Clive Barker may have only recently started making waves in the gaming scene by going toe-to-toe with Roger Ebert over the idea of games as art, but the Hollywood horror guru has actually been trying to make a major splash in the industry for quite some time. His first project, the PC shooter Undying, sailed right over the heads of console gamers and failed to get the attention of PC gamers despite overwhelmingly positive press. A second project, Dominik, was canceled midway through development. Now just months away from release, Clive Barker’s Jericho is the infamous artist’s latest and greatest attempt to redefine the meaning of terror for a huge new audience.

At its heart a squad-based shooter, Jericho separates itself from Tom Clancy fare and the legions of pretenders by adding a strong supernatural element to the proceedings - one that can be felt in equal measure through the writing, presentation, and gameplay.

The plot revolves around the idea that Adam and Eve were actually God’s second and third attempts at creating human beings. The first attempt resulted in an utter monstrosity that was as powerful as it was horrific, necessitating that it be sealed in an alternate dimension. The centuries passed, the monster continually tried to break free of the alternate dimension and reclaim Eden (or as we like to call it, Earth) for himself, often times with the help of cults or by using its immense demonic energies to enslave the various forms of demonic life that exist on Earth. As civilizations rose and fell through the ages, they have all created their own clandestine "Jericho" forces for dealing with the monster’s attempts to break free. Players take control of a modern day Jericho team, battling through different time periods to keep the monster in check. It’s a suitably twisted tale and it stands out amid the techno-thrillers that overcrowd the genre.

Thankfully, demons aren’t bulletproof and players will have plenty of opportunity to punch holes through enemies with a wide range of artillery. Most of the armaments are pretty standard for the genre, but firing all of them feels visceral and watching the enemies "sell" the impact of each shot makes them feel powerful. Each of the members of the Jericho team carry two weapons, both of which are exclusive, a design decision we’re still debating the wisdom of. For example, if a player is using a character with a shotgun and finds themselves in a position where they desperately need the rapid-fire of a submachine gun, they’ll need to switch characters in order to make use of one. We love the idea of making clear distinctions between the roles of the different team members and pushing players to play differently depending on the character in their control, but as we’ll detail in a moment, the members of the Jericho team can be clearly distinguished without forcing players to switch characters in the middle of fire-fight just to swap for a more appropriate firearm.

The Jericho squad doesn’t just rely on standard weaponry. Members of the squad are selected for their paranormal talents, and players will quickly find that intelligent use of each member’s unique abilities is the key to survival. There are six supernatural soldiers in total, and they operate in two groups of three that players can arrange as they see fit. Players take control of Captain Ross, or rather the spirit of Ross, as he has the tactically-advantageous ability to take control of any of the other members of Jericho while maintaining control of his own body. When Ross’ spirit enters the body of another character, the player takes control of that character and hands off control to Ross to the AI. Then there’s heavy-weapons specialist Delgado who – in addition to using a really big chain-gun – has a fire spirit living in his arm that allows him to set enemies ablaze and create a shield of flame that deflects fire-based attacks. Black is a sniper that can telekinetically alter the path of her bullets once they’ve been fired. Xavier Jones can astral-project himself for recon purposes as well as take control of enemies. Church is a female ninja that can set traps for enemies by carving a symbol into her hand. Her blood then forms into floating, sentient blobs that rush enemies and ensnare them in bloody tendrils. These are just a few examples of the kinds of powers players will have at their disposal in the game.


Most of the missions in the game will drop players into the action with both the Alpha and Omega squads, but some will leave players to make with one squad or even force them to fly solo. Players can position and give simple orders to full squads of three with some simple button-presses, while taking control over specific characters is a simple matter of facing the desired vessel and hitting a button. At this stage the controls feel intuitive and responsive.

The combat in Jericho feels fast-paced and exhilarating, as the game throws wave after wave of enemies at the player, all of which act in concert with each other to make the most of their unique abilities. Demonic beasts pour out of the walls and rush the Jericho team from every direction while tall, stoic demons stay back and support them with fiery projectiles, and child-like specters flank through the walls only to materialize behind the player to deal damage. As the enemies do their part, so to do the members of the Jericho squad. We weren’t particularly thrilled with how infrequently our teammates used their abilities of their own accord, but they did a fine job positioning themselves, calling out enemy positions, taking cover when appropriate, and they certainly proved their worth as soldiers by taking out a fair share of the demons we encountered. The sheer number of enemies and attacks coming from every direction combined with the fire-power and magical powers of the six Jericho members all come together in the best kind of utter chaos. Imagine the scenes in James Cameron’s Aliens where the Marines are surrounded and overwhelmed by the Aliens, relocate the entire affair to hell itself, and you’ll have a good idea of the oppressive, terrifying, adrenaline-churning chaos that characterizes the combat in Clive Barker’s Jericho.

As entertaining and exciting as the combat is, there are a few design choices that prevent the action from reaching its potential. Despite the number of options the various abilities provide, the action has a tendency to get mindless. The aforementioned chaotic nature of the battles is certainly a factor, since players will likely opt to let their instincts take over instead of trying to strategize on the fly in the face of wave after wave of nightmares. That tendency will probably eventually pass once players get to grips with the character-switching mechanics and start arranging their squads in anticipation of certain scenarios. A bigger problem is the fact that most of the enemies don’t really push players to use or combine their team’s abilities intelligently. Our time with the game certainly proved that players will have a litany of options in how they dispatch the demon hordes, but offered little insight into why a player should choose one over the other. Players can use Church to ensnare a demon and gut it, or use Black to shoot her sniper rifle and control the bullet, or use Xavier to take control of another demon and have it take out the target, but none of those methods is more effective than the others. So why bother to take the time to switch characters if every character’s powers are perfectly equal in usefulness? Short of a few specific situations that were obviously set up for specific characters, we had almost no reason to switch characters in the midst of combat, save for the sake of variety. We haven’t played all the missions or encountered all the enemy types yet, but hopefully the finished product will offer players greater practical incentive to actually swap characters in the midst of battle.


Our biggest problem with the game thus far, and the number one reason the combat can quickly grow mindless is the health system. None of the members of the Jericho squad can actually die over the course of a mission – in fact, the only way to fail a mission is if every member of the Jericho squad dies. If the player’s character goes down, then they automatically assume control of another Jericho soldier. Incapacitated characters can be healed at any time, simply by walking up to their body and pressing a button. As a result, there is effectively zero incentive to fight intelligently since poor performance merely results in a body-swap, and the lost character can be revived at any time. Players can mindlessly waltz into combat, try to waste as many enemies as possible, and if they die, they merely hop into the next body and keep at it. They’ll rarely if ever run out of warm bodies by the time a skirmish ends (the only time the entire squad is even in remote danger of being wiped out is during the boss battles), allowing them to heal up their teammates, continue on to the next skirmish, and repeat the process. The developers need to tweak the balance such that players actually strive to keep themselves and their teammates alive. A limited number of revives, some kind of health penalty upon revival, or a longer revival sequence would all help make a fallen team member a more important loss.

Based on what we’ve played of the game thus far, we can vouch for the writing and atmosphere in Clive Barker’s Jericho. The settings, enemy designs, audio and visual presentation are all top notch and make for a decidedly creepy experience. Fans of otherworldly subject matter are in for a treat. Gameplay-wise the game will live or die based on the variety and longevity inherent to the combat because, well, that’s really all the game has. The characters’ magical powers can be put towards environmental puzzles, but these are nothing more than simple time-wasters to break up the action. Similarly, the missions are all incredibly linear, so exploration is out of the picture. The combat has fantastic potential, but there are a few balance issues that need to be sorted out to ensure the action doesn’t grow too mindless too quickly. Online co-op would have certainly helped in that regard, for some inexplicable reason, Jericho is a single-player only experience. If the developers can polish the game mechanics so that the combat challenges the player as much as it terrifies them, then Clive Barker has a sound shot at extending his mastery of the horror genre over one more medium.