocks waiting in the wings.
Sin was built on the Quake II engine, but the game feels more like GoldenEye. You start a level and often have to complete a set of objectives before you’re able to make your way to the exit. Some levels are more linear, but it varies, which helps keep the gameplay from growing stale.
The game’s objectives often boil down to finding a keycard or using a computer, but you’ll be shooting enemies to pieces along the way. If you’ve played Quake II then this will feel incredibly familiar, down to the way enemies gib when blasted with your trusty shotgun. Unlike most games of its time, headshots actually do extra damage, although decapitations sadly weren’t a thing yet.
So why would you grab Sin: Reloaded if you already own Sin: Gold, NightDive’s previous version of the game? Two of the most obvious (and worthwhile) adjustments are that you can actually see what you’re doing better this time, as the ridiculously dark levels of the original have been brightened up. The original game’s level design could also be quite poorly signposted, and changes have been made to make things less inscrutable.
Both of these changes go a long way toward making the game more palatable, but many of the levels are still weirdly dark even bearing this in mind. You can now import various characteristics from the included Wages of Sin expansion into the base game, which makes things better still. Plus certain weapons have seen an overhaul, including the aforementioned shotgun which now fires more pellets.
Everything has been given a bit of a makeover, from the models to the textures and UI, but the changes are far less extensive than you might expect. Sin: Reloaded is extremely graphically faithful and most things are only slightly higher resolution than they were before, as you’ll see if you swap between the two on the fly. I don’t necessarily mind this, but it’s somewhat curious for a game this old.
As you’d expect, things do show their age as the game is still very clearly from the late 90s. Some jank that you’d think would be gone is still present and accounted for, too. Enemies will sometimes blast you the split second you open doors, or they’ll be in positions where they can shoot you to death without you even having eyes on them (such as a part where enemies spot you while you’re underwater and can’t even see them).
One thing I can’t come close to understanding is why the flashlight from Wages of Sin wasn’t incorporated into the base game. Instead, you get a limited number of glowsticks that are about as useful as they sound. I also got crushed to death by some poorly functioning locker doors at one point, as well as got stuck and had to reload a save because I got locked in a small room in the expansion.
Verdict
Both the base campaign and Wages of Sin are still entertaining and well worth playing (even if the flamethrower in the latter has been buffed way too much since it can kill you almost instantly). There’s a solid dozen-or-so hours of gameplay here on just the normal difficulty, so I think it’s a good pickup, as this version handily replaces the original as long as you don’t mind the level design changes.
