Most people don't get a second chance. That's especially true in the game development business. Yet a second chance is exactly what Ritual Entertainment made for themselves. Ritual, the Dallas-based 3D shooter shop born from ex-3D Realms employees, hopes its upcoming third-person shooter, Heavy Metal F.A.K.K. 2, which runs on a modified version of the Quake III engine, will make up for the disappointment of their debut game, SiN.

Two years ago, Ritual’s first stab at gaming glory came in the form of SiN, a first-person shooter released with so many bugs that it was almost unplayable out of the box.  Promoted to no end by publisher Activision (the demo release date in July 1998 was dubbed “Sinday Bloody Sinday”), SiN was supposed to be one of the biggest first person shooters of 1998.  Unfortunately, given the bugs in the game and the release of Half-Life around the same time, Sin quickly dropped off radar.  (Even though Ritual promptly released patches to address SiN’s shortcomings, the damage had already been done to Ritual's reputation).

"We definitely have tried to get our heads up with F.A.K.K. 2. I mean, we got kicked in the gut with SiN," says Robert Atkins, Ritual's art director. "But among us the chemistry here is ten times better than it was when we were finishing SiN. I feel very comfortable about our next games."

Artistically, SiN wasn't a failure. In fact, there's a cult following for the game. "Like any of the old-school Quakers, or Doom players, it just is the game for a certain group," says Maarten Goldstein, who runs Ritualistic.com, a fansite dedicated to covering Ritual's games, in an email. "SiN somehow captured the heart of a group of players. Its interactivity -- recently only matched by Elite Force -- and its great multiplayer options (there was never a lag problem so at least people could always play online) were just things that couldn't be found in current games. To this day, there are still people playing SiN, and our forums are still active even though it's been almost two years since the game came out." 

Yet rabid Sin fans yearning for more from the game’s red-leather-clad sireness, Elexis Sinclair, need not worry, as October will signify the DVD release of an hour-long Japanese anime film based on the SiN universe.  Believe it or not, SiN is the first first person shooter to be turned into an animation movie, a fact that only further cements the game’s cult status.

But come to think of it, it's fitting that a game developer who created a cult game, which has been turned into an animated film, would take on making a video game based on a sequel to a cult animated classic, Heavy Metal. So, for Ritual, you could say things have almost come full circle -- the only thing missing is that elusive breakthrough hit.  If the reaction at this year’s E3 is any indication, F.A.K.K. 2 might do the trick.