Reviews
Clive Barker is probably best known as the writer/director responsible for such horror cinema classics as the Hellraiser franchise, Nightbreed and Candyman. In the world of gaming though his main success story comes in the form of the PC first person shooter Undying which achieved something of a cult status upon release as one of the best games no-one played. Now on Xbox 360 developer Mercury Steam has brought another of Clive Barkers titles to life in Jericho.
In the game players are introduced to the Department of Paranormal Defense Elite Squad, AKA Jericho. This elite unit comprises of seven members that use military expertise and supernatural abilities to act as a last line of defence against the ever present threat of paranormal evil. If it sounds a bit cliché that’s because it is, pure B movie grade story premise… the game opens with the Jericho squad being dispatched to a remote desert ruins in the Middle East to battle against the First Born, the original creation of God before humans were created who was originally banished from this realm. Prophecy has spoken that this purest evil will rise once more and attempts to enter this world throwing civilization into darkness and ultimately the end of the world as we know it. Yawn. Hardly the most Oscar worthy storyline but to be fair it does set the tone early on for what is essentially a seat of your pants scare-a-thon horror ride. On that note one thing is very clear; Jericho is not a game for the squeamish and really needs to be played in the dark, alone, with the sound cranked up for extra effect.
Taking the guise of completely linear corridor shooter akin to Doom, players are therefore invited to progress through levels battling all manner of grotesque demons. It’s as formulaic as it sounds on paper and literally appears to tick all of the boxes required to fit the genre. Macho cool lead characters, blood and gore in huge doses, big guns and shadowy dark levels are the order of the day. Where it detours slightly though in gameplay is through its use of squad mechanics. During the course of the campaign the squad is generally split into two teams which can be controlled independently with commands in a similar vein to what we’ve seen before in GRAW. In addition to this the lead protagonist you control in the early stages, Captain Ross, has psychic abilities that become part of the core gameplay as you progress further into the game. Instead of just being able to issue commands to squad mate, later in the game you acquire the ability to possess them and obtain direct control of them in battle using their own supernatural abilities as required.
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