Clive Barker's Jericho
Added November 29th, 2007 by Jason Stafford
Clive Barker is arguably one of the most renowned names in the horror and fantasy genres. With decades of authorship, a number of films based on his works – such as the horror classic Hellraiser – a line of McFarlane toys (term used loosely) and even comic books under his belt, Barker's prolific nature seems to have no bounds in regard to medium. It should then come as no surprise when the occasional videogame bearing his name hits the shelves. Clive Barker's Jericho, a supernatural first-person shooter developed by Mercury Steam and published by Codemasters, marks the second game released crediting the horror master.Before creating mankind, God created The Firstborn, a beautiful yet terrible creature lacking a soul. God deemed his creation a failure and banished it to the Pyxis, an alternate reality prison. Unhappy with the benefits bestowed on God's next creation, The Firstborn has attempted to open a breach between the two dimensions in order to come to Earth and destroy humanity. Seven Sumerian priests banished The Firstborn thousands of years ago and resealed the breach, but every so often it tries to escape and must be stopped.
Jericho, a seven member team of the American government's Department of Occult Warfare is sent in to the ancient city of Al-Khali, the location on Earth that marks The Firstborn's site of banishment. Andrew Leach, a former ally of the DOW, has taken the city by storm and is attempting to open the breach that will allow The Firstborn entry to Earth. It's a little tongue-in-cheek, but that's a part of what makes Clive Barker's premise so great. Armed with guns and their own psychic prowess, the Jericho team faces the most arduous journey they've yet been tasked with. Jericho's a fairly motley crew, and you'll get quite accustomed to each of them, as every member of Jericho has their own weaponry and abilities that you'll be using to stop Leach.
Early in the campaign, Ross will gain the ability to “jump” between teammates in order to take control of their bodies, and subsequently their psychic or otherwise supernatural abilities. This possession is restrictive at first, allowing only a couple members of the remaining six man team to be controlled, but it's not too long before all six are at his behest. Whether controlling Church, Black, Rawlings, Jones, Cole or Delgado, Ross will have the ability to heal fallen teammates. The focal point of Clive Barker's Jericho being gun and magic fused first-person shooting, it's unfortunate that the action is hardly as scintillating as the prospect of witchcraft and gun-slinging initially sounds.
At intervals throughout the campaign, the members of Jericho will engage in banter, attempting to either create tension or further develop the characters themselves. Begrudgingly, the dialogue is so rife with discourse so terrible that the horrible writing is second only to the awful voice acting. Jericho will continually strive to make you laugh with the soldiers' exchange or feel engaged in what's going on, only to repeatedly fall on its face. Thankfully, most of the cut-scenes involving dialogue can be skipped, but you'll still have to put up with it at times.
Two-thirds of the team gets tossed to the back burner. Due to the fact that any character being controlled retains Ross' healing ability, taking control of Father Rawlings, the only other member of the squad who can revive the dead, is entirely redundant. Trying to use Jones to use his possession ability requires standing in place as you try to fumble around with distance and angle to find the enemy you want to jump into, all the while presumably grinning like an idiot. Cole's ability to slow down time can at times come in handy, although it's only for a brief period and has a cool-down that makes it difficult to rely on; she does have grenades, but throwing them accurately or father than one could huck a hundred pound rock is an impossible feat. Delgado can unleash his demon, but it causes him pain to have the beast away from him so it must quickly return to him. Most of the powers are highly disappointing, as most end up being awkward or are just unfeasible to use, if not completely pointless.
On the other hand, the few useful members atyour disposal are far too useful. Church can make a blood ward that binds enemies, rendering them helpless. This allows Church to close in and quickly make mincemeat out of bound foes with her katana. Even if not bound, Church's katana tends to make short work of most foes, making her a staple character. Black's Ghost Bullet ability slows time and allows control over the bullet. Up to three targets can be hit with each bullet; and going for headshots usually means three dead enemies. Although Ghost Bullet has a cool-down time, it's not enough to prevent it from being overused. Even then, her powerful sniper-rifle is made even handier with a grenade-launcher attachment. Due to the fact that switching between your team requires holding down the A button and using the D-pad in the middle of action, it's typically best to stick to whatever character is best suited to what you're fighting, which generally tends to be Black or Church.
Enemies will spawn from the ground, usually at a point in front of the Jericho team. Although Ross is able to issue orders to his compatriots, they're relegated to merely “move” or “stay.” Despite having squad commands bracketed into two such rudimentary functions, the commands are essentially “move forward and die a lot” or “sit here and die a lot.” Ross and Rawlings will have their hands full trying to keep everyone alive. You'll probably throw your hands up in irritation, especially after hearing the same one-liners a dozen times, creating a sting of regret every time you breathe life back into one of your hapless comrades.
You'll move throughout history in “time slices” that Al-Khali has taken each time The Firstborn has broken through our reality, and each will have a few area specific enemies. Though this would seem to give plenty of room for enemy variety, the roster of opponents is sadly stilted. Each historic section has a number of enemies that you can count on one hand, and the rest is filled with three foes that you'll kill every step of the way. Combat consists of moving to an area where enemies will spawn, killing all the enemies that spawn, then moving along the extremely linear path to the next area where enemies will spawn. Wash, rinse and repeat. The ten or so hours of Jericho's campaign consist almost entirely of this sequence of events, broken periodically by a boss fight at the end of each time slice. Granted there's the occasional “puzzle,” if one could even call them that, which will require using a certain teammate to overcome the obstacle. Delgado can open doors with his brute strength, Black can push a blockade aside with her telekinesis, and Jones at times has to possess something he can have some playtime. Having to switch to a different member to fulfill these tasks is completely arbitrary, made only worse by the fact that you're doing it only to progress to more inane combat.
Despite each area being saturated in gore and offal, Jericho doesn't strike much fear into the heart. The game's atmosphere relies entirely on the hope that all the corpses and blood will bother you and makes no further attempts at creating any atmosphere or ambiance. Enemies are made to look like grotesque abominations but come across as poorly designed and boring. It's sad that much of Clive Barker's premise and entire namesake is wasted by a complete lack of depth or atmosphere. While Barker's tales are usually the type to instill dread or disgust, Jericho is the type of product whose scares rely on frightfully bad dialogue and a fiendish abundance of clichés instead of any creativity.
Clive Barker's Jericho is the type of game that would have made an impact a decade ago. Its onslaught of enemies is far more reminiscent of old-school shooters like Quake, and if that's your bag then you should be able to at least marginally enjoy what Jericho brings to the table. Despite bearing the name of one of the most prevalent names in the horror genre, Jericho is a title brimming with good ideas that got entirely lost in translation. The sit and gun elements aren't particularly engaging, but using some of the powers can occasionally be entertaining. Those looking for an entirely mindless shootathon should look no further than Jericho, as that's exactly what it brings. Unfortunately, its lack of multi-player or any type of variance in its campaign even further restricts its replay value, giving power to the phrase that once is enough. That is if you can stomach the poorly implemented storyline that doesn't really have an ending, disinteresting character interaction, or the forced and rudimentary gameplay even once.
