BEFORE God made Adam and Eve, He created the Firstborn - a mistake which He banished into the Abyss. Determined to reclaim its birthright, the fallen Firstborn attempts to break into the mortal world in the Middle Eastern city of Al Khali.

A team of occult warfare specialists called Jericho is sent to stop it. This is the premise of the survivor- horror squad based first person shooter (FPS), Jericho, the work of horror master Clive Barker.

Unlike his previous title, Undying which made the bravest gamers tremble in fear, Jericho is scarce on scares but overloads on gore and action.

Each Jericho member has specialised occult abilities and weaponry, including an exorcist-healer armed with dual pistols, a mini-gun wielding pyro-magician, reality hacker grenadier, astral projecting seer, telekinetic sniper and ninja blood mage.

The first few chapters play like a mindless shooter until the turning point when you can possess your squad mates and play them as first person.

This innovative mechanism offers excellent varied gameplay and problem solving using a member's speciality to get past certain obstacles or killing monsters.

For instance, you can steer the sniper fired bullet manually and land several headshots, while the astral projector can possess an enemy within the line of sight and manipulate him.

Sadly, the novelty of possession wears off soon after. Other aspects of Jericho's gameplay are limited - you can only order your squad to stay or follow, there are no equipment or ability upgrades to aspire towards.

Maps are linear and claustrophobic, with nothing to explore. During intense combat, your squad is almost always overrun by monsters and your job is simply to dash about reviving teammates. After hours of running through identical maps slaying identical monsters, the repetitive gameplay becomes a bore.

Without multiplayer modes, which could have done well in this context, Jericho has almost zero 'replayability'. But Jericho does have some brilliant elements, including interesting characters, great voice acting and haunting musical score accompanied by visually impressive and detailed graphics.

Kids, however, should keep away as the game has mature elements like copious swearing, sexual innuendoes and gratuitous gore. With the recent slew of excellent horror shooters (think Bioshock), Jericho is unlikely to persuade shooter fans to part with their precious time and money.

RATING: 6.5/10

Clive Barker's Jericho
» $56.90
» First person shooter (genre)
» PC (platform)