Clive Barkers Jericho (Mercury Steam)

If consoles were Halloween parties, Jericho would be the guest who tried so hard but still looks like a prick painted green with a fake bolt through his neck. The story is set in Al-Khali, an ancient city where God's first attempt at creating man was banished from the world after being hideously corrupted by horseradish. That may not be strictly true but it doesn't matter: Jericho is meant to be scary and it isn't. It's got gore and tries hard with the shocking images, but a combination of average voice acting and generic 'horror' environments that gamers haven't been shocked by since Doom, means the atmosphere is never enough to draw you in. But what does atmosphere matter if the gameplay is kickass? Yeah… the innovation in Jericho is that you can flick between six different characters, each of which has a different set of abilities and weapons. Which means that instead of changing weapons you change people. Yay! Only changing people takes longer than changing weapons. And some characters are a lot more useful than others. So the one that can shoot a powerful, controllable bullet, or the one that can stop time, or the one that has a Gatling gun is ten times more useful in a tight situation that one that can vaguely hack at enemies with a sword. And in a game that revolves around tight combat scenarios, having only one player who has grenades (which are shit) is immensely frustrating. But that doesn't matter, because most of your time will be spent healing idiot AI controlled comrades who have strayed into the path of intense enemy gunfire. What Jericho is crying out for is an online mode where each player has different abilities and together, online, you explore this weird and creepy dimension. That would make it stand out. As it is, Jericho isn't bad (some moments make you cry out for more) just totally inconsistent. [Richard Dennis]