Feature: Clive Barker waxes gory on his cult shooter Jericho
Horror guru Clive Barker gives GamePro all the nasty details on his gruesome new shooter Jericho, the first in part of a planned trilogy of games.
Clive Barker is no stranger to the video game industry. The horror author and filmmaker's first foray into video games was 2001's Undying, a horror action/adventure FPS published by EA. Undying was a critically acclaimed PC title, but its sales disappointed and the plans for console versions were abandoned. In early 2006, his game Demonik, which was to have a simultaneous film release, was cancelled by Majesco due to the publisher's financial troubles. But now, with the help of Codemasters and Madrid development studio Mercury Steam, Barker's penchant for crafting compelling video game gore has been resurrected in Jericho.
With an original story penned by Barker, Jericho is a squad-based action-horror game where you're the leader of the seven-member Jericho Squad, an elite group trained in modern warfare and blessed with paranormal powers. Your mission is to make your way through the Middle Eastern city of Al-Khali and battle hellish creatures in order to take down an ancient, apocalyptic evil. GamePro sat down with the mastermind himself to talk about the elaborate story, his future plans for the Jericho series, and why we haven't seen a 'Hellraiser' game just yet.
I tried to create a game where you'll always be surprised. Even at the end of the game, when you meet the First Born, it's not what you expect and the confrontation with the First Born is radical to say the least."
--Clive Barker to GamePro
GamePro: There are a lot of things going on in Jericho's story. What's the story with this "ancient evil"?
Clive Barker: It's the first of what will be a series of stories about a group of militarily trained but magically gifted men and women who deal with powers that are beyond anything that you or I would ever imagine. This particular case is a confrontation with a thing called "The First Born," which lives in a [kind of] labyrinth of time located in the middle of a place called the Al-Khali. It's the emptiest place in the world, the empty quarters of the Sahara desert.
The First Born lives in the center of this wasteland, like at the center of a series of Russian dolls. So you can think of him being at the center of the smallest Russian doll, and the doll outside that being the first army to attempt to limit his control, but whose soldiers he [converted] into his own warriors. Then outside that level is another level of even more recent soldiers who've also gone up against him [and lost]. In the beginning in the game, the First Born is about to make some big, world-threatening move. [Your squad is] called to the region because they have had signals that there is life, the life form in the center of this labyrinth, and even they do not know what the life form is. The First Born is on the move, he's gaining power, and your team figures the best form of defense is offense. So rather than wait around for the bad stuff to happen, they're taking it upon themselves to go deal with this guy. But in order to get to him, they have to move through generation after generation of [mutilated] soldiers, all of whom fight in different ways.
GP: So the Jericho Squad will be fighting different armies along the way to get to the First Born?
CB: The World War II [undead] warriors fight in a very different way than the Crusaders. You just saw the Romans with the helmets, shields and spears, and yet earlier, the Sumerians. Very often I think in games you can get stuck in one space and it gets kind of boring after a while. I mean, we've all been in that place, you know that house that you can't f***ing get out of, and you just wish it was over. What I tried to do here was create a game where you're always going to be surprised, and there's always something new around the corner. Even until the very end of the game -- and I won't tell you what happens -- but when you meet the First Born, it's not what you expect and the confrontation you have with the First Born is radical to say the least. So it's been a major act of research for the designers. These are exquisite environments they created and they got the history right.
GP: Earlier you said it was the first of "a series of stories..."
CB: I want to do three of these, just three, and make it the Jericho trilogy in which this son -- I gave a clue there, I didn't intend to. Okay, the First Born is the son of something. Oh well. It's not a terrible thing; it's kind of funny. But when we have the trilogy together I think we'll have this f***ing huge confrontation between what may end up being a suicide club of men and women who are willing to give their souls and their bullets to the business of destroying the son of something. I mean, in a way it's already there in the First Born.
GP: What was your involvement in the actual gameplay of Jericho?
CB: I provided monster designs, and obviously, the story. What I do tends to be much more thinking in broad strokes, and then I let the designers do their thing. They give me back what they had, I make notes on that, once only, and then they go to it. I mean the essence of the collaborative business is that you've got to trust your fellow collaborators, otherwise the experience I think is weakened, watered down. If you're going to collaborate, f***ing collaborate, and we've had some really fun times.
There's been difficult times too, of course, but there's also been times we've sat in my house and everybody had sketch pads and lots of ink and crayons, and we've drawn. Drawing backwards and forwards is a great way to get things going. Maybe none of those designs ended up on the screen in their entirety, but there'll be a piece here, a piece there, you know. You create this thing like Frankenstein's monster, from various pieces of the right ideas. And I'm in L.A., the design is done in Spain, and Codemasters is in the U.K. so there's a lot of work involved here, to pull together something I hope looks like nothing else that anybody has out up there before.
At the end of the trilogy I think we'll have this f***ing huge confrontation between a suicide club of men and women who are willing to give their souls and their bullets to the business of destroying The First Born."
--Clive Barker to GamePro
GP: After all the troubles with Undying and Demonik, what made you want to team up with Codemasters for Jericho?
CB: Well, they're selling it, and I'm here talking to you! [laughs] And now I've got that chance with them. I don't think I'm saying anything that anybody doesn't know so... I think EA had a change of management and a change of heart between the time that Undying was given the green light and the time it was delivered to them. And in that time, they held a meeting about a couples of titles, one of which was Undying, and decided "this was not appropriate EA material."
GP: Why haven't there been games of any of your movies or books?
CB: I haven't allowed it because I haven't felt as though I've found people, until [Codemasters], who I really trusted. I mean, trust me, I could have walked away with my pockets stuffed with dollars and never thought twice about it again. But the only thing I have is my name, and if my name is being used to sell something, I feel very possessive and responsible to my audience. And they deserve the best, I think. I want them to know I am looking out for them. When something comes out that's f***ed up - and there was a film out last year, I won't name it -- and it had my name on it, and I had no control over it, it hurt like hell. I would prefer, particularly with my books -- Weaveworld, which is 20 years old now, and the Abarat books -- I prefer to wait until the Codemasters guys are ready, or another company comes along that has the same philosophy.
GP: Do you play video games at all?
CB: No. In my life, I don't do anything. I breathe, I eat, I sleep, I crap, I make comics and also I watch television. Feed the puppies, and then to bed. For me the fun of it is the making of the art, not the playing of it.
GP: You could say video games give your fans another way to enjoy your work...
CB: That means a lot to me! It's very important to me. That's the heart of it, that's the very heart of it. To be able to show people what's going on in here [points to head]. That's what excites me. I'm grateful and blessed to have people wanting the material.
by Tracey J. John
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