SiN: Episodes has gotten off to a pretty good start with Emergence, so it remains to be seen if Ritual can keep the excitement going over the course of their bold experiment. As far as the episodic content is concerned, the quality of several of the levels and scenes along with the presentation in terms of the voice acting and especially the music certainly can help to justify the purchase. Although there are reports of players having blown through the game in less than four or so hours, these seem to be more of the exception than the norm. My own playthrough along with others that have posted their own experiences with the game certainly comes close or passes the five or six hour mark that Ritual has said it would give and there's always the choice of increasing the difficulty to score even better in the statistics that you can upload. Ritual has said that depending on the actions of the players in what they do to get through Emergence, future episodes may reflect the most common trends to shape what might be offered later.

On the more technical side of things, Emergence isn't perfect. It tends to break up the flow of the game with unexpected loads while walking through hallways or going up stairs. These aren't quick loads, either, but thankfully they don't happen in the middle of a firefight. There were also instances where I noticed an odd stuttering to the sound during certain level transitions. There are also the usual odd clipping issues when foes get stuck in doors or walls as well as one area that had a broken portal where I literally couldn't see the next zone until I walked through empty space and ended up inside a hallway. For the most part, however, Emergence was pretty stable and ran like a champ.

In addition to using Valve's Source engine, Emergence's episodic take to the franchise was also a new approach to design and distribution that many players would voice some concern about. Paying $20 for three to six hours of gameplay didn't seem like much of a bargain, and asking players to potentially shell out almost as much for the next chapter was almost unheard of. Ritual was taking a few risks with Emergence and it remains to be seen how well this will work out in the long run. SiN Episodes: Emergence was purchased on Steam and is available for play solely for the PC at the time of this review. If you purchase it on Steam, you will also get both the original SiN and its multiplayer bundled in with the first episode.

Next Time, On SiN…
Emergence brings to the table a lot of old school FPS action backed by rivers of blood and chunks of scattering gore. With Ritual including the original game on top of the price of admission, Emergence has something to offer the gamer that is looking to experience the kind of no frills gunplay that SiN was famous for, which may be a mixed blessing for some. Aside from the environment and personal nuances that Ritual has added to the formula backed by Valve's heavily tweaked Source engine, the gameplay is still very much a run 'n gun shooter. But while it is simplistic in its approach to its overall gameplay, it's still a good first step for the revitalized franchise and does a lot of things right in the carnage that it allows the player to leave behind.