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{{Short description|2006 video game}}
'''Paraworld''' is a [[real-time strategy]] PC game released on [[September 25]], [[2006 in video gaming|2006]]. It was developed by the German company SEK (Spieleentwicklungskombinat), based in Berlin. The game features more than 50 prehistoric animals, especially [[dinosaurs]] and extinct [[mammals]].
{{Infobox video game
[[de:| title = ParaWorld]]
| image = Paraworld.jpg
| developer = [[Spieleentwicklungskombinat GmbH]]
| publisher = [[Sunflowers Interactive Entertainment Software|Sunflowers]]<br />[[Deep Silver]]<br />[[Aspyr Media|Aspyr]]<br />[[N3V Games|Auran]]
| designer =
| engine =
| released = {{vgrelease|EU|September 15, 2006|NA|September 27, 2006|AU|October 10, 2006}}
| genre = [[Real-time strategy]]
| modes = [[Single-player video game|Single-player]]<br />[[Multiplayer video game|Multiplayer]]
| platforms = [[Microsoft Windows]]
}}
'''Paraworld''ParaWorld (ParaWelt)''''' is a [[real-time strategy]] PC game released on [[September 25]], [[2006 in video gaming|2006]]. It was developed by the German company SEK (Spieleentwicklungskombinat) GmbH, based in Berlin. The game features more than 50fifty prehistoric animals, especially [[dinosaursdinosaur]]s and extinct[[pleistocene]] [[mammals]]. Disc versions of the game utilise [[TAGES|TAGES copy protection]], which installs a proprietary driver on the user's system for copy protection.
 
==Gameplay==
Set in a parallel world between our world in the 19th century and a prehistoric world, where warring tribes and dinosaurs rule, ParaWorld immerses players in a real-time strategy game. Armed with devastating weapons, commanding powerful fighting dinosaurs and controlling up to fifty units, players go into battle in gripping single-player and multiplayer action. Up to eight players can battle each other in more than 15 multiplayer levels.
The gameplay concept is similar to "Age of Empires", which is a real-time strategy game. ''ParaWorld'' features food, wood, and stone as resources. Food can be picked from bushes, hunted from animals, fished from the sea, or farmed. Stone is located in limited deposits, and wood, cut from trees, is generally scattered throughout a map. Battles can occur on both land and sea.
 
The story takes place in a parallel dimension, where prehistoric life thrives alongside diverse human civilizations that are not technologically advanced. As a result, dinosaurs take the place of traditional wildlife and livestock, though some of the dinosaurs in-game are highly stylized and not necessarily scientifically accurate. Wild-living dinosaurs can be hunted for food, though some are of dangerous and aggressive species and will attack any player unit that wanders too close. Other prehistoric creatures make an appearance as well, for example [[woolly mammoth]]s are used where other games might feature [[elephant]]s.
==Story==
A group of 19th-century scientists discover the method for traveling to another dimension, where dinosaurs and primitive human tribes still inhabit Earth. When they discover they don't ever age in this dimension, they decide to remain there to rule. Now flash-forward to the modern age, where three young scientists, American Geologist Anthony Cole, Sweedish Biologist Stina Holmlund, Hungarian Physics genius Béla Andràs Benedek discover the dimension-jumping method for themselves. The 19th century scientists find out about this, and try to prevent the three scientists from releasing information about this parallel dimension by trapping them in the hostile Paraworld.
 
Players advance through epochs in order to unlock new technologies and upgrades.
 
==Plot summary==
The three scientists serve as your core "hero" units, and you'll control them as they go through the game trying to figure out how to get home. This may involve trying to find the pieces of a crashed airship, which means defeating the native tribes that possess them (believing them to be holy relics), or battling hostile dinosaurs and the forces of the 19th-century scientists who settled there long ago.
''ParaWorld'' ("[[Parallel universe (fiction)|parallel world]]") is an alternate universe where dinosaurs and [[ice age]] creatures never became extinct. A group of 19th-century scientists, the SEAS (the Society of Exact Alternative Science) led by scientific genius Jarvis Babbit, discovered the parallel world where dinosaurs and primitive human tribes coexist. When they subsequently learned that people don't age in this dimension and that the concept of electricity is inexistant, they decided to remain there to rule.
 
Later, three young scientists are led to Jarvis Babbit: the [[United States|American]] [[geologist]] Anthony Cole, [[Sweden|Swedish]] [[biologist]] Stina Holmlund, and [[Kingdom of Hungary|Hungarian]] physics genius Béla András Benedek, all of whom having discovered elements in the "real" world that point toward the existence of a parallel world. Jarvis Babbit decides to send the three scientists into "Paraworld", seemingly for an expedition. However, when the three heroes discover the true intentions of the SEAS, they have to rally all the parallel world's warring inhabitants in order to defeat the SEAS.
==Climatic Zones==
In paraworld there are 5 different climatic zones ([[Jungle]], [[Savannah]], Northland, Icewaste, and Ashvalley). Different animal species live in each zone. Generally speaking, dinosaurs predominate in warmer climates and mammals in more temperate conditions. The maps tend to be islands or inland regions with rivers, lakes, or ponds.
 
The three scientists serve as the game's core "hero" units. Their main goal is to return to their home world, but to do this they will need to enlist the aid of enlightened natives and battle against the hostile creatures, tribes, and ultimately the masterminds trying to stop them. Along the way they'll meet several characters who are seemingly based on classical scientists such as [[Nicola Tesla]] or [[Charles Darwin]] ("Nikolaj Taslow" and "James Warden" in the game). They eventually discover that a man named David Leighton, who is one of Babbit's men, is orchestrating events on the parallel world, and pursue him. They also learn of a plot to permanently seal the world away by moving the planet out of orbit, which will also trigger a cataclysm.
'''Jungle:''' Tropical rainforest with mostly dinosaurs. The Dragon Clan lives here, and ruins of past civilizations lay scattered across the jungle.
 
In order to save the planet and secure their own escape from ParaWorld, they are forced to assault Babbit's fortifications. They manage to stop the countdown and Cole kills Leighton in battle. Babbit makes a last-ditch effort to stop the heroes by using a giant robot. Having failed, Babbit falls into lava and presumably dies. The heroes finally go back home. However, Cole is awakened in the middle of the night by a phone call of Béla telling him that the dinosaurs have come through as well. The chaos of ParaWorld now ensues on planet Earth.
'''Savannah:''' Dry, desert-like region with dinosaurs; the home territory of the nomadic Dustriders.
 
==Reception==
'''Northland:''' Temperate region with both dinosaurs and mammals. The Norsemen roam this autumny landscape.
{{Video game reviews
| MC = 71/100<ref name=mc>{{cite web|url=https://www.metacritic.com/game/paraworld/critic-reviews/?platform=pc|title=ParaWorld for PC Reviews|website=[[Metacritic]]|publisher=[[Fandom (website)|Fandom]]|access-date=June 15, 2023}}</ref>
| 1UP = C+<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.1up.com/reviews/paraworld|title=ParaWorld|first=Eric|last=Neigher|date=October 2, 2016|website=[[1Up.com]]|publisher=[[Ziff Davis]]|access-date=June 15, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160603174548/http://www.1up.com/reviews/paraworld|archive-date=June 3, 2016}}</ref>
| CGM = {{Rating|2|5}}<ref>{{cite magazine|title=Review: ParaWorld|magazine=[[Computer Games Magazine]]|publisher=[[theGlobe.com]]|issue=193|date=December 2006|page=76}}</ref>
| EuroG = 5/10<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.eurogamer.net/r-paraworld-pc|title=ParaWorld|first=Darren|last=Allen|date=November 13, 2006|website=[[Eurogamer]]|publisher=[[Gamer Network]]|access-date=June 15, 2023}}</ref>
| GI = 7/10<ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://www.gameinformer.com/NR/exeres/33F13412-046B-476E-9B1F-6632E7EED616.htm|title=ParaWorld|first=Joe|last=Juba|magazine=[[Game Informer]]|publisher=[[GameStop]]|issue=164|date=December 2006|access-date=June 15, 2023|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071214075449/http://www.gameinformer.com/NR/exeres/33F13412-046B-476E-9B1F-6632E7EED616.htm|archive-date=December 14, 2007}}</ref>
| GSpot = 6.2/10<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.gamespot.com/reviews/paraworld-review/1900-6161049/|title=ParaWorld Review|first=Jason|last=Ocampo|date=November 3, 2006|website=[[GameSpot]]|publisher=Fandom|access-date=April 20, 2020}}</ref>
| GameZone = 7.8/10<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.gamezone.com/reviews/paraworld_pc_review/|title=ParaWorld - PC - Review|first=Steven|last=Hopper|date=October 17, 2006|website=GameZone|access-date=June 15, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081005175319/http://pc.gamezone.com/gzreviews/r24173.htm|archive-date=October 5, 2008|url-status=live}}</ref>
| HCG = 4/5<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://archive.org/details/hardcore-gamer-magazine-v2i7/page/n29/mode/2up|title=ParaWorld|first1=Thomas "Wanderer"|last1=Wilde|first2=Anthony "Metalbolt"|last2=Mertz|magazine=Hardcore Gamer|publisher=[[Prima Games]]|volume=2|issue=7|date=January 2007|page=60|access-date=June 15, 2023}}</ref>
| IGN = 7.8/10<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.ign.com/articles/2006/09/28/paraworld-review|title=ParaWorld Review|first=Dan|last=Adams|date=September 28, 2006|website=[[IGN]]|publisher=Ziff Davis|access-date=April 20, 2020}}</ref>
| PALGN = 6.5/10<ref>{{cite web|url=http://palgn.com.au/article.php?id=5868&sid=06883d1b63b3256066a7840facecbc1f|title=ParaWorld Review|first=Mark|last=Marrow|date=January 9, 2007|website=PALGN|publisher=PAL Gaming Network|access-date=June 15, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071225064652/http://palgn.com.au/article.php?id=5868&sid=06883d1b63b3256066a7840facecbc1f|archive-date=December 25, 2007}}</ref>
| PCGUS = 70%<ref>{{cite magazine|title=ParaWorld|magazine=[[PC Gamer]]|publisher=[[Future US]]|volume=13|issue=13|date=Christmas 2006|page=70}}</ref>
}}
 
The game received above-average reviews according to the [[Review aggregator|review aggregation]] website [[Metacritic]].<ref name=mc/>
'''Icewaste:''' Frozen, wintry polar region with only mammals.
 
The developing company SEK shut down due to insufficient sales, and Sunflowers ended their partnership with it. The previously announced [[expansion pack]] was cancelled. A German-only Booster Pack for the game was released with Gold GOTY Editions of ''ParaWorld'', containing new maps, heroes, and missions, and was only compatible with German copies of the game. However, members of the ''ParaWorld'' gaming community "Para-Welt" have created an unofficial downloadable version of the Booster Pack for all regions that incorporates updated community content (such as modifications enabling players to utilise the previously NPC 'SEAS' factions) alongside the official SEK Booster Pack content. According to German newspaper ''[[Die Welt]]'', ''ParaWorld'' was commercially unsuccessful, with sales of around 100,000 units.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.welt.de/wirtschaft/webwelt/article710868/Dinosaurier-bringen-PC-Spielestudio-zu-Fall.html|title=Dinosaurier bringen PC-Spielestudio zu Fall|language=de|first=Lars|last=Winckler|date=January 23, 2007|newspaper=[[Die Welt]]|publisher=[[Axel Springer SE]]|access-date=January 12, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181210201501/https://www.welt.de/wirtschaft/webwelt/article710868/Dinosaurier-bringen-PC-Spielestudio-zu-Fall.html|archive-date=December 10, 2018|url-status=live}}</ref>
'''Ashvalley:''' [[Volcanism]] is extremely high in this gray world. Only a few hardy dinosaurs and plants can survive here.
 
{{clear}}
==Tribes==
In Paraworld, you can play as one of three human tribes. They are the [[Norsemen]] (a Viking-like culture), the Dustriders (nomads described on the main website as having African appearances), and the Dragon Clan (inspired by eastern Asian cultures such as China and Japan). Each one has their own special units, buildings, and strengths/weaknesses. When you have a hero on your team they add a special unit only usable by you.
 
==PreviewsReferences==
{{reflist}}
*[http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/paraworld/news.html?sid=6139417&q=ParaWorld Gamespot Preview]
*[http://pc.ign.com/articles/666/666319p1.html IGN Preview]
*[http://www.wargamer.com/reviews/paraworld_preview/ Wargamer Preview]
*[http://www.flashwar.ch/index.php?option=com_gallery2&Itemid=230&g2_view=core.ShowItem&g2_itemId=18946 Paraworld screenshots gallery]
*[http://gaming.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=6802 HEXUS Gaming - Review]
 
==External links==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070821101602/http://www.paraworld.com/ Official Sitewebsite]
*{{moby game|id=/24165/paraworld/}}
 
{{DEFAULTSORT:Paraworld}}
[[Category:Dinosaurs in computer games]]
[[Category:Real-time2006 strategy computervideo games]]
[[Category:Aspyr games]]
 
[[Category:DinosaursDeep in computerSilver games]]
[[de:ParaWorld]]
[[Category:Multiplayer and single-player video games]]
[[nl:ParaWorld]]
[[Category:Real-time strategy video games]]
 
[[Category:Video games about dinosaurs]]
{{strategy-cvg-stub}}
[[Category:Video games about parallel universes]]
[[Category:Video games developed in Germany]]
[[Category:Windows games]]
[[Category:Windows-only games]]