At a time when most first-person shooters rush to upstage one another in serving up intense combat and multiplayer fanfare bolstered by splendiferous visuals, things such as storytelling inevitably take a backseat. So, when a new FPS was announced with the horror master himself, Clive Barker, attached, it's hard to not sit up and take notice.

For the uninitiated, Barker is responsible for one of the most recognisable horror icons of all time, and enjoys a highly successful literary career weaving tales of fantasy worlds parallel to our own that defy imagination. His most pertinent credential, however, lies with his work on the acclaimed PC shooter, "Clive Barker's Undying". To say that expectations run high is akin to describing Pinhead as a timid suburbanite!

In Clive Barker's Jericho, you are a part of a 7-man team tasked with preventing an ancient evil from being set loose on our poor, unsuspecting world. Saving the world is not without its perks though, as you'll not only be equipped with conventional weaponry, but also an entire school of magical abilities with which to accomplish your goals. However, your mission hits a snag early on when you run into an accident with a pair of sharp claws attached to a nasty demon. Perhaps in some poor man's Jericho, that'd be the end of things, but fortunately, this is Clive Barker's Jericho, and death is truly just the beginning. As a disembodied spirit, you'll accompany and take control of your squadmates as you progress deeper into 'The Box' to get to the truth of this plot to unleash hell on Earth!

If the mention of a squad-based shooter is a source of intimidation, let me dispel that notion right now, because Jericho is as much of a squad-based game as there are 'I's in 'team'. While it is technically true that you'll have control over a superpowered SWAT team for most of the game, you may, or may not find comfort in the fact that regardless of your abilities to command, your teammates will be about as useful to the situation as a bunch of soldiers armed with supersoakers in the battle of Normandy. The idea here is novel though, as you can take direct control over any of the available members of the team at will to make use of their individual strengths, of which there are many. Where things fall apart though is that your team is little more than a bunch of empty vessels that exhibit no sign of intelligence whatsoever when left to their own devices. They might occasionally find cover, and even bust out a timely special power, but for the most part, they will just be dropped over and over where they stand and let you play field medic. This major flaw significantly undermines the concept of a supernaturally gifted team of commandos storming the breaches of Hell.

The actual combat itself is not without satisfaction though, as many of the weapons you wield are perfect for inflicting carnage, from a Gatling-gun mounted on your arm to a katana that slices clean through your foes, all the essential food groups are represented. And as an extra heaping of sugar on your breakfast cereal, you also get to use interesting abilities that can perform a variety of attacks such as expelling a fire demon to set enemies aflame or perform a blood vigil to incapacitate them. There is a lot of variety here, and while not all of them will be useful, you can certainly find characters and abilities to suit different play styles. Where these abilities become contrived, is when the game forces you to use them to solve environmental puzzles. These add nothing to the gameplay in any substantial way and only serve to reinforce the notion that several of the characters of your squad have no business being part of the game except to move the story along.

Speaking of story, Clive Barker's fingerprints can definitely be found all over the game, as it contains no shortage of pagan rituals, alternate dimensions, fallen angels and spawns of hell. The developers try their best to relay the tale faithfully with frequent plot-forwarding sequences designed to immerse you in the world of Jericho. To Barker's and MSE's credit, the game does contain some sharp (and mature) dialogue as well as a handful of interesting story ideas. However, in trying to depict an ongoing war to drive back the legion from Hell and bring some personality to the seven agents destined for the task, there are more than a few fumbles, and what ended up suffering the most was gameplay.

While the game isn't ripping the controls out of your hands to make you watch story sequences that miss more than they hit, your entire time will be spent moving forward and encountering wave after wave of enemy attacks. There is very little variety or finesse to the enemies you come up against, as most will charge at you and try to maul you or fire projectiles at you, while demonic Al-Qaedas try to suicide bomb you. You will do this over and over, sometimes in canyons covered in gore, and other times in dungeons, also covered in gore. Even with attempts to break up this monotony with a few quick-time events that require you to press short button sequences in time to accomplish actions, as well as a handful of arduous boss battles, the experience still feels repetitive and ultimately unsatisfying and incongruous to an ambitious plot that spans several dimensions of hell themed after different key periods in history.

With a trove of historical material to draw from, it's unfortunate that Clive Barker's Jericho never lives up to its potential visually. The only distinctions between the differently themed levels that you progress through are whatever you can make out underneath the thick layer of gore that wallpapers every corner of the game, and some variations in enemy design. While all the grit and darkness conveys the intended feeling of venturing into the depth of hell well, it hampers even your ability to switch control to the appropriate characters during the usually hectic battles, as you may have a tough time finding the correct human vessel to leap into. The alternative of holding down the A button, and then selecting one of two squads (your team is further divided that way) and finally the name of your next possessee is too cumbersome, and it isn't unusual to find yourself dead before you are done.

Aurally, Jericho doesn't hold up to scrutiny either, as the substantial amount of voice acting in the game sound stilted at best and downright terrible for the most part, a terrible offense for a game that relies so heavily on plot. Voice-acting aside though, the sound effects in the game are appropriately eerie, and on top of the visual gore-fest, does much to immerse the player in this nightmarish setting.