Pariah is a lot like a child actor; it shows so much promise when you first see it only to have it gradually fall victim to its own inadequacies later down the road. All right, that may not be the best analogy, but truth be told - Pariah isn't revolutionary by any means. While you may be impressed by the game's polished visuals at first, you'll find that it's just a by the numbers FPS that you'll be tired of by the end of the game despite the addition of a level editor and the ability to upgrade weapons. The game is dragged down to being average thanks in part to a bland single player game, some bland multiplayer components, not to mention the most laughable enemy AI in recent memory. As opposed to playing a walking tank, Pariah goes against the grain and puts you into the shoes of a medic named Jack Mason who finds himself on a mission to transport a woman in a cryogenic chamber named Karina who carries an unknown virus. Pariah wouldn't be much of a game if everything was roses, however, as the transport crashes nearly killing Jack, though that would be the least of his worries as the area is crawling with an army that's out to get Karina and harness the power of the virus she carries. Along the way another faction gets involved and you pretty much stop caring about the story because you're only playing to shoot people anyways. Pariah's gameplay attempts to mimic other first-person shooters such as Halo, but mimicking is about all it's capable of. You have a health bar consisting of (what look like) four chicklets that acts just like the shield in Halo did in respect to gradually recharging a few moments after taking damage. Aside from the partially recharging health, you also have a healing tool at your disposal that's virtually unlimited, which would make sense given that Jack is a medic. The catch is that the healing tool is part of your weapon inventory and cartridges have to be reloaded after a number of uses. Though this sounds like it would make the game overly simple, it's much harder to use the healing tool, wait for it to reload, and continue healing while dodging fire as opposed to walking over a medikit. You'll have a few weapons at your disposal, though the selection is pretty lean. You have your standard “Bulldog” assault rifle, the frag rifle which should have just been called a shotgun, the slow firing plasma gun, rocket launcher, grenade launcher, and sniper rifle. You'll quickly find favorites out of the selection as some of the guns aren't balanced as well as others, most notably the plasma gun which will only fire a couple of rounds at a time. The one original element to Pariah is the ability to upgrade your weapons – for better or worse in some cases. If you take time to explore the environment, you'll find weapon energy cores that can be used to upgrade weapons like adding an extra warhead on the rocket launcher or suppression for the assault rifle for instance. In other cases like the grenade launcher, upgrading will garner you a remote detonator which is more of a hindrance than a help. Despite the setbacks of upgrading some of the weapons, it's a welcome addition to an otherwise bland game. Towards the end of the game you'll get stuck with a super powerful, yet annoying weapon that requires almost constant recharging from stations placed throughout the level. This may add some strategy to the game's final battle, but it's enough to make you yearn for the game's more conventional weapons when it comes down to it and ends up becoming more of a handicap than an advantage. You will also come across a couple types of vehicles such as a buggy and super sci-fi motorcycle that control just like the vehicles in Halo do, though this can be chalked up to the “if it ain't broke, don't fix it” theory. Each vehicle has a gun attached and will only fire in the direction the vehicle is facing. You can also attempt to run enemies over, but it better be dead on lest they get pushed alongside the vehicle. Enemies show some semblance of intelligence as they'll occasionally duck behind cover or attempt to surround you, but that's about as much as you'll get from the laughable AI. You'll notice the shoddy AI right off the bat as one of the game's early missions has you following a member of the crew on a mission to disable a turret. Despite his claims that he's going to draw their fire, he ends up standing in one spot staring blankly, or from what I gather, into his past. Aside from this, you'll see your enemies frequently shoot each other in the back, charge up and shoot you point blank with rocket launchers, or not even notice you're there. One of their favorite tactics is to crouch and slowly walk towards you a la Sam Fisher, only there are no shadows around, thus making them an easy kill. You'll also find yourself in the middle of battles between two factions at points where neither side will notice you unless you shoot them. Feel free to walk right through the cross fire, nobody will care. Shoot a guy point blank in the head, his buddy won't pay you any mind unless you fire off a shot that doesn't kill him, only then will he attack. The AI is what really whittles Pariah down to standard run and gun fare as the stupidity of the goons you're fighting offer little in terms of satisfaction or fun for that matter. Though the environments all look nice, Pariah takes another queue from Halo in terms of level design, being that the levels are repetitive and eventually all corridors look the same. There are other issues with level design in outdoor levels as I found myself sliding down a hill as opposed to walking around it only to die on solid ground at the bottom. Put a hole there if it's going to kill me. The multiplayer is solid, thanks in part to the Unreal Engine. You'll find yourself fighting through a handful of multiplayer maps, some of which consist of maps from the single player game. The drawback here is that the action isn't as fast and you're stuck with Pariah's more boring weapons. The standard modes are here, being deathmatch, team deathmatch, capture the flag, and frontline assault. There aren't many servers available, but you can usually find one with a decent number of players to go head-to-head with. Although you may be sick of the game after finishing the single player portion, Pariah also features a built-in map editor. The editor makes the art of level design a cinch allowing you to adjust weather, objects, etc. You can also use your custom map in the multiplayer portion of the game, that is, if people come in to play it. You can always opt to fill the level with the game's non-intelligent bots. It all comes back to whether you like Pariah enough to put up with its weapons and gameplay in the end. As mentioned earlier, visuals are the only thing Pariah has going for it. The game makes good use of the Unreal Engine to create some really nice outdoor environments as well as some indoor environments that almost equal Far Cry or Doom 3. There are some neat effects being used like bump mapping on objects, particles fly when you hit an enemy with the plasma gun, helmet glass shatters when you shoot them in the head, and there are some neat distortion effects when grenades explode. Characters all look good outside of the cut scenes, though the lip syncing is a bit off. There's also a good use of rag doll effects and some physics at work. Sound is average at best. The game's soundtrack gets the job done by setting the mood, but don't ask me to whistle any of it, because I can't remember any of it to save my life. Voice acting is passable, though the game offers a decent amount of cursing, it all sounds forced and tacked on; on top of that, Jack doesn't look like the type of guy who will let an F-bomb loose as often as he does. Weapons don't sound like they pack a punch at all; it's pretty bad when a gun reloads with more punch than the firing. Footsteps are somewhat annoying due to the fact that there seems to be two types of ground you walk on: natural soil and metal floor, furthermore, the metal floor uses the same sound effect that other FPS games have used for the past six years and if it wasn't old before, it will be after Pariah. Had Pariah been released a couple of years ago, it would have been decent game, but that unfortunately isn't the case. FPS games on the PC have gone beyond this in the past year. Despite what extras the game offers, it just doesn't amount to any fun. The game is short, the AI is horrible, the multiplayer isn't much fun (when you can find a game, that is), and you'll be sick of the game by the time you dive into the level editor to even want to use it. If you're a fan of the FPS genre, you're better off skipping on Pariah; it's just not worth the time.
Pariah is one of that generic first person shooter that you really can pass through it and you'll never miss for not playing it. All in this game is poorly made, and anyone who plays it will see a lot of elements fro... Read Full Review
Pariah is one of those soulless glitterfests that attempt to compensate for lack of purpose with special effects. And while it relies on well-trodden FPS-clichées it still doesn't get them quite right. At the center o... Read Full Review
