SiN: Reloaded Review

Nightdive fixed everything that broke this game in 1998. The real question is whether the shooter underneath was ever worth fixing.

SiN: Reloaded is another quality piece of work from Nightdive Studios. The game works right out of the box, with none of the issues that plagued the original 1998 launch. The remaster itself is handled well — but the real question is how the game holds up in 2026.

I have to confess, I was never a big fan of SiN when it first released. Graphically, it runs on a modified Quake II engine, and if you've spent any time with Quake II, you can tell immediately. The launch itself was rough — bugs were everywhere. My personal issue was the game hanging on the very first mission, the moment you drop into the bank. No matter what I tried, I couldn't get past it. The game just crashed, every time.

Eventually I shelved it, telling myself I'd come back to it later. Then, on November 19th, 1998, I went out to pick up another new PC release: Half-Life. From the first tram ride, I was hooked — obsessed, even. The story was engrossing, the music was fantastic, the gameplay was top-notch. I played it, beat it, and went right back and beat it again.

I finally returned to SiN sometime in 1999. Patches had been released, and I'd upgraded my PC. The game loaded and ran decently enough — no major crashes this time. But the gameplay? It paled in comparison to Half-Life, at least for me.

Loading it up in 2026, there are no long load times, no music bugs, no stability issues. It's another solid remaster from Nightdive, full stop. But the real question remains: how's the gameplay itself, decades later? Much to my surprise, I actually enjoyed my time with it. According to Steam, I finished it in just under 9 hours — not bad at all for the $30 price tag.

The gameplay is a standard '90s shooter through and through: lots of enemies, lots of guns, and of course, an over-the-top amount of blood and gibs. There are puzzles scattered throughout, but nothing that'll give you any real trouble. Blade keeps up a running commentary full of goofy one-liners, and his back-and-forth banter with JC adds a bit of personality that a lot of shooters from this era didn't bother with.