First Encounter

Publisher Groove Games and the folks behind the original PC gamesUnreal and Unreal Tournament now turn their eyes to Xbox® with the dazzling new first-person shooter Pariah™.

Perhaps taking a cue from the Ray Liotta classic No Escape, the game's version of the future sees the Earth itself converted into one big prison planet for the rest of the solar system. The rich and powerful left Earth long ago, after the big blue marble finally became a big brown cesspool.

You take on the role of Jack Mason, a doctor transporting a cryo-frozen prisoner infected with a mysterious disease. But, you know how things on prison planets go … Before you know it, your ship goes down in dangerous territory, your beautiful young prisoner Karina J is missing, and you've got the setup for a classic single-player first-person shooter (FPS).

Add in fully implemented Xbox Live™ play and a map-making tool that lets you share your custom-made arenas with others online, and you've got one of the most complete and rewarding shooters to hit the system yet.

As a great man once said, "Welcome to Earth."

Not content with creating a stellar shooter with a heavily modified Unreal engine and those Havok physics that make games like Mercenaries™ so much fun, Digital Extremes has also changed the way you'll look at your arsenal. Pariah features the full selection of typical FPS armament, such as the Assault Rifle, Shotgun, Grenade Launcher, and so on. And, at first, each one behaves pretty much as you'd expect. But, as soon as you locate a weapon energy core (WEC), you can upgrade the weapon of your choice.

Each weapon has three upgrade slots that change different aspects. Some upgrades might simply increase the size of the ammo clip, increase the rate of reloading, or add armor piercing capabilities. Others, especially the higher-level upgrades, actually change the weapon's innate behavior. The Grenade Launcher, for example, upgrades into a bomb-flinger that lets you set the charges remotely. All upgrades also change the look of the weapon, sometimes drastically.

Switching between weapons is simple. Just hold down Y and pick the one you want.

Along with all this weaponry, Mason carries a health unit (also upgradeable) that lets you heal yourself when needed. Your health appears on the HUD in segmented bars and regenerates on its own. (At least, it fills up the lowest bar that's still got some health in it.) It's the same method used in The Chronicles of Riddick™: Escape from Butcher Bay, and it forces you to be choosy with how you use your medicine.

Enemy A.I. in single player is brutally smart.

Graphically, Pariah truly stands out in the crowded Xbox shooter field. Digital Extremes knows how to make games look good—really good—and in creating the ravaged, prison-planet Earth, they've opted for mostly outdoor environments that may not be 100-percent destructible, but thanks to the magic of Havok, they're pretty darn close.

Vehicles have also been added to the mix, including a Warthog-esque jeep called the Bogey that's insanely fun to drive.

As you draw closer to the secret of Karina J—a.k.a. "Subject B"—and the disease she's inadvertently passed on to our hero Mason, you'll build up an impressive arsenal of customized weapons and customized landscapes (also thanks to Havok) that make every play-through unique.

And, what would an Xbox shooter be without an exclusive co-op mode?Pariah co-op opens up whole new strategies for tackling the game's tricky A.I.-controlled enemies and lets you each upgrade weapons in different ways to take full advantage of customization.

The map tool couldn't be easier to use.

Speaking of customization, the Pariah map maker promises to change the way you play multiplayer shooters on XboxLive. You can create killer maps with ease and share them online, while picking through creations that others have posted and adapting them for your own games. Of course, Pariah also includes a slew of original maps and all the game types you'd expect, but the chance to share, improve, and compete with your own custom arenas—just like PC users have been doing for years—is yet another reason that this game stands out from the pack.

Far from an outcast, this Pariah should be embraced and respected by Xbox gamers everywhere.

By Ben Barker