Nightdive is bringing SiN: Reloaded to PC and consoles this September

Nightdive Studios has set a September 24 release date for SiN: Reloaded across PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch.

The remaster of Ritual Entertainment's 1998 first-person shooter was originally announced back in 2020. According to a brief status update from the developer, the long wait for the final release is over.

Overshadowed by Half-Life

The original SiN launched in November 1998. It had the misfortune of hitting store shelves just weeks before Valve released Half-Life, which effectively rewrote the rules for the entire genre overnight. Despite the terrible timing and some notorious launch bugs, SiN managed to build a dedicated following.

Ritual Entertainment, founded by former id Software and Apogee developers, built the game on a heavily modified Quake II engine. They pushed environmental interactivity further than most of their peers. Players could log into DOS-like computer terminals, drive vehicles, and take advantage of location-specific damage hitboxes. Shooting an enemy in the leg actually mattered.

The story puts you in the boots of Colonel John R. Blade, commander of a private security force in the dystopian city of Freeport. Your main target is Elexis Sinclaire, a biochemist running a massive corporation called SinTEK. The whole package is a perfect time capsule of late-90s cyberpunk tropes and action movie excess.

The KEX Engine treatment

Nightdive is running the game through its proprietary KEX Engine, the same framework used for their recent Quake and System Shock restorations. The studio promises 4K resolution support and framerates up to 144 FPS for displays that can handle it. They are also updating the 3D models and high-definition textures to make the 1998 assets look a bit more natural on modern screens.

The package includes the 1999 expansion pack, Wages of SiN. That add-on was actually developed by 2015, Inc., the studio that would eventually go on to create Medal of Honor: Allied Assault. It brings a separate campaign, new weapons, and additional enemy types into the fold.

Nightdive's ports usually clean up the technical rough edges of these older shooters, and SiN definitely has some rough edges to sand down. The remaster includes modernized controller schemes, which is a necessity for the console ports. Trying to play a 1998 PC shooter on a gamepad without heavy input adjustments is usually a miserable experience.

The franchise has been mostly dormant since 2006. Ritual tried to revive the property back then with SiN Episodes: Emergence, an episodic sequel built on the Source engine. That experiment ended after a single installment, and Ritual was eventually acquired by MumboJumbo. Now, Blade gets a second chance to clean up Freeport.