I just bought, to quote Ben Crosshaw from Zero Punctuation, Clive Barker's Clive Barkers Jericho by Clive Barker. I must say, out of the many games I play, it met my standards for a video game. Action, Humor, Gore, Action, Great story, Great Characters, and action.
The Squad
You and your squad, a 7 man team called Jericho, are sent in to investigate the an attack at a dig site in the Middle East. Each member of the Jericho Squad has a special ability and a special weapon
Church
Weapon:
Uses a Katana and an Uzi
Abilities:
- Blood Ward (Freeze Enemies)
- Fire Ward (Burns Enemies)
Black
Weapon:
Uses a Sniper Rifle/Grenade Launcher
Abilities:
- Telekinesis (Push objects)
- Ghost Bullet (Control where your bullet goes)
Rawlings
Weapon:
Dual Pistols with Explosive, Scatter, or Regular Bullets
Abilities:
- Ghost Heal (Revives members from far away)
- Vlad's Curse (Drain Life-Force of enemies)
Jones
Weapon:
Shotgun/Assault Rifle cross
Abilities:
Astral Projection (Projects himself into an enemy to see what they see)
Cole
Weapon:
Assault Rifle/Grenades
Abilities:
- Infinite Loop (Slows down time for everyone but Cole)
- Firestorm (Adds firepower to the squad's bullets)
Delgado
Weapon:
Gatling Gun/Pistol
Abilities:
- Ababinili attack (Sends the fire spirit in his arm at the enemies)
- Ababinili Flame Barrier (Protects him from Fire)
The Firstborn and Your New Ability
Your enemy, Arnold Leech, has released God's first creation before Adam and Eve, known as The Firstborn.
"...and God created The Firstborn in his own image. An entity neither make nor
female, dark nor light; a singular being that was both beautiful and terrible
to behold. Disturbed by His creation, God left it unfinished, banishing The
Firstborn from reality to The Abyss, forsaken and unloved. In its place, God
started fresh, the slate wiped clean. He divided his next creation into two
sexes, gave it intellect, reason, emotion. He gave it the gift of love. He gave it a soul."
In the first time slice, you, Cpt. Devon Ross, are killed by Leech. As you lay dying in the hands of Frank Delgado, the screen goes black, and you wake looking at your dead body. YOU are Delgado. From this point on, you are able to jump between the bodies of your teammates and control them, which is amazingly fun to do.
Time Slices
As you progress through the game, you must sacrifice certain enemies, spill their blood, and open a rift to the next time slice. You end up going through 5 different time periods
- Present Time
- World War 2
- Crusades
- The Roman Empire
- 3000 BC - The creation of The Firstborn
As you progress through the game, the enemies get harder. You start with just Cultists, who run at you with melee attacks, and eventually face shield-baring romans and gargantuan beasts called Gladiators. One of the downsides about enemies, is that the game makes you face each monster encounter a minimum of 3 times. Every time you kill a monster, its double spawns where it did. It gets annoying. In the middle of the Crusade act, you are faced with a giant masked creature. You take it down, and immediately have to face a second, then a third, then finally a fourth. It gets very annoying.
Summing it Up
Overall, Jericho was a pretty good game. You have to have the stomach for it though. There is plenty of gore. You walk through blood, guts, limbs, the works, in almost every level. The re-spawning gets annoying, the AI is great, the enemies are hard, the ending was amazing, the music was good. If I had to rate this game, it would be a solid 8 out of 10. Good job Jericho
