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Pariah is Another Sad Example of the FPS Glut

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 6 / 7
Date: May 09, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Just a few years ago Pariah would have garnered praise and a decent fanbase. Unfortunately, in today's market, it sits squarely among a legion of also-ran first person shooters.

I found the single player game to be offendingly tedious. While the creators tried to tell an interesting story, it was lost in the uninspired level design and irritatingly awkward weapons. Props for the healing tool, though. The way the healing tool and health are handled is the only innovative aspect of the game.

The last straw for me was the fact that the single player game is checkpoint based. After ten tries of running over a bridge and methodically mopping up the enemies, only to die from a grenade I could never see coming, I uninstalled the game.

Forty Dollars I'll Never Get back

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 5
Date: June 06, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Hungering for a FPS to fill the HL2/Doom 3 void, I made the mistake of buying this game. Instantly struck by mediocre voice acting and cliche writing, I thought other aspects might be better... but I was wrong.

Game play isn't horribly awful until you engage vehicles or shoot from them. The weapon upgrade system fairly interesting, but it's not enough to float a game of filled with lead weights.

Worst of all is the checkpoint only save system. They even force you to sit through the cut scenes every time you get sent back. The game might be survivable if you were able to rapid fire quicksave... but you can't.

Save your time, save your money, run away!

Good idea, lackluster presentation

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: May 20, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Don't be drawn in by the fancy-looking box with the beautifully rendered lady on the inside cover. The graphics in-game were only marginal when I first set to out to play this, so I went to turn them up, only to find them on high and very high. I told myself to just work through it, but any hope of that was shattered by the hideous repetition of the single player mode. The weapons in Pariah are ridiculous. I can't seem to find one that's suited for any situatuion. The main weapon, the Bulldog, is somewhat accurate, and that's stretching it. The only accurate weapon in the game is the sniper rifle (I'm assuming. I can't bring myself to play any further). Most of the weapons won't work if you're more than 5 feet away. I'm not even going to bother with multiplayer because I can't see it being worth my while. Do yourself a favor and get something else.

PARIAH

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 2 / 8
Date: November 11, 2005
Author: Amazon User

The lack of ability to save this game even when you want to take a break is totally absent. As far as I can tell you have to play this game all the way through at one setting in order to finish it. This makes the game totally unplayable, you end up replaying scenarios at least a half dozen times just to get back to where you were, DO NOT waste your money on this game.

Not much to say - old premises, new box and price

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 2
Date: May 20, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I won't waste too much time typing what the other reviews before me have covered.

Suffice it to say -
Nothing new or exciting. Some nice graphics, but linear gameplay and so-so game AI.

Lots of hype here but nothing you have not played before. Save your money for GTA: San Andreas for PC(coming June 7th) and Call of Duty 2 and the other great games coming to pc this summer and fall.

Crashes every time, no customer support

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: July 18, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Pariah crashes every time I start it. The bug report tool sent an email to an address that bounced. I patched it with the latest patch and it still crashes every time. This is probably the 10th game I've installed on my current computer and the only one I've had any problems with.

EDITED TO ADD:
So, I got this working. It doesn't run on dual core processors, so you need to google "processor affinity" and set it run on only one processor. Also I had to turn off full screen transform and lighting because it would turn my whole screen black every time a grenade went off. It's still a lame game. The incredibly stupid enemies stand up behind crouch cover while reloading. The levels are totally linear, you go, you shoot, repeat. Boring.

Didn't work

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: October 02, 2007
Author: Amazon User

The game would not load properly so I never got a chance to play it. It's not my computer because I have a new Dell with the latest drivers, ect. This company poorly engineers it's games. Thanks Groove. I find certain companies more reliable such as Blizzard, Firaxis, Sierra, and Microsoft.

Over-hyped game

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: December 29, 2006
Author: Amazon User

After reading the reviews on Amazon and other sites, I decided to try Pariah. Boy, was I duped! This is the most boring and needlessly incomprehensible game I've played in a long time. At least with other games like Halo and Far Cry, you have some idea of why you are doing what you are doing in the game. Pariah leaves you wondering (1) what is my motivation, other than just trying to survive, and (2) why am I playing this game in the first place. Just like Black, it is nice graphics-wise, but really not worth the effort or trouble required.

Lack of Saves sinks this game

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: July 21, 2006
Author: Amazon User

The graphics are gorgeous, the levels are interesting (though at times needlessly and over-the-top deadly), and the concept of weapon enhancements is great. But the fact that you cannot save this game before (or in the middle of) difficult sections makes it so frustrating as to be unplayable. Even the $10 I spent on it seems too much given that there's no way I'm going to waste my time trying over and over again to get past the third level. Save your money and buy a game that's more fun than frustrating no matter how cool the graphics look.

My Apology for Liking Pariah

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 28 / 30
Date: March 20, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I've read some very disparaging reviews of Pariah. And, while it is certainly all a matter of perspective, let me counter some of the critiques I've read.

First, speaking of perspective, I think this game was short-shrifted by every reviewer because of the time it entered the market-which was pretty much on the heels of Half-Life 2. Everyone had just finished making their way through that incredible epic and was ready for the fun to continue with Pariah. So, when it was clear that Pariah wasn't Half-Life 2 (NOTHING is Half-Life 2, of course) lots of reviewers griped: "It's trying to be Half-Life, but it just doesn't cut the mustard." I think the disappointment in many reviews I've read has little to do with Pariah itself, and more to do with reviewers' disappointment that, for the time being, they were going to have to wait for a new Half-Life 2 saga.

Well, I'm an extremely slow gamer (or maybe I'm just a busy person), and it took me the better part of half a year to finish Half-Life 2 in an utter state of amazement, and after that I followed it with another 6 months of F.E.A.R. shaking in my boots, and another 3 months of Quake 4. But considering the dearth of FPS games on the market at any given time (and wanting to play something new while waiting for the next installment of anything), I haphazardly came across Pariah for a handful of dollars (prices cut no doubt because of bad reviews) and picked it up. I was no longer riding the high of Half-Life 2, I had played F.E.A.R. and busted it wide open, limped through and finished Quake 4 with glee, and decided to give Pariah a try-I was predisposed to like it, having only bought it (new) for $7. What I found was a beautiful-looking game with complex inside and outside terrains, battles, and a nice array of weapons and vehicles. I bet Pariah, if it had preceded Half-Life 2, or had been released at a different time altogether, would NEVER have gotten the negative reviews it has garnered, because it is a fine, fun, entertaining game with decent action and simply great graphics. But I kept seeing reviews comparing it to Half-Life 2-and no game would ever stand a chance at that comparison. A little adjustment to expectations, and I found that Pariah was a VERY engaging way to wait for HL2 Episode One, or whatever. Many reviewers simply never gave Pariah a fair shake because of their own previous "metaphysical" experiences playing HL2. How fair is that?

Next, many negative reviews griped that "In Pariah's story line, some dumb girl who is infected with a virus keeps running away from you and you have to go find her. I just wanted to shoot her and be done with it." Excuse moi, but in what video game doesn't this happen? For example, how many times did Alex Vance (or Barney for that matter) disappear and reappear in HL2? This sort of plot contrivance is simply video game convention-certainly nothing to complain about. Again, the HL2 comparison did Pariah in, unfairly in my book.

Next, I've read many reviews that complained "Pariah just can't make the action of shooting a gun interesting. And the weapons seem weak, and they sound weak." I know these kinds of elements, if not done just right, can ruin a game. But I've got my system hooked up to powerful stereo studio monitors and these guns are vibrating the floor. Now that may seem extreme, but from where I'm sitting, I'm going deaf. I don't see what the problem is. And some reviewers will lamely say, "Yeah, in Pariah you can upgrade the weapons as you go along, and this is an interesting idea, but...(it's no Half-Life 2)...yadda, yadda." I think the idea of upgrading weapons is super cool and really quite innovative. And it's easy to do within the framework of the game. Sheez, I thought having to fiddle with the PDA in DOOM 3 was more complicated and tiresome!

Next, I've read: "In Pariah, your opponents move around too quickly to hit sometimes, and then they run right back up on you after retreating, and the enemy characters keep repeating the same lines like `We don't want you, doctor! We only want the girl!' If I heard that line one more time, I was going to shoot myself," said some chimp of a reviewer. Uh, again excuse me, but this critique is coming from people who played games like F.E.A.R. where every psychic soldier has the EXACT SAME VOICE and has the same range of about 5 phrases? F.E.A.R. is an awesome game, but few people seem to level their sights at its limitations. Again, this sort of AI silliness, or limited dialogue, is either video game convention, or it is a testament to the state of technology right now. These issues are not endemic to Pariah by any means. Check your bias, folks.

All of this is not to say Pariah is a perfect game-there is no perfect game. (I have gripes about everything I play-even The Chronciles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, to which Gamespot gave an orgasmic review.) Let me enumerate my Pariah-problems.

First, many reviewers said that the story line, or plot, was so convoluted as to be senseless. On this point, I must agree. The storyline starts off very strongly and is promising (recently demoted and down-on-his-luck field medic is escorting cyro-sleeping, virus-infected female patient across the battlefield of Earth in 2550, gets infected himself, and tries to stay alive). But that very nice premise, somewhere in the middle, completely falls apart. In fact, late in the game, there are cutscenes designed to drive the story forward-and they end up making no sense whatsoever. I entirely gave up on trying to interpret the story about halfway through. That didn't ruin the action for me, however. And that is also not to say that the main characters themselves aren't somewhat interesting, because they are.

And talking about cutscenes, this brings me to my biggest gripe about Pariah. It seems this game has it backwards a bit. Usually, in the games I've played, the cutscenes are the movie-moments-big in scope and beautiful to look at. Well, in Pariah, the first-person playing screens (everything but the cutscenes) are really quite gorgeous, lush, nice color palette, some nice vistas, good shimmer-effects on the explosions, etc. On the other hand, the third-person cutscenes themselves (which should be awesome if we are talking video-game-convention here) are horrible looking in comparison. When a cutscene loads, the characters suddenly look chopped up, images become super-low-resolution and really quite crappy. The cutscenes almost look as if they are unfinished beta-tests or something. Very strange. But soon enough, the first-person-playing-screen reloads and we are back to the beauty. Unfortunately, every cutscene suffers from this, and it does detract from the game. Who knows what the game developers were thinking? Initially I thought there was something awry with my video card settings. But nope-the cutscenes are simply the pits, graphically speaking.

Lastly, there is one element to Pariah that ALMOST ruins it-at the very least, it causes a lot of grief and swearing. Heads up: There is no quicksave function. Instead there are predetermined loading points where the game saves automatically. Almost finished a level, but you suddenly die near the very end? Guess what? You're right back at the beginning of the level to play it all over again...and again and again and again. There is no overriding this. Want to talk about aggravating? Don't get me started. But I persevered, and the save points are liberally placed (usually), and, honestly, this factor does add an element of extra tension to the game. (But it's still aggravating as hell.)

One review I read said: "Pariah represents forty bucks I'll never get back. If you ever make the mistake of buying it, look for it in your budget bin. Don't pay top dollar." I don't know how I would've felt had I spent $40 on this the second it came out. It probably would've colored my review of it significantly. But as it stands (lucky for me) I didn't spend $40 on it. I spent $7. And what an incredible, great, fun value! You know, in my wait for the next FPS installment of whatever, I went back and played Halo and also the original Half-Life. Then I got Pariah and realized that by playing those older games, I was wasting my time. They pale in comparison-simply from a technological standpoint-to Pariah. Come on, you high-falutin' game reviewers out there! Adjust that bias a bit, and you'll find that Pariah is quite lovely and engrossing. Be aware: There's nothing new in Pariah. You've seen and played it all before-the interiors and exteriors; the sci-fi themes; the vehicles that change from first-person to third-person perspective; the array of machine guns, grenade launchers, and sniper and plasma rifles; the woman you are trying to save that keeps running away from you. But it is a solid, eye-pleasing game that is long-playing (for us snails anyway-I clocked in around 20 hours) and challenging.

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