The beginning of the game felt kind of slow. When you fire up a first person shooter, the first thing you wonder is "when do I get to do the shooting?" Well, hold on. You must pass the story parts first, so don't get too excited. Ah, story…let's talk about that for a moment. You are playing John Blade (the main character from the original SiN released back in '98.) Basically your whole objective is to stop the main bad girl, Elexas Sinclaire, from turning people into these grotesque mutant war machines. Elexas is as typical as antagonists come, even down to the diabolical laugh. What will really make her stand out to you is the fact her chest will take up the majority of your screen. Her um…feminine assets end up reaching the point of absurd, but…I guess that isn't the focus of the game, so we'll forgive it.

Blade is helped along periodically by a young girl named Jessica. I mean, as long as they were throwing clichй action characters into the game, they could not possibly leave out the typical beautiful heroine whose ability to easily kill people gives her enough confidence to walk around with her thong underwear showing. At least she is helpful when she does show up in the missions, whether you use her to help you shoot things or hide behind her as a human shield.

The gameplay is pretty standard for a first person shooter. Nothing new or innovative, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. You will have access to three different weapons during this episode: the pistol, a shotgun, and an assault rifle. What I do like about these weapons is that you will constantly find a use to swap between them because they each have a little more utility than just their rate or range of fire. The pistol packs a lot of punch per shot, has very little recoil and I found it to be the easiest weapon to aim with - good for headshots. The shotgun is, as usual, good in close range and when enemies are pigeonholed into hallways or doorways. The assault rifle has a scope on it, and its only drawback is its massive recoil when you hold the fire button down. It can throw off your aim if you're careless.

Each weapon has an alternate fire. The pistol has a stronger single shot (also used to stun larger enemies later on), the shotgun has a nasty wider spreading shot and the assault rifle has a very useful grenade launcher. Hand grenades are also very plentiful from dead bad guys, and you can hold up to five at a time. It's morbidly funny to watch a bad guy flail around on fire after he's been hit with an explosion. Well done on the animations, at least.

The graphics are nice, but nothing special. The best scenes in the game came from fighting in the final tower. You could look down and see a beautiful cityscape as bad guys flanked you with bullets and grenades. There are about six different types of enemies in the game which leaves plenty of room for diversity. While the game may start slow, it does pick up and these enemies will start coming at you faster and in larger groups. You won't find yourself bored, believe me.

You can adjust the difficulty setting and how fast the game becomes easier or harder based on how well you are doing. If you keep dying a lot, the game will automatically pull the difficulty back a little. Enemy aim and reaction time comes down. The enemy AI isn't all that impressive to begin with. The smartest thing they will do is throw a grenade in your general direction. If you're hunkered down behind something or stuffed away in a corner, you might find yourself reloading your last save very soon. The number of enemies and the way they come out at you is what presents a challenge. Sometimes they will drop from the ceiling or swing around a corner just as you do. Once you are aware of their position you can usually take them out easily enough.

For $20 (sometimes less), I do think SiN is worth a go. It can take you up to 6 hours to finish it - perhaps less if you're good. I was entertained the entire time, and I had fun, so I think the game hit its intended purpose. Plus, if multiplayer does come around as promised and gives this game that much more replay value, I'd say it's definitely worth a buy.