Second 50:
101. Alien Isolation - PC
102. Medal of Honor Allied Assault - Spearhead - PC
103. Medal of Honor Allied Assault - Breakthrough - PC
104. Castlevania Bloodlines - Genesis
105. MechWarrior 3: Pirate's Moon - PC
106. Vampire the Masquerade: Redemption - PC
107. Star Fox Assault - GCN
108. Contraption Maker - PC
109. Panzer Dragoon - Saturn
110. Hexen II - PC
111. Sin - PC
Sin is an innovative and well put together late 90's shooter that had the misfortune of being released a week before Half-Life, forever dooming it to relative obscurity. Which is a shame, because if Half-Life hadn't overshadowed it we'd be talking about all the neat stuff it does.
Sin is about private cop and awesome name holder John Blade. The game starts with him intervening in a bank robbery. However, you soon discover that this was not just a simple heist, and it's connected to Sintek, one of the largest companies in the world, run by Elexis Sinclaire. And as you explore into the connection with Sintek you discover mutants and a horrible plot to force a massive genetic change upon humanity.
Sin feels like a natural evolution of some of the things we saw in Duke Nukem 3D. Our hero is chatty and likes to taunt enemies he kills. The main villain is hilariously sexual (and the other females dress like stripper nurses and use her gag boobs model) and actually manages to escape at the end by Basic Instincting our hero. There's also a lot of interactivity with the world, including interacting with PCs that actually requires you to select the options you want and in a few instances type in queries. This is the game that Duke Nukem Forever wanted to be back in the day.
The game also has quite good AI; many times they will fall back to regroup when you're on a rampage and overall they provide much more challenge than the typical "stand there and shoot the hero" AI that was common at the time. It isn't as good as the marine AI from Half-Life, though. Additionally, the game features location based damage not just for enemies but the player as well. Being able to land headshots is critical for the player if they don't want to take too much damage, and the player can armor their torso, head, and legs, with the armor wearing out at different rates depending on where enemy fire is hitting you. Slain enemies drop their weapon to give you ammo when you pick it up, but you can also search corpses to find keycards, health, and armor replacements. Rather than the Doom style add the number to your current number you instead will replace your armor if the armor on the body has a higher number than yours.
The levels flow together well, with a variety of objectives including a couple of stealth levels. The game does allow you to guns blazing through the stealth levels, though it does come at the cost of ammo and health. There are also a variety of secondary objectives, some of which are for bragging rights while others actually unlock a few hidden levels off the beaten path. None of them is critical, they just flesh out the experience a bit more. This is a very story based FPS, which was rather novel at the time. In fact, I'd say it's on par with what Half-Life did, though Half-Life didn't include a mission control like you get in Sin. It leads to a different dynamic, but the overall way you move from logical area to logical area is still there.
The biggest problem the game has is that the sniper rifle is awful in the hands of the AI. It's a completely silent weapon, which means if you aren't quick saving a lot you tend to get murderlated by enemy snipers. Two body shots will exhaust your armor and the third will probably put you in the ground. And some maps like to put snipers behind you as you come out a door, so if you don't know they're there they'll definitely get one or two shots in your back as you proceed. The game also lacks any indicator of where damage is coming from, so you're usually dead before you realize it. Late game the game also likes to give enemies rocket launchers, which is quite rough on your armor.
Still, I had a lot of fun with the game, and it's a real shame it flew under the radar at first and then Sin Episodes got cancelled because the devs got bought out by a casual games company.
It is certainly one of the most surreal gaming experiences I have had, and I found myself saying "what the fuck?" out loud at least a few times. Good for a laugh on its surface and ripe for a critical unpacking if you were so inclined...
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