Metareview: Clive Barker's Jericho (Xbox 360, PS3, PC)

by Alexander Sliwinski on Oct 24th 2007 3:57PM

Clive Barker's Jericho spawned from the depths of hell yesterday and reviewers are starting to chime in with their scores, which hold inconsistent numbers between outlets, but similar issues. For those who pay attention to our GameTap Thursday posts, you know you could've gotten the game on PC with almost no potential for buyer's remorse from the service for free yesterday -- well, technically, for the cost of the $10 monthly fee, but new subscribers would only pay a measly 99 cents. Jericho surprised us at E3, showing potential from a game we had heard next to nothing about. Although it's apparently not everything we were hoping for, it seems to get a passing grade -- with some angry exceptions. Surprisingly, scores seem across the board.

GamePro (90/100): "While the stage design is awesome, there are some horrendously long load times involved. It makes sense given the game's graphical prowess but it really cuts into the sense of immersion that the game's atmosphere does such a great job of instilling. ... Jericho still manages to shine bright. Its slick style, amazing graphics, and dark atmosphere really make it stand out."
Game Informer (60/100): "If broken gameplay mechanics and community college acting didn't weigh down the game, it might actually be worthwhile. Each environment features a macabre twist on a historical period, and they rival Painkiller in their haunting heavy metal video backdrop appearance. Unfortunately, the creepy locales and ultraviolent action don't translate into a frightening experience. And isn't that where Clive Barker is supposed to shine?"
1UP (30/100): "I'm also perplexed by the absurdly long (and frequent) load times, given that the game looks like complete garbage. Every level feels like it was made with an FPS construction set: boring, ugly, bland, ugly, dark, and ugly. (Did I mention ugly?) And yet, you work through the stages in ridiculously short chunks, as though the system can't handle the massive amounts of blandness. It's mysterious. ... But the thread holding Jericho above that pit of legendary awfulness is thin and fraying. Mr. Barker, you're better than this."

Source

Tags: clivebarkersjericho, jericho, metareview, PC, PS3, Xbox-360

Reader Comments (75)

Another one that's all over the board. What the hell?

Just so everyone knows, I bought this game because I am tired of all these bullshit reviews. After playing through a few levels, there is no way this game deserves the low scores it got. This is a solid 7/10 game. The graphics look pretty good and the weapons and abilities are fun to use. The story is cool but the actual presentation is lacking. The voice acting just isnt that good. Longer than usual load times, but if you played the darkness, they are about the same. Actually, if you take out the voice acting, this game is just as good as the Darkness. Im glad I ignored the horrible review. (3/10) I like Clive Barkers ideas, and this is a fun game to me.

haha at least you covered all of your bases.

i have no complaints: all 3 reviews are probably right.

I'm inclined to trust 1up on this one.

I'm not :P
I mean, the game doesn't look ugly at all, from screenshots at least. i can't think of why someone would say the game was ugly, besides personal frustration.

no offence meant (:

@myself,
they're probably right about the whole rest, though :P

Having played some of the game via Gametap, I have no idea what the fuck 1up is talking about. The graphics are very good. The only way ugly could ever describe this game is if they mean in the horror, gory monster type ugly. I'm not saying the game is great or anything, but 1up is just plain blind.

It seems like a confusion about DS's Dementium which is "frustrating in a good sense of the word".

So the game seems to be "ugly in a good sense of the word".

Still I would rather rent and try - if reviews are so controversial. Such game might hit limiter of some people.

they are saying the LEVELS are ugly an boring.. not the character models. (those look good in the screenshots, but the levels do look kinda quake-like. )

That said, I haven't played it, so its just from screenshots.

Ouch.

I played the demo and the only thing that was fun was steering the snipers bullet right between the eyes of some monster. Overall, it was so freaking dark that I had no clue what was going on most of the time.

I didn't have that problem. People were saying that they got disoriented or whatever and I didn't have that issue either. I actually really enjoyed the demo....I guess Im alone in this?

yeah that was a blast. The game itself was a pile. You are right sir

More bad codemasters design?

The demo was pretty bad.

Good thing PES 2008 was there to pick up the fun factor.

I thought FIFA 08 slayyyyed PES

In this case, 1up is way lower than all the other reviews... in the Olympic diving event, 1up and Gamepro's scores would be disregarded for the average =P

But it's definitely a big spread! cool.

Is today "National Zero Consensus Day?"

Next we'll see Zack and Wiki get a 98, 73, and 42

So I guess Gamepro is biased/wrong this time.

Cliver Barker talks a big game when it comes to pioneering the march towards games-as-art and whenever I hear him doing that, I feel like we got a creative, smart and influential guy on the gamer's side... then he has the balls to slap his name on crap like this.

I'll rent it and attempt to play through it but I'm only going to try because I like Undying (game) and Hellraiser (movie) so much

No, Gamepro is a sellout this time. It's discrepancies like this that make it obvious which magazines DO take money from game publishers (Gamepro) and which magazines don't.

This is disgusting, and if anyone from gamepro is reading this, it's why I canceled my subscription 2 months ago. Once you lose all the trust, you might aswell close up shop.

Thank Goodness for demo's. This game was on my radar until I played the demo. 1UP's review pretty much mirrored my own opinion of this game.

sigh.

Can you please just say you don't agree with the review without all the added bullshit? At least I won't get a headache reading your post.

I played the demo and can say that there are flashes of potential goodness in there... but not many.

Really, the basics of the characters aren't that interesting even (didn't we already play this sort of elite military unit in F.E.A.R.?), though the ability to switch between them was interesting (though not unique) after more than a few FPS games out there that haven't had that ability.

I don't know. I want to like Barker and his projects, and I salute him for being one of the few known authors out there to embrace gaming... but I have yet to see a good video game project from him. Ever.

Maybe he just needs to quietly work under a pen name so the creative teams don't slack off just because Clive Barker is attached to the project.

I enjoyed Undying thoroughly. And it looked wayyy ahead of its time in the visual department.

I just hope we can all forget this game and move on

Undying was a pretty fun game. Not earth shattering or anything, but still quite enjoyable. I would rather he went in that direction again.

This game's demo left me feeling flat and uninterested. It won't be more than a rental or a bargain bin buy for me.

Clearly Geoffrey you've never played Undying.

Wow... clearly I haven't given Undying enough of a chance. I read the synopsis and was underwhelmed - I never tried it out.

Guess I'll give it a shot. I think I have a copy of it somewhere in the house...

Awesome man, the graphics won't impress anymore but play it at night with the volume up and the lights down. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

played the demo. Some decent ideas on character classes and powers.... but man was that the most mediocre POS FPS MFBBQ that I've ever played. Thank God for XBL demos

This game is seriously terrible. I can't believe the person who created it is the one big pundit for videogames as art. That's like someone discovering the doctor from Brain Age has an IQ of 46.

That's hardly relatable. Clive Barker has never called himself an artist or even a high artist. In his own words, he's an entertainer. Big difference. So his own creations should have little reflection on his opinion. Unless, of course, you're willing to disregard Ebert entirely due to Beyond the Valley of the Dolls.

Let's put it this way, are ONLY the people involved with SOTC allowed to call it art? No? Then shut the fuck up.

I haven't seen 30s, 60s, and 90s this close together since I took Geometry in high school.

I have seen 30s, 60s, and 90s this close together since I last wrote integer multiples of 15

... or 30 if we're going all least common denominator, snap.

yeah, you can divide all those by 2 and 3 and 10 and 5 as well

Demo was fun enough, story and character abilities are interesting. A rent for me, maybe even a cheap buy.

The demo was puke.

Been playing ti since Tues, yes some issues like the load times, and the STUPID console button sequences. On the other hand, it blows that crap-fest Hellgate out of the water.

You are absolutely insane. Hellgate is in a whole other world. Granted, the Hellgate demo was garbage, but the beta paints a much much better picture. Jericho on the other hand, which i'm playing via gametap for 99 cents, is utter crap and I don't even think I'm going to finish it.

First off, it's a terrible shooter. On PC it feels terrible, especially the button sequences you mentioned. There's no need for a quicksave or quickload, which it doesn't have anyway, as the game is broken up into a million loading screens, which takes you out of any flow that you get going. There are a few times when I can say , hey I'm having fun and then BOOM, loading screen, all characters revive, and all AMMO is replenished. It's a joke, and it feels like a cheap arcade game that isn't worth a quarter.

As a huge fan of Undying, this game is an abomination. The good part? I'm keeping my Gametap subscription, I'm loving that at least.

Damn it, I was looking forward to this game but then again:

Gamepro sells itself like a dirty whore so no wonder why it got such a high score there-Never take Gamepro seriously.

Game informer-No complains so far but the fact that is owned by gamestop disturbs me-I'll take their word this once

1up-they gave both UG&G and Neverwinter nights 2 a crapola score and they often change their reviews-Screw 1up.

I'll wait for Gamespot,IGN and PC gamer reviews.

1UPs review really was garbage.

Personally, I tend to agree with IGN's scores consistently more than any other publication out there. 1up seems to always be on an extreme end of the scale. Given what games typically are scored according to, the 30 seems ridiculous. The graphics are not worst that average so they may be smoking stuff.

I didn't like the demo and with all the other good shooters out around now this is a no-brainer non-buy. Good try though.

The 1UP review was just stupid and not very informative at all.

Does anybody still subscribe/care about GamePro? They any vestiges of credibility in the 32-bit days.

i actually enjoyed the game. the controls honestly couldve been better, but overall it was pretty cool. but i did only play the demo so i dont know how the whole game plays out.

Ouch! A 30/100?!

Somewhere Roger Ebert is smiling.

lol yeah well he has the right to laugh at this mess.

the demo didn't grab me. and with all the blockbusters out now and coming soon this one isn't really worth thinking about for me.

Exactly. The demo had some great ideas but they were very poorly executed in my opinion. The team-swapping was awkward and clunky to use and the context-sensitive scenes were EXTREMELY frustrating. Of course, the demo is nothing to judge the entire game off of, but I knew something wasn't going too well with this.

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Metareview: Clive Barker's Jericho (Xbox 360, PS3, PC)

Reader Comments (75)

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