SiN Episodes: Emergence
With all the brough-ha-ha about Half-Life 2: Episode 1, everyone seems to have forgotten about SiN Episodes: Emergence. I purchased Emergence from Steam a week or two before it was released but didn’t play it until recently.
The first thing I noticed about Emergence is that you can very easily tell that it’s using the Source Engine; the graphics are nice and shiny and the physics is very realistic. In particular (and as with Half-Life 2) when a character is speaking their faces move incredibly realistically.
The two biggest down sides to Emergence so are firstly that it’s kind of short; not as short as Half-Life 2: Episode One, but short none the less. Secondly, it’s not quite as imaginative as Half-Life 2 is; there is a lot less thinking and a lot more shooting. Granted that’s kind of subjective (I know a lot of people that prefer not to think when playing games), but it was a little disappointing for me.
The biggest bonus of purchasing Emergence is that it came with the original SiN game, which has been a blast from the past. I only wish that Ritual had been able to redo the game with the Source Engine as Valve did with Half-Life.
All in all, SiN is a lot of fun. Not quite as original as Half-Life 2 (or Episode 1), but the longer play time, good graphics and good cliff hanger ending make up for what it lacks.
