Wages of Sin

Two Hail Marys for this add-on to the disappointing original Sin.

Ritual's original SiN was a brilliant train wreck--a would-be bright light that squandered most of its power in technical problems. The add-on Wages of Sin is an opportunity for publisher Activision to redeem itself for the rushed release of that Quake II-based shooter and vindicate the game's concept.

In this, developer 2015 half-succeeded. Wages runs reliably, and is relatively bug-free.

The game finds SiN's hero returning in a 17-level quest (played in either first or third person) to quash a flood of the same drug-induced mutations that beset Freeport in the original game. You'll escort this blustery Duke Nukem knockoff from a blood-spattered construction site, where the mutants resurfaced, to a showdown with Manero (a henchman of SiN nemesis Elexis) at a nuclear power plant. Along the way, Col. John Blade, still assisted by techno-weeny J.C., uses weapons from the original--and a half-dozen underwhelming new ones--to redistribute the essential fluids of an assortment of angry bugs, dogs, goons, and monsters.

In concept, it's much like the parent game (which you'll have to install to play Wages). Good aim counts, and a shot to the head is still worth several to the body. The path to Manero abounds in gadgetry--including usable computers that can be manipulated to get past security (and occasionally explored in detail). You'll still find in-jokes on office bulletin boards. You can talk to non-player characters--like the prisoners in an underground lab to send them running for freedom, or the beleaguered guards in the museum to recruit them. (It's just a shame they have so much trouble figuring out how to walk through the door and up the escalator beyond.)

Happily, the add-on is comparitively free of the hassles that made SiN virtually unfinishable out of the box (at least for me) and required an 18.5MB patch to repair. Levels loaded in a few seconds. Graphic glitches were almost nonexistent. The AI for enemy bosses actually works, and they're now much more formidable. The game locked up irretrievably just twice.

Then again, enemies still occasionally appear through walls, and gameplay had a tendency to freeze temporarily--with music and sound effects skipping along merrily.

The thing is, now that the technical hump has been mostly cleared, the content isn't quite there. I liked individual elements: You can climb and swing on ropes, and the thoroughness of Wages' darkness makes the new flashlight a necessity. But nothing in Wages approaches the dizzying highs of SiN--and highs there were, especially in the underwater levels. I kept waiting for Wages to reveal hidden dimensions, but though there are decent levels--notably those in and around the shipyard, where stealth is at a premium--many struck me as mundane. At no point does the sense of being in a game evaporate and that of being in a world take over-one thing that SiN, when it had its mojo working, did well.

However, multiplayer mode is as seamless as ever-the new ThermOptic Goggles are a good counterbalance to snipers--and here Wages does upstage SiN. Along with the tag-oriented Marked for Death and kill-the-guy-with-the-ball Lynch Mob mode (tacky name, guys), the game has five hoverbike levels, in which you race around circuits shooting at/running down your opponents. These are a singular delight: The bikes handle far better than the mopey vehicles used in SiN, and the kill-your-friends ethic of the deathmatch here is somehow transmuted into the buoyant spirit of a Rockey Jockey.

It's the high point in an otherwise disappointing sojourn through the Wages of SiN.

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