- Very good multiplayer on Xbox
Live
- Good single-player campaign with varied tasks and levels
(ending assures there isn’t going to be a Pariah 2, however)
- Map editor allows you to create your own levels, which can be
played even on Xbox Live
- Graphical glitches and stuttering
galore, especially during heavy and intense battles
- Annoying loading times
- Idiot enemy A.I. a lot to be desired
- Vehicles don’t add the expected advantage during melees that
they should
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Pariah
Score: 7.8 / 10
Numerous first-person shooter games have
tried to emulate Halo/Halo 2 and attempt to capture even just a
microcosm of that franchise’s success. But as is the case when any
game’s blueprint (such as Grand Theft Auto) is copied, few have come
close to capturing the originator’s glory. That’s the case with Pariah,
yet another game trying for the Halo brass ring and falling short,
Although Pariah definitely merits consideration for garnering
classification in your Xbox’s “good FPS to play when you want a short
respite from Halo 2” game pile. Pariah has a sci-fi story, good FPS
levels, good visuals, Halo-like vehicles, a map editor and very good
online play, but too many graphical glitches, long load times, and
spectacularly dim-witted enemy A.I. ostracize Pariah as a “good, just
not anywhere near Halo” title.
The story has you assuming the persona of Doctor Jack Mason on Earth in
the year 2520. There’s an infected prisoner to transport, Katrina, and
Mason’s drawn the short straw that has him “volunteering” to escort her
during a routine prison
transfer. But the transfer turns out to be
anything but routine, and after his transport ship is shot down, Mason
finds himself trying to escort the now-free Katrina to safety, while
trying to figure out why someone was trying to kill Katrina and
apparently him too. Of course, it doesn’t help much that Katrina is an
impatient woman, always running off when she should be cooling her hot
heels, forcing Mason to pursue her
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over and over.
It turns out Katrina is infected with a blood-based disease that can
literally have explosive results for anyone that becomes a victim of the
disease itself. Within two minutes of crashing, Mason himself becomes
infected by Katrina, who suffers a gunshot wound that has splattered all
over Mason’s face and finds its way into his bloodstream. Mason now
finds himself with a vested interest in protecting Katrina that he
didn’t have two minutes earlier.
The story gets a little convoluted from there, and that’s a shame
because it starts out so well. But nonetheless, it’s still good enough
that you’ll play through the entire single-player game to see the game’s
ending, and when you finally get to Pariah’s conclusion, it’s easy to
see why there won’t ever be a Pariah 2 featuring Jack Mason on store
shelves.
Action in the game is typical FPS fare, with a decided emphasis on using
cover techniques to protect your health as much as possible while at the
same time inflicting extreme force. But even if you don’t use cover to
your advantage, defeating enemies is relatively easy because the enemy
A.I. is pretty lame and simple-minded. One A.I. enemy feature that could
have been amazing if it was coupled with outstanding A.I. is that
enemies will not just stand around waiting for you to show your head in
their line of fire. No, these guys will rush at you once they’ve
ascertained your position. But they’re so stupid, they’ll rush right
into your gunfire, and you’ll defeat most easily if you have a little
patience while you are using environmental cover.
What makes up for the utter dopiness of the A.I. is a visually
impressive game. These are some really striking graphics, including the
well-devised environments. Plenty of gore and blood from splattered and
shot-up soldiers too (which earns Pariah its M-rating, along with some
major-league profanity). Add in the Unreal engine with HAVOK ragdoll
physics to make those enemy bodies fly through the air after an
explosion and you have an above-average visual package. Not quite up to
Doom 3 or Halo 2 standards, but closer than might be expected. However,
the game has some horrendous glitching graphics, particularly when
there’s a lot of action going on the screen at once, such as flames from
items on fire and heavily intense battles. Things start to noticeably
slow down and stutter awfully, which is a big detraction to your
gameplay. The level load times are atrocious too, although to its
credit, there’s plenty of automatic save points in Pariah that decrease
the amount of backtracking you’ll need to do.
Vehicles that have a suspicious resemblance to Halo 2 vehicles are part
of both the single-player and multiplayer gameplay. However, while they
seemingly offer a strong advantage during fighting, they somehow don’t
really have the firepower to be anything more than a novelty to Pariah’s
warfare. Another gimmick that doesn’t work out to the benefit of gamers
is the upgradeable weaponry of Pariah. By collecting power-ups during
gameplay, you can “upgrade” your weaponry to have supposedly stronger
and more proficient killing features. But while they are stronger, they
don’t tilt you much of an advantage as you would think. It’s a nice
feature that works somewhat, but certainly not as well as the developers
probably banked on.
One feature that is a big bonus is Pariah’s map editor. You can create
your own maps with a very detailed editor program, and what’s really
great is that these custom-created levels can be played online.
Speaking of online gameplay, Pariah does multiplayer via Xbox Live very
well indeed. There are the standard online games to play, plus a few new
ones, Front Line Assault and Siege. I consider the gameplay speed of
Halo 2 to be just perfect for online playing compared to the too-fast,
vertigo-inducing rapidness of Unreal Championship and Doom 3. Pariah
hits the target of Halo 2 speed, and some of the multiplayer levels are
comparable to the high quality of Halo 2 maps. Setting up games isn’t
difficult, although it isn’t as easy and intuitive as Halo 2’s.
There are a few flaws that fracture Pariah as a game, but a
better-than-you’d-expect single-player mode coupled with a very good
online setup give Pariah enough of an advantage over other Halo wannabes
as a perfect alternative to the mass contingent of Xbox FPS online
gamers that play Halo 2.
