Okay before we start, let's take a trip down memory lane. Don't worry it won't be very long - I have a small bowl of water inside my head with a goldfish that serves to hold my memories. Despite being a little disturbed at the blancmange brain it's stored in and the lack of lighting, it does an exceedingly good job - just as long as I don't actually have to remember anything. I've been meaning to buy another one so, you know, I can remember more than three seconds. [Having somehow guessed an obscure reference to an old TV show that he's barely old enough to remember in an email I just sent to him, I know that Nik's memory is far better than he's letting on! Ed].

Anyway, back in 1998, the universally acclaimed Half-Life was released and became an almost instant classic, getting pretty much 10/10 everywhere and subsequently snapping up just about every game award. Less than a month before a notably rushed game called SiN was released and because it had been rushed out to beat Half-Life to the shelves, it was extremely buggy, which garnered it a very bad reception. Despite these flaws, SiN managed to gain a classic award from PC Zone, which is actually the reason you're being told this story; I got my hands on the game because of that particular review and, by all rights, if it hadn't been rushed out, it would have floored Half-Life in the reviews, as it was a long way ahead.

It was the first game to feature body specific hit zones (allowing the likes of headshots), which if omitted in a game released today would result in said game being condemned as an unholy sin upon the world, along with the developers being burnt at the stake - for the, umm, good of humanity, of course. It featured driveable vehicles, which are generally people's favourite thing in Halo. It had action-based outcomes, which depending on the players' actions, determined how you completed the level and could have major repercussions in later levels. Sadly this feature never really caught on and is quite possibly the reason I haven't wanted to really play a FPS since Half-Life 2 and Halo, before that betrayed me in the latter half.

The graphics in the game were astounding for the time; explosions were the best around, far surpassing Half-Life's, and the weapons fire had tracer's standard. The enemies had fluid motion, which up until this game had been extremely jerky and they had some of the best textures around. The settings were remarkable and the action-based outcomes meant you could end up flooding levels or causing gigantic explosions. The more you interacted, the better the game looked, yet it was unheard of and largely still is.

The final feature was SiN's high level of interactivity, which came in the form of Easter Eggs hidden in vast amounts, and even started the craze of hidden rooms that has caught on in almost every game since. [Although the original Doom, granddaddy of them all, had its fair share of secrets and hidden rooms. Ed] This was possibly one of the game's best features, as it made it quite unique. You could, if you were cunning enough, break into the bank account of your archenemy and transfer all of her savings into your own account, break generally everything and just waste time doing things most games wouldn't let you in a million years.

Unfortunately, it disappeared with only a few memories of the lucky few who actually played the game; well you can actually be one of the lucky few too, as not only do you get SiN Episode 1: Emergence, but also the original SiN, either off the disc or through Steam. That's right, by some bizarre quirk of fate, two games that by all rights should have stayed rivals are now available through the same system, but once again SiN has beaten Half-Life, this time to be released episodically - and this time it has been done right.

The story starts with the character you play, John Blade, laid out on a lab table with your archenemy Elexis Sinclaire, who you battled with in the first SiN. She's the classic comic book bad girl, being disproportionately top heavy, and her claim to notoriety is taking over her father's genetics company, SinTEK, after he mysteriously disappeared and then developing the drug U4 that contains a mutagen to aid in her aim of speeding up evolution. Also present is the cartel leader Viktor Radek, who evidently distributes the U4 to the people on the street.

The two have injected you with something and it isn't the standard mutagen, as Elexis puts it in one of her super villain over-verbose riffs that U4 is too unrefined and has designed a drug specifically for him to unleash his true potential. This time you're not on a solo mission, as your protégé Jessica Cannon breaks in guns blazing and scares the two villains off.

You chase after Viktor Radek to try and get an antidote to whatever they injected you with. This involves a nice leisurely 'run like a little girl!' moment out of the building, as you have no weapons whatsoever and have to hide behind Jessica to get out; not exactly a good start for the legendary leader of HardCORPS security! This opening scene is especially potent for mastering that 'run like a little girl!' skill; it will most definitely come in handy later.

Still without a gun, Jessica kicks you into her car and you have a trip out session with what I'm guessing are telekinetic dreams of Elexis, or implanted memories of her spilling more of her evil schemes, whilst in an ocean wearing a bikini, which is admittedly a little unconventional but undoubtedly original. While on the way you run into a SinTEK checkpoint and one of the guards says, "You're out of your jurisdiction," and asks where you're headed. After a little diplomatic argument, Jessica decides to tell him, and this is where the game's humour kicks in as she says, "South corner of f*** and you!" Then she slams on the gas and breaks through the roadblock.

Eventually you get a gun and can actually put up a fight against the SinTEK grunts; they range in difficulty depending on your settings and the game's dynamic difficulty means that they will adjust to your skill level. The early ones are simple - a well-placed headshot from your excessively accurate magnum can take them down in a single shot - the only problem is they take cover behind everything. The later ones also flank you, try to flush you out with grenades and use their weapons' secondary fire, which depending on the weapon can hit you around corners, through thin walls or just send a rocket your way.

Following Viktor, you are led into a secret drugs lab in an overturned tanker at the docklands, and this is where you see the first traces of Elexis' mutants and how to really hurt them with the anti-gen spray (which heals wounds). You confront Viktor, have fun with the villainous boasting from both him and a holographic Elexis, which distracts you long enough for Viktor to escape in a miniature submarine and start the self-destruct sequence - I mean, come on, who does that in an already destroyed ship?

This is where you get to practice that 'run like a little girl!' skill we talked about earlier, as there are now mutants free everywhere... these aren't nice ones either. Your pistol does almost nothing against them, your shotgun kills them in two hits to the head but they have to be within swinging distance. Oh and there's these little ones, you'll likely be reminded of the headcrabs from Half-Life, but consider the headcrabs nice, as these ones shoot you with mutagen spray and dodge your shotgun blasts. Grenades don't do anything; you just end up with a literally flaming mutant charging at you and at this time - you guessed it - you run like a little girl!

Once you get up top, you find yourself up against what looks like a mutated rhinoceros, only much larger and capable of sending shockwaves through the ground. Now you probably know what I'm going to say right now - run like a little girl! You'll use up pretty much all your ammo on this thing and then you can relax... ahh, isn't that nice? That gentle pitter patter of rain is soothing isn't it? Last time I checked, rain didn't come from a chain gun, so again, run like a little girl!

These chain gunners are tough and you'll face off against a lot of them, especially later in the game. The key to killing them is the rocket propelled grenade equipped on the assault rifle, but you probably just used up all of those trying to kill the big ass rhinoceros. I managed to kill him by pistol-whipping him and then died because he explodes. Second time I knew better and kept an RPG in hand, which I missed with and then died again. Third time's a charm and I mutilated that rhinoceros - hallelujah!

The story continues as you chase Viktor and the action just gets more and more intense as it goes. You fight your way through one of the SinTEK buildings, literally walking through chain gunners; I became a precision shot with the RPG, just planting them into the head of the chain gunners and riddling them with bullets, getting an RPG off their corpse and then repeating the process, or if you don't find an RPG, well, you know by now what you're supposed to do.

Throughout the game you're patched up with a comlink to Jessica and JC back at base, the illustrious computer hacker who Blade hired after he hacked into the HardCORPS computer system. They both add some comic relief to the proceedings, with JC constantly having a go at Jessica, although when fighting alongside Jessica I frequently ended up shouting things at the screen and this is possibly why I love the game, as it's oddly reminiscent of Fallout, where you're intended to taunt the enemies yourself.

The game runs on a slightly modified Source engine, which powered Half-Life 2 and produces astounding graphics here once again. One of the new features introduced by Ritual is vehicle damage zones; the original Source engine allowed vehicles only to have one material property - basically glass would behave as metal on a car. This has all changed, so you can blow off individual parts of cars and in a later level you have to take on SinTEK soldiers on a drive-by, which normally ends up with the doors missing from your car, making you extremely vulnerable.

Music in games are typically good, although nothing exciting, and some are more immersive than others, but when you finish playing a game and find yourself humming the theme tune you know it's an amazing soundtrack, and this reminds me of the Bond soundtrack... well, before it turned into middle-aged men having a midlife crisis, racing sports cars and trying to sleep with women half their age. The soundtrack's up for sale on iTunes and I find myself oddly compelled to buy it, which has never happened to me with any soundtrack before.

I do have to say, I love the episodic style, as well as the budget price without the sacrifice of it being an awful game. Its SiN, so there's tons of replayability too; I've been through it twice in the space of a weekend, which is a first for a shooter - it took a year before I touched Half-Life 2 again. The promise is really in the longer term though, as the story advancement is based on the general community direction in the game. They aim to have three episodes in a series, which with a playtime of between four and eight hours means that a full series will be far longer and deeper than a single game, but the best part of all is that they're going to release an episode every six months, instead of the now standard three year wait for a sequel. How can you lose? Now anyone who answers that has likely pointed out that you have to wait to play the next part, well, boo hoo buddy, you'd be waiting much longer for the full game, so it's a moot point.

As it runs on Steam, this means constant patching without even having to lift a finger. At present there isn't any multiplayer support, which is highly unfortunate, but this is expected with the next update and if you're that desperate to play SiN multiplayer then there's always the original (it comes free, don't panic).

SiN Episode 1: Emergence is action packed from start to finish and doesn't relent until the final bullet is fired. The AI is supreme and in some cases can outsmart you, as they call for backup, flank you or try to flush you out with a grenade - all that and they'll just smack you in the face with the butt of their gun if you get too close. The level style means you can take multiple paths with multiple outcomes, which will have repercussions later in the story, and this makes it almost impossible to resist coming back to play it again and again, even straight after the first time you complete it. There's just no denying that Emergence kicks ass, and it kicks it hard! Watch out Half-Life, your old rival is back and demanding the attention it missed out on the first time around…

Reviewed by Nik Gregory for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).