Even at the end of the game, many key plot points remain largely unexplained, leaving it up to the player to conjecture about what really happened.

The game takes place 30 years after mankind fought a devastating war against an enemy known as "The Shroud".

At the end of the game, they are shown to be hairless humans with corpse-white skin and highly advanced technology, although whether they are aliens, terrorists, mutants, or something else is never clearly revealed.

Mason is accidentally infected with the mysterious transgenic virus that Karina is carrying, and she escapes in the chaos that follows as Scavengers arrive at the crash site attempting to capture her.

Mason observes that Karina possesses bizarre powers granted to her by the virus; when experiencing strong emotions, she involuntarily produces an explosive effect that creates mass destruction while leaving her unharmed.

However, it turns out that Stockton has double crossed the Mercenaries by allowing The Alliance to capture Karina for himself and refusing to pay them.

Karina is a weapon created by the Shroud 30 years ago, but she was captured by the Alliance (specifically, Stockton's father) and cryogenically frozen.

The Shroud hint that they have the ability to bring the dead back to life but insist that Mason perform more "errands" for them before he will be allowed to see his daughter again.

[1][2] IGN's review stated that, although the PC version was "quite solid in most respects", the gameplay felt dated and the story was "a little bewildering and threadbare".

"[21] However, Ryan Huschka of Detroit Free Press gave the Xbox version two stars out of four, saying, "All told, this game is no pariah.

But even with its map maker, co-op mode and upgradeable weapons, Pariah is too flawed to seriously compete with the Xbox's big-name shooters.

"[20] Jason Hill of The Sydney Morning Herald gave the same console version a similar score of two-and-a-half stars out of five, saying, "Shooters need to be special to stand out, particularly on Halo's home turf, but Pariah fails to excite or innovate.