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For fans of the last game bearing horror author Clive Barker’s name, Undying, Codemaster’s announcement that the tactical horror shooter Jericho would have storytelling ties to the author was something good. Undying was, at the time, a great shooter that deftly mixed intriguing horror elements with solidly entertaining and intense shooter action. There were high hopes that Clive Barker’s Jericho would be equally as involving.

Biblical Shootings

Clive Barker’s Jericho has many of the same qualities of Undying. Firefights in the game can be the most nail-bitingly visceral you’re likely to find in any current shooter. The horror atmosphere is creepy and the characters suitably hardcore and violent. Unfortunately, the game aspires to be far more than it’s actually capable of, thanks to an insistence on merging crippled tactical/military shooter elements with more traditional and unrealistic action shooters.

The storyline is the usual convoluted mess of biblical and supernatural elements, with a few interesting additions to justify the military bent. The game is focused around the eternal imprisonment of God’s first creation, the Firstborn, which is a sexless, powerful being jealous of mankind that was sent away for being too powerful and uncontrollable. Throughout the ages, a team of seven warriors have been tasked with making sure the shortsighted forces of evil don’t free this odd antagonist.

Single Player Team Action

The current team of seven is the Jericho team. A mix of men and women, each with specific weapon specialties and supernatural powers, Jericho takes care of any supernatural terrorist threats. Sent to the ancient city of Al-Khali, which is the material plane’s gateway to the Firstborn’s prison, your team travels back through several different time periods of the city. Eventually, the team backtracks all the way to ancient Sumer to prevent the Firstborn from unleashing his wrath on humanity.

Although the Jericho team is made up of seven members, the central character, Ross, loses his body early on, and so must jump into the bodies of the other six. This enables you to take possession of any of the Jericho team and use their weapons and abilities at will. Many obstacles rely on specific abilities, so Ross will need to jump between team members frequently.

Time/Level Travel

The idea of traveling through different, thoroughly twisted periods of one city is a good one. You’ll fight through a modern day sandstorm and into the ruins of the ancient city, and then visit a World War II-era battle against demon Nazis. There are levels taking place during a particularly gruesome and morally bankrupt Roman occupation of the city. Unfortunately, the game’s linear and often claustrophobic design, with little variety to the overall graphics, makes this seemingly huge city feel small and monotonous after a while.

Each level has a few specific new bad guys, but most of the enemies are recycled. Only the WWII levels have actual allied forces that join you. Most of the enemies are grotesque zombie and demon-like creations, which are so over-used that the later levels just feel static. The boss battles are more interesting to watch but are usually puzzle-based and simplistic.

Intelligence Challenged

Some of the puzzles and obstacles in the game are remarkably obscure. Fortunately, if you wait long enough, one of your teammates will tell you what to do. Ironically, the AI is so poor that even if the dialogue suggests your teammate knows what to do, you’ll have to do everything yourself, unless it requires blindly firing at bad guys. In combat, the Jericho team is reasonably coordinated and aims well, but there are so many holes in other areas of the design that the team is frequently just annoying.

Take, for example, the exploding monster the game uses so frequently. You’ll have to shoot its festering pustules to kill it from a distance, since it blows up when it dies. The AI, however, never learns to run away from it when it gets too close, and inevitably ends up stupidly dying in the explosion. Thankfully, death is a relative term. Any Jericho soldier can heal another at close range, and the game uses this as a crutch to overcome too many AI flaws.

Huge battles devolve into your character (and occasionally the AI characters) constantly running to heal fallen teammates. There’s no real cover mechanism beyond ducking. What’s worse is the lack of evasive maneuvers—especially jumping. Granted, Rainbow Six doesn’t allow you to jump, and the developers clearly had that as an inspiration. Since the rest of the game feels more like Doom 3 than any Rainbow Six or Ghost Recon shooter, the lack of gameplay elements that allow you to just keep up with the speed and numbers of your enemies is a huge problem.

Horror or Horrific?

The graphics are gorgeous, and the audio work exceptionally well done. Plus, each team member has their own distinct feel and use, though their one-liners get old quickly and often don’t make any sense. There’s no shortage of intense battles and the team elements are fun in open firefights.

Yet for all the good stuff here, the weak AI and lack of proper mobility prove deeply annoying. The storyline is mediocre nonsense, and the level design is absurdly linear and confining. The action and violence are satisfying enough to make the game marginally recommendable, but only barely. Add in the complete lack of any multiplayer options, a terrible ending, and Clive Barker’s Jericho feels like a game where the good parts are overwhelmed by the shortcomings.

Review by: Jason D'Aprile
Video Produced by: Scott Robison