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FOR THE PAST FEW years Unreal has been one of the premier first-person shooter (FPS) marques, with the Tournament editions of the game providing some solid multiplayer action that . Developer Digital Extremes are now moving on from their experience with Unreal to create an original FPS game using a modified version of the Unreal engine. Pariah tells the story of a doctor, Jack Mason, thrown into a combat situation after a transport crash on a routine trip to pick up a sick patient.

Pariah opens in a lush forest setting after the crash that sees Mason left alone to fight his way out, showing off what the developers are calling Bleeding Edge Visuals. The tranquil and gorgeous setting is soon interrupted by groups of enemies, intent on stopping Mason from progressing any further. Rocky outcrops, hills, trees and rivers populate the opening level, which is characterised by multiple vantage points and numerous was to take on the enemy.

It's a promising start for Pariah, and one which we're keen to see continue. The combat is fairly solid, with some nice looking weapons that pack a fair amount of punch and a fairly open level design that are reminiscent of some parts of Halo. The enemy AI is also quite good at this stage, taking cover as appropriate and providing some solid defence. The team awareness of the AI that Digital Extremes has been working on seems to be in effect here.

To back up the gameplay Pariah has a range of features that look to elevate the game above other FPSs. Standing out among the features is the Mapmaker, which promises to extend the life of multiplayer games, both online and off. Our brief look at that reveal a reasonably intuitive interface that allows for full customisation of the terrain, as well as the placement of buildings, turrets, vehicles, spawn points, and more. The degree to which each map can be personalised looks to be excellent, and is certainly something we're looking forward to investigating further.

Complimenting the single player game is the ability for a second player to jump in and out at any time, turning Pariah into a splitscreen cooperative game. On the early build we played there was a certain amount of lag, but with fine-tuning this should hopefully be ironed out for the final release.

For the Xbox Live component of Pariah up to 16 players will be able to play in a range of matches including Death match, Capture The Flag, Team Death match, Siege and Front Line Assault. The full range of weapons and vehicles will also be available to use, increasing the number of options a squad has to compete with. Spicing up the online multiplayer will be the ability to use your own custom maps or play one someone else's map, providing a broader experience than with most FPSs.

From the little Gameplanet has seen of Pariah it is shaping up to be quite a promising title, especially with the wide range of multiplayer options available. Look out for the Gameplanet review when Pariah releases soon.

Features:

• Can You Survive? - a unique combination of action and stealth create an unprecedented single player gaming experience

• Immersive Story - written by professional Hollywood script writers takes FPS gameplay to a new level

• Bleeding Edge Visuals - with a heavily modified UnrealTM Engine combined with state of the art HAVOKTM physics technology

• Emergent Tactical AI - based upon the already spectacular UnrealTM AI, the enemies in PariahTM are much more aware of one another and work as a team to make them fierce foes

• Use Your Senses - including sight and sound awareness to track and outsmart deadly adversaries against overwhelming odds

• Customize Your Arsenal - using Weapon Energy Cores (WEC's) to build and customize your weapons with devastating results

• Strategically Interactive Terrain - use your surroundings to help you survive a variety of brilliantly designed futuristic earth environments

• Unprecedented Multiplayer - vehicles and customizable weapons come together to create the ultimate multiplayer experience online and off, from the developer who created the Unreal franchise

Show me the screenshots!