Pariah

"I expected too much"

Pariah is a game that is created by the same people who made Unreal. However, it is also the same people who made Unreal 2. Unfortunately, this game is more like Unreal 2. I personally was looking forward to this game, and had high hopes. Apparently I set my hopes too high, as this game was a huge disappointment.

Graphics
The graphics of this game a decent enough. However, everything has a “blurry” effect. This is cool during some of the cut-scenes, but it ends up hindering the overall coolness of the graphics. The water effects look very bad when compared to HL2 or Far Cry. This is because it's using the Unreal engine, which is being pushed to compete with the new engines. On the other hand, there are some really cool effects, particually the rockets and the explosions.

Sound
The sound is very well done. All the voices and yells sound real. The vehicles sound like they should. And of course, all the stuff blowing up sounds nice. There were a few issues with the surround sound. However, it was barely noticeable while playing the game.

Controls
Nothing special. Your basic FPS controls are used in this game. Most of the guns have only one mode of fire. You can zoom with the right mouse button.

Game-play
The game play of this game is what makes it such a generic shooter. Just like in Unreal 2, there is nothing revolutionary about running around trying to find something with your basic arsenal of guns. Now what the big improvement was supposed to be was weapon customization. It isn't anything too special. You can customize you shotgun to reload faster, and make it a tighter shot. You can have the sniper rifle hold more rounds, big deal. The only good thing is the armor piercing option for the sub-machine gun. This comes in real handy later in the game when they come at you with armor.

Then we have the checkpoint save system. It should be illegal for a pc game to come out with a checkpoint save system. There are some points in the game where you have a while before you get to the next save point, and there are a ton of enemies. Not only that but you have a Halo rip-off of a health system. You have about 6 bars of health. So long as a bar does not completely get drained, it can regenerate. I'm not a fan of that system, but it worked for Halo, I guess it can work here.

Another big disappointment is that you can't just drive any vehicle. I managed to knock off an enemy from on of their cycles, and I couldn't get on it. Later in the game you can, because it's scripted, but you can't just pick up one that an enemy is meant to ride. That's just programmers not going the extra mile to give you a better game.

The only exception to all of this is the last level. It is awesome because you get an alien gun and you can just blast everything and everyone. A very good final level.

Story
The story starts out good enough. You are transporting someone who is in stasis to a medical facility of some sort. You are shot down and you begin fighting all these pirates and mercenaries. Then it gets really fishy. You start to learn about an alien race, but only their name, and not much background info. You never really find out just whom the hell the girl is that you are escorting. Only that everyone else wants here. Then you find out the aliens want her as well, and then it gets very confusing. Not much of a lasting story. At least Half-life didn't leave you with confusing questions; it left you with cliffhanger questions. Plus, I have no desire for a sequel, or to play the game again. I do for the Half-life and Doom games.

Overall, this game was just a huge disappointment to me. It started good but started to drag very quickly into the game. The last level was fun, but the ending took away all that fun. I was thinking I would replay the game again to see if the story was more understandable the second time around. Then I though of all those stupid and long levels that were more of a chore to play than fun, and I un-installed it from my pc.

The multi-player is pretty weak as well. Not to mention very few people are playing it. One good thing to note, that map editor is very easy to use. I think a complete beginner could make some decent maps while just playing around. We need some more of those on pc games.

This game might appeal better to the console fans, but I don't really see how. Rent it or get it in the bargain bin if you really want to play it. It doesn't have much to offer.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 10/04/05, Updated 12/19/05