Once again, the Christmas season is being deluged with games of all kinds. While Unreal had the advantage of a summer release, just about every game coming out between today and December 25 is going to have to offer something extraordinary to distinguish itself, let alone warrant a purchase. Among the sea of shooters, one of the higher-profile ones is Ritual's Sin. We recently received an exclusive beta build of Sin, which is nearing completion and is about to hit stores sometime early next month. We've had enough time to play it, give it a shakedown, and offer our impressions of it as a whole.

Cutscenes such as this meeting between Elexis and Mancini use the in-game engine to maintain the look rather than FMV.

Sin is Ritual's first full product, as it's previously worked under the shadows of other, more well-known, developers. Members of the Ritual team used to be part of 3DRealm's Duke Nukem 3D team, and Ritual developed the first Quake mission pack for id software. So far, Ritual has an extremely solid game on its hands. Like many other developers, it took the core Quake II engine and tinkered with it to make something meatier than a mere Total Conversion. What ultimately makes Sin a game worth looking at is the enhanced interactivity within the gameworld and the outstanding level design of the talented Ritual crew.

As you progress through the levels, your sidekick JC will periodically give you updates as to what your mission goals are.

If you've played the demo, then you know how Sin begins. You're portraying John Blade, chief of the security company Hardcorps. You're answering a call for a bank heist, and as you chase down the ringleader, you stumble onto a massive plot engineered by Elexis Sinclair, the CEO of the SinTek corporation. The game spans 26 levels divided among six episodes. The game overall is mission based, with your sidekick JC giving you updates via a comlink, and game engine-rendered cutscenes appearing occasionally to enhance the plot.

Next: A look at the changes and additions to basic gameplay