SiN Reloaded Tips for Beginners: What to Know Before You Suit Up as John Blade

SiN Reloaded is out, and I’ve already had a few people ask me whether it’s worth jumping into if they never played the original.

Short answer? Yes.

But you need to know what you’re getting into.

This is Nightdive Studios’ remaster of Ritual Entertainment’s 1998 shooter, and it comes bundled with the Wages of SiN mission pack. It costs $29.99 and it’s on PC (Steam and GOG), PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Switch, and Switch 2.

Here’s the thing. Playing SiN is like taking a road trip in 1998.

You get a paper map, a full tank, and a “good luck.” There’s no GPS voice telling you to turn left in 300 feet.

Modern shooters hand you the GPS. SiN hands you the map and trusts you to read it.

If you go in expecting that, you’ll have a great time.

Pick a difficulty you can actually live with

SiN has three difficulty levels, and each step up makes the enemy AI noticeably smarter. Enemies take cover, call for backup, and come looking for you.

My advice is simple. Start on the easiest or middle setting for your first run.

You’re going to spend a lot of time figuring out where to go. You don’t need to be getting shredded while you do it.

Save the hardest setting for your second trip, once you already know the roads.

Your first playthrough is for learning the map, not proving how tough you are.

Save constantly and keep more than one save

Think of saves as gas stations. On this road trip, you stop at every single one.

SiN has some old-school jank that the remaster didn’t fully sand off. Enemies can spawn right behind you, and there have been reports of the occasional softlock and doors that refuse to open.

So don’t rely on one save slot. Rotate a few, and always save before any platforming section, because the jumping in this game is not its strong suit.

On PC, quicksave sits on F6. The keybinding menu has also been a little finicky at launch, so check your controls before you start.

If you haven’t saved in the last few minutes, save now.

Your objectives screen is the only map you get

There’s no mini-map. There are no objective markers.

So how do you know where to go?

You open the objectives screen. On PS5 that’s Triangle.

Whatever you’re playing on, find that button early, because you’ll be hitting it a lot.

Missions have primary objectives and secondary objectives. Primary ones usually tick off as you push through the level, while secondary ones take some actual effort to complete.

The remaster did brighten up the famously dark levels and added better signposting. You’ll still get lost sometimes, though.

That’s part of the trip.

When you’re stuck, read the objectives again before you start wandering.

Aim for the head (seriously)

SiN was one of the first shooters with locational damage, and it still matters a ton here.

The magnum, shotgun, assault rifle, and sniper rifle all care about where your bullets land. A headshot does roughly 2 to 4 times the damage of a body shot, and hitting arms and legs does less.

Explosives and energy weapons work differently. They just do their damage no matter where they hit.

You can also shoot weapons out of enemies’ hands. A disarmed guard is a lot less scary.

Every body shot is ammo you’ll wish you had later.

Your armor comes in three pieces

This one catches new players off guard. Armor isn’t one number in SiN.

You’ve got a riot helmet, a flak jacket, and flak pants, and each piece wears down on its own depending on where you get hit.

Without armor, your health drops fast. So grab every piece you see, even if you think you’re topped off.

One more catch. Fall damage and environmental damage skip your armor and go straight to your health.

Treat armor like your spare tire: you only notice it’s gone when you really need it.

Ammo is tight, so start punching things

Ammo is pretty scarce early on, and you’ll end up using your fists more than you’d expect. They do decent damage to nearby enemies and they cost nothing.

Fists also break wooden crates, which are full of supplies. Crates with metal trim can’t be broken, so don’t waste your time on those.

Keep your shotgun shells for the big mutants. Regular guards can eat magnum rounds to the face.

For healing, you’ll find stims in three sizes (5, 20, and 50 health) plus a surprising amount of food lying around.

Yes, pizza heals you. It’s 1998. Just go with it.

If a regular enemy is close enough to punch, punch it.

Know what’s in your arsenal

You’ll build up a big collection of guns, and a few of them are worth knowing about ahead of time.

The chaingun doubles as a grenade launcher, and the grenades share ammo with the rocket launcher. Grenades are weak on their own, but you can set one off with another for a bigger blast.

The pulse rifle fires plasma or lightning and hits hard. Spider mines are great for setting traps before a fight.

Then there’s the Quantum Destabilizer, which you build from three parts scattered through the game. Hold the trigger to charge it, but hold it too long and it blows up in your hands.

On consoles, the weapon wheel and item wheel make swapping a lot less painful than it was in 1998.

Don’t hoard your best weapons for a “perfect moment” that never shows up.

Don’t be scared of the computers

Some of the computer terminals in SiN drop you into a DOS-style command prompt. You type commands to open doors, move machinery, and stuff like that.

It looks intimidating if you’ve never seen DOS. It isn’t.

Read what’s on the screen, poke around, and pay attention to anything JC tells you over the radio. You can also use security camera monitors to scout rooms before you walk into them.

The terminals are the road signs, and the game actually expects you to read them.

Your choices change the levels

This is the coolest thing about SiN, and a lot of people miss it completely.

What you do in one level can change later levels, and some actions send you down a completely different route.

Finishing certain secondary objectives can unlock bonus missions. Hacking into a SinTEK database can open up an extra level, and there’s even a spot where “failing” by getting pulled into a whirlpool drops you into a hidden area.

Some choices also block other paths. So you won’t see everything in one run.

Is that frustrating?

Kind of. It’s also a big reason to play through twice.

A wrong turn in SiN is sometimes the scenic route.

A few quick Wages of SiN tips

Wages of SiN is right there in the menu, so you don’t have to beat the main game first. It picks up John Blade’s story with a new mob boss, Gianni Manero, trying to take over Freeport City.

Don’t count on a flashlight here. You get a limited supply of glowsticks instead, so don’t burn through them in rooms you can already see in.

The good news is the flamethrower. It’s absurdly strong, and you should use it without any guilt at all.

If the main campaign felt tough, the flamethrower is your reward for sticking with it.

Fold up the map and get going

SiN Reloaded looks a lot better than the original, but under the hood it’s still a 1998 shooter. It won’t hold your hand, and some of the old jank is still there.

That’s fine. Check your objectives, save at every gas station, aim for heads, and punch a few crates along the way.

If you’re in the mood for more old-school shooting after this, check out our Darkenstein 3D review. It’s free and it’s a blast.

Now fold up the map. Colonel Blade has a city to clean up.

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Images in this article are from the SiN Reloaded page on Steam and used under Fair Use.