Clive Barker's Jericho

[Graham Mitchell]

Forgive me if this topic has come up before, but this game was released for PC and 360, and it got pretty terrible reviews. But I downloaded the demo from XBLA and I actually think it looks pretty darn cool! It has nice, disgusting visuals and a booming, reverb-ish soundrack. I also like the idea of using the different members of the team to do certain task. It reminds me of Maniac Mansion or Sweet Home (though the game appears to be MUCH less cerebral than those two.)

So my question is, why is this game so poorly rated? Based on what I've seen in the demo, this game would be worth purchasing. Does anybody have it? What do you think of it?

Thanks in advance y'all.

[roushimsx]

It's on GameTap but I haven't bothered downloading it yet because of the strongly negative reviews. Apparently it's really repetitive and cheaply designed. Sounds like it's roughly on par with Call of Duty: Finest Hour and Red Faction II, which I guess means I'll have to force myself through it at some point.

edit - and speaking of Finest Hour, Turning Point: Fall of Liberty comes out this month and is almost guaranteed to not turn out well. Much like Jericho, it'll be available day 1 on GameTap, so you might want to look into signing up for a month.

[Trebuken]

I've played the PC version a bit and tried the 360 demo. The PC version is graphically far superior and would suggest it if your PC can handle it at high settings.

I think the negative reviews stemmed more from the fact that there are better fps games available and that other than the team mechanic there is nothing new about the game. I think it's a solid game and since it can be had at a good price any fps fan would be wise to play it.

I feel Timeshift and Blacksite Area 61 were also treated the same. The the reviews were more 'average' than bad but the text of the reviews I read seemed very negative.

[mnbren05]

The demo for Jericho is actually not half bad. I downloaded it as well but after renting the real game I changed my mind. The controls are clunky and unresponisve, the team A.I. is probably the worst I have seen to date on the 360, the graphics are decent at best, and overall the game is just a big repetative and boring game. Truly, a disapointment when the demo seemed to be on the right track.

[roushimsx]

I feel Timeshift and Blacksite Area 61 were also treated the same. The the reviews were more 'average' than bad but the text of the reviews I read seemed very negative.

Both games (and I guess Jericho, too) suffered from overinflated expectations (yay for overhyping!) and, at least in Blacksite's case, being rushed to the market feeling mostly unfinished (especially when Harvey Smith says that the game wasn't finished). Of course, overinflated expectations wouldn't have been an issue in Timeshift's case if anyone actually bothered to play the previous game from the developers (Will Rock).

[Nesmaster]

Repetitive and short, but I found it fun. Not something I'd ever want to play through again though, not worth the time. At least the 1000 achievement points were pretty straightforward and easy.

[Graham Mitchell]

Repetitive and short, but I found it fun. Not something I'd ever want to play through again though, not worth the time. At least the 1000 achievement points were pretty straightforward and easy.

Leave it to Nesmaster to keep us informed about the achievement points!

Oh, and mnbren05, that's exactly the kind of comment that makes me want to rent it before buying it, if you know what I mean. Guess they were sneaky with the demo.

[Nesmaster]

Leave it to Nesmaster to keep us informed about the achievement points!

Being an achievement whore is one thing. Being a completionist achievement whore is on an entirely different level.

[BHvrd]

Jericho is ok, but man what I would give for a next gen Clive Barker's Undying!

[digitalpress]

The demo for Jericho is actually not half bad. I downloaded it as well but after renting the real game I changed my mind. The controls are clunky and unresponisve, the team A.I. is probably the worst I have seen to date on the 360, the graphics are decent at best, and overall the game is just a big repetative and boring game. Truly, a disapointment when the demo seemed to be on the right track.

I've played the game to the end (on hard) and I'm happy to say that I didn't find any real AI problems or unresponsive control issues. I'd say quite the opposite really. Teammates hid behind blockades, controls shifted from weapon to weapon and from character to character smoothly. Until this comment I never gave it a thought. However...

The problem with the game is that it's very short, very linear, and utterly claustrophobic, which cripples an FPS in this competitive field. It was fun to play. You have control over seven characters with unique abilities and can switch between them (most of the time) at will. That brings a puzzle element into the game because certain characters can do certain things to get past the game's roadblocks.

It also wasn't very SCARY, which reminded me of Clive Barker's movies - mostly pretentious with this ominous, grim overtone... yet ultimately unsatisfying.

Solid gameplay, definitely worth a rental and probably worth the low price to own used (at least at our store, it's 17.99).

Game ON.

[Graham Mitchell]

Thanks for everybody's input so far!

Well, if I find it cheap, I'll probably pick it up. I like games with a nice ambience, and I thought the scene in the temple was cool, and would probably be great with my new speakers.

At the risk of over-analyzing a game that's not worth over-analyzing...a lot of you are citing it's linearity as a flaw. Thing is, we all play NES games fairly regularly around here, which are about as linear as it gets, yet we don't complain about that. Is it just the expectation that games in this generation should have a non-linear component to them? Or is the game really excessively linear...like Dragon's Lair linear?

[digitalpress]

Thanks for everybody's input so far!

Well, if I find it cheap, I'll probably pick it up. I like games with a nice ambience, and I thought the scene in the temple was cool, and would probably be great with my new speakers.

At the risk of over-analyzing a game that's not worth over-analyzing...a lot of you are citing it's linearity as a flaw. Thing is, we all play NES games fairly regularly around here, which are about as linear as it gets, yet we don't complain about that. Is it just the expectation that games in this generation should have a non-linear component to them? Or is the game really excessively linear...like Dragon's Lair linear?

It's not "excessively linear", comparing it to NES games is just fine. Basically there is only ONE way to go and there isn't a lot of width to the levels either so it feels like you're playing the game from start to finish on a narrow road. Compared to other FPS games which have side missions, alternate paths, hidden icons and the like, this seems rather "no frills". But if you add back in that there is a nice variety of characters it compensates for this somewhat.