We Have Such Sights to Show You
As you may have read in our pre-E3 preview of the game, Jericho is a severely Hellraiser-esque first-person shooter style game in which you play as a squad of elite paranormal super troopers tasked with destroying an ancient evil. And you really do play as the whole squad, because your character is gifted with the ability to possess any member of the team -- essentially enabling you to assume a variety of personas and the firearms and magical powers they harbor.
Each one of your team has a conventional weapons specialty and a supernatural ability, which we got a deeper look at during E3. Church is a sort of lady-ninja who carries a razor-sharp katana in her left hand and a tiny submachine gun in her right, but to assist her in closing to melee range she can also spill her own blood to create little balls of evil magic that will ensnare enemies with thick ropey tendrils (yes, it's as nasty-looking as it sounds). Delgado is your classic heavy weapons dude (no, not this guy, but similar) equipped with a massive chain gun that never runs out of ammo due to the giant ammo drums lashed to his back. Of course, the coolest thing about Delgado is the fire demon that lives in his arm and can be unleashed on menacing baddies at the cost of slowly incinerating his delicate arm-flesh; this is where Jericho's graphics really shine, because you haven't seen hi-def visuals until you've watched a burly forearm blister and crisp while a flaming snake ignites nearby enemies. Grossed out yet?
By far our favorite member of the Jericho squad was Abigail Black. She's not only a sniper (which is sweet enough by itself), but she's also a powerful telekinetic as well. This means that in, addition to knocking foes back using only her mind so that she can take her time scoring a headshot, she can actually control the slugs she fires as they rip towards their targets. We cannot stress how brilliant this is, as we witnessed her achieve no less than three headshots with a single shot by guiding the bullet from enemy to enemy. As a bonus, the bullet-cam that chases the projectile slows time every time it connects with the soft, fleshy parts of the unholy terrors you face so that you have plenty of time to plan your next victim.
Demons to Some, Angels to Others.
As far as the squad commands that had Patrick a little concerned, they didn't seem particularly worrisome to us. There's really not much to them and they are extremely limited: You can tell your squad to go to a location, fall back, stay where they are or follow you. It's a simple mechanic and the ability to inhabit the bodies of any of your team members means that if someone isn't performing the way you want them to, you can "fire" them (if you want something done right, do it yourself).
Drenched in the steaming entrails that you might expect out of anything Clive Barker lays his hand to, Jericho impressed the crap out of us with its gloriously rendered gore. It may not really be a contender for Game of the Show at this E3, but it's definitely a sign that Codemasters is coming up. Due out this September, Jericho isn't the kind of game that we're chomping at the bit to get our hands on, because honestly we can't afford the dry cleaning bills and fresh trousers are also pretty expensive.
