A Great Game-Movie. Read on for the full review.
What's to like:
- Good story
- Good characters
- Great audio (voice overs and environmental)
- Great combat mechanics
- Great weapons
- Awesome boss fights
- Awesome show off moves
- Superb graphics
What you may not like:
- Short (10 hours or so)
- Linear
- Not a mindless shooter
- Won't try to scare you
- Gore, blood and flesh bits isn't for everyone
- No save game (checkpoints system)
- No epilogue
Story - The first-born
It's a good story and will make you wonder a little. There is an anomaly in Al-Khali and your squad, dealing with paranormal events, are asked to investigate the area and close whatever breach that is causing it. Each member of your squad has a troubled background and, though a bit clichéd for some, a unique personality that will catch your attention.
It will take you roughly 10 hours to go through the single player campaign. There is a fair amount of in-game cinematics and while the end-fight requires slightly more thinking than your average shooter, the actual ending will unfortunately leave you dumbfounded.
Game - Horror but no suspense
Though it has plenty of gore and you might be surprised once or twice, Jericho is not a game that is constantly trying to scare you. So don't compare it to Silent Hill or Resident Evil, or else you might get disappointed.
Still, even if you are not expecting a thriller, why is it that some reviews gave it a 6.5 while others, like me, gave it a higher score? Well, here's the main reason: this game looks like a mindless shooter but it isn't.
Each monster has a specific weakness. If you can figure out what they are or pay attention to the in-game tips, and exploit them, they will go down very quickly and will make Clive Barker's Jericho really enjoyable.
If you ignore them, you and your teammates will die constantly and you will be spending all your time reviving others, making the whole experience extremely frustrating. So the key to enjoy Jericho is to play smart.
Combat - Use your teammates
You move with your squad through out the game. You can order them around (stay / attack) and they provide very good cover fire, but they die very easily too. Keeping them alive is key in Jericho as they actually can kill the enemies but more importantly, they allow you to do whatever you want while they distract (or take damage from) them.
Not far into the game, the whole combat mechanics take a different turn than your usual FPS genre. As referred above, you get the ability to take control of any member of your team in real-time.
Among their powers (2 each), you will be able to:
- Hold monsters
- Burn'em
- Control a sniping bullet for up to 3 hits
- Slow down time
- And more
So it will be up to you to choose the proper class in different situations. Failing to do so will put your whole squad at risk. For instance, in narrow areas, I was controlling the Ninja girl so that I could hold the enemies in place and keep the fight under control. In more open areas, I was switching to the Sniper girl.
Also, the Ninja girl will be used occasionally to finish off some of the bigger monsters. It's pretty show off and very satisfying. They are done through a mini-game where you just need to press on the arrow keys when they show up on screen.
Graphics
Simply put, the graphics are Gorgeous. Sure, there is blood everywhere, but everything else is also very well modeled and textured. The Arena is nothing short than Breathtaking and the characters are very well modeled as well.
Conclusion - A great game-movie
It's a beautiful game that deserves a lot more love. Having played Bioshock, Crysis and Witcher before this one, it should tell you that I'm comparing it against other great gems out there.
This game is not as expensive as the others so it's good deal to buy or even to rent, and is totally worth it.
If only this game would have been longer, more open, and more forgiving on your teammates' AI, it would have been *up there* with the best games in 2007.
8.3/10