Nightdive Studios has been consistently knocking out impressive remasters of both beloved and niche oldies for a long time now, but the refresh of 1998’s cult-classic first-person shooter SiN – originally announced in 2020 – was put on ice in 2023 in order to focus on other projects. After years of fan requests, however, it’s back on track and coming to newly announced platforms later this year – with a Steam demo out now.
Nightdive re-announced SiN: Reloaded back in March, and the long-awaited remaster has now received a substantial gameplay trailer alongside a Steam demo you can download and play right now. The full game doesn’t have a release date yet, but we know it’s launching before the end of 2026 on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Switch, and PC.
SiN was originally developed by Ritual Entertainment and followed protagonist Colonel John R. Blade as he prowled the dystopian megacity of Freeport, somewhere in the now not-so-far-flung future of 2037, as he tracked a recreational drug with ties to a shadowy corporation known as SinTek. It was built using the Quake 2 engine, but Nightdive’s remaster utilises the studio’s own proprietary (and cross-platform) KEX Engine.
SiN: Reloaded includes the original game and its Wages of SiN extra mission pack, and Nightdive promises up to 4K resolution at 144 FPS. That’s alongside extra graphical features like anti-aliasing, HD textures and models, plus upgraded 2D art and menu art – all cleaning the visuals up while preserving the original’s style. Purists, though, can “swap between remastered visuals and the original SiN Gold version”.
Other remaster improvements include overhauled control schemes and a rework of certain maps “throughout the game”. Last but not least, achievements have also been added.
“There were two games that we had that we felt were obligations… One was System Shock 2,” Larry Kuperman, former VP of business development at Nightdive told Polygon back in March. “Sin was the other one. Because we owned the rights to Sin, we always put it on the backburner when we had other time-critical projects.” Six years later, the studio is ready to deliver.
Though online multiplayer was always included, SiN is mostly remembered for its story-driven campaign, which mixed goofy elements with dystopian world-building. While not as satirical as other FPS classics like Duke Nukem 3D, it’s still an unserious affair, and that (plus the satisfying gunplay, of course) has earned it quite the loyal following over the decades.
