Clive Berker's Jericho - Review

So a few days ago I found out the Hollywood Video near me is closing, so I go to check out what they got for sale and I find Jericho and remembered the demo was creepy and the premise had potential. So I snagged it for 6 bucks. And without further adu,

Premise: You are Captain Ross leading a special force occult team codenamed Jericho that's specially designed (or destined to, rather) to fight against The Firstborn, a being created in God's image and banished to its own world where it grows more powerful and things are satanic all over. This is a recurring thing that has happened and each time a team like Jericho has gone in and sealed the gate again, only for it to return. How annoying is that?

Graphics: Being a 2006-07 PS3 game it looks next gen but not. It's detailed but in some area, especially, in the scenic design, there are corners cut and it shows. Sure you'll get creep-ed out by the setting the story is in, but fighting the same lackeys over and over again gets a bit old after awhile.

Plot: Over all it's straightforward and linear with sadly is one of it's weaknesses, you know from the get go you're going to be stuck in here but every but one guy seems to be okay with it, the one who can see through the crap but has to be a jerk about it. You discover other people who've come before you to seal the breech. Most have been corrupted by being trapped in this place forever, a few try to help you, but in the end you have to figure they are all twisted, so still really you are on your own. There's some deception on the bad guys part too, which I didn't really understand, so I'm not going to try to explain it either.

Characters: Sadly they are lacking and one of the weakest points of the game. You get bits and pieces from what you get as you progress through the story and what you can unlock if you play through the game multiple times getting the various achievements (which I am not doing, hint hint). So the only thing going for these people are either their wicked cool abilities or how nicely modeled they are.

Mechanics: It's a first person shooter with powers thrown into the mix. As I said you play as the Captain who suffers a horrible fate and is a ghost throughout the game. The neat trick here is that you can possess your other team members to utilize their powers for a strategic advantage, that is if you need one in the first place. The powers are more a treat in case you get bored shooting everything that moves, which is usually more than enough except when it is dramatically convenient to use some special hootzit to take down the boss.

AI: Sometimes your partners are smart, and sometimes they are not. It's a crap shoot really, and sadly I spent a quarter of the firefights we were in healing my allies instead of fighting. On the flip side, the enemies are extremely tough sometimes for no apparent reason, which leads me into,

Game Design: The settings as I said before is creepy as hell and very satanic in nature. The few enemies that I did encounter in the game were well designed for each slice of the city you went into, but sadly I was never really "scared" in the game, only scared that I would be mobbed and overran at times perhaps, but once you figure out how to take the enemies down, you can apply strategy that will take them down easily. The most interesting part of the battle design are the C-Q-C actions you can get pulled into and being forced having to press a sequence of buttons you can take down a goliath opponent, or a lackey will grab you and try to make you into meat, and you defend them off, which does add something to the fight for you if you get into one of those during a heated exchange. However the characters did feel oftly powerful by the end of the game and throughout most of the game I didn't have to employ too much strategy to take anyone down, mainly it was blast them with bullets until they went down, or find their vulnerable point and do the same. The game is also divided into chapters, it takes about 20 minutes to get through each chapter, then there's a load screen. This is heavily annoying even with the tidbits of information in between the chapters, which really is a cheap way to advance the plot without having to do it in game.

Overall Impression: I feel like this should have been more, but really about halfway through I feel the game lost it's luster and it became a bland shooter with some powers thrown in. Add on some half way decent voice acting and a plot that had so much more potential but kinda falls flat (don't even get me started on the ending) and you get a game that is worth about 6 dollars. Would've been better as a book or maybe a movie. I was entertained somewhat, but I'm glad I waited til I got this cheap. If you like shooters with a game with spurts of hot action then you'd probably enjoy this, just don't expect deep characters or a suspenseful plot.