BU Reviews: Pariah
With a relatively short single player experience, Pariah had a perfect chance to redeem itself with a sizzling multiplayer game. A total of 18 maps and five game types are quite a draw: Capture the Flag, Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Front Line Assault, and Siege. Curiously, the Siege game type must have been nearly killed before release because it is relegated to a section of multiplayer titled "Custom Maps" along with a several deathmatch maps. The maps that fall into that section do not have bot support and, honestly, look unfinished. The deathmatch maps that are considered "custom" are a conglomeration of levels featuring terrain with badly tiled textures and a handful of static meshes (see pics below). I'm not sure if the team just didn't have time to finish part of its multiplayer assets and decided to release them in-game and call them "custom", but it tarnishes the package and would have been better left cut.
Let's move on to what is there. First up, of the remaining 10 maps, the three Front Line Assault maps are exactly the same as their CTF counterparts with a core replacing the flag and stand. That leaves about seven "supported" original maps. Again, as in the single player game, the AI is nothing to write home about. In one CTF match, I scored over 80 points standing in one spot lobbing a grenade over and over. To their credit, about halfway through the match, the enemy team began taking a second route. No problem, I just faced a different direction.
For the most part, what is there is uniquely Pariah. The DM and CTF maps are fairly large (save one unfortunate DM-Fetid inspired map) and offer plenty of hide-and-seek game play, which is a good thing because it's not always easy to stop mid-frag and upgrade your weapons when you pick up a dropped Energy Core. Having to use the Health Tool sure made recovering from a serious fire-fight more challenging - in a good way. The upgraded weapons definitely make things more interesting than not, but in the end I just couldn't find the variety in game play that I was looking for. Everything seems dominated by one or two weapons. As it stands, the single player game far outshines the multiplayer aspect, though most of the non-"custom" maps that are there are very well done.
Whether or not you will enjoy the multiplayer aspect of Pariah depends on if you like the floaty feel of your player character. The Pariah multiplayer demo is definitely a good representation of the final product.
The trump card that Pariah enjoys is the strong editing tools and Digital Extremes has done an exemplary job of bringing their version of UEd to the end user. Xbox'ers will delight in the fully custom editor included with their version. It's much more basic than PariahEd, of course, given the simplicity of the platform. Nonetheless, I offer kudos to the team for giving the Pariah community the chance to build their own levels. That's a big deal, folks, because not every Unreal Engine game - let alone games based on other engines - allows you to be so creative.
| If this review sounds negative, it is only meant to reflect my disappointment at the areas of the game that I believe could (and should) be much better. I expect only the best from Digital Extremes and I am aware of the high caliber of talent that they have onboard. I can only hope that the announced sequel addresses these gripes head-on. The action was very enjoyable, marred only by the issues that I believe are unforgivably obvious: the AI gaffes, the handful of levels that felt rushed, and the overreaching storyline. I could overlook the fact that the game wraps up all-too-quickly (I managed to finish it in about eight and a half hours, including the time spent observing the hijinx of the AI). The game offers a bit of replayability with the promise of upgradeable weapons - if only the Energy Cores weren't so easy to find. The list goes on and on. Good, or even inspired, ideas muted by annoyances. One other oddity that I have to mention... Pariah doesn't seem to support Anti-Aliasing for some reason. I'm not sure if this was intentional, but from what I can tell... it's broken. I enjoyed playing Pariah in the same way that you enjoy watching your favorite competitive sporting event when your team loses: It's enjoyable, but disappointing. I've seen reviews online that range from 50 to 91. I'd give it a 70, with points taken for enemy AI, a confusing storyline, unrealized potential, repetetive sounds, and an average multiplayer experience. The positives include replayability, solid level design, good music, and an underlying coolness that you want very much to like. The game ran acceptably at high details on the following Test System:
Pariah Singleplayer:
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