First Impressions: Halo meets Unreal...
Yes, I know – you’re saying to yourself, “What, another sci-fi themed FPS with exotic weapons and cool vehicles?” “Didn’t we just do this with Halo 2?” Truthfully, yes. Yes we did. However, Epic games is behind this one, and if you’re a fan of the Unreal franchise, you may just want to sit up and take notice….
Pariah takes place in the year 2520. You’ll play as a military doctor named Jack Mason who crash lands while escorting a quarantined prisoner, a woman named Karina J. (aka Subject B) the focus of some rather bizarre experiments, and a lady your superiors show great interest in. The game world mixes post apocalyptic landscapes with futuristic military hardware for an epic feel, and the story surrounds the mysterious prisoner’s origins, and her impact on the future of Pariah’s universe.
Already looking quite sharp, Pariah is powered by the Unreal technology, and it shows. Crisply detailed textures adorn every scene, weapons fire and explosions are rife with particle effects, and all of the character models, vehicles and armaments are bristling with detail. As previously stated, Pariah also includes vehicles to go along with the on-foot action, most notably in the form of The Wasp – a nimble, 3-wheeled, single pilot ground-pounder that features front mounted heavy machine guns. Unfortunately, it also features light armor, so you’ll need to take advantage of its natural agility to hit the enemy hard and fast, then quickly high-tail it out of there. The Bogie is a 2 man transport with dual-mounted cannons and a massive rocket launcher system which is controlled by the co-pilot. While not as fast as The Wasp, it makes up for that shortcoming with heavy duty armor, making it the obvious choice for crushing, two man assaults.
Much of the action in Pariah will take place on Earth – in something referred to as the “prison regions”. One can only conclude that in the future, mankind has taken a cue from John Carpenter and turned entire areas of the world into huge, free roaming, maximum security penitentiaries. That actually sounds kind of cool, and I’m interested in seeing what the team at Digital Extremes has come up with plot wise for their sprawling saga. Based on demo footage, we can surmise that the good doctor has to fight his way across killing fields ranging from arid deserts to lush forests, futuristic structures, and everything in between. Truth be told, the game looks and moves a lot like Halo 2. In fact, it looks almost exactly like Halo 2, right down to the 3rd person vehicle control. Not that this is a bad thing necessarily, but if it turns out too derivative, it may come off like cheap imitation. I will - of course - reserve final judgment until I actually play the game, but at this point, it appears to lean heavily on the Halo formula.
One of the unique play mechanics Digital Extremes is implementing for this title are the weapon energy core upgrades, which you’ll come across as you play through the campaign. Once in your possession, you can apply them as you see fit to upgrade an existing weapon’s firepower and capabilities. Each weapon has 3 upgrade categories, and these range from faster reloads, to armor piercing and infrared capabilities, as well as target locks and more powerful ballistics. As for your armory, expect the usual assortment of assault rifles, shotguns, flak cannons, rocket launchers and pistols. This upgrade concept spills over into the multiplayer component of Pariah, as killing opponents will cause them to drop energy cores, which you can quickly grab to power up your own gun.
Speaking of multi player, Pariah will sport all the usual modes over Xbox Live (Deathmatch, CTF, etc), and will be one of the first console shooters to ship with map editing tools. You’ll be able to create custom levels using a simple, icon-driven interface and populate them with a specified amount of vehicles and players. Then you can go online and try out your creations with others. Overall, Pariah is shaping up to be one seriously complete FPS package.
Xbox 360 | XBLA
PS3 | PSN
Wii | VC
DS
PSP
iPhone
PS2
PC
Retro
