Level Design

Thresh's comments in BLACK

Level Design

The first things I noticed about Sin were the beautiful and reality-based levels. Even though Sin uses the Quake II engine, there were no traces of the blue, red, and yellow hues that is the Q2 signature. It really is amazing what 16-bit textures can do. Not unlike Half-Life, Sin emphasizes its realistic surroundings with bright colors and well-lit areas. Sin's bright levels were a great leap out of the dark, gothic theme of Quake, but its sometimes-impenetrable darkness made me feel blinder than a mouse. While you can find light rods (flares) as illumination, the small glow it emanates does little to help brighten up the unlit rooms. I found myself firing off rounds into rooms just so the flash from the gun would make things easier to see. Implementing a flashlight feature (such as in Half-Life) would have made the dark levels far more enjoyable.

Aside from scattered areas of darkness, the level design in Sin was amazing; the level of innovation and interaction is unmatched. You can tell right off the bat that there was a lot of time spent on the little details that takes its level of immersiveness to a whole new dimension. A tasty portion of the objects in the game were either moveable, useable, or breakable - toilets that flushed, showers that turned on, lockers and drawers that opened, wooden planks that creaked, bridges that broke, accessible ATMs and computers, working phones, vehicles you can drive, breakable lights, cups, desks, tables, pictures, bookcases, clocks, windows and more… I swear it was like Duke Nukem plus one. The levels themselves were also a spectacular sight to behold. The one thing I was looking forward to most as I went through the game was waiting to see what the next level would be like and what kind of little trinkets it would possess.

Within certain levels, there are also scripted sequences that the monsters/AI do that greatly enhances the "Wow, I feel like I'm in a movie" type feeling. Scenes that you normally would not expect from a single player 3D shooter game (Unless it's Half-Life), such as the one included in the demo with an enemy grunt kicking over a table to use for cover as soon as you walk through the door. Throughout the game you'll encounter many of these scenes, such as causing avalanches with stray bullets, and so forth. If there's one thing the game does, it keeps you on your toes. :)

Level design varies from tedious to exemplary