The spine-chilling Jericho will leave you spellbound and screaming for more...

It’s not often that fiction is genuinely scary. It’s easy to try to scare people with ghosts and gory images, like in games such as F.E.A.R, or horror flicks such as The Ring. But the ominous anticipation of ‘What’s waiting around the corner?’ is what makes Clive Barker’s Jericho a lot more frightening than any game I’ve played.

Barker is the famous horror author who wrote Cabal, and also the movie, Hellraiser. And even with this track record, I wasn’t prepared for what Jericho offered. Come a little closer and I’ll fill you in.

Here’s the briefing I got. Before creating man, God created another being – a being beautiful, yet terrifying; a being that was neither light, nor dark. And it greatly disturbed the Almighty. Unable to destroy this first creation, God decided to banish it, and trapped it into a different plane of reality, which we call ‘The Box’. As for the creature, we don’t dare call it anything other than The FirstBorn.

For centuries now, The FirstBorn has tried to escape from its prison of time and space, hell-bent on revenge. And each time, it has been stopped by a band of seven warrior-magicians, who sacrificed their lives by sealing the prison from within. In the process, they added layers of Earth’s time and space to the prison. Now, The FirstBorn has breached the walls yet again, and it’s upto us to save mankind.

The whole concept impressed me. It was so fresh, so original... Like a fool, I took control of my character, Captain Devin Ross, and rushed into The Box with my six warrior-magician teammates – We’re the Jericho squad. My haste cost me dearly, as I lost my life in an early battle; but in The Box, this meant I merely lost my body.

As Ross’s spirit, I could inhabit any of my Jericho squadron and play as them.

Squad-based ‘shooters’ are always fun, but Jericho offers a refreshingly new gameplay. I had the choice of playing as six different players at any time I wanted, each with different armoury and unique magic spells: From Xavier Jones’ ability to project his astral image and Frank Delgado’s shield of fire, to Abigail Black’s telekinesis and Billie Church’s blood wards that freeze enemies. I know it sounds like a lot of multi-tasking, but trust me, five minutes of practice was all that was needed.

And so, my Jericho squad set forth to stop The FirstBorn. The story unfolded with great charm, as I went back in time and learnt about past attempts to stop it. The fights were great, the gameplay refreshing, and it all lasted for a long time too; in fact, if it weren’t for the anti-climatic main boss fight, Jericho could very well have earned a perfect score.

All the while, I learnt more about my squad through their conversations, which almost made me forget that they were

virtual: Little bickering and some banter; shouting, screaming and pacifying. Well, it sure sounded real.

The sounds didn’t help in snapping me back to reality either. Sure, the visuals were good, but some animations did remind me that it’s just a game. But the sounds? I still hear them sometimes: Those grotesque wails of the undead, interspersed with the sound my feet splashing through a river of blood and guts. And Barker’s experience with the film world showed through with his well-timed, heavy bass notes. A braver man than I would play the game again solely to study the art of building a spooky ambience.

Jericho really is a masterpiece in the art of horror story-telling. The secret, I think, lies in the little things – like how the mere prospect of a group of children attacking you seems a lot more frightening than a cloud of flying ‘man-bats’.

One more thing: Don’t let your kids play this one. Yes, it has a ‘Mature 18 ’ rating, but we tend to gloss over that many times. But the amount of violence, strong language and pure gore in Jericho warrants special attention to the age limit.

There’s often talk about how the movie industry and the video games industry would merge in the future, with what would be termed as ‘interactive films’. If you ask me, Clive Barker’s Jericho is a sneak peek into that world.

The timing of the release is unfortunate as it clashes with the launch of a lot of popular titles. But remember, missing out on Jericho is your own loss.