Nightdive's SiN remaster is back from the dead

Nightdive Studios has revived its long-dormant remaster of the 1998 shooter SiN. The developer announced that SiN: Reloaded will launch in 2026 for PC and all major consoles. The project was originally revealed in September 2020 with a planned 2021 release window, but the studio quietly put it on ice to focus on finishing its System Shock remake. Now, a new trailer confirms the game is back in active development.

The footage is labeled as pre-alpha. It shows off updated character models and environments running on Nightdive's proprietary KEX Engine. The video includes glimpses of returning protagonist John R. Blade and antagonist Elexis Sinclaire, who sets the tone early in the trailer:

Hello, Blade. Welcome to my little kitchen of horrors.

We also get a look at the game's arsenal. The footage shows assault rifles, heavy explosive weapons, and deployable energy shields.

The other November 1998 shooter

Ritual Entertainment originally released SiN for PC in November 1998. It is a cyberpunk-adjacent shooter set in the megacity of Freeport, where you play as a private security commander fighting a biotechnology megacorporation. The developers rushed the game out the door to beat Valve's Half-Life to market by just ten days.

That decision resulted in a notoriously buggy launch. The game required massive patches just to function properly, which was a major hurdle for players on dial-up internet. SiN had some genuinely forward-thinking ideas for the time, including location-based damage, drivable vehicles, and interactive computer terminals that required actual DOS-style commands. Unfortunately, it was completely overshadowed by Valve's massive success and the technical issues that plagued its own release.

Nightdive acquired the rights to the property in 2020 and released an untouched version called SiN Gold. This new Reloaded edition is a full remaster built from the ground up. According to the official Steam store page, it includes high-definition textures, modernized control schemes for gamepads, and an upgraded user interface.

What you get

The release bundles the base game with the 1999 Wages of SiN expansion pack, which was originally developed by 2015 Games. Players will have the option to toggle between the new remastered visuals and the original graphics on the fly. It also supports up to 4K resolution at 144 frames per second on compatible hardware, along with anti-aliasing and upgraded menu art.

The trailer ends with a spinning counter that lands on 2026. While that might look like a joke about the game's five-year delay, official press materials confirm it is the actual release window. The remaster will be available on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and PC via Steam, GOG, and the Epic Games Store.

SiN never really got a fair shake in 1998. Between the game-breaking bugs and the cultural juggernaut it had to compete against, it was doomed from the start. Giving it a clean, functional release nearly three decades later might finally let people see what Ritual Entertainment was trying to build before the schedule caught up with them.