SiN: Emergence

Ten years from now when someone writes a book about the gaming industry and we all laugh about how slow our AMD 64s and Intel P4s and how the standard monitor was a mere 21" and couldn't render games in three dimensions in the middle of our living rooms, I hope there exists a section on Ritual, the designers of SiN: Emergence.  It wouldn't be a big section or even a possess huge praise for them about their games.  But one thing must be put in the section regarding Ritual and it would be an accepted, perhaps considered an axiom by the entire industry and never be debated:  these guys and gals love tits in their games. 

Levelord says on his website this might be because he was a bottle baby, but whatever the case there's no arguing their affection and adoration for breasts.  Big breasts, small breasts, jiggly, or firm, Ritual loves them and there is no shame in their game.  I'm fairly certain that when they bought the game engine to design Emergence their first question probably didn't concern particle physics or texture modeling. More than likely the first thing asked was simply: "Where's the breast sub-routine?" 

As for the game itself, Sin:Emergence won't win awards for original gameplay, but the gameplay proves to be tough and if Ritual challenges themselves by breaking out of the standard shooter environments and throwing in a little more variety in the bad guys, future episodes of SiN:Emergence could be some of the most action packed and enjoyable gaming for some time to come.

Emergence has quite a few things going for it. First, the shooting action in the game is quite intense. The bad guys come at you in numbers and shoot surprisingly well resulting in health becoming a big issue even in the early sections of the game which you would assume should be a calk wake (as most first levels in a shooter are).  Unlike most bad guys in shooters these guys don't sit around and wait for you to shoot them either.  The smaller lithe guards armed with pistols will either be running at you, running away from you, ducking for cover, or running across floors in order to take another shot at you.  While the bad guys are not what you would call smart, they definitely aren't slow as they jump around and move across the levels like they're having bladder control issues. 

The only problem with the bad guys are the chaingun wielding guards.  I mean seriously, those guys are armored like tanks and will rip you apart in about five seconds if you aren't careful. The best way to handle them is to use your grenades.  Since they don't move very fast they can't get away from the area effect and will burn alive quite nicely.

Unlike other shooters where you're giving a bottomless backpack for weapons, here you're limited to four: a pistol, a shotgun, a machine gun, and hand tossable grenades.  Each of the guns has an alternate firing mode with the shotgun's bouncing pellets being the most useful as you can slice open bad guys from around corners like some sort of perverse game of pinball.

So the game has some decent canon fodder to shoot and the weapons are effective killing devices but then the game falls a little short in the environment.  Well, not exactly short, but it's just a bit mediocre and has a been there done that feel.  I'm sick of warehouses, high rises, and mining areas, and lots of hallways. I've seen all that before where's some new areas?  Where's the apartments with civilians cowering in fear, the suburbs, churches, schools, gas stations, bowling alleys, police stations, or grocery stores? Ritual loves the titties, where's a strip club where some strippers might get caught in the crossfire? Bingo, that plays to Ritual's two favorite things right there: gratuitous violence and tits! Imagine having to hunt down some bad guys in the back of a bowling alley or chasing them through an elementary school playground where every shot has to count or you ice a child by mistake and your cops turn on you. 

In fact, Levelord if you're reading this, you went to Russia last year. Throw some of what you saw there into the game (well except for the part about having a visit from a hooker. Please!). Don't let the generic architecture of Dallas bring you or your staff down. Yeah, we got a lot of suburbia here unfortunately and it can dull the senses.  But you all can turn that into a plus, man.  Don't go into a grocery store or Wal-Mart anymore just to buy some food, now look at it as a killing field for Blade and Jessica.  Challenge yourselves, stand up on your desk and say this loud and proud: "I don't want another sewer or mine shaft! I want to fight in Irving or Coppell!  Let's blow up a fucking Wal-Mart!"  It might delay the next few chapters but it'd be worth the wait I think.

SiN:Emergence sets up what is supposed to be a multi-chapter adventure from the guys and gals at Ritual.  Perhaps this first chapter is merely the setup but future chapters will hopefully have more varied fighting areas to go along with its challenging gameplay and quality weapons.