Clive Barker’s Jericho English Review

       When I was a wee younger, I accidentally came across Undying, the first collaboration between Clive Barker and the gaming industry. The British writer had associated himself with a project which had a lot of atmospheric moments, a few gameplay innovations and presented an interesting story. For example, at a certain point in the game the protagonist is walking towards a mirror where his reflection is shown and then, out of nowhere, a demon appears behind him. But when the player turns around, scared and ready to fire, there’s nothing there, as it was a scripted event that was part of the story. As a result, in Undying fear was suggested, self-induced, something that was quite appreciated by the reviewers and gamers alike, although commercially the game was a flop.
       6 years have passed since then and Clive Barker is back in the saddle with Jericho, a Codemasters project that seemed quite interesting, as fans were expecting a game along the lines of Undying, stylistically speaking. And most people believed that the writer could bring forth a FPS that was different from the rest of the lot.
       The name Jericho comes from a special unit of the American army, which is made up of seven members, all capable of using both magic and modern weaponry. The unit is sent to investigate an anomaly in the Arabic peninsula desert. In the beginning the story is pretty twisted, but generally revolves around the concept of the Firstborn, a being created by God before Adam and Eve, which became the essence of all evil and for thousands of years has tried to take control of the Earth. More details will be revealed during the loading screens, where the producers, in order to show that Barker has personally written the story, used a typewriter effect that doesn’t fit in with the setting at all. And the way these pieces of information are structured seems fit for a class of children suffering from A.D.D., with a filter put on that cuts out anything that requires an IQ over 70 to be understood.

       The uber-used time travel theme is poured over all this, so we will get to see levels with a specific setting, like the Second World War, the Crusades, the Roman Empire and Sumeria 3000 B.C. This type of approach offers a great deal of creative possibilities, since the level design canvas is really wide. Unfortunately, the developers only used it to create a few monsters which would seem appropriate for each particular era.
       The part where Jericho is at its worst is the gameplay. We can initially only control the commander, but after a short while we will have the ability to control any of the six other members of the team by means of very easy to use system. Each team member can use magic as well as the weapons, so we can enjoy Delgado’s size – who seems to have been created from an American football player template – and minigun, or we can play with the delicate Mrs. Church, that uses her own blood to create magical effects and can use the only true melee weapon, a sword that can create a real sense of destruction amongst the creatures of evil. Black is the sniper of the team, Jones can get over obstacles using unusual means while Cole is responsible for the supplies and can stop time. Father Rawlings is very important because he can cure the team from a distance. This makes him extremely useful, but the ability to revive the dead is also available to you, no matter what character you control.
       So, if one of your colleagues gets hit one too many times, he falls on his knees, a skeleton’s head appears over his body and, if they were controlled by you at that certain point in time, you are transferred to another member of the team. Unfortunately, most of the time is spent reviving team members that, although not endowed with a primitive AI, die like flies. So instead of using the super-weapons at your disposal to send enemies to the other side you have to fill the part of Florence Nightingale.