Sinless Review

Sinless is the latest game to jump on the cyberpunk trend, taking full advantage of the genre’s well established tropes. Developed by MGP Studios, Sinless takes the well-established point and click gameplay model, and turns into it into a three part Matrix-inspired trilogy.

The game begins with the main protagonist standing in a tower block, surrounded by escalators. You can see heavy rain pouring down outside through what little light is available. After a little bit of exploration you spot a hooded figure peering at you from the shadows but before you get a word in the mysterious figure is gone.

The story revolves around the idea of the human race being a sheep to technology, exploring the various issues around this. Everyone within Sinless spends their time using mobile phones, spending so little time paying attention to actual reality that they often can’t tell the difference between the two. Ham-fisted metaphors aside, the idea that your character is somehow “the chosen one” that breaks free of this, honestly just screams of Neo from The Matrix. I was half expecting Morpheus to appear and start telling me about how he can only open the door for me.

The art style in Sinless is utterly striking, a mix of dark lighting and bright colours. It’s almost a metaphor for the depression of the human race clashing against the futuristic city. I say depression, as citizens are all on forced digitized medication, ensuring they don’t fall out of line with what the government expects of them. The Omni-Care program structures people’s medication to them on a day to day basis, ensuring they are as productive as possible. It is essentially the perfect setup for your standard “rise against the oppressive government regime”.

Between dialogue and exploration Sinless uses pipe based timed puzzles to help provide a challenge during gameplay. They are often poorly executed though, the puzzles give you very little time to actually complete them, meaning poor design gets in the way of puzzles. Instead of a natural problem solving transition, you find yourself repeating the puzzle over and over again in order to get it right. Navigation is also an issue during Sinless, the game will tell you the name of the building or place you need to visit, but it won’t give you directions. I often found myself aimlessly wandering around until I accidentally found the right way to progress. A simple indicator on the in-game map would make gameplay much easier, although this would likely make the game even shorter than it already is.

The game itself is surprisingly short, with the story only taking a few hours to complete. This is likely because the game is part of a trilogy, with two more games to be released in the future. For £3.99 it’s not too bad, but I’d personally want a little bit more content.

Soundtracks are one of the most important parts of any gaming experience for me, and the music is one of this game's strongest aspects. It perfectly complements the game’s dark tones through a mix of dark synths and broken percussion. The music, together with the art style and sound design, create a believable and tangible world.

Sinless has some great ideas which unfortunately weighed down by bad design choices and an unoriginal story. The game’s aesthetics are often pleasing enough to help soften the banality of the story, providing players with a bearable experience. Progression around the world in Sinless is one of the biggest issues, which annoyingly, could be fixed quite easily. With the game only being a few hours long, I’d recommend waiting for the other two episodes to release first before taking the plunge.