SiN Episodes: Emergence

wish more fps games had latex fetish models for advertising and were this unafraid of being outwardly horny without being a straight up porn game

Two words: Boob physics.
In all seriousness, I enjoyed this when it came out. Just a shame that they didn't continue with more episodes.

SiN Episodes Emergence is a classic FPS from Ritual Entertainment, released in 2006.
This is the continuation of the events of the first SiN released in 1998.
You still play as John Blade, Colonel of HardCORPS,
who was captured by Elexis Sinclaire's henchmen,
the busty and evil boss of the SinTek Corporation.
His minion Victor Radek also seeks revenge on you.
Additionally, you were injected with an unknown substance...
But a HardCORPS rookie, Jessica Cannon, comes to your rescue at the last minute.
You must eliminate Radek's mercenaries and find him in order to obtain the antidote.
Emergence uses the Source Engine,
famous for all its technological features shown in Half-Life 2.
And the least we can say is that it's obvious: it could even be a mod.
Many things are reminiscent of Valve's cult game:
Textures, some props and puzzles, the healing system, the animations...
Its graphics are average for what was available on PC at the time.
The game is beautiful although aging,
but has a slightly cyberpunk artistic direction that is not devoid of charm.
Freeport City is a futuristic megacity where power and corruption reign.
Jessica Cannon is Blade's female sidekick,
the pretty redhead is as splendid as she's dangerous.
Like Alyx Vance, she assists you from time to time,
and excels in armed combat in addition to guiding you.
She speaks flowery language, contrasting with her beauty.
JC is the gang's computer specialist.
Hacking has no secrets for him,
and he will always find a way to open a sealed door,
or a annoying force field.
The gunfights are very classic but still fun.
Only three weapons are available in the game.
It's not much,
but they at least have the merit of being effective and offering different gameplay.
The pistol can explode heads with one bullet, but it's weak in other parts of the body.
The assault rifle has a scope to shoot down distant enemies, and a grenade launcher.
The shotgun is powerful against enemies in close combat.
The enemies are neither numerous nor original, and even less clever.
The classic mercenaries that we encounter the most are reskinned HL2 soldiers,
easily recognizable by their animations.
They're hardly a threat, just blow their brains out with a bullet.
That said,
some of them are equipped with a jet-pack just to bring a little freshness to the fights.
SinTek soldiers are better armored and rush into the crowd.
They are armed with a machine gun that cannot be picked up.
Mutants are genetically modified mercenaries,
which jump towards their prey and throw whatever is within their reach.
They share certain animations with Zombies & Fast Zombies from Half-Life 2,
while others spit a toxic substance like the Bullsquids from HL1.
A few well-placed shotgun blasts are enough to kill them.
Some other surprising enemies will spice up the adventure.
The music composed by Zac Belica are dramatic and catchy.
The main menu song "What's The World Come To" sung by Sarah Revenscroft could have been a great pop-rock hit.
Once the game is finished, you still have the option to play "Arena" mode,
in which enemies respawn indefinitely for 15 minutes,
in a small selection of maps. The difficulty adapts according to your skill.
SiN Episodes Emergence may not be very original,
yet the game is nice to play.
Its ending in the form of a cliffhanger and its "Next on SiN Episodes" cutscene,
leaves the player wanting more, especially since only one episode has been released.
To think that they were planning nine episodes in total...

what's with the episodic source games and leaving on a massive cliff hangers

"Save me the seat at the sequel, Blade" :(
The fate of SiN is really unfortunate. First game came out 2 weeks before Half-Life, which caused it flop and remain in obscurity. The fact that we even have a sequel to this game at all is in itself a miracle. It was one of the first games outside of Valve's portfolio to debut on Steam (just look at the SteamID in the store page's URL) and is an important part of this platform's history, even if very sad one.
Gameplay
The game took me just over 3.5h to finish, but not a second of it was wasted. It gave me a Ratatouille-style flashback to when I played Half-Life 2 for the first time, which is perhaps one of the greatest praises I can give to a video game. Because it is just one episode, the developers wanted to cram as many mechanics as possible, to show what's in store for the player. Shooting feels punchy and satisfying, with decent amount of variation, slow-mo gas absolutely slaps, puzzles are... they are there. The game also has a huge amount of secrets - 43 according to the stats screen (yes, the game tracks tons of different stats - one of the few boomer-shooter traits this game has), and some of them are much more than just some bonus items - just pay attention to your surroundings.
Graphics
The game is very pretty, and I'm not talking only about female character models. Source engine really shows its muscles and the game definitely holds up in that department. The later parts of the game really give a sense of scale. Enemy design is cool and can be further enhanced with a proper amount of lead - gore in this game is what was missing for me in HL2.
Sound "What's the world come to..."
SiN Episodes: Emergence, in my opinion, has the best main menu music in all of gaming. Zak Belica's opus magnum, with Sarah Revenscroft killing it on the vocals. Really can bring a tear to a man's eye. Rest of the music is competent, huge upgrade from the first game anyway. Voice acting is also really good, which took me by surprise after playing SiN: Gold for a dozen hours. Source engine's sound propagation is utilized even better than in Half-Life 2 - overall A+.
Story
SiN: Source is a much different game than the first installment and it is particularly apparent in its writing. The story is more serious and toned down. John Blade is an (almost) silent protagonist now, which means, most of the one-liners now come from redhead Alyx Vance - Jessica Canon, and those are still rather rare and more thought-out. The setting is more grounded and SiN: Gold's boom-shoot DNA is mostly gone. Although I would appreciate a sequel that stays true to the original's attitude, the direction that Episodes took is also good. Unfortunately, just like Half-Life 2, it ends with a cliffhanger, which has been unresolved for over 17 years :(.
All in all, I really enjoyed my time with Episodes, although I can see how not everyone may feel the same way, especially if they didn't play SiN: Gold. 8€ may also seem a bit much for a 3-hour game, but I think the secrets give it a good replay value (I found only a quarter of them and will be definitely coming back for more) and it sometimes goes on a reasonable discount (I managed to get it for just 2€). Worst thing about this game is definitely knowing there will never be more, but it makes me appreciate what we got even more.

SIN Emergence is a pretty odd game in a good sort of way; what suck's is that this game doesn't have enough content afterwards to an otherwise almost episodic franchise that never went through. The model's are great enough so the game doesn't age poorly (similar to half life 2), even the game story is rather interesting. Although... Really hard to make of the story when the IP never made other episodes, in the same way as Half-Life 2. Actually rather interesting for a game to not only be better than the first game, also one of those game's that carry the same sin's like Half-Life 2.
Sins Emergence is meant to lead the player more content & with Half-Life 2, you are still given 3 game's from the 2nd bit of a soon to be franchise (Half-Life 2, Episode 1-2).
So promising the player's for multiple episodes may have not been a great idea making this game more unplayable in more way's. Despite me feeling this way, I do hope to one day this game come's back with these idea in mind; I really really do love the idea toward's turning a game episodic instead of just making sequels, but rather leading up to a much bigger game for more room with ideas from the same engine. You don't see this often with video-game's, although it isn't impossible nor is it a bad idea. This IP just happened to come out in the wrong place in the right time if you looked at the development history before and after.
Beyond that the game play's like a Half-Life 2 source engine (because it was made from it.). My main complaint is that it come's with idea's I would like to see more refined. One where if you are around canisters filled with green mist, you have the advantage to attack enemies in slow motion. Pretty useless.
Reason why are a few reason's, one this ability is only activated if you sit in the green mist for almost a minute to fill it up. The other is the ability is already pre-activated once you enter the mist, you can't opt-it-out at all making it useless to even bother. If this game where to return to it's root's, my decision would make it where the character can in-hale a much more smaller canister to suck into. Another idea is have it where this ability can even opt-in & out without the green mist, with something Blade (Main Character) can later gain this ability. Being around green mist's only give's him more time to use it much longer than before.
Another issue this game seem's to miss is not given the player armor that can healed up like in Half-Life 2. Without that it has actually made sin's a much more harder game to play even in normal difficulty, since you are trying to keep your health alive from certain enemies. Like machine gunmen or mini gun turrets or lastly battle bot's. This game make's it much more harder without any shield armor, ended up making me appreciate Half-Life 2 mechanics more than I initially was before. The enemies would be much more balance out (even more fair) if you where given a shield armor in the same way Half-Life 2 treated it. Or have the character regenerate health for the sake of the plot. But I will still say an armor of sorts should be an option.
I got nothing much to say about Sin Emergence plot, it give's you vague explanations, a vague villain with a vague goal even that makes me feel indifferent. Even when you play the first game, you will start to see this game as an attempt to be a soft-reboot. It has the earlier character's (even villain) but it's hard to make-up what's going on. A fun game, I still recommend it; I will say, you are more out to get a better plot from the TimeSplitter's games with better humor, let alone better fan-service than with this game. Not bad for what it does and I still want more out of it. Everything is just... Too vague. Most what I got from it is the villain Elexis Sinclaire want's to take over the world by creating monster's with the possibility she trying to trap Blade into it. Where Blade (you the player) start having a vague memories of having a romantic relationship with Elexis, with the possibility (I assume) using eugenics research to create the perfect war soldier and how Blade (you) could possibly be the perfect test subject. I don't know. I won't make any high judgement from a story that never finish.
Would be nice to see Sins Emergence coming out with new episodes, I wouldn't even care if they use the same engine. The idea isn't broken nor the source engine, just need's more content with mechanic's to make the game play a tad more fair. Even having a better understanding from the story from newer episodes.
For 10 bucks worth the price, for almost 3 buck's it's a good deal to grab. I hope one day this game come's back. It may never come, but if TimeSplitter's having a comeback with a remaster. I do not see how Sin Emergence can't come out with more episodes. Boy can dream but some dream's are too good to be true.

Controls are a little wack. Trying to melee enemies and the game decides to dash past them instead. The mouse doesn't want to respond when firing the machine gun for whatever reason but it automatically moves my cursor just above the opponents head for a full spray miss. And running around feels like I'm in an ice rink. Outside of those minor issues, it's a decent game, albeit a bit short. Plus there was never any sequels made so, yeah, you only get part of the story.