SiN: Wages of Sin (1999)

Since the 90s FPS got itself a SiN Gold update on Steam, I've gone to take it out of my cleared games catalog to have a go with its freshly added expansion pack: Wages of Sin. The main protagonist Blade is thrust into another bioweapon-related case, encountering mutants and the Italian crime gang led by Manero.

For being an addition, it certainly carries on the standards of the base game in terms of quality. The level design is neatly detailed and there's a good care for details (save for a few levels like the plain highrise building). Some obstacles require some practical puzzle solving beyond merely shooting through every bad guy in the way, which is a welcome change for fans of stealth as well. For shooter fans though, Wages of Sin features new weapon including the flamethrower, the crossbow and some explosive weapons to diversify the enemy clearing approach.

Even by the mid 90's standards, the writing and the cutscenes feel like you're playing a decent story-based shooter of the modern times, despite the obvious differences. Playing in medium difficulty, though, I knew there were deaths to be expected at tough battles. The final boss fight pushed my patience to the limit as I had to dodge and find some cover to exploit while emptying my arsenal on my adversary. I also had to overcome my fear of fighting spiders in the first levels that were mostly dark and isolated. Fortunately, I'm glad that the worst passed in due time because I got a decent experience of this 90's revival overall.