Map Editing made easy
Now, all I’ve done is rattle on about the game, but there’s a whole other side to Pariah that is worthy of a mention. Have you ever tried your hand at building your own levels for your favourite FPS? Normally, when these level editing kits are released, they have a learning curve that makes the north face of the Eiger look like a Sunday afternoon stroll. Trying to get to grips with 3 different windows to place a brush in the right place, the texture it and add lighting takes up more time than it’s worth… I always ended up giving in and just downloading a map made by someone with more patience and time than myself. Pariah turns all that on its head.
The map editor in Pariah is entirely icon driven and is a doddle to use even with an X-Box controller. All you do is select a map to start off with and then everything goes from there. You can raise and lower terrain to make lakes and ponds, even rivers if you fancy it. You can drop in a bridge, create a choke point and cover it with player controlled turrets, drop in a few boulders to give enemies some cover, and then move the spawn and ammo points back out of harms way. Don’t like the texture being used? Just select a new one and spray it on. Want to create a base? Just pick the icon, drop the building in, add a few more and bung a spawn point in the middle. It really is that easy. After 5 minutes, with a little help from Manny and Meridith, I’d knocked up an hourglass shaped island, bases at each end, choke point in the middle with a nice no-mans land covered by turrets. Then I dropped in some vehicles and a couple of ramps to try and jump the lot and we were off.
The beauty of the map editor is that it does all the hard work for you. It figures out clipping issues and the like, it even fades between one texture and another, so you can progress from sandy shore to grassy plain without an unconvincing demarcation line as it blends the textures in for you. The only thing you can’t do it add or remove spawn points, though you can site these wherever you want, so that’s ok. Sharing your maps on the PC will be a doddle as normal, but for PS2 and X-Box owners, DE have made this easy too. If you’re online, players who connect to your game will automatically download your map, or you can save it to memory card and take it round your mates house, or you can download it from one of the many fansites that are already up and running. Seeing as the longevity of most games depends on their multi-player aspect, the map editor is absolutely inspired, allowing even the most ham-fisted and impatient of gamers to get there own idea of frag heaven up and running in no time at all.
In summing up, I’m now REALLY looking forward to getting my hands on a full copy of Pariah and giving it a thorough playtesting… It has that familiar feel of Unreal, especially with the music, and is shaping up to be every bit as good as it promises to be. With a pedigree such as it has, Pariah should be something very good indeed, and with all the thought and effort that has gone into it, I’d be very surprised if this little gem isn’t all that I think it is. Right, now I’m off for a moose burger, something those Toronto people have turned me onto…
