Clive Barker's Jericho

Clive Barker's Jericho

Nothing to fear.

Stephen King once wrote: “I recognize terror as the finest emotion and so I will try to terrorize the reader. But if I find that I cannot terrify, I will try to horrify, and if I find that I cannot horrify, I’ll go for the gross-out.” Reverse the priority of those goals, and you’ve got a pretty good approximation of Clive Barker’s modus operandi. Barker recognizes a good gross-out and as long as he’s got that going he doesn’t stoop to horror or terror. Who needs suspense when you can suspend a morbidly obese man from meathooks, depict his self-disembowlment, and then cover your audience in his projectile-like, poisonous entrails?

That precious moment is only one among many gross-outs in Jericho, Clive Barker’s second video game. Barker, whose best known films include the classic Hellraiser and the classless People Under the Stairs, is apparently responsible for everything in the game, from the script and the creatures on down to the minutia of how corpses disappear. That attention to detail and unity of vision makes Jericho, the story, a tad tidier than its low-budget production would portend. But as a game, Jericho can’t overcome bad level design, repetitive gameplay, and a short single-player campaign with no replay value.

Barker’s original premise is initially promising. Taking Biblical apocrypha as a source, Jericho invents the myth of the “First-Born”, God’s first creation which was incarcerated the desert of Al-Khali. The First-Born wants to escape and does so six times throughout human history. Each time it gets out, however, seven gifted human warriors entrap it again, but also trap a “time-slice” of their own epoch with it (I would have preferred “time-wedge” or “time-nugget”). The game begins with the seventh emergence, and with your team of “occult warfare” specialists sent in to stop it.

There are two neat benefits of the story. On one hand, the game takes place in specific historical milieus—from WWII to the crusades to the Roman Empire. On the other hand, you have seven different playable characters, which you can switch between at any point in the game. These features, and the endless ick of the monsters, are the only things to recommend what turns out to be a rather bland experience.

For one thing, not all of the characters are equal. Church can immobilize enemies by cutting herself (yup, she’s a cutter) and then dispatch them with her katana. A keeper. Jones can teleport himself into another person’s body but can’t control them or do much of anything else. Expendable. In general, a few of the characters are for battle, and the rest you keep around for the odd puzzle. Can’t get through a locked door? Jones, you’re in!

That wouldn’t be so bad if you didn’t have to tend to your flock like a doting soccer mom. In battle, your teammates die off as quickly as their lack of intelligence will allow, and you often find yourself running from one corpse to another resurrecting them. Since you only lose when your whole team is dead at the same time, it doesn’t matter who you’re controlling—you will always be a tireless Florence Nightingale.

And even when you do get to participate in the combat, the experience is underwhelming. There are only a handful of different types of monsters in the game, and you’ll be seeing the same baddies on level five that you killed in level one. Some of the neater tricks include being able to guide a sniper bullet through multiple targets, but for the most part you take control of one of the bad-ass characters on your team and shoot away.

For all the detail put into the different characters and the few grotesque monsters, the levels themselves are austere and confining. There are no pick-ups in the game, nothing at all in the levels besides the ubiquitous, improbable crates and barrels. And the long corridor-like environments reuse textures often, making the third battle with a mutant demon seem a carbon copy of the first and second. Walking on a bed of human carcasses might be novel at first, but a few miles in and they might as well be mulch.

The boss battles, however, are where Jericho gets to show off its best features. The bosses themselves are grotesque, and the battles usually involve some light puzzle elements involving your characters’ special skills. They are also tough in the old-school way. Not only do you have to perform something very difficult to even hurt the boss, but you’ve got to do it oodles of times.

Given how much repetition is in the game, one would think it was much longer than its six to eight hour length. The lack of any kind of multiplayer hurts it further. And the final stake to the heart is the appallingly abrupt and inconclusive ending. Since Clive Barker is a seasoned writer, one would think that he wouldn’t need denoument defined for him. Just because the story is a horror story doesn’t mean it can be axe murdered in the final moments.

And you can tell that the game meant to be a horror story. There are frequent loading screens upon which long passages of Barker-esque prose appear. Although for the most part the script in the game is only as bad as a pulp horror movie, these text passages replace the fine English word “while” with the made-up, ostentatious “whilst”. That fact alone makes it hard to imagine a Clive Barker comeback in this timeslice.

But Clive Barker is not the only “celebrity” in the game. The main voice in the game is that of Spike from Cowboy Bebop. Overvoicing lines might work for anime, but it doesn’t work here. Still, this is nothing new for videogames, and most of the other audio is mediocre. The overbearing musical score disappears when the last enemy in an area is dead, performing the time-honored function of letting the player know when it’s time to move on.

Still, it’s hard not to like all the blood and gore. Germany rose to the occasion, banning the game from sale within its borders. And although it shouldn’t be censored for content (indeed, the gross content is about all it has going for it), Jericho won’t satisfy either those looking for a good scare or those looking for a good shooter.

System requirements

Minimum Specification:

• Windows XP / Vista
• CPU: Pentium 2.4 GHz or Athlon XP 2400+
• RAM: 1 GB
• Graphics Card: GeForce 6600 / Radeon X1600
• DirectX 9 Compatible Sound Card
• 6 GB Hard Drive Space
• 2x DVD-ROM Drive

Recommended:

• Windows XP / Vista
• CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo or Athlon 64 X2
• RAM: 1 GB
• Graphics Card: GeForce 8800 or Radeon X1950 XTX
• Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Sound Card
• 6 GB Hard Drive Space
• 2x DVD-ROM Drive

Quoted from: wikipedia, gamerevolution

Bioshock 2

Bioshock 2

For a game that was basically a classic style shooter on rails, BioShock really impressed the absolute hell out of me. With 'choose your own adventure' style shooters becoming more and more of a benchmark in the industry and with more and more PC shooters suffering from 'consoleitis, I was pleasantly surprised when the "spiritual successor" to System Shock 2 was released in Q3 2007, as it really brought good story telling and unique gameplay ability into focus, regardless of any influences the console versions may have had on the PC version. BioShock 2 will look to do much the same, as not a whole lot has changed, but fans of the original will appreciate some significant perspective changes to the storyline and the inclusion of online multiplayer is sure to pique the interest of the PC gaming faithful (even if it is only for a little bit).

Firstly, let me point out that I did play the retail package and not a downloadable version from a service such as Steam, so my first criticism for BioShock 2 appeared rather quickly - the retail version is a 'Games for Windows' game. Now, I'm not one of those PC gamers who detests the Microsoft initiative to combine their two gaming communities (in fact, I'd like to see them go further and develop a '1 disc plays both' market), but in this case siding with GFW for the retail package was a bit of an annoyance, mainly because you need to insert the disc every time you play the game. COD: MW2 had it right - make it Steam on the retail disc. It seems like a safer bet in general - who the hell is criticizing Steam anymore these days?

With that out of the way, the BioShock 2 experience tends to get much better. The game really doesn't waste much time getting you hooked in the same style gameplay and storyline that worked so well in the original. Before you know it, it will be much later in the night than it was when you first clicked on the single player mode from the main menu, and you really won't want to peal yourself away from your PC.

If by some occurrence you didn't play the original but happen to pick up this sequel, don't worry too much as the game does a very good job of subtly explaining the story behind the BioShock world without appearing to cater towards the new comer. I won't get too deep into this story in this review, since I assume most readers of TweakTown interested enough to check out this review have played the original, but let me try and be ultra brief - you control a man in a giant combat designed scuba suit with a gas powered drill on his right arm, i.e. a Big Daddy, in a deteriorating underwater city known as Rapture, set in the 1960's with heavy steampunk influences. Really, though, I'd definitely recommend starting with BioShock before trying out BioShock 2, if only to extend the enjoyment two fold.

Perhaps the best reason for this recommendation is because, as touched upon above, you get to be a Big Daddy. Now, that simply won't mean much to a new comer, but to the BioShock fan, even just the idea of this should spark anticipation and excitement because if there is one thing that lasted after playing the original, at least with me, it was how awesome and tough some of those Big Daddy fights were, so to wear its shoes, literally, is a big deal that you should be able to appreciate.

As it would happen, though, being a Big Daddy hasn't really changed the gameplay all that much from the original. Honestly, you don't really seem to be as powerful and intimidating as you'd expect. It's true you're an earlier model Big Daddy and hence not as "refined" as the Big Daddy's from the original, but besides the clunky noise you make while walking around at times and the occasional reminder in the storyline, you'd easily forget you're meant to be a Big Daddy. You seem to be just about as susceptible to attacks as you were as a 'human' in the original version, at least in the first half or so of the game before you unlock more abilities and powers, but even most of these were in the original game, too.

With this said, it isn't really the combat aspects to the gameplay that best taps into the fact you're a Big Daddy. Rather, it is the new elements in the gameplay that do this. For example, as a Big Daddy, you can now protect a Little Sister as she collects 'Atom' from dead bodies just like in the original, except from the other perspective. What this effectively translates into is a 'mini-game' inside the game where you face waves of enemies trying to get to the Little Sister as she collects the Atom, and these onslaughts are downright fun and addictive. Harvesting Atom with a Little Sister is often not a requirement in BioShock 2, but you'll want to do it as much as you can because the action rarely gets any better, not to mention the more Atom you collect, the better your abilities become and the more fun the game becomes. Combined with the game's awesome creativity in killing baddies through combining weapons like trip mines and various guns with your abilities like telekinesis and electricity blasts, the Little Sister Atom collecting defending moments represent BioShock 2 at its best.

However, that's not the only epic moment you'll find in this game. Don't think BioShock 2 spells the end of the Big Daddy fights just because you happen to be a Big Daddy yourself. Usually the act of acquiring a Little Sister in this game involves taking on a Big Daddy and stealing her away, so those epic one on one battles which defined the original game remain in BioShock 2. On top of this, BioShock 2 introduces a new character type into the mix - the Big Sister. This sleek and agile foe can often pose the biggest challenges of all.

In fact, I sometimes found the Big Sister fights to be a little too difficult. I don't like to admit when a game is too hard, but there are times when Big Sister fights in BioShock 2 are basically impossible without serious disturbance to the game's flow. This is because of a few circumstances coming together at once.

First of all, Big Sister fights usually happen out of the blue with little warning. The game will tell you when a Big Sister is coming for you, and gives you a few seconds to prepare, but that's it. You can't stalk and carefully plan an attack on a Big Sister because they're stalking you. Secondly, these random attacks tend to happen just after you've finished a Little Sister defence successfully, and these Little Sister defences can really do a number on your health and ammo supplies. So basically what can happen is an unavoidable Big Sister fight approaches when you're close to death as it is and are low on ways to kill it. However, like in the original, there is really no such thing as 'defeat' in BioShock 2 because, as soon as you die, you respawn somewhere nearby with no significant loss in storyline progression, and the Big Sister is still after you. So yep, you guessed it, you die again - and again, and again, and again, until eventually you've killed the Big Sister, even if it means whacking her a few times with your drill attached to your arm each respawn and only taking off minimal health at a time. As I'm sure you can imagine, and as I'm sure plenty of other BioShock 2 gamers have already experienced, these moments can be very annoying and put a screeching halt to the game's fast pace.

Fortunately, I only experienced this phenomenon maybe two or three times in the entire gameplay, which otherwise flows brilliantly with very few breaks in action. Even if you're not shooting something, you always have something to look at, to listen to, or to think about. Playing BioShock 2 chews through your time like a Hummer does fuel. Even though the gameplay is not really as open ended as you might think, the addictive nature is impossible to deny, and the minor amount of RPG elements in the game do enough to cover any repetition issues before you manage to finish it. The variation in weapons is solid and the special abilities your character posses, ranging from freezing enemies into ice blocks to burning them alive, continues the unique gameplay seen in the original. Oh, and the graphics aren't too bad, either. Simply put, the single player in BioShock 2 is going to be tough for any PC game to top in 2010.

The multiplayer mode in BioShock 2, however, is probably not going to enjoy the same sort of success. In a way, including a multi player mode for the sequel was a requirement as it was really the only major addition 2K could make to the series without messing with the success that was the single player mode. Without it, BioShock 2's 'back of the box' feature list would not have been as legitimate, so its presence does sort of come off as meeting the bare minimal requirements on 2K's behalf.

That's not to say the MP mode is trash, however, or that it's necessarily just there for show. It's good enough for a bit of fun after the single player mode is out of the way. Along with the standard deathmatch style modes, BioShock 2 MP also has a few fairly specialized modes involving Little Sisters and Atom collecting, which are definitely worth checking out. The whole MP interface however feels much more like an Xbox 360 game than it does a normal PC game, and the limit of 10 players also doesn't lend itself to the PC platform, but the maps are suitably sized, so the action doesn't suffer. Perhaps the real issue here is the fact PC gamers right now have a choice between COD: MW 2 and BF: Bad Company 2 when it comes to online shooters, both of which are games that consider MP the primary mode of play, so it's only natural for a BioShock 2's secondary class MP mode to fall short in comparison.

As with a lot of sequels in the gaming world, if you enjoyed the original, then you'll logically enjoy BioShock 2. The storyline is extended and equally as engaging as before, and the gameplay is at worst moderately better and more exciting, if not quite a bit so thanks to the change towards controlling a Big Daddy. While the multiplayer doesn't really stack up, it's enough to sweeten the deal just that little bit more to make BioShock 2 a must have PC game in 2010. If you haven't played the original, do so, and then get this sequel. Looking at the single player alone, you'll have a hell of a time trying to top that combination of gaming fun and enjoyment any time soon.

System Requirements

Minimum
OS: Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7
Processor: AMD Athlon 64 Processor 3800+ 2.4Ghz or better, Intel Pentium 4 530 3.0Ghz Processor or better
Memory: 2GB
Graphics: NVIDIA 7800GT 256MB graphics card or better, ATI Radeon X1900 256MB graphics card or better
DirectX: DirectX 9.0c
Hard Drive: 11GB
Sound: 100% DirectX 9.0C compliant sound card or onboard sound

Recommended
Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+ Dual Core 2.60Ghz, Intel Core 2 Duo E6420 Dual Core 2.13Ghz
Memory: 3GB
Graphics: NVIDIA 8800GT 512MB graphics card or better, ATI Radeon HD4830 512MB graphics card or better

Other Reqirements
Initial installation requires one-time internet connection; Ability to save game, earn achievements, receive title updates and online play requires log-in to Games for Windows LIVE; software installations required including Microsoft Visual C++2008 Runtime Libraries, Games for Windows LIVE client, Games for Windows LIVE Client Patch, Sony DADC SecuROM, Microsoft DirectX.

Quoted from: tweaktown, bigdownload