Jericho (Xbox 360)

A finger-blistering -- but far from bloodcurdling -- waltz into the world of first-person shock (or is that schlock?) horror...
1/31/2008 12:00 AM | 0 Comments | Page 1 of 2

So a priest, a rabbi and a videogame designer walk into a bar...

Alright, so maybe it's not quite the same in this markedly above-average, yet simultaneously underwhelming supernatural-themed first-person shooter, but talk about odd pairings. Bringing together clearly S & M-influenced horror impresario/Hellraiser creator Clive Barker with Spanish developer Mercury Steam (American McGee Presents Scrapland) and DiRT publisher Codemasters, you couldn't find an odder backing cast for the squad-based epic.

Suffice it to say that with such an eclectic bunch behind the heavily story-driven monster mash's development process, it was inevitable that strange things would happen. And indeed they do -- at nearly every turn, adding yet another layer to the title's singular, if disturbing, charm.

On the one hand, you've got the positives, e.g. gut-wrenching camera shifts and surprise assaults by enemies that result in furious hand-to-hand tussles, demanding that you mash specific buttons at timed intervals to survive Dragon's Lair-esque interactive action scenes. Taking obvious inspiration from Hollywood, expect lots of whispering voices, bodies that explode into swarms of flies, and dreamlike frolics with obsidian-skinned, asexual children who spout apocalyptic prophecy in synth-distorted tones.

What we're most impressed with, however? Ironically, what got us was merely the outing's dynamic sense of pacing and inventive use of the first-person viewpoint to give each new plot twist a more immersive and arresting sense of atmosphere. Even the tense opening sequence, where you are suddenly jarred from sleep at 3 a.m., then -- viewing the world through lead character Capt. Ross' eyes -- sit up and worriedly grab the phone, only to find an ancient evil has awakened (thereby proving there's still plenty of room to improve presentation-wise on traditional video game cut scenes), does wonders to further the cause of virtual storytelling alone. (Although the canned and poorly acted pre-taped vignette that immediately follows does, for the record, suck some serious tushie...)

Nonetheless, it's right about the time when you start to get your bearings -- minutes in, thanks to an intuitive control scheme that uses nearly every button on the controller -- that you begin to realize 'bizarre' doesn't always equal 'good.' Meaning that while walls of pulsing, bloodied flesh; explosive enemies off which you have to carefully shoot blisters; mind-melting psychic Nazis; and gritty dialogue (love the references to telekinetic lesbian snipers...no, seriously) may be present, some of these gimmicks come off as more contrived than engrossing.

Likewise, the story itself never rises above dime-store-novel filler. The tale in a nutshell: Controlling paramilitary squad Jericho, consisting of dual pistol-wielding priests and chaingun-packing pyromancers, enter the lost city of Al-Khali to stop the Firstborn, one of God's deranged creations that predates Adam and Eve, from annihilating humanity. To wit, for every step forward made (e.g. options to dynamically possess half a dozen teammates with multiple armaments and alt-fire modes, switching between bodies on the fly), the tale also takes two back (i.e. laughable voice acting, hit and movement animations that lack contemporaries like Gears of War's sense of weight and impact, or ammo restocks that suddenly and inexplicably materialize out of nowhere).

It's a shame, to be certain -- with swords, fire spirits and semiautomatic shotguns at one's disposal, the chance to splatter corpses clad in bondage gear with blades for hands, parchment-winged devils, and ghostly bosses proves eminently satisfying. Sheer intensity, of course, being one of the game's chief strengths, with wave after wave of baddies assaulting in rapid succession, makes the quest more satisfyingly thumb-numbing than shocking, despite its featured celebrity endorsement. But between the stop-and-start nature of play (go here; listen to this script interlude; repel that wave of invaders; run to next area; clear out difficult obstacle; move along; repeat), lengthy load times (including text briefings that occasionally take longer to display than levels do to boot up), and some truly laughable one-liners ('You just got your ass kicked by a girl'), this is clearly a game of both glorious highs and crushing lows.