DeVuego

A few annoyances interfered with my adventure; I got stuck in place twice when trying to make leaps I hoped might have clever results, and finding an orb in the grass when night has fallen can be a frustration. These are small irritations, but in a game this focused, such irritations can linger. Fortunately, the delights linger as well--the stunning landscapes, the grand sense of scale that pervades a few of the later levels, the artful manner in which the final scenario reimagines the archetypical video game boss. Even if you don't fall in love with Path to Thalamus, I suspect you won't be fully immune to its gravity.

Jericho is both a triumph and a disaster, and not a lot of games manage to be both of these at once. Frustrating, exciting, inconsistent, linear--these words and many more describe the various elements of Clive Barker's Jericho. If you've got a high tolerance for gameplay annoyances and like the feeling of imposing dread and claustrophobia this corridor crawl provides, by all means, give it a shot. If you like tight shooting mechanics and smart level design, you'll want to steer clear.