Clive Barker's Jericho

Neeyik · 11-02-2007, 12:13 AM

The horror-shlock gore fest that is Clive Barker's Jericho comes our way this Halloween. With all the production values of a modern horror movie, Codemasters are obviously expecting a great deal of this title. But does it really live up to its spooky promise or is it more suited to playing "trick or treat" with the kids?

http://www.yougamers.com/reviews/136...rkers_jericho/

11-02-2007, 11:51 AM

it's not Al Khalid but Al - Khali

Neeyik · 11-02-2007, 12:01 PM

Well spotted! If only the game itself was as easy to fix...

Smokin_Si1138 · 11-02-2007, 01:17 PM

Ahoy! Tis my first post here and have to say I love the site. It's great to see the in depth reviews you guys give... four or five page PC reviews? Online? Who'd have thunk it?

Anyhoo, I completely agree with the body of your review, at least judging from the awful demo I played. I actually thought I'd stepped back to the 90's and was playing some substandard Quake clone! My girlfriend watched me play for a while and wondered why they picked that level for the demo... one long corridor is about right... and obviously quite an accurate reflection of the overall game.

I do have a point to make though.... you were pretty scathing in the review, and rightfully so... yet it still came out with 69% overall... in all honesty that seems a little high! After reading the review (linear corridor dominated levels, little point to squad control systems, hang overs from Console origins)... I was expecting to see a score in the 50s!

I guess I'm just curious as to why a game that has little to recommend it outside of some good sound design didn't score lower...

Cheers!

Simon

Neeyik · 11-02-2007, 01:36 PM

An overall score of 69% puts it at the top end of the average category, which is what Jericho is: competently average. It's quite pretty in places and some fun can be had just mowing down hordes of brain dead enemies; it's also quite polished too, as a whole. The Overall score isn't an average of the others, hence why it got 60 for it's gameplay (which really is only just average); the sum of the rest of the game saves it a bit, leading to the higher overall score.

I agree with your point that the text is somewhat more scathing than the final scores though, and whilst I'm not in the habit of altering things too much after they've been published, it's certainly something I'll keep in mind for all future reviews. Glad you like the site!

Smokin_Si1138 · 11-02-2007, 02:04 PM

Thanks for explaining that, Nick. That makes sense.

I actually think the breakdown your reviews have is a great idea and is one of the reasons I like the site. It's nice to see individual scores for gameplay, graphics and so on as it caters to the indivduality of the readers. There are guys and gals out there who are no doubt "Size Queens" of the gaming world and for whom a 90% graphics score and a 50% gamplay score isn't going to be off putting! It's good to see everyone being catered for.

It's a shame about Jericho, it was a game I was really looking forward to as I enjoyed Undying and fancied a bit of horror. Yet from all the information I've gathered it's just not scary. And when Clive Barker is attached you kinda expect fear to be stalking you at every corner... ho hum...

Mind you truly frightening horror is something that games have struggled with in the past. There's a tendancy to throw a "ghost" at your character which you can beat to death with a shoe... which sorta removes the whole fear element... and as for the over reliance on zombies....

I'm trying to think of frightening games. I know there was a haunted mansion or hotel or something that freaked me out in Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodline. I must ponder this!

ajbarnes · 11-02-2007, 02:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Unregistered

it's not Al Khalid but Al - Khali

My spell checked actually caught this, but all of the text referenced in the game has the spelling as "Al Khalid".

Quote:

Originally Posted by Neeyik

An overall score of 69% puts it at the top end of the average category, which is what Jericho is: competently average. It's quite pretty in places and some fun can be had just mowing down hordes of brain dead enemies; it's also quite polished too, as a whole. The Overall score isn't an average of the others, hence why it got 60 for it's gameplay (which really is only just average); the sum of the rest of the game saves it a bit, leading to the higher overall score.

I usually like to let review text stand on its own, but I can see how the final score may seem a bit odd. I do my best to assign a fair final score in the context of the other final scores I've given. As Nick said, the 60 - 69 range is classified as "Average" on the YouGamers scale. There are some poor design choices holding the gameplay back, but nothing is fundamentally broken or missing, which is what I reserve sub-60 final scores for.

Summary: An "Average" game isn't really that great in the context of all game releases, and I'd say the majority of releases fall into this category.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Smokin_Si1138

It's a shame about Jericho, it was a game I was really looking forward to as I enjoyed Undying and fancied a bit of horror. Yet from all the information I've gathered it's just not scary. And when Clive Barker is attached you kinda expect fear to be stalking you at every corner... ho hum...

Mind you truly frightening horror is something that games have struggled with in the past. There's a tendancy to throw a "ghost" at your character which you can beat to death with a shoe... which sorta removes the whole fear element... and as for the over reliance on zombies....

I'm trying to think of frightening games. I know there was a haunted mansion or hotel or something that freaked me out in Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodline. I must ponder this!

Thanks for the comments. I enjoyed Barker's last release, Undying, though I never did finish it, and given the pre-release hype I expected more out of Jericho. You mentioned VtM: Bloodline; I found Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption to be both frightening and enjoyable.

Smokin_Si1138 · 11-19-2007, 02:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ajbarnes

Thanks for the comments. I enjoyed Barker's last release, Undying, though I never did finish it, and given the pre-release hype I expected more out of Jericho. You mentioned VtM: Bloodline; I found Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption to be both frightening and enjoyable.

Thanks for that further clarification, much appreciated.

Funnily enough I was talking about Redemption with a mate the other night, it's one of those games I wanted to play for years and never got 'round to. I shall have to pay a visit to eBay I reckon!

The same with Undying actually. I played it, left it and never went back to it... no idea why as I really liked it. I have a tendancy now to download and play through the demo every year... I really should invest in the full game again!

One game that did have plenty of atmosphere was Realms of the Haunting... I loved that. Might have to dig that out again...

12-09-2007, 11:00 PM

I was a bit hesitant to buy Clive Barker's Jericho after reading mixed reivews from the web. Read more negative reviews from critics and more positive reviews from readers. I wondered was Jericho as bad as some game sites made it out to be, in the region of 50-60%? Mind you, I just completed Crysis, Call of Duty 4, Unreal Tournament and Gears of War, so I'm a FPS gamer.

I bought the game anyway and played it through. I discovered that the game is very annoying if I do not apply cheat codes. You die easily, so do your NPCs. You can get a FREE cheat code just by registering the game. You got a boost in weapons damage, and that comes in handy against large scores of monsters. By searching the net, you can get additional 2 more 'free' cheat codes, unlimited ammo and fast health regeneration. These 2 are important to keep the game interesting and thus not too hard for newbies and average gamers.

Most reviews complained that your NPCs keep dying and you had to constantly revive and heal them. This problem can be easily solved by setting the difficulty level to EASY and applying the 3 cheat codes. After which you can blast away to your hearts content without worrying about running out of ammo and dying fast due to your unlimited ammo and faster health regen. Also, the boost to your weapons damage enables you to kill monsters easier and faster. Some game reviews claim that the monsters are very hard to kill and explode upon coming near your NPCs. The cheat codes take care of these problems well.

The selling point of the game is that you get to possess the bodies and abilities of your NPCs and the designers did it dam well. You can unleash fire spirit to set monsters on fire, shoot rapid machine guns, rapid mini-gun, fire explosive shots from pistols, slow down time, create a blood ball with tentacles to capture and freeze monsters, fire long range grenades or hack monsters to pieces with a Japanese sword. There's so much you can do with the various characters but mostly I find myself using Cole with her time slowing ability, Church with her blood magic and Black with her superb long range grenade launcher. The visual and sound effects are pretty impressive. And it's really fun to see your NPCs heading deeper into the game together with you. You ain't alone, and that's fun, even if the NPC can be kind of stupid at times.

The downsides are the rather weak AI but this is meant more as a shoot and move forward FPS with a predictable linear gameplay. You don't waste time staying in one location. The video game plays like a movie as well, which I like. It reminds me of the pioneer cinematic scenes in the Wing Commander series created by Chris Taylor many years ago. The cutscenes are beautifully rendered and guides you through the story. You don't just shoot and blast creatures to shreds. You get to enjoy a mini movie.

The graphics and sound makes up for the AI deficits. It may not rival Crysis but is certainly very eye catching and features lots of eye candy. Lighting was a bit overdone in some areas but overall, texture and shader quality was of sufficient high detail, easily rivaling games from 2006 and 2007. Faces, walls, weapons, bodies were well rendered and looked quite realistic.

I ran the game with a Quad Core Q6600 overclocked to 3Ghz and an Nvidia 8800 GT 512MB video card, and 2Gb of RAM, with a 320GB Western Digital Hard Disk. The game was run at the highest possible graphics settings at 1280x1024, with 2x anti-aliasing, and the graphics look great. Framerates were smooth and very playable, in the region of 35-45. Some game reviewers complained of slow loading times, which I did not encounter at all. So they were probably running on lesser machines.

Some reviewers ain't creeped out at all, possibly partly because they may not have turned off the lights in the room. To enjoy a horror movie or a horror game, you need to set the right kind of atmosphere. Switch off the room light, use a backlit keyboard and turn on the flash light of your character in the game and the somewhat eerie atmosphere sets in. Also, turn up your volume to get the feel of the creepy voice of the Firstborn. Or get yourself some surround speakers.

To conclude, the weak AI is overcome by the beautiful graphics, decent sound effects and soundtrack, cut scenes mini movie, very fun possession of the weapons and abilities of the various NPCs (very orginal gameplay). Slow loading times can easily be solved with a fast new hard disk and a good CPU, RAM and GPU. Quick dying can be solved by playing in EASY mode and applying the 3 cheat codes mentioned.

You really need to tweak and tune Jericho to enjoy it right. The harsh reviews, are IMHO, really too harsh and do not take into account of all the factors that I've mentioned.

All in all, its a well made game. You won't find it to be as worthless as some game reviews made it out to be.

I've been a gamer for 22 years. And I judge a game from an unbiased mind. So I'm not sure why is there such a bashing from some game reviews. Well, perhaps to each his own opinion. Play the game and judge for yourself.

Neeyik · 12-09-2007, 11:17 PM

Quote:

To conclude, the weak AI is overcome by the beautiful graphics, decent sound effects and soundtrack, cut scenes mini movie, very fun possession of the weapons and abilities of the various NPCs (very orginal gameplay). Slow loading times can easily be solved with a fast new hard disk and a good CPU, RAM and GPU. Quick dying can be solved by playing in EASY mode and applying the 3 cheat codes mentioned.

One might look at your comments there and read it as "the game hides its poor AI under a glossy exterior; the poor code only runs well on a new, top end PC; the harsh gameplay is solved via cheats which shows that the developers didn't get the balance right in the first place". And you wonder why reviewers didn't like Jericho...