September 9th, 2007

Clive Barker’s Jericho out this Halloween

While most of the time the hype created around a title through aggressive publicity is enough to build up a cult status, Clive Barker is a creator known to send ripples through ones existence whenever they come in touch with his ghastly works. Being a continual best seller and master of gore, he managed to extend his success as a writer in both film making and gaming. I for one still feel both dread and twisted pleasure while thinking about Clive Barker’s Undying, one of the great horror gaming crown jewels. It only took six years for Clive Barker’s Jericho to take shape and reach maturity, but it’s ready to be unleashed this Halloween. We found out more about the state of the game via an IGN interview with lead designer Joe Falke.

Jericho is an action packed thriller where your Black Ops Squad needs to squelch an ancient evil, nothing short of God’s first creation, before Adam and Eve. Hunting it back to its origin you will spiral downwards through time in the banished city of Al-Khali, facing others that came before you and failed. The modern city is actually built atop ruins of countless previous conquerors, thus holding six different moments in time, so you will fight both current day street warriors as well as back in Roman times. You will make good use of your team mates since each has a special supernatural power which they can improve and later in the game change into other new paranormal abilities.

Clive Barker took an active interest in collaborating with the developers and designers to make an accurate transition of his vision up into the game. In order to enhance the thrill, the developers took the gore horror genre to another level so you could better see exactly what you are killing. You will not snipe the enemy, but instead you will behold its terrible magnificence up close, hearing his every breath and watching the mucus dripping from his wounds. Most shooters will have you battle a limited number of enemies at a time, thus forcing you to burst one down and then duck for cover. In Jericho you will need to take full advantage of your squad, thus fighting hordes of ancient defenders at the same time. It will be nothing short of massive and it goes well to complement the cinematic quality of the game, both in intermissions and actual gameplay. The music score is delivered by Cris Velasco under the strict supervision of the master himself and we can expect the eerie atmosphere the Hollywood horror acquainted us with, in the vein of contemporary composers as Ligeti and Penderecki.

Joe Falke explained that “Clive was a massive help when it came to creating the game's visual style and making the monsters interesting. What he didn't want was monsters that are totally fantastical or anything like that. In Jericho you can imagine just how the monsters have become like they are. Each one needed to look like they had disfigured or mutilated themselves. They have burnt or cut themselves - even sliced off their own limbs in some extreme cases. And, within the context of the story, it makes sense why they would do this.” Meanwhile you can check the horror of the flash site firsthand, a catchy and superbly done preview of the feeling in Jericho.