Reception
According to Story-Driven Character Design, the "beautiful, sexy" Elexis was the main selling point of the first game. Destructoid's Andy Dixon recalled how back in 1998, he bought SiN instead of Half-Life for one reason: "That's how badly I wanted to see Elexis Sinclaire's polygon boobs." Gendered Bodies and New Technologies found Elexis' character to be fascinating for transforming technology into "Mother Nature." According to Game Design, "it's hard not to argue that sex appeal had something to do with the success of Sin's Elexis Sinclaire." Computer Games Magazine's Jason Cross wrote Elexis has "a body that would make Lara Croft blush." In 2008, MSN featured her among the five characters described as "some of the best-looking game characters with perfect figures", including Lara Croft among others. She was also compared to game characters Dark Queen and Ivy Valentine, as well as to the actress Charisma Carpenter, and held as the high point of the Sin series overall. In a list of the "seven deadly sins of FPS gaming" by iiNet in 2012, Elexis represented lust.
Elexis Sinclaire was received mostly very positively. In 2000, she was voted by the readers of GameSpot to be the ninth best female character in the history of PC gaming. In 2006, the Polish edition of GameStar voted her at 15th place in the poll for the title of "Miss of the Video Game World", while GamesRadar's AJ Glasser featured her in the article about the best breasts in video games, adding: "More than sinful, these magnificent mammillae ought to be illegal." In 2007, she was included on Tom's Hardware among the 50 greatest female characters in video game history, with a comment: "With the brains of a mad scientist and the body of an underwear model, Elexis is one of a kind." That same year, "Elexis' curvy physique" in SiN Episodes "easily squeezed her" into fifth place in ActionVault's list of top "video game chicks". In 2008, GameDaily ranked the SiN Episodes version of Elexis as the 21st top "hottest game babe", while the German magazine PC Games Hardware included her among the 112 most important female characters of PC games twice (separately for her appearances in the original SiN and in Episodes). In 2010, UGO listed her as one of the 50 hottest women games in video games, stating: "Elexis Sinclaire is charming, brilliant, and an absolute fox with nigh-impossible proportions."
Virgin Media also included "the improbably proportioned Elexis" on the list of top ten "game girls you wouldn't dare to date". In 2011, GameHall gave Elexis a special mention before the countdown of the ten most beautiful and deadly video game villainesses, while the Polish web portal Wirtualna Polska featured her among the top ten villainesses in gaming, adding that she looks "pretty well, of course if one likes this type of beauty." In 2010, UGO's K. Thor Jensen included the jacuzzi Easter egg on the list of top 25 sexy video game secrets and also featured the game's final cutscene of Elexis escaping by distracting Blade "with the concept of her vagina" among the 11 weirdest game endings.
There was, however, also some negative reception; in a review of Emergence, Computer Gaming World criticized the "cringe-inducing scenes villainous sexpot Elexis Sinclaire's digitized boobs practically slapping you in the face." Phaedra Boinodiris from WomenGamers.com, talking to GamesRadar in 2007, used Elexis as an example of game characters "sexualized to the point of deformity" as she looked "like she crawled out of an S&M club." In 2011, Wirtualna Polska ranked Elexis from the original SiN as the sixth "most unrealistic and sexist depiction of women in games". In 2012, Cheat Code Central included "Elexis' Hidden Button" scene among the four worst cinematic scenes in games, as "the player's final confrontation with villain Elexis Sinclaire, already dolled up to look like a stereotypical sex worker, involves her 'out-smarting' the player by evoking Basic Instinct's Sharon Stone. Elexis, however, lacks her inspiration's sophistication. Provocative? No. Awkward and nonsensical? Yes."
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