Clive Barker's Jericho Preview

Some moments are familiar here. Particular combat sequences, or if you prefer quick-time pre-scripted events, reminded me of games like Resident Evil 4 and God of War. When a hideous monster attacks one of your characters, you have to press a certain button (or key) in order to avoid it. Hitting the button on time will make the character respond to the attack, either by ducking to avoid a swing from and enemy sword or by having their head chopped off. These scripted sequences limit the characters in terms of movement, but they look awesome and they give the whole game a cinematic feel.

I can barely lift these pistols up.

Outta the way, baldy! Shit!

So, to set things straight, Jericho is a single-player squad-based horror-themed first-person shooter with enough promise to lure a majority of gamers. The focus is on the single-player mode, without any mention of multiplayer and online features. Though this might upset some gamers, it's clear Jericho isn't really a multiplayer-oriented game anyhow. So, it's safe to say, the developers are on the right track with what they have in store. What's more, it has the name Clive Barker written all over it, which is another assurance that we're looking at another potential coup in the horror genre. Clive offered creative input right from the pre-production stage and stuck all the way through the entire development process.

Of course, without making any snap judgments, this the first time Codemasters and Mercy are uniting their efforts to produce a FPS title. But, so far, all the omens are good.

Clive Barker's Jericho hits shelves during fall 2007, and we'll see if it will be able to measure up to the numerous action games planned to arrive at about the same time - HL2: Episode 2, Rogue Warrior, Halo 3, Bioshock (Aug), etc.

The game is targeted for the X360, PS3 and PC.