... there is much more to like than to dislike in Jericho.
Obviously, like any other game, this game too has its weaknesses -- in this case: right at the beginning, right at the end boss fight, and a slightly weaker FPS components.
The weakness in the FPS parts is mostly due to some leftover auto-aim developed for consoles and lack of a realistic aim mode that was replaced by a slight zoom mode on most weapons except the sniper). Sure thing, the beginning is a bit slow and maybe boring to some extent since you are still trying to figure out the controls and the concept of the unique team play. Many people get stuck at the initial survive event when you need to follow the arrows on the screen and climb up to survive. IMO, that should be removed by a patch, since some systems with even a minor lag in the singleplayer can't manage that successfully and many gamers who'd love this game quit at that point. Also, the ending ... the last boss fight is uninspiring -- it almost looks like the developer didn't know or ran out of imagination on how to finish this game appropriately. The hope here is that the ending sets up a sequel for this game.
However, the positives really outweigh a few negative points in this game. Jericho plays like a movie. The main characters are well defined and right after somewhat slower beginning the game gains its pace and becomes blast.
The strongest two points of the game are its perfect sound and a very unique visual presentation. Just looking at the credits you get the notion how much time these people invested and spent in sound studios. Voices are great, battle sounds too and combined with its background ambient sounds it does create a visceral impact on the player. The graphics are unique and high quality -- obviously the proprietary MercurySteam engine is quite good. While there is a slight feeling of Doom 3-like effect, this engine brings out creepiness without leaving you in the total darkness. Quite the opposite -- while flashlight is used occasionally, the gory details are highly visible and highly detailed. These guys smear blood and guts all over the place and make it look totally believable. Instead of going for "scary", the developers achieved effect of provoking the sense of beauty and disgust simultaneously. Required "bizarreness" is also present in large quantities and it successfully shapes the final image of Jericho as a unique game indeed.
The gameplay is also very much fun -- after maybe a few hours into the game, switching and taking control of other characters' bodies becomes fun because each of them has some unique skill or "gift" that you can (or in fact must) use. The only requirement here is to remember who is who, tho you'll get on-screen tips too. Memorize who is, say, Billy or Simone, so you can quickly switch to that character when required or when you wish to. The characters are listed by the last name on the screen so sometimes is hard to remember who is who, but overall after a few hours of playing you'll know them all. Talking about the characters -- this game has one of the best realistic human models ever with a decent ragdoll physics.
Overall, there is much more to like than to dislike in Jericho. The game is not for everybody and if you feel repulsed by blood, gore and references to torture and bizarreness stay away from it. Otherwise for others this game will be lots of fun. The game performs very well on mid to upper end of 2007 PCs so it should be easily enjoyable from the performance aspect. The absence of manual saves is a "no-no" for PC games, but at least here there are plenty of checkpoints. In retrospect, too bad that the developer didn't spend maybe a few more months to perfect this game to its full potential. However, having said that, the game has been judged too harshly for the quality and fun it offers to many. Tho fun as a singleplayer, I also think that having an online multiplayer co-op for this game would be such a great feature. 7.7/10.