Clive Barker's Jericho

"Blood and action"

Clive Barker's Jericho takes you to a world like our own with a story being told of witch's that do the church's bidding. The story starts with the main character waking up from a dream and getting called in to action. Jericho the team that you are part which is made up of 7 witches with different powers and used as a clean up crew for abnormal happening around the world. This story is about god's first creation and this minions that remind me of walking dead will you make it out alive or let the flies turn you into one of them.

Game play - This game is very fast paced and although I don't like loading screens it does a great job of giving you a very good storyline that is typed on the screen during loading screens. Just about every turn in the game has you fighting more creatures that get more powerful and hard to down without using the character possession, Combining a combination of the in game powers such as a flaming phantom snake head that does a great deal of damage to your foes, or slowing down time to resurrect your fallen teammates. Also will have a large option of weapons so if you like to get up in the enemy's face you can do so with a knife, and the opposite of standing in the far back and pick of your enemies with a sniper rifle. As you progress through the game you have to use one characters skills to be able to advance through the game such as using telekinesis to move things out of your way or push a level that you would other wise not be able to reach. There also several instances in the game were a you will have to press corresponding inputs to defeat or get out of a certain area. The game has easy and hard difficulties depending on how much challenge you want ranging from opponents that go down ease to challenging opponents that will take a whole chip to down as well as takings a lot more foes. The controls seem to be built around the w,a,s,d keys and needed very little changing, the actions have no delay when you press them so you can get very use to combat controls being fast and well adapted helping down enemies faster.

Story -Jericho's story is fairly well written for being a first person shooter. The main character is troubled by dreams of a little kid that has several voices ranging form a deep voice to a child's high pitch voice telling Ross to save him and pointing to a city surrounded by a wall of sand. As the Jericho team begins their adventure you don't get to experience the characters powers. As you get deeper into the game your see that your team has ventured into a Pandora's box which you find out has been around since the beginning of time. This labyrinth was constructed by god to hold his first creation made in his own image. During your adventure you meet some of the old Jericho team which have managed to stay alive for 65 years. They explain that time doesn't work the same way as it does in the outside world as they have not aged a day. They also give some insight into what happens every 65 years or so, god's first creation tries to escape but is always held off by mankind using witches as their defence. A team of seven gets sent in to keep the creature locked up, but as time time passes the creature grows stronger and each time it tries to escape it takes a little more of the world with it. You teams mission is to stop this from happening but at the cost of being rapped inside forever.

Graphics/Sound - Over all the graphics look good not great, character animations are awesome but some of the movements move through over graphics, fire catches thing on fire that don't seem like they should burn such as barrels. Detail in level creation is awesome as well but when you get close to things the pixels break up a little. The creatures in the game don't vary much save for the weapons they use. Graphics at long range tend to pop into focus as you get closer which isn't a problem for most of the game as much of it close quarters combat. Weapon detail is great as well as most of the animations for the the spells and powers you use.

Play Time/Replayability -This game can be completed very fast as it a first person shooter. My first run through only took me about 8 hours. Again it is a first person shoot but they do try to increase replayability but offering things you can unlock during game play, so if you are a elitist like me you will try to beat the heck out of the game to get everything it offers.

Final Recommendation - If you are just looking for a FPS to run through with great animations I would rent it and play it for the weekend. However this game isn't a very long and I would look to other games to buy.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 11/02/07

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