Clive Barker's Jericho

Clive Barker’s Jericho
File:Clbrkjerichocov11.jpg
Developer(s)	Mercury Steam
Publisher(s)	Codemasters
Designer(s)	Joe Falke
Engine	Proprietary game engine
Platform(s)	PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC
Release	NA: October 23, 2007 UK: November 2, 2007
Genre(s)	Action, Horror, FPS
Mode(s)	Single player

Clive Barker’s Jericho is a supernatural horror-themed first person shooter video game with author Clive Barker providing the premise of the storyline. The game was released for PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 and available on GameTap on October 23, 2007. It can also be downloaded via Steam.

A demo for the game was released for the PC on September 26, 2007. The Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 demos were made available on the Xbox Live Marketplace and the PlayStation Store on September 27, 2007.

Premise

Before the creation of Adam and Eve, certain Apocryphal and Gnostic texts speak of a being first created by God in His own image that was later abandoned. Called the Firstborn, the creature was a singular being neither male nor female, dark nor light, both beautiful and terrible to behold. God was so disturbed by what He just created that He banished it into the Abyss to be forever forsaken, forgotten and unloved. God then started anew and went on to create mankind, giving the species two sexes, intellect, feelings and love. He also gave it a soul.

The Firstborn, too powerful for even God to keep from breaking into the mortal world, would make seven attempts to escape, each time taking back a piece of the earth to add to its domain and each time sent back to the Abyss. Fragments of time and space would form layers around Al Khali, entrapping pieces of history within its walls from the time of the ancient Sumerians to World War II. Over time, other great conquerors and civilizations would arrive to claim the city as their own. Eventually, the city was forgotten and buried by the sands of time.

The Department of Occult Warfare was created in the 1930s to combat the supernatural and unexplained. Another purpose was to meet Nazi Germany's own research into the paranormal. One of their most brilliant members, Arnold Leach, was recruited in 1962. However, his unscrupulous behavior and nature would eventually have him expelled. He was marked for assassination, and although the operation appeared to be successful, it seems that he may have survived.

The Jericho Squad is sent to Al-Kali to prevent Leach from opening the breach and unleashing the Firstborn upon mankind once again.

Gameplay

Jericho's core gameplay consists of leading the game's eponymous seven-man team, allowing control of all team members by jumping to each character during certain points in the game, through various environments that have been warped by the Firstborn while fighting off a variety of twisted creatures. The game also features several "survival events" where the player must press the corresponding buttons or keys shown on screen in order to successfully survive.

Plot

The game begins in the present day city of Al-Khali, where the team is ostensibly searching for a recon squad of Swiss Guardsmen. However, the squad soon finds the Guardsmen dead and their bodies horribly mutilated. As they venture further the horror awaits them as they carry out operation godseal.

Main Characters

The game's Jericho squad (l-r): Simone Cole, Abbey Black (crouching), Xavier Jones, Frank Delgado, Billie Church and Paul Rawlings.

The Jericho Squad

Captain Devin Ross

Formerly extremely skeptical towards all paranormal and psychic phenomenon, Jericho Squad Leader and accomplished war veteran Devin Ross was transferred to the Department of Occult Warfare after his own psychic abilities manifested during a botched raid on a Taliban safe house several years previously. As a psychic healer, Ross is able to revive fallen teammates, provided he is able to maintain visual contact. Near the start of the game he is killed by Arnold Leach, a former Jericho member turned demon, but his spirit lives on in the bodies of his teammates. (Voice Actor: Steven Blum)

Captain Xavier Jones

Little is known about Jones, and he seems to like it that way. Second in command, Xavier Jones is more of a bookworm than a fighting man, having spent most of his career at the DOW in an office before recently joining the combat division. He is skilled in astral projection and empathy, and the Jericho Squad look to him as some kind of enforcer, seen at one point after some team infighting, when he is ordered to "arrest that man." He carries a Patrioteer which is an assault rifle with an XM26 semi-automatic mounted shotgun. During the game other beings have used him to translate their language to the Jericho squad. (Voice Actor: Jamieson Price)

Lt. Abigail Black

A telekinetic sniper, Black tends to keep to herself. The only daughter of avid Alaskan-born outdoorsman and hunter, Abigail Black persevered through a childhood of poverty and abuse to become one of the top marksmen in the US Army. She carries a sniper rifle called Flash Thought which also has an under-barrel grenade launcher. Her psychokinetic powers allow her to guide her bullets into multiple targets (Ghost Bullet). Her teammates pick on her somewhat due to her being a lesbian, with Delgado in particular making many jokes regarding her sexuality, but deep inside she has strong, repressed, romantic feelings for Xavier Jones. (Voice Actor: Cindy Robinson)

Sergeant Frank Delgado

Sgt. Frank Delgado is of Mestizo and Chickasaw descent, his powers owing to a life-long pursuit of alchemy and shamanic wisdom. Delgado has only one useful arm on a mission--his right is encased within a protective shell containing Ababinili, a parasitic flame spirit of which Delgado was able to summon and earn the cooperation of after offering his arm as a sacrifice. Accordingly, Delgado favors high-caliber firearms to compensate for his reduced dexterity. He carries a 7.62-mm mini-gun fed by a continuous ammo strip (Hells Keeper) and a .50-calibre semi-automatic custom pistol with 6-round magazines (Pain). (Voice Actor: Armondo Kennedy)

Sergeant Wilhelmina 'Billie' Church

Church is a blood mage who serves as a point man for Jericho Squad. She can cast a blood ward and a fire ward to keep enemies at bay. Raised by religious fundamentalists, Church became somewhat introverted, taking up training in stealthy arts. Now skilled in ninjutsu, she serves Jericho as a scout and assassin. She carries a rapid-fire sub machine pistol with a 30-round magazine (Kenjuu) and a legendary Katana, which is lethal at close range (Nodachi). She is dating Delgado at the time of the game. (Voice Actor: Kate Higgins)

Corporal Simone Cole

Cpl. Simone Cole is a genius and "reality hacker". Her vast intellect allows her to manipulate space and time using advanced mathematical principles, using this to maintain communications, scan areas for temporal distortions, and generally keep the team in touch and aware of their general surroundings, though her techno-babble often confuses them. Her time manipulation powers (by way of a wrist-mounted supercomputer) are used to explain the in-game checkpoint system, as well as explain how the team keeps their ammunition supplies high (she "rewinds" time in their ammo belts back to the point when they were full). She is an atheist and hates being touched. (Voice Actor: Michele Specht)

Father Paul Rawlings

A preacher with a troubled past and twin Desert Eagles complete with extended 15 round magazines (Faith and Destiny). Serving as a chaplain in the military, he knows a great deal of history of the Jericho Squad and the hidden nature of their mission. He can heal members of the squad from great distances using Ghost Heal and can drain enemies health and distribute it among the squad by summoning Vlad's Curse. He is the oldest active member of the squad, and he is a veteran of war from his experiences in Iraq and Vietnam. He has a strong personality and sometimes assumes command briefly when it is clear he has more knowledge of the situation than Ross. His personality sometimes leads to him clashing with other members of the squad, particularly the hot-tempered Delgado. (Voice Actor: James Horan)

Villains

Hanne Lichthammer

Lichthammer (German for "light hammer") was a sadistic German officer influencing the Nazi regime. She took up post in Al-Khali during the Second World War and since then has become an abomination along with her armies. Lichthammer is a zombie-like figure of rotten flesh in a black SS uniform with powers of teleportation and the ability to delve into the minds of her foes to uncover their deepest fears and nightmares, such as Billie's abusive, incestual relationship with her father. Once captured, Lichthammer is exorcised by Father Rawlings, but it takes a bloodmage to truly destroy her. Billie fulfills that role, and gladly slits her throat with a with a quick slice of her knife, whereupon Licthammer falls into a sea of corpses, choking on her own blood. (Voice Actor: Susan Silo)

Bishop Maltheus Sinclaire

Maltheus is as cruel as he is insane. Maltheus assembled an army of children with the Pope's consent, claiming their innocence would protect them from harm. He moved to Al-Khali, which through visions, he saw as the Garden of Eden, and had his newly formed army erect a great fortress. The children were in turn slaughtered by Saladin's armies, and Maltheus fled to the safety of his chapel. The souls of the children haunted the fortress still, their hatred turning them into abominations by the Firstborn, craving revenge against the foul Maltheus. Weakened in combat with Jericho, Maltheus prays for the children's aid; they show him none. The vengeful children tear their former master apart, Maltheus' last pleas echo through the halls of the chapel. Upon his death, the children's suffering ends, and they go in peace to the Heavens.

File:Roman enemy Centurion1.jpg

Father Paul Rawlings defending himself against one of the creatures in Jericho.

Governor Cassus Vicus

Governour Cassus Vicus is an obscene pervert that has gorged himself in violent orgies and cannibalism. Exiled to the lost city of Al-Khali for his heinous crimes, Vicus erected a palace, temples, and a vast Colosseum to house his sick ritual games. The temples were not to praise the lost pagan gods of old, but rather to Vicus himself. Vicus turned even more monstrous than before, his very stomach became an orifice, unleashing a violent spray of dark blood upon his foes. Jericho sought him out, overcoming his champions in the Colosseum and facing the abomination himself. Vicus, too obese to move himself, is strapped to a metallic contraption of chains that pierce his shoulders and suspend him in the air. The machine is manned by an enormous disfigured gladiator of old. After a long battle, Vicus is finally overcome by his wounds, and his corpse is left to dangle by the chains, his bowels and innards falling from his chest in a waterfall of gore. (Voice Actor: Michael Bell)

Arnold Leach

Leach was once a dedicated member of society, but dark visions sent to him by the Firstborn led him to the ruins of Al-Khali. His humanity gone, Leach became a monstrous abomination, a winged demon, and out of madness he carved satanic symbols upon his forehead. Leach and Ross show a true hatred for each other, Leach being his arch-nemesis. It is indeed Leach himself who kills Ross, leaving him nothing more than a soul. Leach serves the Firstborn and has gathered a vast number of disciples to aid him in his quest to free his master. At the end of the game, Leach realizes he was merely a pawn of the Firstborn and redeems himself by sacrificing himself and obliterating the Firstborn. (Voice Actor: Jim Cummings)

The Firstborn

An abomination of God, His first attempt to create man was a failure. He gave it great power but entombed it at the beginning of time in Al-Khali. The Firstborn deceives the Jericho team into believing it was but an innocent child, tainting Ross' visions and dreams. The Firstborn appears as a child, but his true form is never revealed. When confronted, the Firstborn uses Jericho's own powers against them, killing both Cole and Jones in the process. After being slashed vigorously to near death by Billie, Leach turns on his old master, and destroys himself and the evil of the Firstborn. The voice of the Firstborn is a number of different voices speaking all at once.

Time Slices

File:Jerichoromanslice.jpg

One of the scenes in the Roman time slice.

In the game, the squad moves through various 'layers' of time:

Al-Khali, Present day - The ruins of an ancient Middle Eastern city.

World War II, 1942 A.D. – A city already destroyed because of the war itself and Nazi occupation. Here Jericho come face to face with Lichthammer, the leader of demonic German forces.

The Crusades, 1213 A.D. - Classic Arabia when crusaders have influenced architecture with massive, aggressive structures built directly on old walls and buildings.

The Romans, 38 A.D. - During Roman times, Al Khali was the domain of governor Cassus Vicus. Vicus, a notorious obese pervert and cannibal, was effectively exiled from Rome by Caligula and given Al-Khali as a distant outpost.

Sumeria, 3000 B.C. - In pursuit of Arnold Leach, Jericho must reach the top of the tower of Babel. Between Jericho and its objective lie an army of stone statues of Sumerian Demons which come to life intent on destroying the squad. Later, Jericho enters the original domain of the Firstborn - a massive chasm lined with the imposing faces of demons - and a place where Jericho find their very powers turned against them.

Trivia

The voices of Frank Delgado and Paul Rawlings were changed before the final version of the game was released. Delgado was to voiced by Michael McConnohie and Rawlings was to be voiced by Steve Kramer. However, in some of the early trailers and gameplay the voices of McConnohie and Kramer were used instead of the current voice actors. Also, when Ross "dies" early on in the game, Delgado has a line that is said with Michael McConnohie's voice instead of the regular voice actor. Reasons as to why they were changed are currently unknown.

Reception

Upon release, the game received poor reviews with an average critic rating of 66% for the Xbox 360 version, 61% for the PS3 and 64% for the PC at Game Rankings and 64%, 61% and 63% respectively at Metacritic. While some reviewers praised the squad based system, elaborate storyline, and Clive Barker's dark style, others criticized character AI, linear gameplay, and difficulty with certain game mechanics.

On the game's style, Eurogamer stated that "Clive Barker's contribution to the concept and narrative direction of the game will certainly help get the attention of horror fans" while Gamespot noted its "Gorgeously creepy visuals and sound".

However, reviewers complained about the in-game mechanics. Among their criticisms were the poor AI, whereby team mates would die often, requiring the player to heal them regularly. IGN stated "If the Jericho members' intelligence level wasn't enough of a nuisance for you, there's the actual shooting itself" with Game Informer concluding "If broken gameplay mechanics and community college acting didn’t weigh down the game, it might actually be worthwhile". Jolt Gaming commented that the maps were too linear and close.

Jericho was denied a rating in Germany and subsequently banned.

External links

• Revelations – The Official Clive Barker Resource Constantly updated news and archive of comments by Barker and others.
• Eurogamer news article announcing Clive Barker’s Jericho
• IGN announcement article and screenshots
• Official Clive Barker's Jericho Fansite
• Clive Barker's Jericho review at RewiredMind