Here’s the brief rundown on Clive Barker’s Jericho: the storyline and gameplay are its strongest aspects. The voice acting is decent and your teammates aren’t spouting cheesey repetitive lines every five seconds. Its weaknesses lie in a relatively sparse set of enemies, occasionally uninspired design and an overly dark atmosphere.

Jericho is somewhere on the continuum between the frantic ‘run and gun’ style FPS and the slower-paced tactical squad-based shooter. Between six different squad members with different weapons and occult powers you’ll find a handy approach to every situation. Unlike many games where supernatural powers are best used as a backup/supplement to your weapons, liberal use of every character’s talents is the easiest way to defeat enemies. The quick and easy method of switching between squad members makes using different weapons and powers in tandem easy. Use a spell with one character that roots nearby enemies in place, switch to another and then lob a few grenades into their midst. The levels are set up to necessitate changing tactics depending on the surrounding environs. Some areas require hiding behind cover and sniping enemies while others are better suited to simply sending a hail of bullets in the direction of the enemy. The only really lackluster part is the ubiquitous button pressing mini-game that occurs when certain foes attack and in a few pseudo-cutscenes. It’s not badly executed, it’s just something that feels shoehorned in at times and doesn’t really add much to the excitement of the game.

The level design is not as interesting as games like Bioshock, but when you consider you’re in the ruins of centuries of cities there’s not a whole lot of extra anything the designers could have thrown in. The biggest complaint is an overabundance of darkness. While this would have been fitting in a Doom or Resident Evil game Jericho is more of an action-horror title. The characters themselves are exactly what you expect from a commando, black arts ops squad: they look like extras from the Matrix, decked out mostly in black leather. The design of your foes is only interesting if you are unfamiliar with Clive Barker’s “Hellraiser” films. The black leather wrapped, metal pierced monstrosities are ugly and occasionally unsettling but aren’t really that frightening. There’s also a shortage in the variety of the enemies. You’ll find yourself fighting the same few bunches of bondage snuff film rejects in most levels.

Graphics: 3.5/5  Although well-executed the visual appeal of the game leaves something to be desired.

Audio: 3.5/5  The sound effects are good and the voice acting is well done and not used to the point of annoyance.

Story: 5/5   The overall plot behind the game is interesting, rather original and well fleshed out. The characters have their own back stories that are alluded to in cutscenes and conversations.

Gameplay: 4/5   Fun powers and easy interface make for an enjoyable experience, although fighting the same few enemies over and over again gets a little tiresome.