SiN Episodes: Emergence
You are John Blade, commander of HardCorps, an elite security force dedicated to protecting the people of Freeport City. Four years have passed since your first battle with Elexis Sinclaire, a beautiful, brilliant, and ruthless scientist who is out to remake humanity according to her own twisted vision. The law has failed to bring Elexis and her multi-billion dollar empire, SiNTEK, to justice, so Blade is determined to take matters into his own hands. Joining Blade on his mission are JC – a hacker with a secret to keep – and Jessica Cannon, a fiery rookie who can find her way into any secure facility.
Enter the living, breathing world of Freeport City, a futuristic collision of New York, San Francisco and Tokyo. As Freeport continues to suffer from mutant attacks, you must now bring down Sinclaire before she can set her deadly plan in motion and alter the shape of humanity forever.
SiN Episodes™: Emergence launches the new era of episodic gaming. A first person shooter powered by Valve’s award-winning Source™ technology, SiN Episodes offers unprecedented interactivity, an engrossing story, and a revolutionary dynamic difficulty system that provides a custom experience based on your skill level and play style.
- Intense Combat: Face off against ruthless enemies, like jetpack soldiers and mutants that evolve as you fight them. Witness enemies that adapt to your actions and truly work as a team, as they cover each other and help fallen comrades to get back on their feet.
Outsmart your opponents by using your surroundings to your advantage as you set up traps using lethal elements of the environment. Location-based damage rewards accuracy while melee combat moves enable you to get up-close and personal.
- Unprecedented Interactivity: Blast your way through highly interactive environments powered by an enhanced version of the Source engine. Characters dynamically react to what you’re looking at and the environment. Target and shoot off specific vehicle parts and literally blow cars to pieces. Experience the next level of vehicle combat with a flexible positioning system enabling you to move around the interior with an unprecedented degree of freedom, allowing you to pick the ideal position to attack that enemy position up ahead.
- Personal Challenge System™: Driven by one of the most elaborate statistics systems ever created, SiN Episodes will constantly adapt to your playing style and offers a challenge that is custom-tailored to your skill level.
- Episodic Delivery: Buy as little or as much of the game as you want, with each installment offering 3 – 6 hours of action-packed gameplay. But tread lightly, as the choices you make may influence future episodes in unforeseen ways.
- Source Powered: Utilizing the same engine that powered Half-lifeĀ® 2, Emergence gives you stunningly gorgeous graphics and intense physics-based gameplay.
Steam User 35
I'm still here BLADE! I'm gonna get you BLADE!
Steam User 26
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
Steam User 24
Hot big chest women and vampire guy make me shoot funny army men for 4 hours straight in the not so gnarly future, while injected with heroine.
Steam User 19
reminds me half life 2 episode 2
what's the world come to
Steam User 16
what's with the episodic source games and leaving on a massive cliff hangers
Steam User 11
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...
Steam User 12
A very good later 2000s Source Engine game. Cliche plot, funny attention to detail and worldbuilding, funny stuff after credits. Would put it somewhere around the Dark Messiah of Might and Magic. All of the Source games of that era have a similar feeling to them and this one is no exception. Short and unfinished, as I understand, it's still nice if you want another game from that time when Half-Life 2 was the biggest thing.
P.S. Highest difficulty sucks ass. One-shot-to-kill and bullet sponge enemies at the same time, very weird.