SiN Reloaded – Review – A brilliant remaster for better and for worse!

One thing I always find incredibly fascinating about Nightdive Studios is their ability to dig up games that were once highly relevant, for better or worse, but eventually faded into that gray area between total obscurity and cult classic status. SiN is undeniably one of those titles. When it launched in 1998, it had the miserable misfortune of releasing just as Quake, Half-Life, Unreal, and a few other genre-defining FPS juggernauts hit the scene. Still, Ritual Entertainment crafted something distinct enough to warrant attention. SiN Reloaded now attempts to reintroduce that vision to a modern audience, without mutating the original into an entirely new beast. And that is the most crucial thing to understand before booting this up. If you are expecting a top-to-bottom remake in the vein of System Shock, with cutting-edge modern graphics and entirely overhauled mechanics, you won’t find it here. This is a classic Nightdive reissue. As such, SiN Reloaded is a remaster that preserves the essence of what the game was upon release, its charm, its blocky polygons, while actively sanding down some of its most infuriating edges.

Nightdive utilized their proprietary KEX Engine to enhance the graphics, textures, models, lighting, and UI, while completely modernizing the controls. The maps have been touched up, specific legacy issues have been ironed out, and you can seamlessly toggle between the new and original visuals at any moment. Granted, the difference isn’t mind-blowing, but better particle effects, sharper textures, and significantly improved lighting are always welcome. And the old-school look is always just a button press away if you want a hit of pure nostalgia. Packaged alongside the main campaign is the Wages of SiN expansion, making this the definitive, complete package for anyone looking to experience SiN in its finest form.

The narrative drags us back into that wonderfully unfiltered, chaotic vision of the future developers loved pitching in the late nineties. You step into the boots of Colonel John R. Blade, an operative for the private security firm HardCorps. Early on, you are dealing with what seems like a standard criminal incident. However, it quickly becomes apparent that something far more sinister is brewing. SinTEK Industries, spearheaded by the ruthless Elexis Sinclaire, has developed U4, a narcotic that actively mutates human DNA. Consequently, Blade’s routine mob bust escalates into a massive war against Elexis and her army of genetically modified freaks. And Elexis herself is a huge reason why SiN is so fondly remembered. She is the textbook definition of a ridiculously over-the-top 90s villain: commanding a massive mega-corporation, executing a bizarre futuristic scheme, and possessing enough unearned confidence to turn every cutscene into a theatrical farce. Not to mention the story setup is completely unhinged. The dialogue can be unintentionally hilarious, the characters are walking caricatures, and certain scenarios are so stereotypically “90s” that it’s physically impossible to take them seriously. But that’s all part of the charm, because SiN never once attempted to exercise restraint. It is genuinely refreshing to see today, in an era where everyone is hyper-focused on conforming to current social norms.

The game boasts a surprising amount of environmental interaction, dialogue, and scenarios that actively try to convince you that you are navigating a living, breathing city. Of course, this is a late-90s interpretation of a living city, and Nightdive wisely chose to preserve that specific flavor in Reloaded. You can hack computer terminals, mess with security cameras, operate elevators and vehicles, and encounter numerous situations where your specific approach alters how subsequent events unfold. By today’s standards, where games casually let you hijack forklifts, pilot boats, or fly helicopters, none of this sounds revolutionary. But when you place it back into the context of 1998, it becomes obvious why SiN was so captivating back then. And it might be even more fascinating now, provided you can view it through the lens of a 90s shooter and embrace its retro charm.

And then we get to the meat of it: the gunplay. SiN Reloaded retains that highly satisfying, old-school heft when you draw a weapon. Even though the Quake II Engine is an ancient relic, the way the guns kick, how enemies react to getting shot, and how the combat flows can still be wildly entertaining, at least as an unapologetically goofy retro FPS. However, you need to temper your expectations: do not expect a hyper-kinetic modern boomer shooter with ten different dash mechanics and enemies bouncing around the arena. SiN leans much closer to the classic, methodical FPS formula where you carefully manage your arsenal, utilize cover, memorize enemy behavior, hunt for hidden paths, and puzzle your way to the level exit. I am particularly thrilled that Nightdive rebalanced some of the game’s infamous difficulty spikes. The original SiN could be brutally unfair, especially in the late game, where certain enemies could vaporize you so fast that quicksaving practically became a core combat mechanic. Reloaded effectively mitigates this issue. The damage values for both the player and specific enemies have been tweaked so the game remains challenging without devolving into the sheer frustration it used to be. Sure, that frustration was arguably part of the original experience, but the rebalancing is highly welcome, especially for newcomers. Because of this, Reloaded is, to me, a textbook example of how to execute a remaster. It shouldn’t just be about upscaling textures and dumping the ROM on Steam or modern consoles. If legacy mechanics no longer function well because player standards have evolved, a little mechanical intervention is entirely justified. SiN Reloaded applies these tweaks discreetly enough that the original feel remains intact, but the overall experience is vastly more enjoyable.

There are also highly specific weapon tweaks that, frankly, I don’t remember from the original, but that’s what the internet is for (which wasn’t exactly a household luxury back then). For example, the magnums in the base game can now be dual-wielded, a feature previously restricted solely to the Wages of SiN expansion, and the machine gun animations have been completely overhauled. That might sound like a trivial detail, but when you spend a dozen hours firing the same weapons, those quality-of-life adjustments make a massive difference. The weapons handle faster, the controls are modernized, and the entire game feels much less like you are actively fighting the input lag, which was occasionally the case back in the day. I should note that we played this on the Switch 2 during the review period, but we were technically playing the Switch 1 backward-compatible version, as the native next-gen Nintendo build wasn’t available yet. Even so, I heavily utilized Gyro aiming, and I have to admit it worked flawlessly. I’m slightly bummed I couldn’t test how a mouse and keyboard setup feels, but I certainly wouldn’t be playing it that way while lounging in bed anyway. I sincerely wish more games implemented Gyro aiming this well. Having said all that, do not expect that these tweaks magically modernize the entire game. SiN Reloaded is fundamentally a late-90s game, and its level design aggressively reflects that. You will frequently wander around maps, backtrack through previously cleared rooms, hunt for a missing keycard, hidden switch, or overlooked terminal, and desperately try to figure out where the game wants you to go next. Nightdive did add some subtle visual cues to help guide you, but even with them, you will get lost occasionally. A recent review perfectly noted that while these visual hints are helpful, the archaic level design can still leave you completely disoriented.

And I have to admit, I absolutely love that. I cannot adequately express how sick I am of games constantly holding my hand, which is precisely why I adore remasters of these old-school relics. Today, we are conditioned to expect games to paint a literal neon path to our next objective, highlight the exact door we need, slap a massive arrow on the minimap, and scream at us when it’s time to pick up an item. SiN does the exact opposite. Sometimes you just have to actively pay attention to your surroundings. If you spot a terminal, a camera, or a locked door you currently can’t bypass, there’s a very high probability you will be returning to that exact spot later. Now, as much as I appreciate this, I completely understand that others might find it infuriating, especially those who didn’t grow up playing old-school shooters. That is exactly why it’s fantastic that Reloaded unlocks a level select feature right from the start. If you want to replay a specific mission or jump back to a particular segment of the campaign, you no longer have to slog through everything preceding it, unlike the original. It’s one of those minor quality-of-life additions that we take for granted today, but it proves incredibly useful when returning to a game nearly three decades old.

Graphically, everything is exactly as expected, which shouldn’t surprise anyone. Nightdive implemented new HD textures and models, overhauled the 2D sprites and menus, improved anti-aliasing, and polished the overall visual presentation, complete with support for up to 4K resolutions and blistering frame rates on capable hardware. On the Switch 1 version, it was capped at 60fps, though I strongly suspect the native Switch 2 version will target 120fps. Still, as I mentioned earlier, my absolute favorite visual feature is the ability to instantly toggle back to the original SiN Gold visuals. It’s only when you flip that switch that you truly grasp how much work went into this. The original undoubtedly has its retro charm, but Reloaded smooths out a massive amount of graphical roughness that would likely severely alienate modern players, so much so that they probably wouldn’t even give the game a chance. The environments are vastly more legible, textures are sharper, models are cleaner, and the particle effects look far more natural on modern displays. Crucially, Nightdive didn’t attempt to force photorealism onto SiN. You can still clearly tell this is a game from 1998, and that restraint makes the final result feel remarkably cohesive. The soundtrack also received high-quality remasters; Chris Mock remixed and updated all the tracks, so the music now punches beautifully on modern audio setups. The voice acting and dialogue, on the other hand, remain gloriously trapped in their original era. Some will find them hilarious, others will find them excruciating, and for many, that exact cocktail of utter absurdity and self-seriousness will be the primary reason they keep playing.

And this brings us to the greatest strength, and the greatest inherent flaw, of SiN Reloaded. Nightdive crafted a phenomenal remaster of a game that was already heavily polarizing when it first launched. Objectively speaking, this is an excellently executed remaster, and Nightdive did everything in their power to fix the game and make it highly playable for a modern audience. The core issue is that SiN was never a strictly great game; it was always just “solid.” That doesn’t mean it lacks quality, it has plenty, but its inherent roughness and structural flaws are exactly what cemented its status as a Cult Classic. Nightdive couldn’t fundamentally rewrite the level design, the narrative, or the core gameplay loops. And that is perfectly fine. In fact, I think it’s awesome. You shouldn’t go in expecting SiN Reloaded to magically rival Doom Eternal, Prodeus, or other modern genre titans. Its true value lies elsewhere. It offers a pristine window into one of the more ambitious early attempts to make the FPS genre something more than just shooting things in a hallway, completely free of the technical baggage that plagued the original release.

Before wrapping up, I must mention Wages of SiN, the expansion pack that forms a crucial half of this release. Instead of just offering the base campaign with a few cosmetic tweaks, Reloaded practically fuses the original SiN and its expansion into a single, cohesive package. Wages of SiN delivers a new storyline, fresh enemy types, and unique combat scenarios, making it an incredibly welcome addition when you roll credits on the main campaign and crave just a little more John Blade madness. Interestingly, SiN Reloaded also features online PvP, meaning Nightdive didn’t completely ignore the original’s multiplayer component. Still, it is abundantly clear that the primary focus of this release is the campaign and preserving the single-player experience, so I wouldn’t base a purchase entirely on the multiplayer. What you get here is the opportunity to play a genuine slice of FPS history natively on modern hardware, without having to dig through archaic install files, wrestle with broken keybindings, or pray a nearly thirty-year-old game decides to boot up properly.

We would like to thank Nightdive Studios/Atari for providing us with a copy of the game for review purposes.