Pariah

"Falling Just Short of Being a Great Game"

Intro: An over-all good game, but not the best it could have been. It includes some interesting RPG elements in the customization of weapons and solid combat mechanics similar to the generic FPS today.

Graphics; 8: Certain effects within the game are specifically well done. The particle effects for and exploding grenade are spectacular. As the grenade goes off, it kicks up dirt and dust. Propelling the dust you see the shimmering of the immense heat given off by the chemical reaction of the explosion. The strange green color is a nice addition too...The surfaces in the game, whether it be a rock or a wall in a bunker are well done and have good lighting effects. The over-all lighting effects for the game are well done, seemingly inspired by Halo 2. They even went so far as to include heat shimmer and smoke to the guns as they fire. So why an eight, you ask. It's not that they are poor, but they fall short of the standard. The standard is set by Doom 3 and Far Cry. Being released in the same time, they need to measure up. If they were to meet, it would have been a nine, if they surpassed standards, a 10. Not bad graphics, but not the best. Basically, it's all been seen before.

Sound; 8: The effects for a weapon firing sounds like you would expect it to, yet they lack the quality that so deeply puts you into the game that you feel as if the weapon were being fired by you in real life. It merely lacks that one quality. Next is the voice acting. It's not bad to the extent of many games, but it lacks flavor. It's almost as if they actors practiced their lines, but were still reading off the page.

Game Play; 7: The game play here suffers from a few factors. It's nothing more than an annoyance, but at odd times, not specifically even during a firefight, the frame rate will drop for a few seconds. The AI is well-to-do though. They will take cover, retreat, and sometimes involve themselves in actual tactical ops such as flanking you during a firefight. The developers left nice customization options such as an auto-aim, axis inversion, and look sensitivity open. Yet some might be disappointed with the sensitivity, for there is only one over-all speed, and that's SLOW. Even maxed out, you still turn relatively slow. It may take you a couple seconds to turn around to see that guy who came up behind you with a grenade launcher 10 seconds ago. The controls are solid as far as scheme goes, even allowing for settings such as south-paw found in other games. The weapon upgrades are a nice touch as well, giving only a few units per level, you choose which weapons to update carefully. They do not, however, make you search at all for the cores. They are all out in the open for you to see. Four vehicles were included in the game for nice pace-breakers. They're also a debilitating feature though. The control settings for vehicles do not allow for shooting a rotating turret on top of your "tank" and still going forwards. You travel direction of turret no matter what with the tank. The weapons themselves are a solid set containing everything you'd need, a sniper rifle, shotgun, machine-gun, and rocket launcher.

Story; 7: An all around good story with you being a doctor transporting a woman carrying an unknown viral disease. Your transport is shot down by a missile and when you come to, you're lead off on an adventure involving multiple abductions and run-offs of Karina, the infected female. Around mid-end of the game, they begin to lose you story-wise, but if you pay close attention in the game you understand it all in the end.

Replay; 8: The multi-player mode itself is decent value. The map editor, which is good, but not the most expanded one seen. It is however, very user-friendly. It's quite easy to make a basic map off a template, or go into slightly higher details and start from scratch off a template set. You may also wish to play through single player another time or two to see the AI on a higher difficulty or to look and see how things play for you when you upgrade different weapons.

Final; 7.6: Pariah is not a game to end your Halo days, but is probably worth getting if you enjoy solid first person shooters.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 10/31/05