Set in the year 2520 Pariah will take place on Earth, which in the future is not the lush, inhabitable planet like we know today, but more so a barren wasteland, which holds one of the most notorious prison colonies ever known. Pariah will introduce us to Jack Mason, a burned-out doctor, who has orders to retrieve an infected patient from Earth. Things go astray however when his transport ship crashes. Jack becomes stranded on the hostile planet and forced to fend for himself against the prisoners and the equally aggressive prison guards, while he searches for his lost patient. To make matters worst, the infection spreads throughout the prison colony which he is now trapped in. An initiate to launch a fifty-megaton nuke is approved to wipe out the infection, which leaves Jack to evade, survive and get the hell off Earth with his patient, before the planet is “cleansed.”
Pariah will very much follow the key elements of a standard first-person shooter. You will be engaged in many environments, using many futuristic weapons to fight your way out. However the game does offer a few unique features to help it stand out from the rest. While you play as Jack Mason in single player, you will have to keep a close eye on your infected patient, a young woman named Karina. As she follows you around, you must keep her alive at all costs, as she will offer hints and tips on what you must do to proceed through the game. Another interesting feature will be the ability to upgrade Jack’s weaponry through the use of energy cores. This ability allows you to change weaponry based on your playing style, and is also included in multiplayer. Pariah is also said to blend both action and stealth type gameplay throughout its single player experience, so it looks like it will offer a great deal of variety.
Shooting stuff in the future.
The game will include vehicle based combat, similar to that of Halo. One of the most interesting vehicles will be the Wasp, a three-wheeled, single man vehicle, equipped with machine guns and excels in quick hit and run tactics. As you would expect Pariah will also offer you a great deal of destructive and interesting future weaponry. One of these weapons will be the Bulldog, an automatic rifle which offers immense firepower and can be upgraded.
Presently Pariah looks visually impressive, with much graphical detail being placed into the environment. A nice level of physics can also be witnessed during gameplay and look like it will be implemented during gameplay. It seems Pariah will take full advantage of the Xbox’s hardware which no doubt will lead to a very pretty first-person shooter.
While single-player is shaping up nicely, Pariah will also include extensive multiplayer support, allowing up to sixteen players to battle it out online. All the standard multiplayer game types will be included such as deathmatch, team deathmatch, and capture the flag. Another interesting game type will be front-line assault, - a goal-based mode in which two teams must attack and defend and hold specific points, much like a game of tug-a-war.
Destruction Derby in the year 2520.
At the beginning of each multiplayer map players will choose a class, which determines which weapons they will use for the match. While in multiplayer matches, players will only able to carry two weapons, as well as the Bone Saw, a melee type weapon used generally as a last resort. Weapon upgrades and vehicle combat will also be included in multiplayer to help spice things up. For those without Live, don’t worry as Pariah will offer offline split-screen multiplayer action, as well as LAN support. Even better for those split-screen players is every offline multiplayer game type can be played with “bots,” which are computer-controlled enemies.
Finally Pariah offers another major intriguing feature which is a map editor. The addition of an editor allows players to make and share maps with others. Creating a map seems easy, and the interface for the editor is nice and simple. Players can make their own multiplayer maps and even upload for those to download and play over Xbox Live.
At the moment Pariah looks like it has the stuff to become a classic, futuristic first-person shooter. Both single player and multiplayer looks like it will be a blast, and with experienced Digital Extremes running the show Pariah has a good chance of sharing the spotlight with other Xbox first-person shooter greats, such as Halo 2. Pariah is set to release in Australia on the 24th of May.
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