Games Nest

CLIVE BARKER'S JERICHO

For XBOX 360, PC, PS3 From Codemasters

There was a time when Clive Barker used to write books like “Mister B. Gone”. Back then, he had given us his game, “Undying”. Now that Mr. Barker is into the “Hellraiser” series, he gives us another game, “Jericho”.

  

          ‘Jericho” is a squad of seven elite warriors specializing in the paranormal. There is the leader, Devin Ross, able to move his spirit through the other members, Father Paul Rawlings, a priest with the charisma to heal from great distance and exorcise, Wilhelmina Church, a rogue trained in blood magic, Abigail Black, a telekinetic sniper, Simone Cole, a computer expert with the ability to control time, Frank Delgado, a carrier of a 7.62 mm minigun and summoner of the fire spirit “Ababilini” and Xavier Jones a seer with the ability of “Astral Projection”.

           A portal in the eastern city “Al Khali” opens leading to “The Box” and the team “Jericho” is sent to seal it. The portal is created by ‘Firstborn” (a creature made by god before the human race, without having sex, without neither being pretty or ugly nor having age. After being disliked from its creator for being unbalanced, it was thrown away in the turmoil of a prison called “The box” (Hellraiser anyone?). But Firstborn wanted to avenge this…. Except Jericho another team enters the portal, “Brotherhood of the dark Rapture”, followers of the firstborn’s deity, in order to bring forth their God. But this was not the first time the portal was opened. During the WWII, the crusades, the roman and finally the Sumerian area two teams (fighters and followers of the firstborn) have entered the portal. When the portal opens Firstborn devours everything, the land and the people. But the lands and people the portal devours, before it closes, are deformed beyond any recognition. Homing creatures wonder aimlessly through barren wastelands. When Finally Jericho makes it to the end of the Sumerian area they have to make a choice. To close the portal, they can bound themselves to its turmoil and get trapped there fighting forever, waiting till the next time the portal will open, or, they can go down to the lowest part of The Box (Pyxis Prima) and comfort the Firstborn. They are warned though, that trying to kill it is in vain. Bounding themselves to the portal on the other hand, drives people to insanity and so Jericho decides to try and put a stop in Firstborn dominion. But interfering with Firstborn requires the ultimate sacrifice as Arnold Leach, the leader of Brotherhood of Dark Rapture, had found out, in his pursuit for ressurecting his god.

           The game starts with you controlling captain Ross. But soon –spoiler warning- he dies and so the player can control Ross’ spirit as it switches between the other members. You can control both the paranormal abilities and the standard weapons of each character. There is an option with witch you can give the other members some basic orders (hold position, move and clear etc) but after the first stages it's basically useless. Every stage starts by finding the remaining members of the 7 warrior squad and get information about the stage – time period. Each level ends with you, fighting against the main antagonist (leader of the followers) of every period. Except this fights you will also have to comfort the nightmarish creatures devoured by the portal. During the fights you will often have to respond to QTEs. Now, if during the fight one of your allies is downed you can either use Rawling’s healing ability, or get close to him/her and a simple touch will be life saving. The controls are ok, nicely responding to the commands you give to your character.

    

         The graphics are a bit aged. Yet the environments and especially the characters have a great level of detail. The music is nice but nothing of great importance. That's not a problem though, because during the biggest part of the game you 'll listen to the endless gunfiring and the character's voices - screams. The game's voice acting is fine, without anything special, but some spoken dialogues are really funny! It should be noted that there are some repetitions on the environments and the music tunes used in the game. Also, the whole experience of the game, is like taking a Goth, strapping him to a chair, drilling his brain out and projecting it to a screen.

          

          Let’s move on to the game failures. Switching characters on a FPS game may be original but is very disorientating, exposing you to unnecessary damage. This could be ok if the A.I. wasn’t that bad. Especially your allies’ A.I. is so poor that you will have to revive them almost forever. And when you play as Rawlings, the other members of the squad, seem to take your healing ability for granted, fighting without taking any cover. Also the story is not well told making your head spin if you think about it to much and finally the level of violence in the game is a bit extreme, but what did you expect from the creator of Hellraiser?

         In conclusion Jericho is not a bad game It’s just not as good as Undying. If you are a fan of Mr. Barker or you liked Hellraiser then don’t miss Jericho. You may even forgive its weaknesses but only if you are a sadomasochistic violence fan (or a Goth!).    

DLC(s); -

A trailer;

A gameplay video;