Pariah

"Not groundbreaking but still a good game"

INTRODUCTION

Pariah is a first person shooter with a mix of RPG elements. Think of it as Deus Ex's gun upgrade elements meets Unreal's game play. Here is my review of Pariah for the Xbox.

GAMEPLAY 7/10

The first mode available is the single player story. There are four different difficulty modes similar to Halo's. This games gimmick is the ability to upgrade your weapons using cores. This type of play is similar to Deus Ex although, its not as deep. There are a variety of options to fit your needs like, look sensitivity, auto-aim, or button layouts is all here. Pariah sticks to a basic set of weapons that keeps things simple. You have standards like a sniper rifle, rocket launcher, shotgun, grenade launcher and even some odd weapons like a plasma rifle or bone saw. All these have a secondary fire also. There are four vehicles also, two fast speeders, one jeep type vehicle and an APC.

The single player experience will have you going in and out different environments. You find only a few cores per level so choose wisely about what you upgrade. You can commander vehicles or even shoot while another person drives. The AI is fairly smart and knows how it can kill you. However more than once I have gotten really close to a foe only to have him run backwards away from me when I was right in his face.

On Xbox Live it's a funnier experience. You are able to make custom maps and play them with your friends. They can simply join your game or select you off their friends list and choose which one of your maps to download. The mapmaker is extremely limited in ways and I hope they can add some downloadable content. Speaking of which there is an option for downloadable content, hopefully we will receive this in the near future. There is no option for clans which is disappointing but there are scoreboards. You can also upgrade your weapons in this mode by killing opposing team members and picking up their weapon cores. Also you can only carry two weapons at a time, ala Halo, but can choose different load outs.

STORY 9/10

The story is of your character is a doctor who is transporting a hazardous substance. This hazardous substance is a woman with an unknown virus. She is contained and while taking her to the set destination you and your small team is shot out of the air by a rocket. You come to at the crash site and see ruble and smoldering fires everywhere. Your journey now starts as you look for the women with the virus and your team. There are a few twists and turns in the story too. Nothing too generic here, just a good story.

GRAPHICS 7/10

The visuals are a mixed bag. On one hand you have some bland environments and sub par textures and in some areas the visuals are amazing. Special effects are extremely well done. For instance there are some enemies that wear glass helmets, well when you get a headshot you will see shards of glass breaking off from the helmet. I personally thought this was a near touch.

The environmental effects are produced nicely, the water is modeled superbly along with other effects like snow or rain. Where the graphics take a drop off is at some areas their will be bland textures, inside of buildings for example. For those wondering the game engine is running on Unreal's and the physics system is running on Havok. Speaking of physics they are very good and rag doll like. Sometimes its over the top but nothing to extreme. The frame rate is smooth throughout the game also. Overall graphics are nothing you haven't seen before.

SOUND 9/10

A rocket whizzing by your head sounds exactly like you would expect it to. Gun sound effects sound amazing accurate to expectations. Some of the characters in the game have bad voice acting work though.

PLAYTIME and REPLAY ABILITY 8/10

It will take you anywhere from 12 - 15 hours to beat single player mode but Xbox Live is where the replayablity is. The community is fairly small now but in time hopefully it will grow.

FINAL RECOMMENDATION

Pariah is definitely a good rent but nothing to make you put away your copy of Halo. Pariah earns itself an 8 out of 10.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/03/05