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| Clive Barkers Jericho |
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| Survival Horror |
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| Alchemic Productions |
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| Codemasters |
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26th October 07 |
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23rd October 07 |
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N/A |
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Last week we were invited to the famous War Rooms in London's Westminster to have a preview of two of Codemasters forthcoming Xbox 360 games; Turning Point: Fall of Liberty and Clive Barker's Jericho. The War rooms are filled with a rich history where Churchill organized the cabinet during World War 2 and were the perfect venue for sampling Codemasters latest wares.
Clive Barkers Jericho is a squad based first person shooter based around the warped creativity of famed writer Clive Barker who rose to fame with the Hellraiser movies back in the 90's. The game tells the tale of a group of specialists who are tasked with stopping an invading ancient evil which is attempting to exist in our world. The specialists have a whole host of weaponry as well as super powers to help them deal with the demons, monsters and other oddities which spew from the dimensional rift. Using traditional arms alongside some unconventional powers combined with an intuitive squad mechanic makes Jericho a game to keep an eye on.
Jericho is to be released this September which is during the month that Halo 3 is released. It's going to be a gamble for Codemasters but from the brief play I had of the game I can say that given the chance it has the makings of being one of those great but different first person shooters that seem to crop up every now and then.
I think for the most part other than the unique Clive Barker art direction and story the real pull of the game is the unique squad based gameplay. As was explained there were 7 members of the squad yet during the game's opening one of them gets killed; however rather than dying his spirit lives on and is able to possess the other squad mates at will. Ok this might sound totally far fetched but when you realize that it's the perfect excuse for allowing the player to switch to any of the 6 remaining members on the fly it makes sense.
The seven team members are as follows: first we have the deceased Capt. Devin Ross who is the team leader and psychic. Then Father Paul Rawlings who wields dual pistols and is the teams resident exorcist. Next up is the rather hot Sgt. Frank Delgado who is a fire demon wielding alchemist and pyromancer. Then we have the rather lovely Lt. Abigail Black a telekinetic sniper who is able to fire bullets and control them during flight (enabling her to hit more than one target per shot). Sgt. Billie Church is a bloodmage who can use her own blood to cast spells. Pen ultimately we have Cpt. Xavier Jones who is a seer using astral projections which are useful for recon tasks. Last but not least we have Cpl. Simone Cole who is the team's tech head who can hack and alter time to aid the squad.
Phew that's quite the motley crew of individuals there and what's worth noting is the fact that three of the team are women. What is more important is that each team member has a unique set of skills to bring into play whether that's during the explorative moments to the more combat based situations.
During the presentation and the short play I had the real pull is being able to switch to any character on the fly; this is done by either using a quick menu which lets you choose between the two squads (they are divided into two units of three) or by looking at them you can instantly change to that person. It felt very smooth and well implemented and what is interesting to note is the AI seems more than capable of looking after themselves.
To add to the repertoire of moves the character you control can issue simple orders too such as advance or wait which with the two teams means you should be able to set up some pretty effective flanking maneuvers.
During the presentation we were show an element of the game where a certain character will break away from the rest of the team and go it alone (to unlock a door perhaps). We were also shown a moment where players have to press buttons in a sequence to survive the perils. Ok it's nothing new in video games but an interesting feature for adding more cinematic moments to potential boring hot spots. Having been impaled on spikes several times on one occasion trying to bridge a gap these moments are either going to add variety to proceedings for gamers or be the cause of much frustration depending on how frequent and of course how difficult these moments are. I for one will use the excuse that it's hard to get "into" games fully during these events for the reason I was so rubbish at completing this seemingly easy task.
Graphically Jericho looks very good and plays smoothly there's a very distinct art style going on here and with demons that are well crafted and grotesque means it's not a game for wimps. There's a lot of blood here and lots of shock horror moments are bound to be in store; although as you should expect Clive Barker's blend of horror relies more on the fantastical/disturbing rather than single jumpy moments. There's a lot of atmosphere here and whether that be fighting in a gladiatorial arena in Rome to gunning down evil during World War II, Jericho has buckets of creepy places to navigate and survive across various time periods.
The game will feature a wild and varied assortment of enemy types ranging from giant deformed gladiators, shield wielding fighters to overweight blobs of flesh hanging from skin piercing hooks to name but a few. There are going to be a number of boss encounters as you would expect and the point is that players will have to utilize all of the skills of the team to survive. The imagery is certainly up there with the most weird you will see in horror games and it’s nice to be able to unload bullets into them.
The unique abilities of each character seems to be an interesting facet to a game which not only has that distinct squad element to it but means that playing as each person has a different vibe. From what I experienced the speed and guile of Sgt. Church was a favorite (also this is partially due to the fact that she is practically a ninja) and I could clearly see a distinct difference in play style compared to the more bulky Frank Delgado for example.
I left the War rooms that day with a distinct warm feeling about Jericho and although prior to the event I was already interested in the game, having seen and played a little of it I can see that it's certainly going to be a great adult orientated titled that is well suitable for those amongst us that can handle more than just pointing a gun at enemies. With a rich and in depth storyline, great graphics and easy to get into squad gameplay, Jericho should be well worth a look and despite being released in the same month as Halo 3 you couldn't get two games so different from each other. The expensive month of September seems a long way off!
Preview By: Robert Cram
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