Sound: 3
Gameplay: 2
Value: 0
Reviewer's Tilt: 0
OVERALL: 2.0
The Bad: Where do I begin? Painfully dull game design, repetition to the nth degree, bad AI, ridiculous story and tedious voice acting, not fun under any circumstances
Verdict: Leading candidate for the worst game of the year. Avoid at all costs.
Sorry, but Pariah sucks. Digital Extreme's latest offering just doesn't pay off. Sure, it's got decent visuals, and a "story," but underneath its thick metallic skin lies a mediocre shooter that's often a chore to play. The game is just not fun under any circumstances, featuring absolutely terrible game design, poor AI, and boring, repetitive environments. If this all sounds like fun to you, maybe you'll be entertained by Pariah. Otherwise, take heed and avoid.
Let's start out by discussing the "story." Supposedly you are some person who is stopping the spread of an infectious virus. For a first person shooter, Pariah's story starts out decent enough, with the virus (which we learn is transmitted through blood) infecting you quite early on. I won't say how, but the results aren't pretty. Eventually the plot just gets ridiculous, with double crosses and your ridiculous-sounding character narrating it all. Where did they pick up these actors from? (For shooters with great voice actors: See Chronicles of Riddick.) Did I mention that all of Pariah's poorly directed videos are shown in crappy quality FMV? From a presentation standpoint, Pariah just never leaves the ground. In fact, it's quite the opposite. The more it tries, the more Pariah digs itself deeper. The whole game eventually goes to hell.
The game just simply is a burden to play, featuring some of the worst memorable shooting moments in gaming history. I mean, there's one level aboard a moving train, which might be cool if it wasn't visually boring and repetitive looking (not to mention being done a billion times before and a lot better). The end of this level is an absolute atroscity. I kid you not, Digital Extremes must think it's fun to hold down the mouse button. You hop into a turret, and you just sit there and hold down the mouse button while these dropships approach you slowly, pretty much doing absolutely no damage to you. You shoot them, they slowly die. Rinse and repeat. It's absolutely boring. It was so repetitive that I almost thought a scripted event failed, and I was stuck doing nothing. But alas, the mission eventually ended. I will never forget it either. It's probably one of the most boring levels ever devised.
It doesn't let up. Much of Pariah's levels are so poorly designed that I would have laughed if I wasn't in pain. There's so much repetition here that it's almost insane. You've got these brown looking outdoor levels and you've got greenish colored, metallic interiors. That's it. There's also a level where you're in an air vehicle and you've got to shoot down rockets. It's almost as bad as the train level I previously mentioned. You're shooting slow moving rockets. That's it. You click, they blow up. First they fire one at a time, then two, then *GASP* three at a time! And still it poses no challenge. How can this game play so poorly? This is 2005, people. Haven't games improved since the Nintendo era? Apparently not if you're Digital Extremes! This game has all the classic gaming "tricks," like respawning enemies, or shoot-this-amount-of-people/objects/random-crap-before-we'll-open-the-door BS. Still sound interested in Pariah?
The visuals are the high point of Pariah, although they're fairly average by today's standards. Average textures hide under layers of unwelcome shimmer and bloom lighting. I've never seen a shinier game. This game looks average. But ultimately, the visuals are the game�s high point, which doesn�t say a whole lot.
To keep this review short�don�t play Pariah unless you like crap. Really, I admit to having those guilty pleasures (I actually liked Soldier of Fortune), but when it comes down to it, Pariah has no redeeming qualities. It simply sucks.