Wednesday, June 24

After having finally had the opportunity to play Clive Barker Presents: Clive Barker's Jericho (By Clive Barker - obligatory link to the review I stole that joke from here) I have to say, it's actually not all that bad. Granted, I've always had a soft spot for Clive Barker (Cabal, the book Nightbreed was based on was a favourite of mine as a kid, and the second Hellraiser movie is one of the finest horror films around, no ifs, buts or maybes) and I could devour any kind of horror-themed game the way Cthulhu devours player characters (1d4 per round if you don't already know), so my opinion's probably kinda biased. But I'm about a third of the way through and - shock horror - having fun! Okay, so some bits are needlessly obtuse, like the astral projection/making things explode parts you're forced to do every so often. And the quicktime events happen in the middle of combat, with the markers being on the edge of the screen (rather than, say, blocking off easier paths - developers, use them to screw us out of goodies, not the last 20 minutes' hard work!), but all in all, it's really better than everyone else seems to think it is.

Kinda helps if you take the game a little less seriously than intended - not a problem when you bear some of the dreadful dialogue in mind (exactly how much input did Barker have beyond the basic storyline?). That, and one of the characters you can play as, Cole: a techy girl who can 'hack' reality? A fondness for explosive pyrotechnics? Sounds remarkably like Ty Lee? Have her boxed up and sent to my room, if you don't mind.

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