Xbox 360 Fanboy

It's been some time since we heard anything new about Clive Barker's Jericho. In fact, the last thing we heard was the announcement of the game itself. It seems 1UP thought the same thing and has uncovered both a new trailer and posted a preview for the game. So, what's Jericho all about? What we already knew is that it's about a special government squad called Jericho Team that specializes in dealing with paranormal threats.

The 1UP preview illuminates the story, which was created by Brian Gomez of Alchemic Productions and Clive Barker himself. According to the preview, you play as Captain Ross. As an interesting twist, Ross actually dies within the first thirty minutes of the game. Obviously, his death is story driven, and it just so happens to drive the gameplay mechanic of switching characters. See, Captain Ross' spirit can possess any member of his team, allowing players to utilize each member's skills. The game's villain, as noted by Barker, is smart and has his own reasons for "doing what he's doing." Barker says that smart villains "fascinate" us, using Hannibal Lector as an example.

As for gameplay, the squad dynamic is bolstered by a system called "threading." Essentially, you can combine each squad member's special abilities by switching back and forth between them. The example given in the preview is to create an energy shield with one character, switch to the telekinetic character, and throw the shield using telekinesis (making the shield an offensive weapon). The game also features a few button tapping mini-games, ala Resident Evil 4 and God of War. One nice difference, not all of the mini-games are forced. If you play well, you can avoid certain enemy related mini-games. There are story driven minigames as well, which are of course mandatory. Finally, 1UP notes that there is a large variety of environments and claims to have witnessed "one of the largest bosses ever in a videogame." We'll just have to wait and see.

Jericho should see release in time for the holidays (Halloween perhaps?).