Even though I haven’t played it for a couple days, now is as good as ever to talk about my initial impressions of Clive Barker’s Jericho. Once I can finally finish it, I’ll probably do a full review.
The first feeling I got about this game is a lack of vision. Things are out of place, they don’t fit.
A little background: You’re part of a religious fighting force, fighting back demons and “The Firstborn” (It makes more sense in the game, but it’s not Jesus) and you’re doing it for the better of the world. Your religious devotion and Calling From on High demand it. Your whole team has been imbued with different holy powers.
In other words, you’re righteous. Your men (and women) of the cloth. Problem is, everyone swears like sailors and they make jokes about lesbians. The crudeness is over the top. Unfortunately all the canned dialogue is on a loop, so you’ll hear a lot of “Jesus Christ on a crutch!” These things do not match up. One of these things is not like the others. It just doesn’t fit.
Visually, the environment is just how I described the screen shots – juicy. Blood and entrails abound. Cursed monsters and zombie Nazis around every corner. As you progress through the game you not only move from one location to another, but you also move from one time to another. From WWII Germany to the Crusades. While the levels so far fell completely on rails, this may change.
I’ve played Jericho for about five hours now. I’m not ready to call Jericho a bad game, but it hasn’t grabbed me in any way. I’ll give it a couple more hours for a fair shake, but it’s not looking promising.
I was fairly disappointed by the PC demo as well. Some interesting concepts, not terribly well put together. I would have liked to have seen a straight up coop shooter without the nutty possession gimmicks and a tighter focus on the “inner loop” of mechanics, as Epic calls it, those closest to the player – like movement and gunfire. It’s certainly atmospheric, but my elite group of paranormals honestly felt like they would just be dogmeat in the first five minutes of the conflict.
A videogame based on a TV show that fails to deliver? Say it ain’t so!
Too bad The Chronicles of Riddick:EFBB only comes around once in a lifetime…
I’ll give my assessment:
Pain.
@Josh – tons of good ideas, but that’s the problem — they are trying to jam too much into the game.
@DR – It’s actaully not based on the TV show. Something completely different.
@Nat – I concur!