"Clive Barker's worst work yet??"

I don't know much about Clive Barker except the that he's some renowned horror story author or something and he's worked with Codemasters to create "Jericho".

You play as Captain Devin Ross, the squad leader of a team of "special people" called Jericho; A squad that consists of people like a dominatrix ninja, a badass magnum dual-wielding priest, and a lesbian sniper. Each member has little-to-no backstory behind them but all we know is that they have magic powers. Jericho is sent to Al Kahli to investigate some super paranormal activity and fight against undead freaks. Shortly, you die and gain the ability to possess your teammates and move on with the mission.

The most notable aspect of this game is the in-game character changing. This feature gives you different possibilities on how to beat this game like possessing your heavy weapons pyromaniac and rain fire and bullets upon your enemy or possessing your sniper to stay back and blow heads to pieces. Each member have their own unique magic and weapons they specialize in. You have a brilliant female hacker who can hack reality and magically resupply the team with ammo. I don't see why you need limited ammo anyway since you're always resupplied and don't pick up ammunition at all. Most of the time, it depends on the situation whether you need to take on hordes of enemy freaks close by or far away or follow the instructions in the dialogue box atop of the screen. The best part of the game is that your team actually fights with you and shoot freaks but they become worthless when they're being face smacked up close. When a teammate is down, you can revive them by going up to them and pressing A . To game over, everyone must be down so it's a bit of a silly game to revive your guys as fast as you can while being massacred repeatedly by hordes of the undead. Your team always stand as one making death an easy achievement but it's even bigger bull**** that half of the enemies are suicide bombers so you must be incredibly careful! Seriously, could have the designers have made the game challenging another way? Eventually your team will split up since your team have two assigned groups, Alpha and Omega. And as leader you have access to two useless commands, move forward or hold back.

The enemy AI isn't dumb. They'll take cover behind walls and move out to shoot... then repeat. Monsters don't constantly appear as you run down paths but when they do, be prepared to face dozens of waves. There are also a lack of enemy designs but some may vary in weapons. There are boss battles but they're not exactly challenging. Your teammates will tell you how to defeat them while wasting bullets on them.

The setting of the game is dark and scary but it feels bland and boring. You might think that enemies will pop out of nowhere and scare the **** out of you but none of that actually happens. Some places are dark like pitch black. The areas are very linear and it's hard to get lost but in case you do, your teammates will always be ahead of you. There are lots of loading screens too, so many that it makes every chapter of the game short and less exciting. The graphics are okay but not top notch however, the voice acting is great. Devin Ross is voiced by Steve Blum in case you didn't know.

In some parts of the game, you'll enter scenes that require you to quickly hit a sequence of buttons shown on the screen. Just be on constant alert for these parts because they rarely occur throughout the game but they will happen at any random moment! You'll likely miss the first chance and die then restart if you're not on alert for them.

Story - 3/10 Not the slightest bit of originality.

Design - 6/10 Pretty good game mechanics involving switching through units but bland atmosphere.

Gameplay - 5/10 Simplified action, stand your ground and shoot'em up. And can't forget to mention, no jumping!

I thought Clive Barker's Jericho's scary setting would keep me on my toes but the game fails to be an exciting FPS game. It's not awful but it's playable.

If all of Clive Barker's stories are as bad as Jericho, I don't think I'll ever read any of his works.

Reviewer's Rating:   3.0 - Fair

Originally Posted: 10/31/07

Game Release: Clive Barker's Jericho (US, 10/23/07)

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