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Clive Barker's Jericho

Written by DM on Monday, November 26 2007

While not available from the absolute beginning of the game, Jericho does have at least one innovative feature that is worth mentioning. (Spoiler alert) Towards the beginning of the game’s introduction levels, the main character actually gets killed. In order to live on, his consciousness gains the ability to hop between other team members, with the side effect of being able to control them. This fact becomes the basis for the game’s mechanic of team member switching, which you will use through out the rest of the game. All you need to do is use the D-pad after holding down the A button to select any member of the alpha or omega squads to possess. Alpha and Omega squads does make it sound like the game splits up the action on a regular basis, but really, it is done because there are more characters than directions on the D-pad. You do have the ability to issue squad commands, but since there are almost zero puzzles which require it, and since the squad command system is sub-par at best, this actually turns out to be a good thing.

Another great feature of the position switching, is the fact that almost every team member has a unique, but still useful, weapon. Whether it be a katana, sniper rifle, chain gun, or good old machine gun, all of these ordinances are literally at your fingertips. Add to that the fact that each team member also has a special magic ability. These abilities include things like time slow (a.k.a. bullet-time), blood-ward (a spell which keeps the enemies frozen in place), and fire shield (a barrier which sets everything on fire). Since you can switch between team-members instantly, the combinations you can use to defeat your enemies becomes almost endless.

Speaking of your enemies, one positive thing you can say about them is that their designs are certainly scary and disturbing. Whoever thought up these monsters is not someone you want telling your kids a bedtime story. Sadly, their transition from sketchbook to actual video game character hit some snags along the way. Firstly, even on the easy setting, the enemies take way too many hits to dispatch. Even if you are pumping bullets directly into their heads, you can go through three clips sometimes before they drop. Second, the enemies come in packs of three or four. They will charge you all at once as well, which makes for some very frustrating situations for sure. Lastly, there are some points in the game with so many enemies pop out of the ground you begin to think you forgot to trip a cut scene -- just keep shooting, folks, trust me.

To offset the extremely annoying AI of the enemies, the AI of your teammates is decent most of the time. While sometimes they do charge towards an exploding enemy, and most times will not take cover, they do deal with a fair amount of enemies without any direction from you. Your teammates can also heal any team member who falls, and most of the time will do so automatically -- this includes you as well, folks. If you do not suffer from a mortal head wound, if any of your team survives the onslaught, you will eventually be revived. Since the game has checkpoints that are few and far between, the revive feature is a welcome addition.

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