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The Ugly Side of Design

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: July 21, 2008
Author: Amazon User

An anomaly appears in the middle of the desert and a seven member unit, the Jericho squadron, is deployed to deal with the situation. Jericho is by no means a normal group of people, either: each person has the power to heal and, as the game progresses, each person develops two types of arcane powers that help dispatch baddies. That's a good thing, too, because the thing you have entered is not just a portal leading into a place like Hell or Summercamp or another Blah you do not want to visit. This place leads into a hole where God itself went to bury the first and worst mistake in creation.

While this game has some tendencies that are seen in a lot of first-person shooters, Jericho also has an inventive way where you can be any player than you fancy at the time. Simply depress the button and you can be a strongman with a gattling gun, a preacher with a fiery disposition, a sniper, a body leaper, or a lady with a really bad attitude and some blood magic to boot. The thing that makes this game stand out, aside from the gore itself, is not what you can do inside the game. It is what you are trying to accomplish and the tale you are being told while you waltz from one horror to the next.
Clive really made a good showing when you decided to pop up in this tale.

The graphic nature of the game is a lovely thing, too, and gets worse as you go in. You go from roads lined with people to monsters that have some of the most terrifying things done to them and that becomes second-hand. It really doesn't take long to figure out that you have walked into a nightmare with 360 graphics kicking down the doors. The flow of the game moves at an uncanny speed --- in some ways that is a beautiful thing and, in some ways, that is something that makes the game go a little too fast. I personally ran through the game too fast because I wanted more of the story, and wish I would have taken the time to smell the, umm, decay? Still, you can always go back through and check out the game with more difficult standards to deal with (and they are difficult).

The game does have some cons as well as those pros, including the respawning of some enemies, repeat bigger enemies that are not quite boss strength, and little missions that require you to make use of all of your team members. That isn't that bad, but I could do without having to leap into a person to open a gate or take the money shot at a button that opens some far-off switch. It also throws enemies at you that are amazingly hard to kill, and the tactics they use are not genius but a mixture of specific types of enemies ( foot soldiers to distract you while a walking bomb slips into your unit) can be devastating).

If you think the game seems too quick for you, check it out by renting it and see how much you like it. I personally didn't think I would want it in my life, but playing lead me to a breakthrough and made me want to beat it on all settings. Some of the achievements are beastly as well, not allowing you to casually walk around and collect bonuses. In a world paved with bodies, however, it is not always the easy way you want to dance.

mmm you can almost smell the rotting flesh

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: June 25, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Alright now I understand this game is rather linear and doesn't have the best voice acting. However, if you're looking for blood gore and guts and some pretty decent fps action this is a good game. The squad command is a little awkward and could have been done better. I have to admit I did enjoy the character switching except for the fact that certain characters weren't as good as others. When you start out you have a 7 man squad composed of the average sniper heavy weapons spec ops kind of characters. Now through the whole game you're Devin Ross who obtains the ability through death of going from character to character he doesn't last long but he can heal people and he has a cool assault rifle/shotgun combo weapon. Then there is Xavier Jones who is when it comes to powers in combat they're useless but they help you with puzzles and he also has the cool assault rifle/shotgun combo. Of course every game needs a sniper so that position is filled by a psychokenetic woman named Abigail Black who has a cool sniper rifle/grenade launcher combo and has a ghost bullet ability. Frank Delgado is like a mexican goth Heavy Weapons Guy he has the chain gun pyro powers and a big pistol hes good for whatever the situation. Billie Church has some cool powers of being able to stop enemies and set them on fire but her weapons are lacking in power her sword is slow and is hard to use and her full auto pistol is only effective after going through a whole clip. Paul Rawlings is a priest and is the team healer and dual weilds desert eagles with three settings of normal frag or explosive rounds you would think though that he could have been given some better powers than long range healing and very very very slowly draining life out of enemies. Last is your tech person Simone Cole who is a reality hacker and can slow time and increase weapon firepower and also has grenades with several settings. This game isn't for everyone and is I am certain NOT FOR KIDS I don't care if your kid plays halo or call of duty 4 don't let your kid play this you will scar them for life. I like the story and I like Clive Barker's depection of things the atmosphere is full of hopelessness and pain I just hope that if there is another game it is just a wee bit better than this one.

Awesome game!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: May 05, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Hellraiser anyone? This game has it all, multiplayable characters with different weapons and abilities, amazing graphics, truly scary enviroment, freaksih creatures of moderate to immence size and difficulty. This could only have come from the mind of Clive Barker. If you like kick butt shooting games the scare that crap out of you this is it.

Absolutely brilliant

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: April 18, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I was really looking forward to this game before its release, but I ended up not getting it because of the largely negative press it recieved at the time. All those reviews were wrong. dead wrong.

Ill start with the graphics - they are phenomenal. Rarely has a game evoked the sense of space that Jericho does. Grand panoramic vistas of crumbling ruins and blasted terrain are commonplace. The squad is dwarfed by soaring pillars and gates. There are incredible atmospheric effects that simulate dust, storms, fog, mist, and beams of light. The designs of the creatures and the environments are top-notch, and there was a real feeling of exploration and a of a fully realized and sustained game world. The sound and music are also excellent.

The game features a great story by clive barker, and I found myself really engaged by the different characters and by the unfolding drama and wanting to see what was in store for the jericho squad at the end of their quest. All of the boss characters you meet also have a deep backstory which was one of the main appeals of the game. If you've seen hellraiser or read the books of blood then you'll know that clive barker writes a uniquely visceral and psychologically nuanced brand of horror, which is thankfully well represented in jericho.

But what about the gameplay? This is the portion of jericho that was most heavily criticized, but I found that jericho played brilliantly from start to finish. This is not a slow, tactical shooter (as some reviwers thought) or even a standard shooter like halo. Jericho is a no-holds-barred, unrelenting, adrenalin rush of action. Its more similar to games like doom and quake, but I found it to be more intense than even these. The firefights in jericho can reach truly epic proportions as you blow away dozens of enemy monsters, frequently with one hit kills, but they just keep coming. You have to be on your toes to stay ahead of the onslaught or you will be overwhelmed. Alot of reviewers said they spent more time reviving downed comrades than they did fighting. I hate to say this but really, there is no other way to put it - they dont know how to play the game. I dont consider myself a shooter expert or anything like that, just an average gamer, but I died only a few times during the course of the campaign. If you are agressive you can stay ahead of the enemies, but if you aren't (e.g. you keep reviving people) they will overwhelm you and kill you quickly. So just leave the healing to father Rawlings and concentrate on gunning down the enemy as fast as you can.

The fact that you control a squad led many people to believe that this was in some way a tactical shooter, and the description on the box even seems to suggest this. In my opinion, the reason that the game features a squad is to develop clive barker's narritive. Most of the story is told through interaction of the squad members, and since you spend the game venturing ever deeper into a nexus of evil, completely cut off from the outside world and only rarely encountering npcs who dont want to rip you head off, the conversations of the squad members are a natural and effective way to move the story along. In practice, I thought of each squad member being equivalent to a certain weapon so if I wanted the chain gun I switched to Delgado, or if I wanted the sniper rifle I would jump to abbey.

People have also complained about the button tapping sequences (quick time events). There are about 5 or 6 mandatory qtes in the ENTIRE game. If you are grabbed by an enemy, it will also trigger a qte, but this only happened to me 2 or 3 times during the game. really, its not a big deal. I like the qtes since they allow you a chance to see the enemies up close.

Overall, I highly recommend this game. It is one of my favorite games of all time. awesome story, design, and gameplay. The only drawbacks to Jericho are that it could have been longer, and the ending was not great.

Interesting, but repetitive

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: March 28, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I love the graphics, the architecture is awesome, someone went to some great lengths to make the enviroments realistic. The characters have awesome weapons as well. Some guns are pretty lame, but the use of any character or any weapon, means you constantly have a good selection. The things I dont like are how you wonder around aimlessly looking for a door switch of opening, that you would never find otherwise, until one of the characters finally helps you by saying a suggestion. Another thing is that on some parts of the game you have to use only one character, which is crap when you have to use a weak character. The graphics are sweet, and it takes a good deal of time to beat. But the linear aspects of it get pretty old, I like investigating a bit, then find out I went the wrong way. In this its only one way to go, and its very obvious. The darkness of the game is awesome, its pretty messed up. On the all and all, I would rate this game as average, good idea, but fighting the same enemies over and over again, gets old. Especially when you find yourself with overwhelming enemies, and only 1/3 of your squad. I think this game needs some more fine polishing. But a 3 star at best.

Not as bad as people said.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: January 13, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I originally played this game as a demo and i was impressed despite all the negative comments i had heard about.The game is really fun and is enjoyable.The only things i have wrong with this game is that its really easy even on hard you can easily beat it.The ghost bullet which i a telekinetic controlled bullet is unbelievably cool.Your characters also have other neat and interesting abilities.The only other thing wrong is that your teammates are relatively weak when not controled by yourself.You will be killing enemies and reviving your teammates quite frequently.All in all if your a fan of first person shooters you should definately check out this new spin on first person shooters.

Fun take on the shooter

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: January 08, 2008
Author: Amazon User

There's a lot of good here. The new twist is possessing your teammates to get through the different obstacles or defeat certain enemies. It keeps things moving along at a quick pace, because the character you're controlling can be incapacitated and you'll just switch off to the nearest surviving teammate; no constant reloads at the tough bits.

The enemies are tricky, and even once you've learned their patterns they can still be a challenge. That goes double for the legionnaires with the overlarge shields. You'll still be on your toes the second time through.

The game's neither too hard nor too easy. There are a few spots where you might get have to repeat yourself a couple of times. There is usually a teammember who will shine in that tight spot, however, and once you figure out who, it's a breeze. (Sometimes Black's grenade launcher is what you need. Other times you could just really use Delgado's chaingun to put some lead downrange in a hurry. And other times, Cole's time-stopping power is a real lifesaver.)

The wide cast is nice and the banter isn't annoying or stale (yet; but then, I've played it through twice).

Each character has different weapons and powers, so there's a bit of learning curve with each as you figure out their controls and uses.

The story was dark and entertaining.

The only thing this game was missing was an ending. I was completely engrossed in the team's peril and then--credits. What happened? Were they back in the real world or still in the Pyxis? In a lake or the ocean? Did they survive or float out there until they drowned? It was almost as traumatic as the end of Halo 2. I was still waiting for the next level to load while the credits played.

Raising Hell

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: December 28, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I don't know that I've ever played a game that inspired such mixed feelings. It seems like for every reason that I could give the reader to buy this game, there would be a counter-point not to buy it:

First of all, the game has beautiful graphics. I found the intricate costumes, talented voice-acting, character depth, and spine-tinging levels were created with attention to detail in mind. On the other hand, concerning the layout of the levels, here their are some seemingly massive layouts where the first thing that I wanted to do was explore but I didn't actually have that option. A lot of the scenery was background that was unreachable by any path. And whenever I wanted to explore every nook and cranny of a particular level, I would end up feeling cheated by dead ends and trails that led to nowhere. Yes, there were different paths to take but they all led to the very same place that the developers of the game wanted the player to follow. And maybe this is due to the fact that there are no power-ups or ammunition to seek and find, but the option of free exploration would've still been nice. This will be even more apparent if one decides to play the game a second time, which I'm attempting to do on a harder setting. I'll probably whip through the game that much faster because I already know where to go and I know that I'm not missing out on seeing anything else in the process. Furthermore, sometimes battles where made unnecessarily hard just because there wasn't enough room to move around within the narrow corridors.

Another feature that set this game apart from others was the fact that after a short while into the game, the player will have the option of switching from character to character on whim and taking full advantage of each soldiers magical abilities and weaponry. Conversely, and I don't know if I would describe this as a true counter-point, some characters will be more useful or weaker than others. Some people made a really big deal out of this but I've played many games where this is the case. Sure, maybe it's not the fairest or most practical way to develop a game, but that's just the way it is, so Jericho is not setting any precedence in this respect. For example, many people complained how Fr. Rawlings and Jones seem to be practically useless. Not so, I felt. Sure, Jones powers didn't exactly make him an offensive powerhouse, but they had their place throughout the game and within battles. Sometimes through Jones, I was able to attack enemies that were out of reach of the other soldiers. And as for Jones's gun, there is another character in the game with the exact same weaponry. And although this might make Jones's attacks seem redundant, an event takes place where the other character is eliminated, leaving Jones the only character in the game utilizing the gun that he has. All of the characters in the game are this way, in that the weapons themselves are unique and operate and fire differently (and in the case of Black's character, imaginatively, thanks to her telekinetic powers).

The enemies in the game are very gruesome and rival anything seen in the "Hellraiser" movies, of which Clive Barker created. But at the same time, there isn't much of a diversity as far as the majority of enemies that a player will find throughout the game. Although, there are some stages where there are new, fearsome enemies exclusive to that particular level, a lot of the opposition in the game will consist of the same recycled villains throughout.

I really enjoyed the plot of this game and it was one of the main reasons why I bought it in the first place. I mean, having one of the masters of horror (Clive Barker) writing Jericho's story is a definite plus. But along the way, the player will find some plot holes that never get fully resolved, and the ending of this game was nothing less than a massive disappointment. Granted, I played the game on "normal" setting and perhaps the ending might be different on "hard" setting, but somehow I doubt it. I really was left with the cliched "mouth open, trying to figure out what the heck just happened" look on my face. The story did such a good job at keeping my curiosity piqued all throughout, but seemed to totally unravel at the end. Perhaps, this was intentional as far as leaving the tale open for a sequel, but if that's the case, Jericho's plot isn't enough to stand on it's own.

Lastly, Jericho doesn't have the online multi-player option (or cooperative option) that seems all too important to today's gamers. For me, not being able to take on my friends and utilizing each unique characters' gifts and talents upon one another wasn't too big of a loss...but I admit that it still would've been wicked fun to see. And as is, is another strike against this game, in some players' minds, as far as replaying the game is concerned. Sure, an interesting game will hold one's interest the first go-around, but it's those extra tidbits and options that keep a person coming back for more. And with games like "Call of Duty 4" and "Halo 3" that have hundreds of thousands of players battling each other online on any give day, this could be considered another nail in the coffin for Jericho.

So, ultimately, I will leave the reader with this. I cannot give a clear answer as to whether this game is worth buying or is best left as a rental. And I'm sure that one will sense my mixed feelings just from having read this review...but I will say this. If you are a fan of horror games with equally shocking and breath-taking stages, "flesh and blood" characters and background stories,symphonic spookiness, and blood-curdling sound effects, Clive Barker's Jericho will not disappoint. On the flip side, if a player is looking for a video game to rank up there with the likes of Halo 3, Call of Duty 4, or Bioshock, this is probably not the game for them. I can see myself replaying this game (which I am) just based on the heart and soul of the characters and their story, but the overall feel of the game has left me feeling that the overall potential of this game was not fully realized. Which leaves "Clive Barker's Jericho" at the mercy of its players and fans (and critics) to fill in the spaces.

simplemente Genial

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: December 21, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Realmente Clive Baker la pegó de nuevo con este juego, quien no recuerda Undying? pues Jericho es un juego con un ambiente realmente bueno y una trama que te mantiene a la espectativa zona tras zona, un guion muy bueno, musica y ambiente grafico que te mantienen full adrenalina.

EL modo de juego de usar cualqueir de los personajes del equipo permite hacerte la partida ma sinteresante o menos dificil todo depende de quien usar y en que momento.

El unico detall quizas es que me esperaba un video final mas impactante pero por eso no deja de ser bueno.

Recomendado 100%

Si no fuera por las Imagenes

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 0 / 4
Date: December 12, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Este es un juego solo para fans de Clive Barker,honestamente al juego le falta mucho, lo rescatable son las imagenes, y los demonios sacados de la mente de este escritor tan famoso.

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