Clive Barker's Jericho
Review
An ageless horror threathens humanity
by Rook
reviewed on X360
An ‘A’ with a side of intelligence (cntd.)
It is far from perfect however and there will be plenty of occasions when you see something happen that will cause you to wonder, “Why in the hell did he do that?” To be perfectly honest, one must wonder if Ross’s ability to heal party members was originally written in that way, or if it was a last minute idea because the character AI caused them to die so often in the later levels. It is a very good thing that your team has the ability to heal other members, otherwise one may find himself at the last checkpoint on too regular a basis.
The enemy AI is relentless. Unless it is a boss fight, you can expect the standard mob effect from the fodder enemies. There will be occasional situations that seem to be scripted to make better use of the enemy creatures and terrain. In these battles, one minute you think everything is going fine, then all of a sudden half of your team is on the deck and you are scrambling around trying to maintain steady rate of fire and heal your squad members at the same time. Boss fights on the other hand will not fail to keep you on your toes as the bosses themselves are unforgettable with their own detailed history and role in the over all story of Jericho and the Firstborn.
Typical “Doom and Gloom”
Unfortunately, nothing is perfect and Jericho is no exception to this rule. The biggest disappointment was its very linear gameplay. Though it was expected, the only real variation in game play are the difficulty settings and possibly what team member you use to solve the situations thrust upon you. And even then, there are just too many that call for a certain solution that always brings you back to what you did originally. At best, you are looking at maybe two or three play-through’s.
Another issue is the activation and use of powers and abilities. During moments of intense combat, the interface seemed to eat away a lot of time in order to get something done. I found that often in large spread out fights, finding team members to jump into or even heal was a major challenge and sometimes resulted in losing more ground then I had gained by making the jump in the first place. These difficulties, though few in number, still managed to cause a great deal of aggravation.
The end is nigh!
Overall, Jericho delivers a solid gameplay experience. The deep, dark and expertly told story born from Clive Barker’s imagination is sure to keep fans of the supernatural/horror genre entertained to the last juicy head explosion. With beautiful detail in character personality, history and ability in addition to professional voice acting, it seems that you are watching a movie instead of playing a first person shooter. Clive Barker’s Jericho is a very well done title, that could have earned a higher score had it been given a little bit more polish and thought as far as interface mechanics go.
7.0
fun score
No Pros and Cons at this time
