If you're making a FPS for the Xbox, you're going to need to put out something special. Ever since the console's launch, the most abundant genre on the system has been the first person shooter. As such, if there isn't something radically different or unique about your title, consider yourself dead in the water and etched into the tomes of obscurity forever.

Outside of Halo, the majority of the games found in the FPS pool on the Xbox seem to either focus heavily on either the multiplayer or the single player side of the gaming formula, never really excelling in more than one mode of play, though there is the occasional exception (Return to Castle Wolfenstein is notable on this account.). However, as of last year's E3, Digital Extremes took it upon themselves to deliver the elusive beast that is the well rounded FPS. The game goes by the name of Pariah, and now that the title has been released, I can safely say with resounding assurance that Pariah comes fairly close, but in the end falls short of it's goal. While certainly a decent play, the game lacks the overall shine found in the more exceptional Xbox FPSs on the market today. Where does Pariah trip up? Read on to find out.

How come nobody will hang out with me?

By definition of Webster's Dictionary, a pariah is "a member of a low caste of southern India". While that doesn't make a whole lot of sense, the book thankfully included the synonym "outcast". In essence, this describes, to a certain extent, the main character whom you'll be playing as during your playthrough of Pariah.

Dr. Jack Mason is a, well, doctor who has been assigned to transport a woman who is infected with a strange virus to a new penitentiary. While he was supposed to receive an escort from military fighters, Mason was left high and dry, forced to move the infected woman, named Karina, all by himself.

In an extremely predictable turn of events, the wild outlaws who now live on the surface of this wasteland known as Earth fire missiles at Mason's ship, sending it spiraling downwards into near oblivion. As you crash land into the planet, you are introduced to the game's basic controls, which will take any seasoned veteran of shooters mere seconds to get down.

As Pariah has you acting as one man against the world, the odds can seem pretty overwhelming at times. The enemy AI helps (at least a majority of the time) to strike fear in your very heart when a pack of masked mercenaries will spring out of a cavern and begin to open fire upon you. I cannot stress enough exactly how important it is to constantly take cover in Pariah.

While the artificial intelligence are not the tacticians that the mercenaries found in Far Cry on the PC were, they will navigate around various obstacles in their attempt to blow your brains out of your skull. Unfortunately, there are times when the AI just doesn’t think straight, such as when they're on an upper platform or in the interior environments. With less room to work with and not much space to shimmy around, the AI basically runs around in a circle. There are different variables to their indoor behavior, most noticeably when they have you pinned down and cornered. Then they'll instate a sort of hive mentality towards ending your life.