Jericho is a horror-themed FPS released on the XBOX 360, PS3 and PC in October of 2007. It was met with scathing reviews and pretty much bombed. However, upon seeing it was available on Gametap, I wanted to give it a try, even after playing the really mediocre demo.
I really like it.
The plot is excellent, in my opinion. Wikipedia is a lot more clear and concise than I am, so:
Certain Apocryphal and Gnostic texts speak of a being created by God, in His own image, before the creation of Adam and Eve; according to legend, this being was abandoned by its own Creator. Called the Firstborn, the creature was a singular being neither male nor female, dark nor light, both beautiful and terrible to behold. God was so disturbed by what He created that He banished it into the Abyss to be forever forsaken, forgotten and unloved. God then started anew and went on to create mankind, giving the species two sexes, intellect, feelings, and love (not to mention a soul).
The Firstborn, too powerful for even God to keep from breaking into the mortal world, would make seven attempts to escape, each time taking back a piece of the earth to add to its domain and each time sent back to the Abyss. Fragments of time and space would form layers around this domain, linked to this world in the city Al Khali. These layers would entrap pieces of history within its walls, from the time of the ancient Sumerians to World War II. Over time, other great conquerors and civilizations would arrive to claim the city as their own. Eventually, the city was forgotten and buried by the sands of time.
The Department of Occult Warfare was created in the 1930s to combat the supernatural and unexplained. Another purpose was to meet Nazi Germany's own research into the paranormal. One of their most brilliant members, Arnold Leach, was recruited in 1962. However, his unscrupulous behavior and nature would eventually have him expelled. He was marked for assassination, and although the operation appeared to be successful, it seems that he may have survived.
The Jericho Squad is sent to Al-Khali to prevent Leach from opening the breach and unleashing the Firstborn upon mankind once again.
While Jericho was praised for its plot and creepy atmosphere, it was lambasted for terrible AI and linearity. While I agree, I haven't found it to detract too much from the game. The plot is strong and pretty much the reason I've been playing the game, but it's a fun - if not mindless - shooter.
So what did you guys think? Overall it averaged in the 60% range for review scores, but I think it deserves more than that. I know there are a number of people here who are a fan of his previous game, Undying, and I was very surprised to see his second game get dumped all over.
Posts
I agreed with both points. The demo is pretty bad, the QTEs are rare and mostly happen if an enemy gets right in your face and tries to bite you or whatever. They are a bit annoying, especially because at times you die before you even realize it's a QTE, but I have nothing against them, so...
Character-switching is really annoying at first but is more of a strategic choice than anything else. It's possible to play a majority of the game as one character, only using the others when necessary, but while I hated it at the start I like having so many different weapons and powers to use. Switching is easy and once you understand everyone's powers it's really fun to have so much control.
I honestly wouldn't pass it up if you saw it for $20 or even $30 dollars. The plot is really solid, it's scary but not stupid and has some depth to it.
He's right. Honestly, you really need to play the whole thing. It has its fair share of problems, and it's probably overall a mediocre game, but the demo was a poor representation of the final product.
But the chances of you seeing it under $20 are slim. It's definitely worth that much just for the plot.
Very. I didn't keep track of my time, but I'd say...7 or 8 hours?
Not the worst game I've ever played, but not too great either.
SSBB: 2921-8745-1438
Diamond: 2320-2615-4086
Short game, and yes, AWFUL ending.
I still really enjoyed the hell out of it. Dark, great mix of characters, and it's fun.
Not worth the bad reviews it got, if you ask me.
It reminds me of...some other game that I can't think of where you could switch to various other shootery-type characters at will.
This was another problem. The idea of having various eras was nice, but they gothed them up so much they all looked the same. There was just so much cool stuff to do though. Ghost bullet!
Twitter