Codemasters has just announced it is teaming up with Horror Auteur, Clive Barker, to develop and publish a new, supernatural horror concept called ‘Clive Barker’s Jericho’, currently scheduled for release on next-generation console platforms and PC in late 2007.
Barker of course is no stranger to the world of videogames, having partnered with Electronic Arts back in 2001 to develop scare-em-up first person shooter,
Undying.
More recently Barker partnered with ill-fated Majesco Games to develop a game (and John Woo movie tie-in) called
Demonik for Xbox 360 – a project that eventually fell by the wayside.
Clive Barker’s Jericho, Codies’ press release informs us is going to be “an action horror title that will up the stakes in visuals and phantasmagorical special effects. Mingling the darkest elements of Barker’s horror fiction and films with an ambitious, age-spanning story, the title will be aimed at mature gamers, fans of Clive Barker and horror fiction enthusiasts.”
SPOnG is happy that Barker has chosen to work with one of our favourite Britsoft publishers, and Barker himself is clearly looking forward to the alliance, saying of the firm “It’s incredible when a company as admired as Codemasters embraces your vision the way they have embraced Jericho. This project is very close to my heart and I don’t believe there's ever been anything like it. It promises to be the most spectacular, creative, and unflinching realization of a Clive Barker nightmare that will drag players in kicking and screaming.”
The story centres around the resurfacing of “a form of evil that goes right back to the dawn of days” and the mysterious reappearance of a lost city in a remote desert.
You will play the game as a Special Forces squad, “trained in both conventional warfare and the arcane arts… Their mission: Hunt down and destroy the evil that lurks at the heart of the city before it destroys humanity.”
“I don't want to give too much away just yet, but the concept is that somewhere in northern Africa there is a walled city which is not just a walled city but walls within walls within walls,” Barker said. “It's like Russian dolls, spaces within each other, and trapped inside each space is a slice of time where the warriors of good have gone against ultimate evil and have lost.”
Horror fans can keep checking back at
SPOnG’s dedicated page with links to all the latest news, info and assets on Clive Barker’s Jericho.