Back almost 20 years or so ago, I was introduced to the work of a man who has come to be a true visionary in the world of horror.... Clive Barker. His movie "Hellraiser" left a long lasting impression on me, and I sought out a great number of his books and movies as a result. I even met him three times, and found him one of the most intelligent and interesting people I have ever had the fortune to be acquainted with.
What has impressed me with Clive in recent years has been his keenness to embrace computer games as a new medium to express his artistic ideas. Clive no doubt sees the computer game as just another creative medium, just like books, artwork and movies. The first game he worked on - "Undying" - was released in 2001 by Electronic Arts, and had the benefit of not just Clive's uniquely terrifying imagination, but also of being based on the Unreal engine.
Now, Clive is to once again work on a computer game. Codemasters have signed a new supernatural horror concept and story devised by Clive, which will see him work with them to produce "Clive Barker's Jericho" - a game for next-generation console platforms and the PC, due out late next year.
Expect a computer game with a plot as developed as one of Barker's novels, as we journey into a world where the mysterious reappearance of a lost city in a remote desert leads to the reappearance of a form of evil that goes right back to the dawn of days. A Special Forces squad, trained in both conventional warfare and the arcane arts, is sent in to investigate, their mission to hunt down and destroy the evil that lurks at the heart of the city.
"However, unlike a conventional game in which the characters are attempting to escape at the end of their ride through Hell, our protagonists have a much more difficult task. The closer they come to the end of their trek into darkness, the nearer they get to the source of that darkness: Evil Incarnate, we'll call it for now..." says Baker.