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Sin Episode 1: Emergence

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Define irony: The long anticipated sequel of Sin, a cult hit FPS from 1997, uses the Half Life 2 game engine, even though the original Half Life nearly threw Sin 1 straight to the bargain bin. Seriously; if you never heard of Elexis Sinclaire in gaming, you were too busy playing Half-Life. There were few other reasons to not play it. Yet for those of us who did play the original Sin, Elexis was the Lara Croft of villains. It's not that we play games just to see buxom women taunt us. We play them because they're fun, and Sin was fun, and when it's sequel uses the Half Life 2 game engine, well...what could possibly go wrong?

Mind you; just about any game that used the Half-Life 2 game engine is going to be visually stunning. But what about story? Well, the first game's story was actually pretty good as action stories go, but as for this first "episode," they're either saving the story for later, or you've already seen the best of it, or...something. You know those film sequels which act like the viewer "obviously" saw the first movie, so there's no need for a back story? Well, that's Sin Ep.1: Emergence to a capital "T."

So, allow me to give agnostic gamers a quick rundown of the first game's story, in case they did not (or do not want to) play the original game beforehand. There's this villainess called Elexis Sinclaire, who is owner of this cosmetics chain called Sintek. She is obsessed with enhancing the human form in every possible way...even on the genetic level. Unfortunately she's not working on all thrusters lately, if you catch my meaning, so her latest experiments are of the monster variety. See; this is why waking up to see her looking down at you on a laboratory table is a totally cool way to start the game. Unfortunately, most agnostic gamers will miss the coolness of this opening completely, with no prologue to speak of. The good news is: the first game is being sold for free with this first episode, so if you never played it, you can now!

As you might expect, this would be a very short game if you weren't saved by a friend before killed by Elexis...! In comes Jennifer, your newest sidekick protégée, who helps you escape during a short "tutorial" of sorts, of the game's movement controls. From there you experience the first mission (Episode) in the story, which basically involves entering one of Elexis' strongholds, starting with...the sewers. What's with first person shooters and sewers? Is there a college course for games, with the first project some bland, nondescript sewer...? Boring!

Fortunately, not all the game is as sewer-happy. In time, you do get to Elexis' actual building, which is a majestic skyscraper with glass elevators and a cool, Matrix-movie-style lobby to fight in. Unlike the sewer levels, these levels also include Jennifer for the majority of the mission, and she's about as much help as Alyx was in Half-Life 2 Episode One, which is to say: she kicks ass. It may have seemed a bit repetitive to have done so, but you know; this whole episode could've been in this one pricey office building, floor by floor, and I'd have been much happier than in those infernally boring sewer levels. I'm just saying.

If only the character modelers were responsible for the level editing. From Jennifer to Elexis, it's obvious the guys in charge of making the characters had the most fun in their job. Even "bit players" you come across look unique, like the informant you meet at the docks, with disheveled hair, wrinkled clothes, and quite frankly, the appearance of a man who just got out of bed, on quite possibly the last day of his life. You only see him for a few fleeting seconds, but it shows how even the littlest detail in characters was taken into consideration. Lifelike characters like this truly enhance the game.

Which brings me to my biggest gripe with this first episode: too little Elexis is like too little Darth Vader in a Star Wars movie. She isn't just some rubber stamp buxom video game character; she's one of the most intriguing villains in game lore. A cosmetics loving businesswoman who gets so obsessed with her own perfection, she actually is trying to manipulate humankind's very appearance, on the DNA level? That's a villain that should be used to its potential. The first game had frequent cutscenes, which showed what Elexis was doing as you were chasing her. Why no such scenes here? After all; if there's no clear indication of why you're risking your life defeating her, there's less incentive to try.

Here's one idea they might use for Episode 2. You know how in the new Battlestar Galactica series, Baltar keeps "seeing" Six, who taunts him at every turn? Sinclaire could be like that, via her many hologram projections. Instead of seeing her hologram all of three times throughout episode one, why not see her after every major twist and turn of the game, taunting our hero at every opportunity? If Blade defeats a ten foot tall "boss," have a hologram of Sinclaire cry of one of her "babies" defeated by Blade. If Blade enters a dilapidated lab, have him find an old recording of Sinclaire, telling the now-dead scientists there what she intended for them to do. An office complex could have an old introductory video of Elexis, explaining what that office was for. She's the star character of the game. Why so little of her here?

Overall, Emergence is a nice glimpse of what this series could become...in later episodes. While this might seem like a thumbs-down of this episode, it's not. It's just that there is so much promise here that I can only hope gamers buy it (at an admittedly bargain price) and give it a chance, so that episode 2 (with the obligatory improvements) will be released. It's only flaw is that it's good, but not great, especially when it could've been "great" very easily. It comes free with the original game, though, and seeing as how the original 1997 release was so glitch ridden, and this is it "as it was meant to be played"...cool.

Think of my feeling of Emergence this way. You know how the series premiere for Star Trek: The Next Generation made the series look promising, yet the first story was totally stupid? Remember the giant space squid? Well, now imagine a game like that, fought mostly in sewers. This first episode is like that. It has flaws, but if those flaws are removed, this could be the Next Generation of games...pun not intended.

The best parting thought for this review is seen in the game, whenever entering a car with Jennifer. For one thing; she's in the driver's seat. I don't mean that in the chauvinist sense but...am I the one playing the game or what? You can't even shoot at passing enemies while she's driving, which is to say, you're a passenger in every sense of the word. Stare at Jennifer too long and she asks why. Because that's all I'm allowed to do in this scene, girl...sorry! Yet this and all other little gripes can be taken away in time for episode 2, and very easily. If such an episode puts gamers in the driver's seat, figuratively or literally, count me in.

	Rating : Small Crater. While graphically stunning thanks to the Half Life 2 game engine, and more than worth the bargain price, this is mostly just a sneak peek at the episodes that are yet to come.
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Sin Episode 1: Emergence

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