14 DAY TRIAL // 
I am somewhat puzzled when guys who are usually known for racing simulators start releasing horror team-based first person shooters with the help of Clive Barker. It's like being a professional driver that gets a job as a painter the next day. I'm not saying that drivers can't paint, but it's highly improbable.
In Codemasters' defense, the game is just published by them, the development part going to Mercury Steam Entertainment. If you feel that you're unfamiliar with this name then have no cause to worry because I actually had to do some browsing myself in order to "remember" what other games they have produced. To my surprise I found out they have only developed just one other game that could explain the epic proportions of Jericho. The game in question is Scrapland and it is one of those underestimated games that has slipped under the radar right after launch despite its interesting concept. Unlike its predecessor, Jericho has had a lot of publicity and tons of trailers and teasers meant to entice the blood thirsty gamers from all over the world.
Concept The team based FPS is not all that popular. I'm no psychologist but if I were to guess I could blame it on the difficult gameplay and numerous problems related to squad AI. There could even be another egocentric factor in the gamers' mind: it's a lot simpler to attribute the success in a mission to one single individual rather than 7-8 others. In the end I don't think there is a clear explanation why these kinds of games haven't prevailed but the fact remains.
Can Jericho be different and bring Codemasters a lot of money? Can it deliver the content Clive Barker's name requires? We will try to give an answer but first we have to present to our younger audience just who Clive Barker is.
In the games industry he is known for one of the scariest games ever created: Clive Barker's Undying. He was responsible for the unusual story and even borrowed his voice to one of the characters. Even if the game hasn't been as successful as everyone has hoped, he will always be remembered for this title. Outside the industry he is a successful writer and has been involved in different other projects like movies and such. Does he provide the mind blowing background for Jericho, just like in Undying? We will let you decide.
Story I hope everyone is up to date with the history and has been reading the Bible in the small recreations between gaming sessions. If not, then you should know that Jericho is the name of a famous city that has been populated continuously for 11000 years (the number of zeros is correct if you were wondering) and it's mostly known for one particular event: its walls collapsed after the "children of Israel" have circled the city for seven times. To make things more interesting for anyone who would actually care to show some interest in history after playing the game, you can even make further suppositions and make a connection with a small passage in the Bible (Joshua 6:26) where Joshua curses the city: "And Joshua charged the people with an oath at that time, saying: 'Cursed be the man before the Lord that riseth up and buildeth this city, even Jericho; with the loss of his first-born shall he lay the foundation thereof, and with the loss of his youngest son shall he set up the gates of it".
I mentioned this because the story of the game is centered on The Firstborn, but in this case it is just an interesting fabrication. Before man and probably sometime during the Genesis period, God created a creature in his own image that was neither man nor woman, neither beautiful nor terrible? you get the picture. He did not like his creation and threw it into the Abyss where he sealed it for all eternity. There is no perfect plan and soon after (in godly terms) it gained enough strength to reach the world of humans. The Sumerians dispatched seven priests with great power to contain the beast and managed to do so with the price of their lives. A secret order was created whose sole job was to constantly train seven warrior priests that would be ready to fight if The Firstborn had further attempts.
The city built on top of the Abyss is called Al Khalid and witnessed several attempts of The Firstborn to exit; each time the city grew a little larger, taking with it parts of the current civilization that inhabited it at that time, starting with Sumerians and right up to the Nazis, after which the city was engulfed by sand and forgotten. The current crisis is triggered by a fanatic, Arnold Leach, former member of Department of Occult Warfare (organization created in 1930 to react to the occult interests of Germany) that is trying to open the seal and release The Firstborn. You will control the team that has been dispatched in order to investigate the surfaced city.
Gameplay As I was stating before, Jericho is based on a team gameplay, which means you can control several characters in a mission. In the first mission you will only be able to play as Captain Ross but after his premature expiration (he got mangled by Arnold Leach, now with wings, don't ask why), his spirit jumps in one of his comrades and from there, the player will have to jump from one to another, usually by preference and by necessity as there are some areas that require specific skills.
The Jericho squad is not made of ordinary people and every one of them has certain abilities that will provide support during the missions. The first one is Captain Ross, the team leader who will provide the means to play with every character as his spirit is able to control one person at a time. The second member is Sergeant Frank Delgado which can be easily distinguishable by his huge minigun and he has also a fire demon that is encased in his right arm. When the casing is open the demon finds a target and sets it on fire. The third member is a non conventional member of the clergy, Father Paul Rawlings. He wields a couple of extremely powerful guns and has the ability to heal his teammates. Capt. Xavier Jones is the fourth member of Jericho and he can detect enemies and even possess them. The fifth is Corporal Simone Cole, the team geek and hacker with the ability to talk really fast, change the speed of time for small periods and teleport supplies. The sixth is Lieutenant Abigail Black, a professional sniper with telekinetic powers and with the ability to control bullets in mid flight. The seventh and final one is probably my favorite; Sergeant Wilhelmina Church is a ninja by all accounts and it's the melee expert of the group with a deadly katana. She can also use blood magic to trap enemies' place with a seal (the effect is difficult to describe and the only word that comes in mind is spaghetti).
With such diversity you might think the gameplay would be quite complex but I have to say I'm a little disappointed. All you can do is advance, defeat the spawned monsters and eventually fight a boss. The player will do this over and over again and the only interruptions will be from scenario cut-scenes and some console ported action scenes where you have to press specific directional buttons in a precise time. The result is a movie-like scene where you can only watch and marvel. Some will blame this console influence but I find it quite refreshing.
There are some other features that will not appeal to everyone. They have logical explications but the scrutinous gamers will not accept them. The first is the life of every player or to be more precise the lack of it. The Mercury Steam team has adopted a recipe also used in Call of Duty and other games. There is no gauge and the only way to see that you need to hide in order to regenerate your health is through a bloody screen effect. The second controversial feature is the resupplying with ammo; even though it's clearly explained by the teleporting ability of Simone Cole many have already argued that it makes the game too simple.
There was a huge problem in the past with Team based games; the AI has always presented a problem. More precisely, the teammates were extremely dumb. Fortunately for Jericho I couldn't find any problems with the AI but it doesn't mean they don't exist. The gameplay is really fast paced so you can't really see what the others are doing but in their defense I have to stress out that they haven't got in my way. They shoot straight and don't get killed too often so the AI should prove to be quite acceptable.
Graphics I have to say I was more impressed with the graphics in the demo. It's not the developers' fault but probably my own as I was expecting much more from the retail version. The game starts in what appears to be a huge outdoor area and slowly moves inside the citadel. The entire game is covered by a particular filter that provides a strange color that affects everything and has depth of field implemented right down to the shorts. It's not bad but it's a little exaggerated. I couldn't help noticing the heavy bump mapping applied on the characters, making them look slimy and alive (one of my favorite combinations).
Despite the small problems I had with it, it's hard not to admire what they've done with the engine and I have to say it could easily stand side to side with some of the famous engines like Unreal and Source. The level of character animation is extraordinary and it could serve as an example for more pretentious games on the market.
The last things I need to mention about this quasi-unknown Mercury provided engine are the requirements and the fact that they are ridiculously low. The game runs fine with all the settings maxed out and I can't notice the interest shown to the bulk of the medium PC configuration owners. If you're the proud owner of at least 1.5 GB and a 7900 graphic card (you don't even need a last generation 8800 even if there is a DirectX 10 function in the menu) then you should have no problem in playing Jericho at a decent framerate.
Audio Jericho is doing quite well in the audio chapter and Mercury has done a great job in the voice department, making every character quite distinct from the others and giving them a lot of personality. Unfortunately they tend to make unnecessary comments from time to time and I even heard some remarks that were not related to the events on the screen. This doesn't reflect the grade.
Multiplayer You can't really have any multiplayer in this kind of genre and I'm sure no one would need such a feature.
Conclusion It should have been better. This is the final conclusion of any sane reviewer. The gameplay is too simplistic and it only serves to deliver a great story. Clive Barker hasn't lost his touch but the game is missing depth and it feels like they were just striving to get a next gen title at all costs. The gaming community is not brain dead yet and they will be able to discern properly through all the effects. Maybe the next one will prove to be more interesting? as for Jericho, it's just a good title with great graphics and wonderful story but it isn't top notch as everyone expected.
