SiN Reloaded Review

Looking back, the 1990s were weird. Politically and economically, it was probably the last time the world wasn’t objectively awful. When it came to video games, though, it was the decade that defined the medium. Between DOOM, Quake, Resident Evil and countless others, almost every major series got its start back when the biggest controversy in American politics was a president lying about receiving a blowjob. Somewhere the foundation of Valve and the launch of GoldenEye 007, a game called SiN, Duke Nukem-esque shooter with some immersive sim elements, appeared. Even though the title has been all but forgotten, in large part because Half-Life came out ten days later, its remaster proves the game was actually pretty great.

In terms of remasters, SiN Reloaded isn’t anything special. It primarily improves the almost 30-year-old game’s visuals, makes it playable on modern systems and consoles, and ditches a few annoying pieces of level design from the original. There are some quality-of-life features included, too, like modern controls and points-of-interest markers for keycards. You can also play Wages of SiN, the long-since-forgotten expansion pack, from the same menu as the main story. Multiplayer, meanwhile, is available through a different menu with self-hosted servers.

All of those improvements are significant. They transform SiN from a relic into something you can boot up and enjoy without worrying about three-decade-old code getting in the way. There’s nothing obviously broken here, no experience-ruining bugs to contend with. Sure, SiN Reloaded is on the expensive side of the remaster spectrum. But it’s technically solid and runs well.

The real appeal of it is that it lets you experience a game that you probably forgot about. Or, depending on how old you are, didn’t even know existed until you clicked on this article. That game is weird, to put it mildly. Gameplay-wise, it’s a mash-up of the ’90s’ greatest hits. You’re John R. Blade, the commander of HardCorps, and also probably someone who got kicked out of a bodybuilding competition for using too many steroids. Your job is to keep Freeport City safe from mobsters, corporations, and even mutants. You do that on giant, sprawling, open-ended levels not by reading anyone their Miranda Rights, but by shooting pretty much everyone you see in the face. You have a huge arsenal of satisfying weapons at your disposal, including oddities like a crossbow and a gun that launches a mini nuclear warhead. You can drive vehicles, occasionally sneak around until an NPC spots your hulking frame that vaguely resembles a human being, and interact with civilians by shouting at them.

There are puzzles to shoot at, you frequently have to track down keycards, and exploring levels rewards you with increasingly odd weaponry. Your sidekick/technical support is a freckle-faced kid who sounds exactly like you’d expect. The main antagonist is a woman whose character model has certain…physics attached to it. All of that makes SiN, and consequently its remaster, stupid amounts of fun.

The game isn’t perfect. Its level designs, improved as they are in Reloaded, are still confusing to navigate. There’s the expected amount of jank, including an almost comically useless third-person camera. Enemy NPC pathfinding can occasionally glitch out. But none of that really matters, because it adds to just how absurd SiN really is. This is a game where you have access to an almost unlimited amount of bullets, but a flashlight battery that drains in a few seconds. It’s one where your enemies have comically large hitboxes, but it’s possible to understand their motivations for turning to a life of crime. The entire experience is stupid when you don’t think about it and even dumber when you do. Sit down and contemplate the storyline for more than a few seconds, and you’ll realise just how absurd it really is.

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‍SiN Reloaded lets you experience all that without having to deal with 30-year-old coding issues. Even if Reloaded was what people played in 1998, it probably still would’ve been forgotten about in favour of Half-Life. The game is weird as hell. But it’s fun in a way few other titles are. The straightforward remaster feels like opening a time capsule from a decade you may have actually lived through. There are raunchy jokes and crazy weapons here. And also bad level design and somewhat glitchy enemy pathfinding. SiN Reloaded is fun, funny, occasionally frustrating and worth playing if you want to remember why the video game industry turned out the way it did.