I like the ideas Jericho presents as a first person shooter decorated with squad based elements. Considering this game came out in 2007 to a harsh critic reception, I feel as though it was unfairly judged at the time. The epic and almost cinematic combat sequences with you and your Jericho Squad feels unreal, even to this day. I feel that this was all deeply overshadowed by the nonsensical narrative and cynical character designs that made vomit run up to my mouth each time a character would open their mouths. There's nothing appealing about the world, the characters or the narrative. The narrative is ridiculous mumbo jumbo, something only a madman could come up with during a fever dream, yet even with such unique conditions for a nonsensical narrative, it somehow feels extremely generic at its story twists and conclusions. There's lot to appreciate in Jericho almost two decades later, but characters and the narrative aren't it. Give it a go if you want a first person shooter with an epic feel to each battle and a depressing setting to stroke your already melancholic nature.

It was one of the FPS games with the worst unbalanced gameplay mechanics I've ever seen. The story looks very interesting and the fact that you can control multiple characters is an unusual feature, but the gameplay is, as I said, a mess. The progression is not intuitive. You don't know what to do most of the time, and despite having a large group, you die far more times than in other similar FPS games where you play alone. The developers have recognized this difficulty in the gameplay, so you have the chance to resurrect badly wounded characters before they actually die, but when the combat starts, everything gets so chaotic that most of the time you don't even get a chance to use your resurrection power. This game feels like a first-person camera Souls game to me, and it really does a good job at discouraging you from continuing to play any further. The only thing I really liked about the game was the graphics. For 2007 they still look very good. Sadly, I quit because I couldn't stand the infinite number of bullet sponge enemies that would appear out of nowhere and kill me in one hit, and the horrible AI teammates that I had to constantly direct to keep them from dying.

No Rest for the Living

2007. What a prolific year for the FPS scene. We got Halo 3, The Orange Box, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Bioshock among other gems left in the 7th generation of consoles. One of those titles that released was Clive Barker's Jericho in collaboration with the Spanish game studio: MercurySteam.

Jericho could've been something great if a little more polish went into it. It's essentially a corridor shooter with possession-like elements, that's one of the main premises of the gameplay.

Sounds interesting in paper, in practice it is as well. You're Ross, the commander that died in this very operation at the beginning of the game. Among the team we have other 6 members to control with our powers, which have their own abilities to contribute both the gameplay and the story itself. It might sound odd, but for the modern age it can be the equivalent to a hero shooter. At least to me.

It is a total game changer once you get use to it, since every member has a different method of dealing with enemies and each members is indirectly effective to a certain type than others, in all comes for a very cohesive game mechanic that I haven't seen in any other shooter as of now.

What drags this games down is for the most part what and where you fight. The levels are not bad, just basic and if it wasn't for the achieved hellish atmosphere I would've dropped this game. It isn't objectively long, but it felt it was more than really needed. Enemies are often very aggressive, since they were made to resist all your teammates bullets, but they wouldn't survive long enough for that very same reason so the developer approach to difficulty was to make them bullet sponges. Not to mention they come in hordes, huge never ending hordes, so be prepared to sink some minutes in the same section.

Unironically the parts I liked the most were when we had fewer members in the team for me to control. Or even better, the parts were I just controlled one member in a asolated area, apart for the squad. The shooting chaos was much more manageable even if the game got harder by being handicapped only with one individual. One thing I forgot to mention is that if one of the members dies, you'll have to revive them. And the IA that controls set members isn't particullary smart so they die rather quickly and by the end it just becomes a daunting task.

This game also suffers from the 7th gen starting lineup game jank visually speaking. Everything looks wet, glossy and shinny in the depths of hell with brown and reds alike being shown most of the time with little to no variation. Though I can say the hellish landscapes were a joy to look at, and the monsters were as part creepy, unpleseant as creative and well achieved for this particular game.

All and All I think it was entertaining weirdly enough as a movie of the style would be. It does not particularly stand out in the gameplay department, it walks in that thin line between being a boring mindless shooting gallery and a compelling horror game with ghost mechanics. But the great atmosphere, deep interesting lore and the fun possesion mechanics makes up for a enjoyable game, but a just very rough one.

Since its October I wanted to play some horror games this month first up on the chopping block was Jericho!.

This game I had a very random memory with growing up as I for some reason remember renting the game then playing it for 10 minutes before turning it off due to getting stuck which I am not sure how that was possible the game is pretty straight forward LOL.

Anyways because of that the game has been on the back of my mind ever since then and I recently hunted down a copy for the 360 and purchased it and here we are now!. I have to say I REALLY enjoyed my time with the game I don't think its amazing primarily due to the gunplay itself it gets the job done but this game shines in every other department for me. From the world building to the characters to how you are able to play as EVERY character each equipped with their own set of skills this game really has its own charm that I wish more people would get around to understanding.

Awesome OST + Awesome level design + awesome enemy design + Awesome story = awesome time

Really glad I came around to this title and 1000G it I overall really enjoyed it!

Man, playing this game has been a long time coming for me. I played the demo when it was first released as it was highly anticipated. Clive Barker’s Undying was a very well received horror FPS and maybe he thought he could up the ante by making a squad based shooter set in his universe. It sounded good on paper, the trailers and screenshots looked decent, but once everyone got their hands on the game the bad reviews and anger started up. I rented the game and actually bought the game once when it was dirt cheap and sent it back both times. I just couldn’t understand the game, felt it was boring, and didn’t have the patience for it.

Now almost ten years later I decided to try one last time and I finally got through the game. The story is what I had high hopes for as Clive Barker is a great story teller. You play as a squad of seven named Jericho that are sent to close a breach to a portal to hell. This self contained hell is called the Pyxsis which is a series of levels within itself. It doesn’t sound dissimilar to Clive Barker’s own Hellraiser series. Once you pass through each breach a new setting is revealed usually as a time period from the past and a new boss is on the horizon. The smaller story elements are decent, but the game has one of the worst endings I have ever seen. Once you beat the final boss the game cuts straight to the credits with no pause; a complete shitty ending.

Actually playing the game is quite a chore, and this is because the developers became too ambitious with the you having to play as seven people and it becomes a chore. Each member has their own weapon types and magic abilities. Delgado is a heavy mini-gunner with a fire demon spell and a fire shield. Jones uses an assault rifle/shotgun combo and can possess bodies. Black is a sniper and can use a bullet cam and telekinesis. Get the idea? There’s seven of those and you have to keep track of all of them in cramped linear hallways. Every so often the squad splits up, but it still doesn’t matter. I went through endless hallway after hallway killing the same three enemies throughout the entire game and wanted it all to end so quickly.

What makes matters worse is that the game is extremely difficult and poorly balanced. Once level might be easy, but the next is wave after wave of enemies. Reviving each and every player every time they fall really sucks and makes things more difficult. Fighting a wave of enemies and having to run around and heal everyone that’s down just makes the game more unnecessarily difficult. Even on easy difficulty I died a lot. On top of all that the shooting mechanics are awful as there’s no feedback or weight to the weapons and they all feel the same. I just stuck with Delgado and the mini-gun through most of the game as any strategy is null and void when you’re stuck in corridors through the entire game.

There were a couple weird puzzles thrown in randomly and the boss fights became more and more frequent towards the end like the developers ran out of ideas. After the 25th level the game accelerates towards the ending. I can see how this game would have been better if there was more enemy variety, less linearity, and not so many squad mates. Just at tighter more fine tuned squad based shooter would have been fine. Instead we get seven people that we don’t really care about as the game’s story randomly throws in cut scenes and there’s no character development.

Outside of that the atmosphere is fantastic and is the best part of the game. Clive Barker’s signature is all over the enemy and level design with gore and blood on every inch of everything. The enemy designs are awesome, but there’s about a half dozen and they get boring to kill after awhile. The levels are neat to look at but they are nauseating closed up hallways and are always way too dark.

With that said, Clive Barker’s Jericho is only worth a play through if you are a hardcore Clive Barker fan otherwise there is zero reason to even touch this game. It’s unbalanced, difficult, boring, the story doesn’t really go anywhere, and controlling seven different people is a chore. The guns shoot like crap and the only redeeming value is the art style and atmosphere. Stick to Undying if you want Clive Barker’s better adventure.

Jericho is one of those games that feels like it could have become a cult classic with a little more polish. Despite janky animation and a relentless mid-00s "brown & bloom" aesthetic, the visuals can be quite striking, especially once the time travel narrative intersects with ancient Romans and Sumerians. The Barker-esque monsters are pleasingly unpleasant, and while the script is rather poor, the supernatural premise is engagingly outlandish.

The player character, Ross, quickly ends up as a ghost to provide an in-universe excuse for jumping between squad members. The possibilities for mixing and matching six gun-toting mages' spells and weapons are tantalizing, but in practice I found myself favoring one half of the team over the other.

Black is the MVP; her sniper rifle's maneuverable bullet is easily the best ability in the game. At close ranges, Delgado's minigun can tear through enemies, while Church's blood magic and sword are riskier but are a lot of fun to use.

In contrast, Father Rawlings dual-wields Desert Eagles that can fire explosive bullets, but ironically he's so effective as a healer that it's better to let the AI handle him. Cole can slow time but is otherwise unremarkable. Jones is mostly redundant; I largely ignored him outside of specific puzzles.

Levels seem to be 75% winding, cramped hallways, 20% arenas and 5% obnoxious quick-time events. Though the game is quite shameless about spawning waves of enemies directly out of the ground in front of you, the combat maintains a rhythm that’s satisfying in a junk food sort of way. It's surprising that there's no co-op available, as the squad mechanics and constant streams of monsters feel like they would be best suited to multiplayer. As it is, Jericho is reasonably entertaining for the seven hours it takes to reach its abrupt conclusion, but it never stops teasing you with signs of what might have been.

I fucking love first-person shooters where you can't aim down sight. That's not ironic. I love it.

I remember the reveal of how you switch characters really blowing my mind when I first played it. It still kinda does. It's such a unique way to go about the game mechanic in a way that intertwines with the story.

I love the unique characteristics of the characters, even outside of the fact that they all have completely unique weapons.

I love that the player sees them by their last names, but they call each other by their first names.

And they don't really explain anything about the characters either. You sort of just have to figure shit out through context clues in dialogue.

I love Abbey. She's probably my favorite telekinetic lesbian sniper.

I love Church, she's my favorite, but her Blood Ward power is so 50/50. It's really good, but you'll die in the process because you can only put it right where you stand, so you have to get up close with the enemy and then do the whole animation.

It can also be very unclear where you're supposed to go.

And the game as a whole is pretty unclear. I didn't even understand that we had been transported to the Second World War until we were on our way out and to the Middle Ages.

And it didn't really hinder my love for the game, but the frame rate on the PS3 version really is laughable sometimes.

I love this whole game, and it's awesome and so cool. It's such a unique experience. The aesthetic and the world is so much fun.

Oh, and I am so pissed they never made the sequel 'cause that ending boils my blood.

Clive Barker delivers great character design and a very interesting story/world building. However, mostly everything else about this game was dogshit. The main cast had very cringy and poorly written dialogue (aside from a few laughs I had). A lot of enemies were well designed, but some were just masses of walking ground beef, just couldnt believe a master of horror designed those absolute bores. Cant hit them all but most of the other designs were very good. The games difficulty is so weird. Most enemies 1-3 shot you and they just constantly spawn directly in front of you. So dying to enemies that spawn from the ground 2 feet in front of me only to explode, killing me and a few squad mates instantly, got quite old very fast. The squad maneuver mechanic felt useless 99% of the time because they just did whatever the hell they wanted anyways! Also, even though I was part of a squad of 7, it felt like I was the only one doing damage!!! Like, I dont want them to play the game for me, but they could at least kill the enemies directly in front of them while I picked off others. I will say the majority of boss fights were fun and like a lil puzzle to try and figure out how to kill them. I did enjoy that. But yeah the other 90% of the game is just a live, die, repeat of walking down meat hallways as dozens of enemies rush towards me. I enjoy this game for how bad it is.

Ambitious but about halfway through I didn't connect enough with the the squad switch mechanic to continue. It increasingly felt less strategic in practice and more "oh shit who am I now, I gotta revive half my squad!" The encounters are just too frenetic and corridor-like to react with any sensibility. In addition to your AI-squad's preference to yolo, I didn't feel any sense of control of any of the pieces at my disposal. But I must give this game props for being so weird and ballsy, and it would not work at all without the Clive Barker veneer that keeps you engaged.

This game's lore creates one of the more fascinating universes in gaming, especially among first-person shooters. The dialogues might not be anything extraordinary, but the plot and the concepts the game explores touch upon some of the most fundamental aspects of human psyche in relation to our bodies and our understanding of life and death. The way the story ties into real-world geography and history is pretty much unprecedented. The location of the lost city of Al Khali is precisely at the point where all the showcased civilizations (Sumer, Rome, Crusader States and British Empire) could have attempted to expand into. And of course the lost city itself echoes the fabled Iram of the Pillars. Every boss battle references similar real life events. Nazi occultists, child crusaders, decadent Roman governors, and deified Mesopotamian religious figures (i.e. Kubaba) are all real-life phenomena. This all ties perfectly with the Abrahamic religious worldview, despite incorporating pagan concepts.

Visually the game is stunning, not just in character designs, but also in how levels look. But every character design informs their backstory. There is a history of pain and anguish imprinted upon every deformed human being you meet in the Pyxis. The main protagonists also each have a well-developed backstory, that the game only very subtly conveys, leaving a lot to the imagination (and unfortunately doomed potential sequels).

I realize most people's gripes with this game are gameplay-related. But I honestly think y'all are exaggerating. Sure, this game might not be one of the better first-person shooters, but there is enough variety in weapons, special abilities and enemies to keep the game from getting boring. For a six-hour game it provides just enough content for you to experiment and play around with by the time the story wraps up. And I completely disagree with people who say only two characters are useful. I loved playing as each of them, except for maybe Jones, whom I usually only switched to for either scripted sequences or when I wanted a shotgun.

This is one of my all-time favorite games. I bought it on disc back in 2008, and then later I got the Steam version. I have played through the game to completion twice. This is not the kind of game that makes you wanna keep playing for hours and hours. This is the kind that you play through and put on a shelf, until you want to revisit it to refresh your memories. It's a singular experience, akin to watching a movie. Though it has unlockables, they're really not the point of this game. Really wish we got a sequel.

Alright alright, hear me out ok?

This game is pure jank, no doubt about it. It's mostly wet and ugly with subpar gameplay and edgy too cool for school characters.

However, I dunno why, I enjoy it a lot for what it is, even with all it's shortcomings.

Also, the story is actually interesting at times.

I wish I could say this is a diamond in the rough. Really it's on the verge of being okay w/ some neat shit hidden in literal shit. Characters are dull and super obnoxious. Fighting is clunky but ngl the longer I played, the better it felt to control.

Barker's premise is wild and great and the loredumps are pretty neat. I like the game as it descends deeper and deeper into the far past and Barker's nasty sexy extremity of dark fantasy. There's some cool as fuck monsters here.

It starts out looking like complete ass and then there are some genuinely beautiful designs towards the end. The level design itself isn't ever that great tho, just twisting tunnels and rooms one after another. Sadly, the game is mostly an ugly slog, then it gets better, then it ends.

Too bad this didn't get a sequel cuz I could see Jericho II refining its mechanics, picking up the ending, and becoming the cult horror shooter that this sadly doesn't quite manage to be. The soundtrack is great tho! Witches With Guns would be a sick band name

Also, between this and REVillage, I realize I find fps games way more interesting when you're fighting huge fantasy monsters

Ghostbusters in Hell, basically.

Very little known game. In the past, before God created mankind, he first created another being, but it was too powerful so God aborted him and imprisoned him in the Abyss. This being has had seven chances to escape and all seven has failed, but each time he took with him a piece of the world at that time, from Sumeria to World War II. All that pieces configure the forgotten city of Al Khali, which connects with the Abyss. Managing Jericho Squad, an elite commando, you must prevent this being from escaping for the eighth time. This is Clive Barker's Jericho.

PROS

⭐It tried to bring something new. Each character in the Jericho Squad possesses different weapons and supernatural powers. The key of the game is switch from one character to another whose abilities are the most suitable for each situation (the rest of the team do not stay still, they are handled by the AI). In major battles it can be chaotic to switch characters every 3 seconds, but with practice it is a great experience.
⭐Good enemy artistic design from the nightmares of Clive Barker.
⭐Awesome music. Ominous as hell.

CONS

⚠️Terrible ending. Or rather not ending, because it doesn't have it. The game ends and that's it.
⚠️No online multiplayer. A FPS with this fresh teamwork mechanic it is a sacrilege.
⚠️Not replayable.