Fear and horror
As you know, fear and horror were brothers. The sons of one father - the god of war Mars. The genre of shooters, too, often gave rise to fear and horror. And even if the emerging games were not blood brothers by developer or publisher, fear and horror held their bonds stronger than formal unity.
Although Blacksite: Area 51 and Clive Barker's Jericho were born and not on the same day, but all the same - almost simultaneously. At first, their mystical connection showed little. Yes, both shooters. Yes - one of them clearly loves to scare the fear, and the other does not shy away from horror. But is it a reason to declare their elusive eye of the mere observer as an inseparable fraternity?
')
The power of the night, the strength of the day ...
Evil seeds sown by Half-Life, Medal of Honor and other “plot” shooters of the Stone Age, sprouted - first on consoles, and then, through cross-pollination, and on PC. Our today's heroines - the Blacksite: Area 51 and Clive Barker's Jericho games - are the fruits of this particular inflorescence.
The spiritual unity of both games is beyond doubt: strictly following the story line through the pipeline, automatic preservation and recovery, exit at once on all major platforms, passing solo mode as part of a group of electronic minded people, ambushes and scripts, “trendy” graphics: in one case - loan , in the other - its own.
But the main thing, though, is not that. The games are very similar deeply internally - both of them pretend not to be what they really are and stick out their very sides that are worth pulling out.
And now - all this in order ...
Original sin
If Blacksite: Area 51 and Clive Barker's Jericho games (hereinafter Blacksite and Jericho - respectively) were books, everything would be fine with us. Do you know why? Of course, you know: Behind the scenes of Blacksite is Susan O 'Connor (former works are Bioshock and Gears of War, future ones are FarCry 2), and the name of the writer and producer Clive Barker is so well known that it is rendered ahead in several games besides Jericho.
Unfortunately, written by Miss O. Connor and Mr. Barker did not lay in black on the white pages of booklets, but turned out to be immured inside a pair of very mediocre games. Which, oddly enough, aggravated their mediocrity.
Although, actually, why - “oddly enough”? It’s not at all strange to us: any carefully crafted detail always spoils the look of an already wretched object, emphasizing its squalor with its quality. And the quality and sophistication of the scenarios of Mr. Barker and Miss Oh "Connor can not be refused ...
The women's look at the problem of the alien threat turns out to be in Blacksite not only full of details, but also quite topical. A detachment of Iraqi veterans (the Iraqi episode in the game is also there, being an educational prologue) goes to the desert-mountainous Nevada, where everything bad is going on in the village of Rachel. The bad thing is expressed in the invasion of alien monsters - who have no idea why they decided to visit the secret base Area 51 closest to Rachel. The one in which the CIA and the FBI are gutting humanoid reconnaissance aircraft.
It would seem - everything is clear: the space brothers in reason decided to take away the remains of their tortured hero pioneers, simultaneously causing maximum damage to the agriculture of Nevada. But not everything is so simple. It turns out that alien giblets were not only carefully studied by earth scientists, but were also attached for military needs as much as they could. Specifically - for the project they grow up miracle warriors without fear and reproach. Having born in large numbers and solid diversity, miracle warriors treacherously deserted, taking to destroy everything around as well as aliens ...
What good is the plot of Blacksite? Oh, this is an interesting question! As you know, the real master of the frame is not a hindrance - but Susan O. Connor proved to be a real master. Despite the obvious stamping of the plot, she managed to create excellent characters of the characters, build up bright scenario moves, build a dynamic development of the story. Actually, it would not be an exaggeration to say that the existence of gamers who agreed to go through Blacksite to the end, entirely and entirely, is a merit of Susan.
For Clive Barker, the merit is completely different. His plot for Jericho is really cool. At the base are legendary apocryphal (that is, religious, but not recognized by the Church as sacred) and Gnostic (religious teaching) texts about the times “before Adam”.
It turns out that before Adam, God was a great experimenter. Reflecting on the future crown of creation, the Creator spawned some creature - and not a boy, and not a girl, not good, but not evil - called for simplicity “Firstborn”. The firstborn was, though an incomprehensible orientation, had a violent temper. Therefore, having suffered for some time with the problems of didactics and pedagogy, God hid the firstborn in an underground punishment cell, and in its place molded the clay of the forefather of our Adam and Mother Eve.
The reference to the firstborn was clearly not beneficial - the nasty character deteriorated altogether and the baby began to appear regularly. Since by that time God had somehow moved away from direct intervention in earthly affairs, a specially created sect took up the problem, and officially speaking, the order. This order, regularly detaching seven monks to the slaughter, created a new prison at the place of the capture of the First-Born. The problem was that each time the “walls” of the dungeon expanded, giving new spaces to the power of the First-Born and ... times. Yes, the dungeon was a kind of spatial chronoplasm, which nowadays embraces a whole Arab city. The special squad "Jericho" was sent to deal with the problems of this city - represented by the monsters of Hell crawling out from under the earth. A squad consists of seven psychic fighters, the main over which is you.
The number seven, of course, is not without reason - after all, it is precisely the victims of magicians that are needed to impose another seal ... By the way, the victims will begin almost immediately.
Almost at the very beginning of the game you will be killed.
I would give half my life for not being born ...
Well, friends, this (“they will kill you”) was the last unambiguously good news in our review. Now the news will go mostly informative, neutral and derogatory. Simply put, we consider - what exactly prevents us from playing Jericho and Blacksite?
Despite the quality scenario, the first problem with Jericho is connected with the plot. It lies in the fact that the story of the Firstborn relates very little to the actual gameplay. Moreover, her intelligence and ornateness of the gameplay frankly inhibit.
Judging simply and without a hitch, Jericho is an arcade shooter in the spirit of Doom or Painkiller. There is simply less “meat” here, the enemies are more powerful and smarter, the player runs not alone, but in the company and in general - from the point of tactical diversity the game is made very good.
The deadly hero of the evil creature Jericho - Captain Devin Ross - remains in this world in the form of a disembodied soul. Which can be implanted in the body of any of the colleagues in the "Jericho." Skill, it must be said, is extremely useful, because the Jericho squad is not a joke; there are gathered the best people of the planet.
For example, the giant sergeant Delgado, the owner of the six-barreled machine gun (it does not need to be reloaded!) And the gift of extrasensory pyromaniac.
Or the beautiful Simone Cole, whose assault rifle is particularly effective inside a slow-motion loop.
The priest Rawlings is also not bad - his gift of resurrection can be extremely useful if Ross himself (in the body of one of the fighters) is killed again.
The skills of the other fighters are not so necessary in the heat of battle, however, both Captain Jones, Lieutenant Black, and Sergeant Church will not be bored during the march on the Firstborn. At least, they will have to be used not only as pseudo-intelligent automatic turrets.
The fights in Jericho turn out just for sight. We run on the level to the desired trigger, get up on the barricades pre-laid by good designers, give the team an order to "stand to the end" and, choosing the right fighter (settling in it), we provoke the monsters to attack.
It should be a fight, violent and powerful as far as it was intended by developers and scripts. As additional fun rely: furious shooting, running between colleagues for their resurrection and use appropriate to the moment of combat magic. Fun and fun ... if you count the game as a set of shoot-outs.
Consider it great - do not allow the plot and the ugly level design. We have already spoken about the plot - it is too heavy and too ... serious for such a game. As if the newfangled trinket made of expensive red gold. As for the level design. He's just bad. Corridors and playgrounds in different frames (rocks, ruins, palaces, interiors ...). Very functional and very boring.
In the mirror of God is not visible
The situation in the Blacksite mirror Jericho, and in this - also a kind of unity of these games. As already mentioned, the Blacksite plot is not something that does not interfere with the passage, but in general is almost the only argument in favor of a throw to the cherished final captions. But the rest, friends ...
Blacksite most confidently holds, oddly enough, level design. The scale, which is not a shame to drive a jeep, beautiful views, good architecture - especially if you do not climb inside ... After the musty jars of Jericho in the vast Blacksite truly breathe deeply.
But the tactical control system does not compare with the shooter named Barker. Let's start with the fact that there is no talk about any movement between the characters. On the one hand, there are no plot prerequisites for this. On the other hand, the comrades-in-arms of our hero, and although they possess (thanks to the efforts of Susan O'Connor), are unique characters, they are completely identical and faceless in battle.
The herd management of friends and colleagues is done super-intuitively: for all occasions there is one button that starts processes, lays the right items in the right places, gives commands and places a marker in any part of the visible part of the level where our subordinates are running in a crowd. In parallel, firing from the pressing nightmares of the universe.
Theoretically, the Blacksite gameplay is designed so that you will not be able to cleverly hide behind computer mates and send them to certain doom. The system of “morality” of fighters is responsible for this, which grows if subordinates see your prowess and falls - when their favorite commander demonstrates criminal cowardice.
However, in practice, things are not so fantastic. The fact is that the fighters are too stupid to give too important support to our heroism and ... too stupid to ignore direct orders that turn them into cannon fodder. Thus, we still have to fight. And more. But not at all because of the system of "morality", but because our subordinates are fools.
True, the opposite side is also no different tactical genius. Soldiers, mutants and other guests from outer space fall out in a disciplined manner from behind corners, take appropriate positions and begin to thresh from the entire available arsenal on us and our brigade. We can oppose them to the cannon fodder already mentioned in the paragraph above, various shelters and the semi-immortality of the main character so beloved this season.
Dusty epithelium
For a straightforward shooting range, Blacksite looks pretty good - Midway Games, not sparing money, bought new-fashioned UnrealEngine 3 for the development needs. Thanks to this miracle of world programming, Iraq and the State of Nevada look, though rather discreet, but rather stylish. Good textures, some special effects, animation and models of enemies and friends. Painted with a post-processing frame, the picture looks somewhat “dusty” - and this only enhances the effect of presence.
Unfortunately, even UnrealEngine 3 could not save Blacksite developers from ridiculous miscalculations. One of the most important mistakes can be considered a very mediocre game optimization. That, as you understand, is not permissible either in shooters, in shooting galleries, or in stories about the invasion of aliens.
If the Blacksite image can be called "dusty", then Jericho deserves the epithet "metal". In fact, with a clear lack of architectural ingenuity, the authors of the shooter solidly nadraili surface shaders of all stripes. As a result, we enjoy the rough walls, chromed iron and carnal mucous membranes. This is not to say that the spectacle is not impressive.
An even greater aesthetic shock is experienced when meeting with various enemies. If the first people from the cradle of Pervorodnogo are rather unattractive, then somewhere in the middle the game begins to produce real masterpieces of the kunstkamera. And so what are the bosses!
In general, both games did not disappoint graphically. Of course, this is not “high class” a la Crysis, but the projects certainly have a peculiar charm. Blacksite has a smaller one, Jericho has a bigger weight.
More than failure
Let's be frank: neither in Blacksite, nor in Jericho is impossible to play without some effort on yourself.
In the case of Jericho, you will have to close your eyes to the level design and take the plot completely apart from what is happening on the screen. About the same, that Blacksite went to print elementary unfinished is known, probably, already by all. And if so, then there is no sin in recognizing - only the plot saves this project from the many unkind words that he rightfully deserves.
On the other hand, it turns out that only time separated it from the title of the Blacksite hit?
And Jericho? Would Jericho be hit by losing Clive Barker's caption and the plot attached to it? Would he be more interesting in clever interiors? Or would it be easier for him to give up that easy, fussy, and let's not hide the truth of the fun gameplay that is so out of place in a game that claims to be the title of “mystical shooter”? Unknown.
It is only important that both games turned out worse than they could be. And it is precisely in this - fear and horror.
Although Blacksite: Area 51 and Clive Barker's Jericho were born and not on the same day, but all the same - almost simultaneously. At first, their mystical connection showed little. Yes, both shooters. Yes - one of them clearly loves to scare the fear, and the other does not shy away from horror. But is it a reason to declare their elusive eye of the mere observer as an inseparable fraternity?
| A game | Blacksite: Area 51 | Clive barker's jericho |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | First Person Shooter | First Person Shooter |
| Publisher | Midway games | Codemasters |
| Publisher in Russia | New Disk | Beech tree |
| Developer | Midway Studios Austin | MercurySteam Entertainment |
| Platforms | PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 | PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 |
| Multiplayer | LAN, I-net | not |
| Complexity | Customizable | Customizable |
| English | Not necessary | Not necessary |
')
The power of the night, the strength of the day ...
Evil seeds sown by Half-Life, Medal of Honor and other “plot” shooters of the Stone Age, sprouted - first on consoles, and then, through cross-pollination, and on PC. Our today's heroines - the Blacksite: Area 51 and Clive Barker's Jericho games - are the fruits of this particular inflorescence.
The spiritual unity of both games is beyond doubt: strictly following the story line through the pipeline, automatic preservation and recovery, exit at once on all major platforms, passing solo mode as part of a group of electronic minded people, ambushes and scripts, “trendy” graphics: in one case - loan , in the other - its own.
But the main thing, though, is not that. The games are very similar deeply internally - both of them pretend not to be what they really are and stick out their very sides that are worth pulling out.
And now - all this in order ...
Original sin
If Blacksite: Area 51 and Clive Barker's Jericho games (hereinafter Blacksite and Jericho - respectively) were books, everything would be fine with us. Do you know why? Of course, you know: Behind the scenes of Blacksite is Susan O 'Connor (former works are Bioshock and Gears of War, future ones are FarCry 2), and the name of the writer and producer Clive Barker is so well known that it is rendered ahead in several games besides Jericho.
Unfortunately, written by Miss O. Connor and Mr. Barker did not lay in black on the white pages of booklets, but turned out to be immured inside a pair of very mediocre games. Which, oddly enough, aggravated their mediocrity.
Although, actually, why - “oddly enough”? It’s not at all strange to us: any carefully crafted detail always spoils the look of an already wretched object, emphasizing its squalor with its quality. And the quality and sophistication of the scenarios of Mr. Barker and Miss Oh "Connor can not be refused ...
The women's look at the problem of the alien threat turns out to be in Blacksite not only full of details, but also quite topical. A detachment of Iraqi veterans (the Iraqi episode in the game is also there, being an educational prologue) goes to the desert-mountainous Nevada, where everything bad is going on in the village of Rachel. The bad thing is expressed in the invasion of alien monsters - who have no idea why they decided to visit the secret base Area 51 closest to Rachel. The one in which the CIA and the FBI are gutting humanoid reconnaissance aircraft.
It would seem - everything is clear: the space brothers in reason decided to take away the remains of their tortured hero pioneers, simultaneously causing maximum damage to the agriculture of Nevada. But not everything is so simple. It turns out that alien giblets were not only carefully studied by earth scientists, but were also attached for military needs as much as they could. Specifically - for the project they grow up miracle warriors without fear and reproach. Having born in large numbers and solid diversity, miracle warriors treacherously deserted, taking to destroy everything around as well as aliens ...
What good is the plot of Blacksite? Oh, this is an interesting question! As you know, the real master of the frame is not a hindrance - but Susan O. Connor proved to be a real master. Despite the obvious stamping of the plot, she managed to create excellent characters of the characters, build up bright scenario moves, build a dynamic development of the story. Actually, it would not be an exaggeration to say that the existence of gamers who agreed to go through Blacksite to the end, entirely and entirely, is a merit of Susan.
For Clive Barker, the merit is completely different. His plot for Jericho is really cool. At the base are legendary apocryphal (that is, religious, but not recognized by the Church as sacred) and Gnostic (religious teaching) texts about the times “before Adam”.
It turns out that before Adam, God was a great experimenter. Reflecting on the future crown of creation, the Creator spawned some creature - and not a boy, and not a girl, not good, but not evil - called for simplicity “Firstborn”. The firstborn was, though an incomprehensible orientation, had a violent temper. Therefore, having suffered for some time with the problems of didactics and pedagogy, God hid the firstborn in an underground punishment cell, and in its place molded the clay of the forefather of our Adam and Mother Eve.
The reference to the firstborn was clearly not beneficial - the nasty character deteriorated altogether and the baby began to appear regularly. Since by that time God had somehow moved away from direct intervention in earthly affairs, a specially created sect took up the problem, and officially speaking, the order. This order, regularly detaching seven monks to the slaughter, created a new prison at the place of the capture of the First-Born. The problem was that each time the “walls” of the dungeon expanded, giving new spaces to the power of the First-Born and ... times. Yes, the dungeon was a kind of spatial chronoplasm, which nowadays embraces a whole Arab city. The special squad "Jericho" was sent to deal with the problems of this city - represented by the monsters of Hell crawling out from under the earth. A squad consists of seven psychic fighters, the main over which is you.
The number seven, of course, is not without reason - after all, it is precisely the victims of magicians that are needed to impose another seal ... By the way, the victims will begin almost immediately.
Almost at the very beginning of the game you will be killed.
I would give half my life for not being born ...
Well, friends, this (“they will kill you”) was the last unambiguously good news in our review. Now the news will go mostly informative, neutral and derogatory. Simply put, we consider - what exactly prevents us from playing Jericho and Blacksite?
Despite the quality scenario, the first problem with Jericho is connected with the plot. It lies in the fact that the story of the Firstborn relates very little to the actual gameplay. Moreover, her intelligence and ornateness of the gameplay frankly inhibit.
Judging simply and without a hitch, Jericho is an arcade shooter in the spirit of Doom or Painkiller. There is simply less “meat” here, the enemies are more powerful and smarter, the player runs not alone, but in the company and in general - from the point of tactical diversity the game is made very good.
The deadly hero of the evil creature Jericho - Captain Devin Ross - remains in this world in the form of a disembodied soul. Which can be implanted in the body of any of the colleagues in the "Jericho." Skill, it must be said, is extremely useful, because the Jericho squad is not a joke; there are gathered the best people of the planet.
For example, the giant sergeant Delgado, the owner of the six-barreled machine gun (it does not need to be reloaded!) And the gift of extrasensory pyromaniac.
Or the beautiful Simone Cole, whose assault rifle is particularly effective inside a slow-motion loop.
The priest Rawlings is also not bad - his gift of resurrection can be extremely useful if Ross himself (in the body of one of the fighters) is killed again.
The skills of the other fighters are not so necessary in the heat of battle, however, both Captain Jones, Lieutenant Black, and Sergeant Church will not be bored during the march on the Firstborn. At least, they will have to be used not only as pseudo-intelligent automatic turrets.
The fights in Jericho turn out just for sight. We run on the level to the desired trigger, get up on the barricades pre-laid by good designers, give the team an order to "stand to the end" and, choosing the right fighter (settling in it), we provoke the monsters to attack.
It should be a fight, violent and powerful as far as it was intended by developers and scripts. As additional fun rely: furious shooting, running between colleagues for their resurrection and use appropriate to the moment of combat magic. Fun and fun ... if you count the game as a set of shoot-outs.
Consider it great - do not allow the plot and the ugly level design. We have already spoken about the plot - it is too heavy and too ... serious for such a game. As if the newfangled trinket made of expensive red gold. As for the level design. He's just bad. Corridors and playgrounds in different frames (rocks, ruins, palaces, interiors ...). Very functional and very boring.
In the mirror of God is not visible
The situation in the Blacksite mirror Jericho, and in this - also a kind of unity of these games. As already mentioned, the Blacksite plot is not something that does not interfere with the passage, but in general is almost the only argument in favor of a throw to the cherished final captions. But the rest, friends ...
Blacksite most confidently holds, oddly enough, level design. The scale, which is not a shame to drive a jeep, beautiful views, good architecture - especially if you do not climb inside ... After the musty jars of Jericho in the vast Blacksite truly breathe deeply.
But the tactical control system does not compare with the shooter named Barker. Let's start with the fact that there is no talk about any movement between the characters. On the one hand, there are no plot prerequisites for this. On the other hand, the comrades-in-arms of our hero, and although they possess (thanks to the efforts of Susan O'Connor), are unique characters, they are completely identical and faceless in battle.
The herd management of friends and colleagues is done super-intuitively: for all occasions there is one button that starts processes, lays the right items in the right places, gives commands and places a marker in any part of the visible part of the level where our subordinates are running in a crowd. In parallel, firing from the pressing nightmares of the universe.
Theoretically, the Blacksite gameplay is designed so that you will not be able to cleverly hide behind computer mates and send them to certain doom. The system of “morality” of fighters is responsible for this, which grows if subordinates see your prowess and falls - when their favorite commander demonstrates criminal cowardice.
However, in practice, things are not so fantastic. The fact is that the fighters are too stupid to give too important support to our heroism and ... too stupid to ignore direct orders that turn them into cannon fodder. Thus, we still have to fight. And more. But not at all because of the system of "morality", but because our subordinates are fools.
True, the opposite side is also no different tactical genius. Soldiers, mutants and other guests from outer space fall out in a disciplined manner from behind corners, take appropriate positions and begin to thresh from the entire available arsenal on us and our brigade. We can oppose them to the cannon fodder already mentioned in the paragraph above, various shelters and the semi-immortality of the main character so beloved this season.
Dusty epithelium
For a straightforward shooting range, Blacksite looks pretty good - Midway Games, not sparing money, bought new-fashioned UnrealEngine 3 for the development needs. Thanks to this miracle of world programming, Iraq and the State of Nevada look, though rather discreet, but rather stylish. Good textures, some special effects, animation and models of enemies and friends. Painted with a post-processing frame, the picture looks somewhat “dusty” - and this only enhances the effect of presence.
Unfortunately, even UnrealEngine 3 could not save Blacksite developers from ridiculous miscalculations. One of the most important mistakes can be considered a very mediocre game optimization. That, as you understand, is not permissible either in shooters, in shooting galleries, or in stories about the invasion of aliens.
If the Blacksite image can be called "dusty", then Jericho deserves the epithet "metal". In fact, with a clear lack of architectural ingenuity, the authors of the shooter solidly nadraili surface shaders of all stripes. As a result, we enjoy the rough walls, chromed iron and carnal mucous membranes. This is not to say that the spectacle is not impressive.
An even greater aesthetic shock is experienced when meeting with various enemies. If the first people from the cradle of Pervorodnogo are rather unattractive, then somewhere in the middle the game begins to produce real masterpieces of the kunstkamera. And so what are the bosses!
In general, both games did not disappoint graphically. Of course, this is not “high class” a la Crysis, but the projects certainly have a peculiar charm. Blacksite has a smaller one, Jericho has a bigger weight.
More than failure
Let's be frank: neither in Blacksite, nor in Jericho is impossible to play without some effort on yourself.
In the case of Jericho, you will have to close your eyes to the level design and take the plot completely apart from what is happening on the screen. About the same, that Blacksite went to print elementary unfinished is known, probably, already by all. And if so, then there is no sin in recognizing - only the plot saves this project from the many unkind words that he rightfully deserves.
On the other hand, it turns out that only time separated it from the title of the Blacksite hit?
And Jericho? Would Jericho be hit by losing Clive Barker's caption and the plot attached to it? Would he be more interesting in clever interiors? Or would it be easier for him to give up that easy, fussy, and let's not hide the truth of the fun gameplay that is so out of place in a game that claims to be the title of “mystical shooter”? Unknown.
It is only important that both games turned out worse than they could be. And it is precisely in this - fear and horror.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/17353/
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