First let me say that I was really excited about this game. Of all the horror first person shooter games coming to the Xbox 360 this year, this was the game that would give me the gore, the slime, and that holy shit feeling you want when you play the genre. Having played the Demo, it showed promise! When you fall down the well and the zombie is in your face, you say “Cool this is Awesome!” I waited to receive my copy of Jericho like a kid waiting for Christmas and when I finally got it, well I didn’t play it. Not right away, I HAD to wait until it was dark, ’cause if you want that holy crap feeling, you have to play the horror genre in a dark room…

With all my preparations in place (you know coffee for that jittery feeling, water for those moments when coffee just won’t help, Xbox 360, comfy chair, big screen tv…you know the essentials for true game play) I loaded up Jericho for the first time. Oooo, aaahhh, pretty…those were my first thoughts.

But then the beginning story just kind of went on and on, I mean I can understand setting the scene, but seriously, let’s get to killing! But it went on for what seemed forever…finally once you get into the fights it, like many Christmas presents, turned out to be well, mediocre. Could it be that the hype I built myself up for was for nothing? Unfortunately, after playing the game for the first 20 minutes, my spirits were starting to crash. The maps seemed basic and well shitty without any clear direction (I found I was following my squad to find the pathing through the levels). So let me break it down.

Pluses

• Graphics are good, you could say very attractive.
• Dialogue is realistic and I found myself actually laughing at many of the quips back and forth (my favorite line was “So how’s it feel to finally have a man inside you?”)
• Jumping between characters is pretty cool…but not really a unique approach.
• I got like 65 Gamerscore without really trying in the first hour.

Cons (also known as teh suxxors)

• Maps suck. You will often be standing there going, “where the fuck do I go to get out of here” yeah that’s fun…
• Fights become repetitive. It sort of develops a rhythm of sort. Fight mobs of zombies/demons/baddies go around the corner move down to the next archway/corner and fight wave after wave of zombies/demons/baddies…rinse and repeat. Sure there were a few variances, but that’s all it was beyond the boss fights.
• Team AI SUCKS! The AI of the other team mates when you aren’t controlling them are much like the AI of Lemmings. The only other healer, Rawlings, pretty much dies a LOT because he tends to want to fight up front with his pistol, just as an example.
• No Multi-player. What the fuck…seriously. This game screams out 3-4 player coop at the very least. Ok, so the main character “dies” and you possess the other team members etc…here’s an idea, don’t have the “main character” die…or better yet, just leave out the main character cause beyond his healing ability he sucks. So without him, let the roles be taken by other players…it would probably rate a lot higher with me if our Sector Team could have taken this game on as a unit…but you can’t, so it becomes another solo, non-original horror wanna be game.
• Did I mention Team AI sucks? Oh right, I did, well it sucks so bad, it rates two dings…which could have been fixed with co-op play…but you probably realize that by now.

Summary

At best this game is a rental. At best this game was a mediocre solo play game that just wants to give away gamerscore points, so don’t bother buying this game, just rent it and get your gamerscores…or just save some time and don’t even bother…

My score: 42%

(For those who only understand stars…that would be two out of three stars)