It's a surprisingly fun game, despite mostly being simplistic boomer shooter.
The way I'd describe SiN Gold is, its like playing action movie. You're constantly on the move, a few stealth missions, a few wacky plot twists that you miraculously overcome(like turning into a mutant for a level, and then turning back at the end of the level), and the gameplay mechanics support this feel.
Enemy variety is decent, and they arent bullet sponges, but they arent paper thin either. Basic crooks are basic to kill, and usually one shot if you aim for the head. Mutants usually take multiple shots into the head but still not as bad as true bullet sponges. Weapon variety is ok, althought pistol+assault rifle(both use same ammo type) maybe are a bit too good. There is a maybe small nitpick I have about guns, in that almost all ammo types except pistol/rifle are pretty rare so you rarely get to play much with other guns.
The level design is probably SiNs biggest strength. Not just in terms of aethetics, but specifically level geometry. So many modern games just make huge corridors and thats it. While in SiN, you'll be moving up and down, left and right,and if you want to conserve your health, you'll have to pay attention to your environment, be able to find boxes that arent destructible to hide behind, or use as cover. The devs themselves also know how to utilise a good boomer shooter level, from the enemy placements where they actually face towards you when you open doors(almost like they know the intruder is there),to the fact theres tons of ambushes, to the fact the level has tons of secrets to find, secondary objectives to do and secret exits. Some of these secret exits and objectives even let you play a bonus level(which is optional and you can skip it, or fail to find it). Its insane how few games have even done something like that, its very ambitious, and while there arent that many bonus levels, it still gives the game replayability that I wish more fps games had.
On top of all that, you also get Wages of SiN expansion, which doubles down on almost all the positives of original SiN. You get more guns, more enemy variety, slightly better paced and executed story(although I dont think its bad that SiN had meh story, since the best part were banter between your character and JC, and their voice actors return in wages of sin). The only problem with the expansion is no bonus levels, which felt like THE biggest upside of SiN, that made it stand out amongst the other boomer shooters.
So yeah, this is a must buy for any fps/boomer shooter enthusiats out there, even without a discount(althought it does go for a very good discount). You're missing out if you play indie boomer shooters, but not playing SiN Gold.
