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Clive Barker's Jericho

Horror author Clive Barker last lent his name and narrative talent to a video game six years ago. The PC-only release, Clive Barker's Undying, was notably spooky in its delivery, if a bit derivative in gameplay. Recently, Barker took some time off from writing (and from an ongoing slap-fight with film critic Roger Ebert) to work on a new game. For his current spin on the video game merry-go-round, the author teams up with publisher Codemasters and developer Mercury Steam to deliver another horror-themed FPS. That game, Clive Barker's Jericho, is getting AAA-style treatment, with ports to the PC, Playstation 3 and Xbox 360, and an ad campaign both in print and on television. With some serious resources behind it, will Jericho match the critical success of Undying?

A Point to Prove

If you've followed any of the back-and-forth between Barker and Ebert in the press recently, then you know that the two men disagree on one key point: games have the potential to be held in the same artistic plateau as cinema as an art form. Specifically, Barker believes that video games, with their sometimes free-form narratives and their often multiple endings, are just as much an art form as a play or novel. Ebert, on the other hand, asserts that games are not to be held in the same regard as other forms of art, because the experience isn't static. A player has the ability to manipulate the storytelling experience, and therefore a video game can't lure the player to an "inevitable conclusion" because of the "smorgasbord of choices" at a player's disposal. As a literature student, these arguments can be interesting, but as a gamer, I'm more interested in entertainment than exercises in semantics and rhetoric. But after tackling an argument like that, Barker - and Codemasters - should know that his game is under even more intense scrutiny than usual to deliver an engaging and entertaining game.

When it's time to fight, enemies come fast and furious...

Expect to be attacked from every angle

Page 1: IntroductionPage 2: GameplayPage 3: Gameplay and GraphicsPage 4: HardwarePage 5: Summary and Scores

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