SiN Episodes: Emergence -- Episode 1 [PC]

It's taken nearly eight years for Ritual's cult favorite first-person shooter Sin to spawn a sequel. Sin Episodes is being distributed in multiple episodes through Valve's Steam service -- Emergence is the first, and if it's any measure of the quality we can expect from future installments, we should be in for an exciting ride.

Emergence starts in inimitable style... a pair of barely covered breasts are, um, practically swinging in your face. They belong to Elexis Sinclaire, mad scientist and general ne'er-do-well. Take the chance to get acquainted with them, because they pop up repeatedly throughout the game, although rarely at such close quarters. Seriously, whoever the boob physics guy on the Sin team is -- and we're prepared to bet good money it was a guy -- he's obviously a master in his field.

Emergence, as you might have noticed, has a much less serious tone than Half-Life 2, with which it shares an engine and a distribution system. From your co-star's wisecracks to the hilarious heads-a-poppin' locational damage modeling to the almost unfeasible number of in-jokes and hidden witticisms, it's practically a laugh-a-minute affair. The action might be all serious, but the tone is definitely kept light.

Mind you, if you're expecting Half-Life 2 polish, you're going to be a little let down by Sin's production values. Although the Source engine is, as always, excellent, Emergence doesn't have quite the creative vision of Valve's work, and the voice acting is a little flat. It's also got more than a little of Half-Life 2's feel about it -- the physics and the controls give it a slight air of deja vu.

While his co-stars chatter away, Sin's star Blade rarely speaks. Maybe he's been taking lessons from Half-Life's famously mute star Gordon Freeman -- but Blade certainly talked plenty in the original Sin games, often to amusing effect. He's not Freeman, and given the amount of humor elsewhere in the game, we would have liked to hear a little more from him.

Sin's action keeps you on your toes, rarely leaving you without something to shoot or a (usually basic) physics puzzle to solve. Although there aren't many weapons, they're all useful in different situations - there's certainly no one "uber-gun." Even the basic pistol you grab at the game's start can drop an enemy soldier with an accurate headshot.