Pariah - First Look Preview

At the recent EGN trade show at Londonâ??s ExCel Exhibition Centre, TVG were shown a sneak preview of Pariah, the latest title from the creators of Unreal Tournament, and scheduled for publish by relative newcomers Hip Games in Easter 2005.

Set in the future, players take control of burnt out doctor Jack Mason, who is tasked with escorting an infected female prisoner named Karina. After crashing onto the wasteland that used to be known as â??Earthâ?, Mason and his very sick patient find themselves trapped deep in Earthâ??s Prison Sectors; and just to add insult to injury, an Orbital Platform above the Earth is going to launch a strategic nuclear strike above the plane to cleanse the biological contamination in the next sixteen hours.

Dr. Masonâ??s back-story is an interesting one; struck off from doing major research work due to acts of insubordination, Mason finds himself relegated to the Biological Threat Assessment Unit where his role is to perform â??â?¦transgenic and threat assessments in the field.â? Sounds like dangerous work, but we guess that being stuck in a research lab doesnâ??t really lend itself well to an FPS game. Like Gordon Freeman of Half-Life fame, Mason is very much a fish-out-of-water character, since he is a research man, and not a trained fighter like the Marine in Doom3.

The first-person shooter is going through a bit of a transition period at the moment. After years of focusing on developing amazing graphics, the genre seems to be desperately pushing into new territory and attempting to try out new ideas. One of the key ideas that Digital Extremes have created for Pariah was the modification of weapons as the game progresses. In the game, players have to chance to find Weapon Energy Cores (WECâ??s) that upgrade your weapon; players can then adjust the amount of damage that the weapon causes. To offset the fact that players would naturally increase the intensity of the weapons to the maximum, the accuracy is scaled down as the power goes up. This move should mean that Pariah will escape the criticism about weak weapons that Doom3 suffered from earlier on in the year. Two of the weapons that will be making their appearance in Pariah are the BullDog, which is a light-weight rapid fire machine gun, and the Fragrifle, which unlike the BullDog, has been made up from bits of other weapons â?“ itâ??s still hard as nails thoughâ?¦Details including infrared sights are of course standard fare these days, and once again Pariah utilises this most useful of weapon enhancements.

Being a doctor, Mason can also heal himself when he gets injured. Using a device that looks straight out of Star Trek, he can give himself the medicine that he needs to start fighting once again. A word of warning though, even though you are a doctor it is possible to give yourself an overdose, which manifests as a blurred effect on the screen. Itâ??s a neat touch, and a detail that furthers the depth of the game.

Since Halo was released, it seems that every first-person shooter worth its weight must include controllable vehicle, and Pariah is no different. Like Haloâ??s Warthog, the developers have nicknamed at least one of their vehicles after an animal. In Pariah, you get â??The Waspâ?, a three-wheeled vehicle that has mounted heavy machine gunsâ?¦a worthy vehicle to get from A to B, especially when you have to fight your way through hordes of prisoners. Another vehicle entitled the Bogie Buggy was far more akin to Haloâ??s iconic Warthog, and demonstrated an on-rails shooting section during the demonstration, with players taking a gunner position, whilst Karina makes a frantic getaway.

In addition, the developers were keen to show off a section of the single-player game where Mason finds himself upon a drop-ship, flying low and fighting against another. One of the neat things about the game is that once youâ??ve blown open the cargo doors on the other ship, youâ??re free to jump across and continue the action.

The computer AI of the enemy fighters seems to be really good, and throughout the demonstration at EGN, we came across some amazing exchanges between different computer controlled forces. Enemies will also conceal themselves from view, ready to ambush any weary character that strays past. The game will also utilise the Havok physics engine, which will mean that Pariah will follow in the rag-doll footsteps of Max Payne 2 and Half-Life 2.

Although EGN marked the debut screenings of the Single-Player mode, the developers were just as keen to show off the Multiplayer modes. The absolute key multiplayer feature in Pariah has to be the inclusion of a Map Editor mode, where players will be able to create their own custom maps to suit their requirements, with control over everything such as changing the height of the terrain to the weather. Large objects such as drop-ship wrecks can be moved about to the playerâ??s grand plan, spawn sites can also be chosen. We anticipate that this will play a huge part in developing a very strong and versatile Pariah online community for both PC and Xbox platforms.

Thatâ??s right Pariah will be Xbox Live! enabled, and will allow players to upload, and consequently, download maps that have been created by other Pariah playersâ?¦Live! users will also be able to play online Multiplayer Modes, and fight in any of the custom built maps. One of the great things about the Map Editor Mode is its ease of use, along with the fact that maps on the Xbox will never exceed 64k to ensure rapid downloads. Digital Extremes have set in certain boundaries so that the maps cannot be pushed beyond the technical limits that theyâ??ve set. This is an awesome idea that is sure to be replicated by other Live! FPS developers, and will further help to push the transition of the genre forward even further.

Although a PS2 version of the game was planned, it has yet to receive the green light from Sony Computer Entertainment America, so the FPS genre seems to be developing its home on the Xbox, with Doom3 and Half-Life2 all being developed for the console (although neither titles have definite Xbox release dates yet).

As youâ??d expect from a rival game to Doom3 and Halo2, Pariah looks awesome. The graphics are crisp and highly detailed, with added weather effects helping to create a great atmosphere that completely encapsulates the harsh terrain and conditions that Mason and his patient face throughout the game. The action is pretty much constant, and when the battles kick off, the environments really do resemble war zones.