14 DAY TRIAL // 
Halloween is coming with its usual October launches of horror movies and games, so it's only obvious that we're bound to see an Xbox 360 title that makes us tremble and start losing sleep over it. It's not Silent Hill, nor is it Resident Evil 5, but it will land on the PC and PS3, delivering a terrific experience no matter what platform it's played on. Clive Barker's Jericho promises to add many BPMs to our pulses, as the famous novelist Clive Barker's back to pull out another Undying-style success.
The game fits perfectly the team FPS genre and it will have to be a true bomb since most gamers are playing Halo 3 and some are still playing BioShock. Cliver Barker's work is stunning, shocking, bloody and most of all terrifying and not subtle at all. Taking on fierce creatures has become a close combat affair and you get to look the devil in his eyes, or worse...
Story Before creating Adam and Eve, God had made another creature, which was in fact an abortion and failure, a horrific product of the deity. This Firstborn was cast into the Abyss to lay there for eternity, punished for his lack of perfection. Seven Sumerian priests have contained the Firstborn in a ziggurat, but it seems to have escaped and now it reigns in a mysterious middle-eastern town, called Al Khali. A huge sandstorm engulfs the place as pieces of time and history become trapped in the creature's lair. Four times it has escaped only to be banished again by teams of 7 men trained for this sole purpose. This time it's up to the Jericho team to vanquish the Firstborn, entering Al Khali and facing hellish beasts.
The game's story is pretty interesting and the contribution of the novelist is felt, in the plot twists and each character's background. We've got members of cults, priests, users of paranormal powers, all gathered in a single team that heads to the Firstborn's lair. Such a storyline really makes you want to look things up a bit, since it sounds credible. Was there really another creature made by God before Adam and Eve? Does it alter history each time it escapes? We'll find out by playing the full game, at Halloween time.
Concept
Clive Barker's Jericho is a team FPS that allows the player to control the 7 squad members of the Jericho team. Each of the 7 chosen ones has special abilities that will become extremely useful, specially when you're swapping players for curative purposes. The team must enter the ruins of the middle-eastern city and descend into the terrifying abyss, destroying every unearthly creature that they encounter and solving the mystery of the Firstborn. The main character you'll control is Captain Devin Ross, the protagonist and the leader of the Jericho team, using his telepathic and healing powers to aid the squad members fighting by his side. Telepathy and paranormal powers are a great excuse to posses another person's body, thus making the whole team member swapping concept seem a bit more realistic. The Jericho Team also includes, Father Paul Rawling and priest and exorcist, sergeant Frank Delgado, a pyromancer, lieutenant Abigail Black, a telekinetic warrior, sergeant Billie Church, a blood mage, captain Xavier Jones, a seer and corporal Simone Cole, a reality hacker.
While playing the game, you'll also be able to perform combined attacks by using the team's paranormal powers in order to destroy the army of beasts lurking around. However, all these good-looking abilities will make your team members pay the price, as their health gradually decreases when using their special skills. For example, Delgado will burn his arm while using his pyromance powers. Running and gunning through Al-Khali is a neat perspective, because the city has many layers formed according to the age they pertain to. Team Jericho will go back to the time of the Crusades, World War II or Rome, witnessing the struggle of those who have tried to fight the Firstborn. The idea of capturing pieces of time and space and entrapping them into a giant citadel where evil lurks may lack originality, but it grants a certain variety of environments and characters throughout the game.
Gameplay
At first glance, Jericho is an average FPS, borrowing elements from the Gears of War hit title and Doom 3 in order to deliver a good scare to the Xbox 360 fans. The idea of switching team members is not new, but it's a breath of fresh air, allowing you to approach different combat situations in more ways. Also, team work will allow you to get past some areas that you couldn't have cleared by yourself. In order to keep your team mates alive, you should always provide covering fire for them and go back in case a squad member is in trouble. Don't worry though, as any sergeant, captain or lieutenant can be revived and healed as long as you're close enough. Battling your way through sewers and catacombs sure brings an Alien feeling back, as demons and undead warriors can attack you at any time, from above, beneath or behind.
Enemies keep coming and coming, attacking simultaneously and working like a team, just like you do. Also, unlike many other FPS games, even the weakest enemy requires a few shots before going down for good. Your paranormal abilities work wonders, specially when being attacked by a large group of monsters. The opponents use shields to deflect your shots, but they won't be able to dodge a sniper bullet guided by paranormal powers or a pyromancer's flame. Since this is a team FPS, you can always use strategy to achieve victory in every battle. You shouldn't worry about dying, as once a character is down, it'll be replaced by another who'll keep fighting instead of the injured squad member. In case you're playing the demo right now, you'll want to know that it allows playing a level that's about half way into the game, when only 3 members of the Jericho teams are left alive. Since we're in the age of cineractives, Clive Barker's Jericho also includes such action sequences, guaranteed to make you freeze in front of your TV.
For example, one of your team members will be forced to go down a well at some point, being attacked by a monster from behind so he/she will have to descend carefully, trying to avoid a lethal fall, while pushing away the horrible monster's head. He'll open his gruesome jaws towards you and try to grab you during the descent, but with a couple of presses of the right buttons, the beast will be shaken off in no time. Seeing a monster's face upclose is not something you can forget easily and you can check out the screenshots below if you don't believe me. All of your runners and gunners should be aware of the fact that your characters have both weaknesses and strengths that can be exploited during battles. Delgado is a big fellow, but a very slow one, his advantage being that he packs quite a punch and covers lots of ground with his pyromancing powers.
Abigail Black and Billie Church are more agile and they can snipe and slash the enemy at will, moving faster and covering the slower team members. Every character has a main power and a main weapon firing mode plus a secondary power and a secondary weapon firing mode, which are extremely easy to use thanks to the intuitive controls, at least on the Xbox 360 console. There's a certain degree of interactivity with your surroundings as characters can fall, climb walls, move rocks with the aid of paranormal powers or descend down a well, trying to avoid getting killed in the process. What I loved about the game is that you'll spend most of the time waiting for a surprise attack, feeling both afraid and satisfied by the fact that hellish creatures drop dead after a good strategical move from Team Jericho.
Video The muddy backgrounds, frightening and sad atmosphere tend to get to your head after a couple of plays... That was the case of the game's demo, since I felt anxiety and a bit of fear after playing it a couple of times. Jericho's graphics are nothing new for the Xbox 360, but the atmosphere they recreate is great, being a combination between an apocalyptic setting and the dirtiest gutter you can imagine. Each enemy is well-designed, because there's always a potential one-on-one combat coming up, so you've got to see that horrific face in order to feel that you're playing Clive Barker's work.
Frankly, the title is unplayable if you're using the default video settings, so you'll have to toy with the gamma a bit in order to distinguish between wall, corridors and team mates. The members of Team Jericho use flashlights to light their path, just like the good old Silent Hill characters. This grants us a frightening experience, specially if the game's being played at night, with the lights off.
Sound Mix a violin with a sad female voice and you've a got a tune that's going to be in my playlist for days. I've started checking out officials sites in order to buy the game's OST, since it rocks, from the starting creepy song to the apocalyptic music during cutscenes. Also, from what I've played so far, the character's lines are not repetitive at all, although many taunts are being thrown at foes during combat. Team members communicate and you'll hear Delgado advising you to stay quiet, or Black asking for backup or celebrating temporary victory with a tough line.
Conclusion Jericho is one of the most promising titles of this Fall, being one of the few horror FPS games announced for Halloween time. It has everything: demons, mysticism, magic, big guns, pyromancy and a huge hellish citadel. We'll just have to wait and see if Clive Barker's newest piece of work manages to make those Halo 3 and BioShock fans pull out their worshiped DVDs from the Xbox 360, replacing it with Jericho. If the game really relies on the use of those special abilities, we're in for some scary action, but if using them becomes a problem or a standard move during combat, Undying's legacy will just be considered ...dead.
