Clive Barker's Jericho Reviews

  • SashamorningSashamorning2,932,118
    29 Jul 2010 29 Jul 2010
    67 14 1
    I like scary movies. Typically I like the kind of movie that scares the bejeezus out of me and gives me night mares, really well-thought out horror films like Alien and 28 Days Later, but I also like the campy ones like The Evil Dead and The Descent (and, of course, the classics Shaun of the Dead and Zombieland).

    I also like the not-so-classic, but fun monster-hunter squad ones like John Carpenter's Vampires. You know, the kind where a group of hand-chosen killer specialists go and hunt down whatever it frightening little children tonight. I'm not talking Aliens, here, I'm talking lower budget.

    That's where Clive Barker's Jericho comes in. It's exactly that type of movie... er, game. You play the leader of said monster-hunter squad whose mission is... well it doesn't matter really what the plot is about. The game is about killing things with lots of blood and gore. It's like what would happen if Doom was made into a movie, except without the Rock and with better production values.

    The game is seriously underrated. The gameplay is solid, the controls work well, and each character has his or her unique skills that they bring to the table. One can slow time, one can create blood magic that incapacitates enemies, one has a fire spirit that lives in his hand, and one has a bullet that turns corners. There's even the psychic commander running the show. In other words, it's basically what you would think of if you were making a monster-hunter squad video game.

    As you descend deeper into the bowels of Hell (and backwards in time, no less), things get creepier (as expected) and the walls are splashed with more blood and gore. The more the better!

    As far as achievements go, it's all pretty straight forward. Most of the achievements are given for playing through the game on Hard (with a lot given for beating each mission on Hard, a la Call of Duty). Those enterprising gamers will find some secrets as to how to make this quite a bit easier in the guides. The only down side to the achievements are the ones that require you to kill so many enemies in different ways, as you will almost definitely not get all of those kills in one playthrough (but luckily all of the kills are cumulative, so just go back and find the best level). A little grindy, but not really that much. You can 1k this game in a day or less.

    In short, Jericho is an underrated shooter that tells a fun story with solid mechanics, but with little replay value. That isn't to say it isn't worth playing, but unless you're into replaying the exact same thing over again, it's only worth a rental... but definitely worth descending into Hell with that rental.
    4.0
    Showing only comment.
    although i finished this last year i thought it was a great game !
    Posted on 08 Sep 12 at 09:41
  • Hatred ProphetHatred Prophet778,154
    29 Apr 2009 13 Oct 2010
    43 5 1
    Straight from the twisted mind that is Clive Barker...we have a brutal gore-drenched onslaught of hellspawn.Which, of course, is extremely fun to slaughter.

    The game starts off in Al-kahli, a Jericho team (A squad trained in arcane arts and conventional warfare) is sent to stop a unspeakable terror from arising.

    The game takes place through various points in time, WW2, The crusades, e.t.c and follows Jericho as they race to seal the breach to stop the evil from escaping.

    You will be able to switch between characters at will throughout the game, and they all have unique powers and weapons, you can sit back and snipe, unleash destruction with a minigun, or use your magic to trap enemies and hack them to pieces with a katana.

    Graphics-8/10
    Very macabre, blood-soaked, and detailed.

    Sound-10/10
    Gruesome, turn all the lights off and the volume up and you'll experiance an excellent atmosphere of evil.

    Gameplay-9/10
    A very fun FPS that will have you wanting more the entire way through, my only grievance is the lack of variety for enemies.

    Replayability-1/10
    Not much left to do after you beat it, read the dossiers, and that's about it.

    Achievements-6/10
    Not much variety, most are awarded for progression through storyline on hard and without being incapacitated, but they're easy to get, 10 hours is the most time you'll be spending getting them.
    3.0
  • ManBearPigManBearPig#3648104,755
    26 Apr 2009 30 Apr 2009
    35 16 8
    Clive Barker's Jericho has to be considered one of the most underrated Xbox360 games of all times. The story is outstanding and well thought out. The gameplay is simple, the achievements are easy and the fun factor/replay value is great.

    Their are cheat codes that make the gameplay easier but they aren't requried. The charcter swapping and the individual characters special powers are unique and the bad guys for the most part are unique to thier specific stage

    This game has been on the marketplace for a couple of years now, can easily be picked up for 20 dollars or less. A great gaming investment to be had.

    Overall, a definate 8/10.
    4.0
  • British GMBritish GM489,378
    19 Jul 2011 19 Jul 2011
    17 4 0
    Clive Barker's Jericho, is good. Very good. Now thats out of the way, we can go into specifics.
    Clive Barker, the director and writer of the screenplay of Hellraiser (1987), is the Writer and Designer of Jericho. A horror game.

    Brief Story Synopsis
    Before God made Adam & Eve, God created a different being, the Firstborn. God was so disturbed by what had been created that the Firstborn was sent into the Abyss. The Firstborn, too powerful for even God to stop, would then make several attempts to escape from the Abyss into the mortal world. Each time, it has failed. Each time it attempts to escape, there has been someone to stop it and send it away. However, the Firstborn takes back part of the world back to the Abyss each time.
    The Firstborn is soon to escape again, Jericho Squad is sent to seal the Breach and send the Firstborn back to the Abyss. You are Cpt. Devin Ross, the leader of Jericho Squad.

    Story Score 4/5
    A very good story which explores different timelines (From 3000B.C. to 1942 A.D. and the present day at the start), which makes the game a bit more interesting. However, the ending feels like it lacks something compared to the rest of the game.

    Gameplay
    The characters, all have a supernatural ability. All character's have abilities, from Healing, to driving a bullet in slow-motion, to summoning a fire demon.
    Enemies, all have different strengths and weaknesses. For example, the standard enemy you face is quick & agile, but they can only attack from close range and have an exposed weak spot. Some enemies are from the WWII time slice, and have Large Machine Gun's attatched to them, these are slow, useless in close ranges and have an exposed weak spot.
    Boss battles. Yes, this game has them. There are a wide variety of bosses to battle throughout the game and, once again, all have different strengths & weaknesses.
    Survival Events, A.K.A. Interactive Cutscenes where buttons suddenly pop up on-screen that you have to press to survive, are in this game. However, they don't normally result in an instant death. Most allow you to recover and try again, these don't happen to often throughout the game.

    Gameplay Score 5/5
    All parts of the game feel as if they have been planned in great detail, from the Smart AI that controls your team-mates, to the weaknesses and strengths of the enemies.

    Sound
    Not really important but the game is a Horror game, and the soundtrack resembles this perfectly. The voice acting was wisely done, and the orchestra adds a spooky touch to some sections. Weapons mostly sound real and demons sound as real as they can get.

    Sound Score 5/5

    Achievements
    For me, the achievements weren't thought out very much at all I would have much preferred to have achievements that asked me to use each characters abilities than 3x Kill 250 enemies with ----, all of which can be done with one character.
    The Hard difficulty also makes the game much more enjoyable, don't play it on easy/normal. Crank it all the way to hard, it makes the Horror game much more horrific, why else would you buy a Horror game?

    Achievements 2/5
    Poorly thought out, had loads of potential for a great achievements list.

    Overall Score 4/5
    A Good Game, with Solid mechanics and a Great Story to go with it.
    4.0
  • Rice Reap3rRice Reap3r265,018
    16 Jun 2010 17 Jun 2010
    13 4 0
    Having beaten the game a few times now, and getting all of the unlockables, its time for my first review.

    This game is excellent. Its not flawless, But defiantly something I enjoy playing. The combat experience is unique and offers a variety of different tactics for winning the game.

    The only major problem I had with it was, The friendly AI is TERRIBLE. Friendly tend to bunch up in groups and die together. They don't avoid danger well either and often run towards larger enemies only to die making it hard to attack while healing 2-3 people. The only way to play this game to its fullest, is to keep switching characters to make use of all there powers

    The story in the game, was told through decent voice acting, and detailed 1080p visuals with the intense sound to match. I WAS disappointed with the ending however

    Overall, The game is a 4/5 stars. It's not something I could play front to back in one sitting, But I enjoy playing it every now and then.
    4.0
  • Kovy88Kovy882,344,101
    29 Apr 2012 29 Apr 2012
    15 7 1
    I often like underrated games like Singularity, but this game is not in that department for me. It had potential to be good, though. The shooting mechanics work well and the special abilities like the ghost bullet are great. You can switch between the characters and you have all sorts of guns like a sniper with a grenade launcher or assault rifle with a shotgun attachment. These mixed with the cool abilities like shooting a fire demon from your hand keep the gameplay somewhat exciting.

    Then comes the bad parts. I feel like I spend 50% of my game time reviving the braindead friendly AI teammates. They annoyed me so much that I almost broke my controller when I smashed it really hard to the floor. Usually I'm really calm with games.

    The friendly AI just keeps rushing and getting hit by the enemies, and getting downed over and over again. You fight A LOT of these suicide bomber -type of enemies, which will explode when they get close to you. Well, guess what? Of course these braindead idiot friends of yours run in to them and get downed almost every single time these enemies are encountered. So because of this, the game's dialogue get old fast.

    "Oh my god, Rawlings is down, save him!"

    This is the 800th time you say that you idiot, I don't give flying rats ass is he down or not. Why don't you join him already, like happens every 30 seconds?

    It is possible to command the two squads you have, but it doesn't really help. They can either stand still and get downed or rush and get downed. The choice is yours. The enemy AI isn't much smarter. Either they directly attack you or they just stare at the walls. Often they won't even react when you kill one of their friends 10 meters away from them with a grenade launcher. "What was that? Must be the wind."

    The enemy variety is really low. You basically fight the same enemy, which has a shield fielding, flying and exploding variations. They are all brown and some of them squeal like a pig, some don't. The level design lacks imagination. Every level pretty much looks the same, dark narrow corridors again and again.

    For me as a horror game fan, this game is disappointing. Where is the horror, the atmosphere of a horror game? This game has a known horror writer's name tied to it, so you can expect something from it. You can't mix a squad-based shooter to horror and this game proved that. Like in F.E.A.R. 3 co-op mode, the horror-feel is gone when you're not fighting alone. At least in F.E.A.R. 3, you had a chance to fight alone.

    The achievements in this game are simple, but are now harder to get, because the cheat codes are unavailable. This means you won't have fast health regeneration or unlimited ammo to help you.

    Without the decent shooter-mechanics, this game would have been unbearable. The game can still be bits of fun, but it was more annoying than fun for me. I wanted to like it, but I just can't.
    2.0
  • Silent DirgeSilent Dirge145,353
    02 Jan 2012
    10 2 0
    At first glance Clive Barker's Jericho seems like it would be a decent game just based off it's story and basic gameplay mechanics and don't get me wrong it's not all bad but I believe the game has much to be desired. The game provides of solid FPS controls and, if i do say so myself a compelling story but the lack of diversity in both the enemy encounters and environment makes you feel like your played the same gore drenched level over and over again. The idea of being able to switch between your six different characters each having a different specialty is an exciting twist to a generic FPS game and I think that is one of Jericho's strong points. All in all Jericho is nothing to be particularly ecstatic about but if your looking for a generic repetitive shooter where you can pick up some pretty simplistic achievements it's not a bad game. 3 out of 5 in my book.

    TheDarkPresence
    3.0
  • Removed Gamer
    Gamer has been removed
    12 5 7
    For the most part, the other reviewers summed up what this game is: underrated. Jericho may not be a brilliant masterpiece, remembered for years to come, but it is definitely a shining star in a genre that tends to become repetitive and dull.

    The story is probably the best part of this game. You begin as Captain Devin Ross, leader of the Jericho squad. The mission of Jericho is to eliminate paranormal threats with their own supernatural abilities. Accompanying you is 6 other team members, each with their own unique capabilities, strengths, and weaknesses. You're called out into the desert, to the ruins of an ancient Sumerian city, to confront a powerful creature older than time itself. Pretty cool, huh?

    I won't give too much away, but you end up progressing through missions with the ability to switch between members of Jericho, taking advantage of everyone's powers and weapons. Some characters, such as Jones, aren't the most useful in combat, but are used during certain scenes where you need to cut off enemy lines or barricades. While Black may be the most used character for achievements, each one has their own individual traits that are useful in certain situations. The characters interact well with each other, with many scenes peppered with some great dialogue. A few may be forgettable, but almost all are supported by a great cast.

    Combat and controls are smooth, right at home with any other FPS. RT to shoot, RB/LB to use powers, A to interact, D-pad to control squad. There are no run or jump features, but they're not really missed in this title. The paths are very linear, and usually found by following the enemies. Speaking of which, are pretty badass. Each stage has exclusive enemies, many of which have been humans horribly disfigured and re-purposed by the Firstborn. Towards the end of the game there are a few enemies that are rather difficult to take down, and require team tactics to kill. Other than that, most enemies are disappointingly simple and easy to telegraph.

    The game itself is very short, and can be completed in a few hours. Most of the achievements are obtained by beating the game on Hard, sometimes without getting incapped. Other than that, it's just a simple matter of farming levels for kills and you're done before you know it. Most of my issues with this game stem from the simple fact that I find it to be too short, an additional stage could have easily been added in without making the game too lengthy or overbearing, and the ideas are almost limitless on what that stage could have been.

    A short review, but there's not a whole lot to say. A great shooter with an incredible story, brought down only by its length and a few uninteresting characters. A sequel would be amazing.

    4/5
    4.0
  • russolini77russolini77483,577
    19 Oct 2014
    6 3 1
    I was given a copy of Jericho for the PC years ago on a birthday, and wasn't able to even play it for about a year until I'd upgraded my video card. Eventually I played all the way through it, and didn't really like it very much because I was rather confused about what I was supposed to be doing other than trying to kill the seemingly endless bad guys. This was back before Games For Windows included achievements on XBox Live, so eventually I got a cheap used copy of the 360 version and tried it out. On my second playthrough, I changed my mind about it.

    Jericho is a reasonably good FPS that has a back story written by Clive Barker (obviously). It goes through the story of a team of "special magical ops" army specialists (a chaplain, a heavy weapons guy, a sniper, logistics expert, etc) that are all gifted in supernatural arts, or have psychic or spiritual powers. Personally, I thought the idea of the "Department of Occult Warfare" was laughable, but I'm not too into the horror/supernatural thing.

    The graphics are actually pretty nice, very detailed and sharp and pretty. The levels are pretty well designed and you don't spend much time getting lost and wasting time; it's pretty clear where you need to go. There are a few times when it suffers from slowdown (things vomiting blood at you seems to make the game unbearably slow temporarily) but for the most part it's quite smooth. The gore factor is a little eyebrow raising- it seems to be rather over the top. I think the "worst" of it is when a morbidly obese undead Roman governor rips his belly open to spew blood on you, which is clearly nasty but also kills you if you let him long enough. But it's almost cartooney at the same time, and though I don't like horror flicks, this is gross but pretty unrealistic.

    The controls work well, once you get used to the idea of what you are supposed to be doing with them. The initial tutorial levels are kinda spread out farther than they should be. You don't learn everything you're able to do until 3-4 levels in, and then it teaches you a new technique with a different character every few levels after that. Essentially you have a primary and secondary weapon, and then also primary and secondary "powers" that you need to get past certain obstacles or bosses. You also have a melee attack and reload, crouch, etc, common in FPS games. There is no jump. You don't need it. The landscape and levels are very linear. In fact, your "team" sort of waits at the entrance to the next area, in case you get lost, you can sort of head where they're looking. Sometimes it's not very clear.

    Audio and voice acting is okay. Not bad, not great. Unremarkable. Again, it sort of reminds me of cartooney, if someone made cartoons with undead roman governors that ripped their bellies open to spew blood from their gaping intestinal cavities at you.

    The story isn't that bad either, but it's really quite short. The estimate for hours given in the walkthrough is accurate. Once you master the controls and learn the way the game deals with enemies and spawning, you can get through it in several hours, even on hard. This is a great game to join the 100% club on.

    One thing that's kinda tricky about it is the enemy spawning. It's rather unclear at the beginning whether you are supposed to just sit and kill wave after wave of enemy or try and kill the ones that are there superfast and advance to the next area before another wave spawns. I got fed up with waiting (yes, you CAN eventually kill them all) and started rushing ahead. If you rush ahead to the next "area" waiting point, you can skip a wave or two of baddies if you're lucky and kill them. Which is kinda nice.

    Overall, it's really not a bad game at all, but it's certainly not one that you'd keep in your collection unless you were a fan of supernatural FPS games or Clive Barker. More sort of a rental or borrow or buy cheap and give away to someone that is bored.
    3.0
  • BloodOathWARiorBloodOathWARior109,846
    09 Sep 2010
    2 8 3
    well lets start this honest review.

    graphics 2/10
    bad like some of the worst i have ever seen on the xbox 360. . . a perfect example is the fire in the game... the fire is so bad that you could compare it to that of n64 graphics. it is honestly that bad.

    sound 6/10
    voice overs are good enough to enjoy but other than that sound effects are nothing special in my personal opinion the guns sound like crap i could make more unique gunshot sounds with my mouth.

    game-play 5/10
    your generic shooter. . . the game-play is nothing special. . . being able to travel from body to body is cool and interesting but nothing that can distract you from the other bad aspects like bland enemies not so smooth controls and other stuff.

    re playability 1/10
    umm lets put this short its bland and boring the story is okay but it is not rich enough to keep even me playing and that is saying a lot because i love playing video games for their stories. i honestly didnt make it half way through the game (not because i suck cus i can beat COD on veteran) but because it sucks that hard.
    1.0
  • Removed Gamer
    Gamer has been removed
    13 34 6
    If you are looking for an easy game in a horror story line then this is it. No achievements are hard to get and should take about one to two days to complete. Fun to play especially if you are into head shots as the sniper has a "ghost bullet" which basically you get to guide the bullet around corners and into the enemies head or two!!

    Controls are easy to manage as you play six characters by swapping bodies as the spirit of guy you play, yeap you die during the game!!

    There are cheat codes for unlimited ammo and to use your abilities. There is more but affects achievements so be careful.

    So I would give it about 6/10.
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