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I have waited an annoyingly long time for a game as gory as this and now I'm a happy person thanks to Clive Barker's Jericho. Personally not being affected by scary games I loved every minute of it, the thrill of watching demons explode in front of you as you fire a grenade into their skulls or watching yourself get mutilated and decapitated if you fail one of the several puzzles in the game.

I enjoyed leaving a path of blood and guts.

The game revolves around the secretive Jericho squad which consists of seven members but quickly changing to six after Captain Ross (you) is brutally killed. Although this may seem like a pointless turn in the game, I wasn't too pleased when it happened; it grants him the ability to possess the remaining members of the Jericho Squad with each member allowing him to take control of their bodies throughout the game. The ability to take control of each member of the squad gives the player more choice while playing through, having a nice selection of weapons and supernatural abilities which can be used by each member. This did become a little annoying later on in the game as the AI lacks the ability to stay alive long enough to be of some use.

The AI is excellent, but putting AI which takes cover from what little enemy fire there is into a game where there is very little space to manoeuvre and an enemy AI which rushes at the player, isn't much use. Especially when your squad struggles with the concept of hand to hand combat, which would seem to be an essential against most enemy types!

The level design adds to the atmosphere of the game, you'll spend most of the time in darkness until the middle of the game, which is when the levels become lighter and slightly gorier. As the game progresses the sound becomes scarier as more enemies are violently introduced to Jericho squad. The graphics of each level are visually beautiful which is what the game needed but the main component missing was the space for movement. You'd often find yourself stuck in a corner or between objects surrounded by demons. The same applies for the rest of the team, if one falls in combat then it is likely one or two of the others will do too. When you have enemies which explode, if they get too close to you or your team before it is killed then its game over, unless you're at a safe distance for you to be able to rush back and revive them all.

There is very little variety to the enemies of the game so you're likely to encounter two kinds of demon throughout the game, if you're lucky there might be another making the odd appearance later on in the game but don't get your hopes up when you change levels. Though there are few types of enemies they're all different in their own little way, some have wings and some have large shields but all use their differences to the best effect and their different attacks can be devastating if you're not paying attention to what's around you.
The recovery time of squad members is slow and can often be devastating if in a battle with a boss or an army of demons but being able to revive the fallen members slightly balances that out, it just allows the demons to cut them all up over and over again.

To conclude, Clive Barker's Jericho is an amazing game but it lacks the space a player needs in levels and being a FPS game this has a massive effect on how the game is played It requires the player to be cautious of their surroundings, knowing where obstacles are and where they can run. Sometimes it can be misleading to see a path leading somewhere but not actually being able to walk that way and then getting slaughtered from behind by the enemies you were hoping to evade for a short while. The audio and visual quality is the best I've witnessed in a game for a while now and it adds to the horror genre, which makes up for some elements which let it down. Other than the few problems, I seriously enjoyed this game and I enjoyed leaving the path of blood and guts behind me as I progressed through the game.