The Word of Chaos

I completed Clive Barker’s Jericho for the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC last night. With Clive Barker’s name on in the title right before “Jericho,” I expected to spend the 10 or so hours needed to complete the game in a state of constant fear and wet underwear.

Not quite, but the game was a good time regardless.

First of all, I played the demo when it hit the Xbox Live Arcade. A true tactical-shooter, horror game, to me, is something to be really excited about. Two of my favorite genres fell in love and made a baby to be enjoyed by all! I was stoked!

Based on the demo, I would NOT have bought this game. If I hadn’t won my copy of the game in a Destructoid.com contest, I probably wouldn’t be writing this review right now. I don’t think that the demo is very fair to the game. For starters, a few game mechanics don’t make much sense in the demo. The section of the demo is actually around the middle of the game, and the game mechanics are explained better in the full game than the demo. The demo also fails to recreate the intense battles you’ll have during the course of the game.  All in all, the demo fails.

The story is solid and entertaining, although the lack of cut scenes makes the game difficult to follow at times. The ending, however, is just awful. I guess I expected a little bit of closure after spending that much time fighting whatever it is I’m fighting, but I pretty much finished the final battle and was immediately sent to the credits.

The in-game voices are well done and are actually pretty funny at times.  One of Jericho’s most memorable moments is when your character possesses a lesbian character for the first time.  One of the other Jericho’s makes a smug remark about her finally knowing what it’s like to have a man inside her… Classic!  The Jericho’s also comment on a few horror cliches, such as that whispering voice in the wind that is in almost every horror movie ever created.  I found myself laughing pretty hard when one of the Jericho’s tell the voice to “Shut the f*** up!”

The graphics run smoothly for the most part.  There is noticeable slowdown during a few really intense battles, but the game chugs along and remains playable.  I found myself thinking there world details wasn’t as good as I would have expected for a game on this gen, but, thinking back, I’m not sure why I thought that.  The world blandness reminded me of the earlier PC game Clive Barker’s Undying.  I guess I’m spoiled by games that have tons of random interactive objects in the levels that do absolutely nothing…

The gameplay in Jericho ranges from easy to frustratingly hard.  Sections of the game will require one member of your team to go off alone, and, with enemies that can explode when they feel like it, the game can get pretty frustrating.  When all six of your Jericho’s are present, the intense battles with zombies coming at you nonstop tend to be pretty entertaining.  The ability to change characters during the game is certainly cool. Deciding which character you need for a given situation is pretty nifty, and there’s even more pleasure when deciding while a hoard of zombies want to kill you.

Clive Barker’s Jericho is a good time if you just want something kill time.  I do recommend the game for a weekend rental or for purchase at the $30-$40 price point.