Pariah (video game)

Last updated
Pariah
Pariah (video game box art).jpg
Developer(s) Digital Extremes
Publisher(s)
Designer(s) James Schmalz
Composer(s) Dustin Crenna
Tim Larkin
Starsky Partridge
Greg Rahn
Engine Unreal Engine 2.5
Platform(s) Microsoft Windows, Xbox
Release
  • NA: May 3, 2005
  • EU: May 6, 2005
  • AU: May 25, 2005 (Xbox)
Genre(s) First-person shooter
Mode(s) Single-player, multiplayer

Pariah is a first-person shooter video game developed by Digital Extremes. It was released in May 2005 for Microsoft Windows and Xbox. It uses a modified version of the Unreal Engine and the Havok physics engine. A PlayStation 2 version was also in development but cancelled.

Contents

Gameplay

Pariah features standard first-person shooter gameplay, largely influenced by the Unreal franchise, particularly Unreal 2 (whose game engine Pariah is based on). The single-player and multiplayer modes include drivable vehicles that can be utilized in combat scenarios. One of the standout features is the incorporation of collectible weapon energy cores, which are used to upgrade the player's weapons, granting them additional features and increased power. Each weapon in the game can be upgraded a maximum of three times.

Synopsis

Pariah notably omits to explain key background information about the plot and the in-game universe to the player, thus causing much of the story to progress without any context or background for the player to identify with. Even at the end of the game, many key plot points remain largely unexplained, leaving it up to the player to conjecture about what really happened.

Setting

The game takes place 30 years after mankind fought a devastating war against an enemy known as "The Shroud". Exactly who or what the Shroud are is never actually explained. At the end of the game, they are shown to be hairless humans with corpse-white skin and highly advanced technology, although whether they are aliens, terrorists, mutants, or something else is never clearly revealed. Supposedly, the Shroud were vanquished 30 years ago, but their reappearance toward the end of the game indicates that this is not true.

In the wake of the war, a large portion of the Earth is now an uncivilized wasteland known as "the Zone", inhabited by Scavengers, the violent descendants of prisoners and convicts who were released by the Shroud during the war. Human civilization is now controlled by a government known as the Alliance. According to the game manual, the Alliance mostly lives in off-world colonies on other planets, but this is never shown or mentioned in the game.

Main plot

Jack Mason is a medic for the Alliance, tasked with transporting a cryogenically frozen woman named Karina from the maximum security prison "the Anvil" to Alliance headquarters. While flying over "the Zone", Mason's ship is shot down by a surface-to-air missile, crash-landing on Earth. Mason is accidentally infected with the mysterious transgenic virus that Karina is carrying, and she escapes in the chaos that follows as Scavengers arrive at the crash site attempting to capture her. The pilot, Stubbs, is killed in the fracas, but Mason manages to outfight them. Mason suspects there is an unusual nature behind the Scavenger attack, as they were not known to possess surface-to-air missiles.

Although Karina is highly distrustful of Mason, her former captor, the two of them team up to evade the Scavengers. Mason observes that Karina possesses bizarre powers granted to her by the virus; when experiencing strong emotions, she involuntarily produces an explosive effect that creates mass destruction while leaving her unharmed. Eventually, Mason and Karina succeed in radioing the Alliance for help, only to learn that Colonel Stockton, the Warden of "the Anvil", has ordered the Alliance to nuke the area and kill everything that moves, supposedly to contain the infection and prevent the spread of the virus. Karina is soon captured by Alliance Security, and Mason finds himself fighting against the very organization he works for.

As Mason infiltrates "the Anvil" to retake Karina from Stockton, he finds the Scavengers have also launched a massive assault against the Anvil for revenge. It becomes evident that Stockton masterminded the attack on Mason's transport and that he has paid off the Scavengers to capture Karina for him. However, it turns out that Stockton has betrayed the Scavengers by allowing The Alliance to capture Karina for himself and refusing to pay them. Stockton is obsessed with battling the Shroud and wants to use the virus Karina carries as a weapon against them. The Alliance had deemed Stockton's research dangerous, which led him to continue his project in secret.

Karina is a weapon created by the Shroud 30 years ago, but she was captured by the Alliance (specifically, Stockton's father) and cryogenically frozen. The virus she carries allows its host to generate massive amounts of energy from their bodies. This energy can be used to power Shroud weaponry and even to create a natural energy shield around the host's body. However, the virus and the energy it produces are also unstable, and hosts have a tendency to explode.

When Mason finally confronts Stockton, he learns that Stockton has infected himself with the virus, and gained the ability to produce an energy-shield, as well as the ability to operate a Shroud energy weapon, the "Titan's Fist". The Shroud soon attack to capture Karina, and Stockton proceeds to use his newfound powers to battle them.

Stockton attacks Mason to ensure that there is only one virus carrier, and Mason succeeds in killing him and retrieves Karina. Karina pleads with Mason to escape together with her far away from the conflict, but surprisingly Mason betrays her by turning her over to the Shroud. Mason is revealed as a traitor to the Alliance who has been collaborating with the Shroud from the start. His task was to retrieve Karina and deliver her to the Shroud. After turning Karina over, Mason questions the Shroud about his daughter, who had died some time prior to the game. The Shroud hint that they have the ability to bring the dead back to life but insist that Mason perform more "errands" for them before he will be allowed to see his daughter again. Mason then realizes that the Shroud will never honor their end of the bargain, and goes on a one-man rampage through the Shroud outpost using his viral powers and the "Titan's Fist". Mason defeats a few dozen Shroud soldiers, finally killing a mysterious viral-powered Shroud woman protected by several Shroud assassins. After finally reaching Karina, he finds her connected to medical equipment draining away her blood. Shroud soldiers close in on the area, and Karina tells Mason that he cannot rescue her, begging him to euthanize her. Mason cannot bring himself to kill Karina, and instead shoots himself. As Karina watches Mason die, her out-of-control emotions produce a massive energy wave that envelops Mason's body and obliterates the Shroud outpost killing everyone.

Map editor

Pariah comes with a map editor used to make multiplayer maps, similar to the ones in the TimeSplitters games and Far Cry: Instincts . Uploaded maps then can be played online or over a LAN.

Reception

According to review aggregate site Metacritic, the game received average reviews on both platforms. [1] [2] IGN 's review stated that, although the PC version was "quite solid in most respects", the gameplay felt dated and the story was "a little bewildering and threadbare". [16] GameSpot 's review was critical of the gameplay, pointing out that the game "simply [couldn't] make the act of firing a weapon interesting" partly because of the poor weapon sounds. [9] [10] GameSpy 's review noted that the same PC version was released with bugs. [11]

Nigel Kendall of The Times gave the game three stars out of five, saying, "The FPS game definitely needs revitalising by something new and original. This isn't it." [21] However, Ryan Huschka of Detroit Free Press gave the Xbox version two stars out of four, saying, "All told, this game is no pariah. But even with its map maker, co-op mode and upgradeable weapons, Pariah is too flawed to seriously compete with the Xbox's big-name shooters." [20] Jason Hill of The Sydney Morning Herald gave the same console version a similar score of two-and-a-half stars out of five, saying, "Shooters need to be special to stand out, particularly on Halo 's home turf, but Pariah fails to excite or innovate." [22]

Related Research Articles

<i>Hitman: Contracts</i> 2004 video game

Hitman: Contracts is a 2004 stealth video game developed by IO Interactive and published by Eidos Interactive for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2 and Xbox. It is the third installment in the Hitman video game series, and serves as both a remake of Hitman: Codename 47 and sequel to Hitman 2: Silent Assassin, incorporating gameplay elements introduced in the latter into missions from the first game, which have been remastered with enhanced graphics. The game also includes several new missions, which serve as flashbacks experienced by the player character, the cloned assassin Agent 47, after being almost killed on a botched job.

<i>BloodRayne 2</i> 2004 action game

BloodRayne 2 is an action hack and slash video game developed by Terminal Reality for PlayStation 2, Xbox and Microsoft Windows. It does not follow on directly from where BloodRayne finished; instead, it takes place 60 and 70 years later in a contemporary 2000s setting.

<i>The Urbz: Sims in the City</i> 2004 video game

The Urbz: Sims in the City is a video game for the Game Boy Advance, GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox, and Nintendo DS. It is the third Sims game for video game consoles and is the second Sims game not to be released on Microsoft Windows, after a planned PC port and sequel were both cancelled due to mediocre sales. The next release for consoles and handhelds was the console port of The Sims 2.

<i>Starlancer</i> 2000 video game

Starlancer is a space-based science fiction flight simulator computer game, created by Erin and Chris Roberts, and developed by Warthog Games under the auspices of Digital Anvil.

<i>Batman: Vengeance</i> 2001 video game

Batman: Vengeance is a 2001 action-adventure video game based on the fictional superhero of the same name. It was released for PlayStation 2, Game Boy Advance, GameCube, Xbox and Microsoft Windows. The game was developed and published by Ubi Soft in conjunction with Warner Bros. and DC Comics.

<i>Battle Engine Aquila</i> 2003 video game

Battle Engine Aquila is a 2003 video game for PlayStation 2 and Xbox developed by Lost Toys and published by Infogrames Europe. In the game the player pilots the Battle Engine for the Forseti military in their wars against the Muspell to decide who will rule what's left of the world. Battle Engine Aquila received little attention from the public despite overall good reviews from critics. It was listed as #86 in the Top 100 Games for PlayStation 2 by IGN. A later Microsoft Windows port was published by Encore Software.

<i>Stranglehold</i> (video game) 2007 video game

Stranglehold is a third-person shooter video game developed by Midway Studios – Chicago and Tiger Hill Entertainment and published by Midway Games. It was released in late 2007 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. It is Midway's first game to use Unreal Engine 3. Stranglehold is a sequel to John Woo's 1992 Hong Kong action film Hard Boiled and stars Chow Yun-fat in a reprisal of his role as hard-boiled cop Inspector "Tequila" Yuen. Stranglehold is the first project on which Woo and Chow have collaborated since Hard Boiled. The game received generally positive reviews from critics and sold more than one million units worldwide.

<i>4x4 Evo 2</i> 2001 video game

4x4 Evo 2, also known as 4x4 Evolution 2, is a racing video game developed by Terminal Reality for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube and Microsoft Windows. It is the sequel to 4x4 Evolution and features more trucks, and more racing tracks than the original game.

<i>Star Wars: Obi-Wan</i> 2001 action-adventure video game

Star Wars: Obi-Wan, originally titled Star Wars: Episode I: Obi-Wan, is an action-adventure video game developed and published by LucasArts and released exclusively for Xbox on December 19, 2001 in North America and March 29, 2002 in Europe. It is set in the Legends canonicity of the Star Wars universe, around 32 years before the Battle of Yavin, shortly prior to and during the events of the 1999 film The Phantom Menace. Players control the Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi. The game received generally mixed reviews upon its release.

<i>Shadowrun</i> (2007 video game) 2007 video game

Shadowrun is a first-person shooter video game, developed by FASA Studio for Xbox 360 and Windows Vista. The game features a buying system which is inspired by the game Counter-Strike. The game is also inspired by the role-playing game of the same name.

<i>MechWarrior 4: Vengeance</i> 2000 video game

MechWarrior 4: Vengeance is a vehicle simulation game, developed by FASA Interactive and published by Microsoft. It was released on November 22, 2000. It is the fourth game in MechWarrior series. It takes place in BattleTech universe where the pinnacle of all war machines are huge, heavily armed robots called BattleMechs. The player pilots one of these "'Mechs" and uses variety of available weapons to battle enemy 'Mechs, tanks and other vehicles. An expansion pack, MechWarrior 4: Black Knight, was released in 2001, and a subsequent stand-alone expansion, MechWarrior 4: Mercenaries, was released on November 7, 2002. Two smaller expansions, Inner Sphere Mech Pak and Clan Mech Pak, were also released in 2002.

<i>Warpath</i> (video game) 2006 video game

Warpath is a first-person shooter video game developed by Digital Extremes. The game was originally being developed as a sequel to Pariah, but since Pariah was a commercial flop, Warpath continued development as a whole new game. However, the similarities between the gameplay of both games are very apparent.

<i>Star Wars: Starfighter</i> 2001 action video game

Star Wars: Starfighter is a 2001 action video game, developed and published by LucasArts, that takes place right before the Battle of Naboo. The player unites alongside three starfighter pilots and is allowed to take control of several different spacecraft to help stop the invasion that threatens Naboo.

<i>NHL 2002</i> 2001 video game

NHL 2002 is a video game released by EA Sports in 2001. It is the predecessor to NHL 2003. The game's cover man is Pittsburgh Penguins superstar and owner Mario Lemieux, who had just made a comeback after being retired for three and a half years. It was the first installment of the NHL series to be released on Xbox.

<i>Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles</i> (2003 video game) 2003 video game

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is a beat 'em up video game developed and published in 2003 by Konami, based on the 2003 TV series.

<i>Legendary</i> (video game) 2008 video game

Legendary is a first-person shooter video game developed by Spark Unlimited and released in 2008. It was published in North America by Gamecock Media Group, and in the PAL region by Atari Europe.

<i>Venetica</i> 2009 action role-playing video game

Venetica is a 2009 fantasy-themed action role-playing video game developed by Deck13 and published by DTP Entertainment. It was first released in Europe on 4 September 2009 for Microsoft Windows, with ports for the Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 being released in 2009 and 2010 respectively. Venetica was later re-released for the North American market in January 2011 and distributed by Rombax Games.

<i>Fuel</i> (video game) 2009 open world racing video game

Fuel is an open world racing video game developed by Asobo Studio and published by Codemasters. The game was released in North America in June 2009 for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Windows. It is set in a post-apocalyptic United States after the Sun scorched the Earth, with a completely free-to-roam open world approximately 5,560 square miles (14,400 km2) in size, which is roughly the size of the U.S. state of Connecticut. In the free roaming mode, the game features the ability to drive anywhere in the game world without incurring loading times; however, crashing a vehicle – or invoking the reset function to return to the road – does invoke a loading screen.

<i>Blacklight: Tango Down</i> 2010 video game

Blacklight: Tango Down is a dystopian cyberpunk-themed online multiplayer first-person shooter video game developed by Zombie Studios and published by Ignition Entertainment. The game was released on July 7, 2010 on Xbox 360 as a downloadable title, and was released on Microsoft Windows on July 14, 2010. The game was also released in late 2010 for the PlayStation 3. The PC version is the one to receive all three patches, where as the Xbox 360 received only the first two patches, and the PlayStation 3 version received no patches, being at retail, launch day version.

<i>Alien Breed 2: Assault</i> 2010 video game

Alien Breed 2: Assault is a video game in Team17's Alien Breed series and is the second new title in the series since 1996 after Alien Breed Evolution. It was released on Steam, Xbox Live Arcade, and PlayStation Network in 2010. The follow-up Alien Breed 3: Descent was released on 17 November 2010.

References

  1. 1 2 "Pariah critic reviews (PC)". Metacritic . Fandom. Archived from the original on October 9, 2022. Retrieved August 24, 2024.
  2. 1 2 "Pariah critic reviews (Xbox)". Metacritic. Fandom. Archived from the original on October 8, 2022. Retrieved August 24, 2024.
  3. "Review: Pariah". Computer Games Magazine . No. 177. theGlobe.com. August 2005. p. 72.
  4. Gladstone, Darren (September 2005). "Pariah" (PDF). Computer Gaming World . No. 254. Ziff Davis. p. 70. Archived (PDF) from the original on May 27, 2023. Retrieved August 24, 2024.
  5. Edge staff (June 2005). "Pariah (Xbox)". Edge . No. 150. Future Publishing. p. 82.
  6. EGM staff (June 2005). "Pariah". Electronic Gaming Monthly . No. 192. Ziff Davis. p. 104.
  7. Reed, Kristan (May 12, 2005). "Pariah (Xbox) [date mislabeled as "June 7, 2005"]". Eurogamer . Gamer Network. Archived from the original on May 8, 2012. Retrieved October 6, 2022.
  8. 1 2 "Pariah". Game Informer . No. 146. GameStop. June 2005. p. 124.
  9. 1 2 Gerstmann, Jeff (May 6, 2005). "Pariah Review (PC) [date mislabeled as "May 17, 2006"]". GameSpot . Fandom. Archived from the original on May 9, 2005. Retrieved October 5, 2022.
  10. 1 2 Gerstmann, Jeff (May 4, 2005). "Pariah Review (Xbox)". GameSpot. Fandom. Archived from the original on May 9, 2005. Retrieved October 5, 2022.
  11. 1 2 Durham Jr., Joel (May 27, 2005). "GameSpy: Pariah (PC)". GameSpy . IGN Entertainment. Archived from the original on April 25, 2007. Retrieved August 24, 2024.
  12. Fischer, Russ (May 9, 2005). "GameSpy: Pariah (Xbox)". GameSpy. IGN Entertainment. Archived from the original on June 9, 2007. Retrieved August 24, 2024.
  13. 1 2 "Pariah Review". GameTrailers . Viacom. May 16, 2005. Archived from the original on August 8, 2007. Retrieved October 5, 2022.
  14. David, Mike (June 2, 2005). "Pariah - PC - Review". GameZone. Archived from the original on September 21, 2008. Retrieved October 6, 2022.
  15. Knutson, Michael (May 23, 2005). "Pariah - XB - Review". GameZone. Archived from the original on October 6, 2008. Retrieved October 6, 2022.
  16. 1 2 McNamara, Tom (May 3, 2005). "Pariah (PC)". IGN . Ziff Davis. Archived from the original on October 6, 2023. Retrieved August 24, 2024.
  17. Clayman, David (May 2, 2005). "Pariah (Xbox)". IGN. Ziff Davis. Archived from the original on October 6, 2023. Retrieved August 24, 2024.
  18. "Pariah". Official Xbox Magazine . Future US. June 2005. p. 84.
  19. "Pariah". PC Gamer . Vol. 12, no. 7. Future US. July 2005. p. 70.
  20. 1 2 Huschka, Ryan (May 29, 2005). "'Pariah'". Detroit Free Press . Gannett Company. Archived from the original on September 17, 2005. Retrieved October 5, 2022.
  21. 1 2 3 Kendall, Nigel (May 21, 2005). "Pariah" . The Times . News UK. Archived from the original on October 7, 2023. Retrieved August 24, 2024.
  22. Hill, Jason (June 2, 2005). "All about balls" . The Sydney Morning Herald . Fairfax Media. Archived from the original on May 28, 2009. Retrieved October 5, 2022.