Regarding your final thoughts about Jericho: One Jericho dev gave a talk at my uni some years ago and said that Clive Barker's involvement in the game was only the story outline, some reports they sent him about the art direction, and one dinner with the studio leads around mid-development. The team felt more like they were doing their own game based on Barker's world instead of a game directed by Clive Barker.

"Does anybody in this room know anybody called Magnus? No." Well, he obviously didn't ask that in a room full of Swedes.

Jericho looks like it's running at a buttery smooth 12-18 fps in this video.

Oldest book in the trick

Despite it's flaws, Jericho is one of my favorite games to go back to.

Noah, the title of this video alone made me jump to the ceiling. This is a video that i would never think of, but secretly always wanted, because those are two games very dear to my heart. Thank you very much. You made my day.

something that would be absolutely bitchin: Clive Barker's Bloodborne

I actually enjoyed Jericho. It had some nice uncomfortable moments.

"Without the irritating vagueness[of Lovecraft]." But...but I like the vagueness...

"Everything I love is here" is actually much more than just a badass one-liner. It's Delgado's way of accepting the inevitable doom. He realises, there's no way he will ever enjoy normal things again or be at peace, and will slowly go insane in this eternal cycle of violence and carnal pleasures. This is a way for him to reconcile. It's kinda like when my ex dumped me and I was feeling horrible, I got into the whole "feelings are bullshit" vibe and convinced myself, that I actually love being alone, because you can't ever trust people anyway. Althought, I'm still not sure if that's not genuine. Hell, I dunno what's going on.

I think when Delgado says "everything I ever loved is right here" he's speaking about Billie Church, if not the entire team

Jericho is the epitome of a brilliant idea with poor execution. I feel there are several ways they could have approached this project and the first is if they had dropped the horror aspect altogether (while keeping the really grotesque and disturbing imagery) and made it into a straight up FPS with old school 90s design with maze-like level design, health, ammo and weapon pickups as well as a story that's more implied through environmental storytelling rather than cutscenes then it would have been an absolute blast of a game; hell I would argue it would be heralded as the true successor to Doom after id disappointed fans with Doom 3. The other route they could have took is a very strong coop-focused FPS game similar to Left 4 Dead with a much slower and methodical pace, where players need to work together as monsters are crawling around and can jump out from absolutely anywhere with a very high damage output that can scare the crap out of players on a mechanical level. Once again they could keep the environmental design because the dark, grotesque and nightmarish visions of the real world throughout history is an excellent setting. The third route I think they should have taken is a surreal, dark and morbid survival horror in the style of Silent Hill, where the player would need to survive with limited resources and have to explore the world from a normal setting which gradually become more disgusting and horrific the further you get into the game with that lovely touch of Lovecraftian and Steven King-ish inspiration with Clive's lovely twist on them in its story, enemy design and world that Undying also had going for it. And the final is that they should have simply did a sequel to Undying - a faithful one to the original game that expands and refines everything that the original game did and didn't do so well while concluding the story no matter how morbid it may be. Y'know with classic survival horror being almost non-existent these days, I think it's high time that Clive takes another stab at the video game industry and develop a game in the genre that would best define his vision of art and storytelling. Now if that happens then I reckon it would be pretty great.

I apologise for the wall of text in advance, but I disagree with you about Jericho on several points. I have I enjoyed Jericho very much when it came out, and things that you point out as its flaws I actually liked. For instance the goofy characters that seems at home in some 90-s adult cartoon might seem cheesy and banal, but the fact that their endless bravado and badassness turns out to be absolutely inadequate to what they are facing actually adds an interesting feeling of a familiar story suddenly turning into a twisted nightmare with no end in sight. It is like watching a Scooby-Doo cartoon, and seeing them trying to unmask another ghost only for it to bit Shaggy's head off and send characters to hell, and not just any hell, but one from Hellraiser series. As for the ending - I had no idea that there ever was a sequel planned for this game, so I did not even think that the ending should be considered "open ended". For me the story was actually quite logical. The team of utter badasses go to save the day, pretty much tricked into a suicidal mission. They arrive and find that everyone is already dead, they are too late, they even fail to save the last survivor, after they promised to do so. When they try to prevent pretty much the beginning of the end of the world, they fail and the main character, despite being so cartoonishly badass dies in the first act. I will not go through the entire story, but things get from bad to worse, and in the end, before the final confrontation, two characters that went with you through the entire game are squashed like flies, with no rhyme or reason, making you realise that the evil you are facing is just that, evil. After the final fight you would expect a happy ending but no. You went back in time, further and further into Pixis, passing through the pieces of the world it swallowed. The last one is so ancient that there is nothing but an endless ocean surrounding you. First layer, where there are no people, not even a trace of civilisation that spawned you. You defeat the evil that threatens the world but there is no way back, no way out, nothing even to return to in the world you got yourself into. In a way I actually felt it being very similar to your description of the first FEAR series. The ending is just as bleak. No matter what you do, the characters are doomed, even if they win the day, because they were screwed from the moment they were sent against the evil they can not even fully comprehend. I would say that is very much a horror, wouldn't you?

the art style and premise of Jericho is quite unique for a video game in my opinion

Everytime you start to wonder "when is "Noah Caldwell-Gervais coming out" you have a new one out

I concur that Undying is a hidden gem of a game, I loved it and wish it was available on Steam to play again

Undying is definitely my favorite horror game. I've actually replayed it in 2016 and despite the fact that I did see more flaws with the story, I've really enjoyed that playthrough and confirmed that the game is as good as I remember it. Which I can't say about all old games that I try to play in 2016.

What I love about Undying is how it combines the sensibilities of gothic and cosmic horror, as well as the sensibilities of some of the best games of the late 90s/early 2000s. Since it's based on the Unreal engine, Unreal's influence on its gameplay, immense level design, and atmosphere is totally evident (it even has Unreal's amplifier items). The rest of Undying's influences I can see from games like Half-Life, Jedi Knight, Wheel of Time, System Shock 2, and a little bit of Blood. The Eternal Autumn section reminds me very much of Turok: Dinosaur Hunter and Seeds of Evil. The time travel parts, and the Scythe that can decapitate the undead, sort of feel like major improvements on some of Daikatana's ideas. Beth and her living plants feel like they foreshadowed how Poison Ivy and her plant critters would be handled in Arkham Asylum. I still think Undying has much to offer in terms of influences for modern games.

FINALLY ANOTHER 40 MIN VIDEO FROM NOAH!

i absolutely loved the art direction of Jericho. it's one of the rare examples of aesthetics so repulsive, but in an artistic way. the visualisation of carnal pain and suffering here is truly horrifying

Noah, would you consider rereleasing these videos in a form of an audio podcast on itunes/soundcloud/etc.? It would be really amazing to listen to you on the go, not to mention, that it's gonna attract some new viewers/listeners, what do you think?

I absolutely love your channel. Keep these great videos coming.

Excellent choice of topics, Noah. Undying is an old favourite of mine, and standing up Barker's two games against one another like this is an awesome way to view them both, for their weaknesses and their strengths. You always manage to find an interesting way to look at things - thanks for surprising me yet again. And Happy Halloween!!

This is one of the best reviews I have ever seen on youtube. Well done!

Seeing your videos in my inbox gives me such a massive smile. Can't wait to watch this one!

Noah, I just LOVE your videos. So much good information with a comfy voice. Even the background noise adds an unique atmosphere. Keep it up!

I will note that Barker is not the only credited writer on Jericho (this writer is credited for Evil Dead: A Fistful of Boomstick before Jericho, and that fits some of the writing's style), and like with any other game of that period-on there was likely a lot of uncredited creativity, especially when you take into account MercurySteam being on record as saying the publisher interfered plenty and basically told them to release the game a year ahead of schedule (resulting in the levels being slapped together and the total lack of anything beyond shoot, move forward, shoot) because they didn't have any faith in it selling. As a side note, when I originally heard of the concept, I'd assume it'd slowly get more demented as you moved through the layers of the city, but it seems like a mistake how they went to 11 with the very first one. Nice video, though, I just recently found your channel and have been enjoying the content.

Cliffhanger? I actually think the firstborn dies there. I always thought that: back when I first played the game in 2008 and when I replayed it recently. I think the way it's directed genuinely hints at its death. I honestly never even considered it being a cliffhanger, and I don't assume it to be now either.

I knew nothing about these games and this was still very fascinating! Awesome vid!

3:42 - "The oldest book in the trick"

Aw yes, waking and baking with a new Noah critique. Good shit.

Shame Clive Barker never collaborated with Bioware... I feel that the concepts of Cabal/Nightbreed would play perfectly with Bioware's frameworks for game design...

I think this might be one of your best videos, based on its shorter length and higher information density. Thanks for the insight on an author I didn't know. Having this background, it does make the games a lot more interesting, even if just through your video, as I don't intend to play them.

Jericho was actually extremely fun to me

"Corridors... outdooridors..." Dude's a poet.

Love your work as always man. You're one of the best on youTube.

I love Jericho. Enjoyed it so much when I played it.

Very interesting video and subject :) Thanks for the content as always, Noah!

rewatching this video for the umpteenth time, feels like sinking into a comfy chair. also, when i type in the YT search bar, the moment i type 'N', and 'Noah Caldwell-Gervais' doesnt IMMEDIATELY pop up, i feel betrayed lol. thats how much i love and rewatch your vids Noah. much love

Undying is one game I'd love to see an updated remake of. Considering that mechanically it's pretty much BioShock 6 years before BioShock was a thing, there really isn't much to do other than bringing it up to snuff in terms of presentation, and maybe iron out some of the kinks in the map design to make it less linear (and less pointless, in case of the final stretch).

I really wished you had more subs, you honestly deserve millions for the content you produce.

Oh my God, I can't believe you made a video on those two games. I never though you'd do that since they were never that popular or succesful. I appreciate your work.

Undying was one of them games that I would often play over and over. It was so immersive. Great graphics back in the day. The locations really captured my imagination and made me want to live there. Keep up the great work Noah. You're style, the games you cover and your musings are so in sync with who I am. I hope you look at the Condemned games one day.

Didn't Delgado love one of the other squad members, hence the "Everything I love is here" line? It's been a long time since I played it so I might be mistaken.

Love your videos. THANK YOU!

Noah, you have an uncommonly intelligent insight into Barker's twisted fiction, movie-making and video gamemanship. You sound like you're reading; these essays on each game would explode on the printed page. Well done, brah! I enjoyed this immensely.

"They used to be terrible humans, which makes them excellent monsters." I love that.

Thanks for the video on my birthday Noah!

Noah, you are one charming dude. I'm glad I found your channel.

noah, i love you dude. as movie with mikey puts it, you are total 'apointment viewing', editing quirks and all. forget the haters, your analogue style is what makes you.. you. thank god for you, peace

I know jokes aren't the focus of your videos but I really like the ones you throw in. They always make me chuckle.

Top notch review man, I totally love Undying and played it back in the day a lot. I do have the other one, but haven't played it yet.

happy halloween noah and thanks for this treat

Thanks! Finally- an appreciation for one of my favorite games- Undying! Fantastic!

i've been up all night and was about to go to bed and now i see you have a new vid... goddammit i'm going to bed at 7am

I loved undying back in the day, such a gem! great video

YEEEEEEEEEEEES! OH MY GOD I LOVE YOU FOR DOING THESE TWO GAMES!!

I just dont understand the hate ? I loved Jerico and still play it sometimes :D

Hurray, love your work Noah! :D

I like how you talked about a lot of clive barkers stuff he is very underated nowadays but it's still good that some people like you still talk to him

A new video, hell yeah!

Oh, hey, I'm so glad someone else likes Hellraiser 2 more than 1! Wish the third act was a little bit better but I love the darkly fantastic and deeply horrific qualities of it up to that point. The first was a really good, very tight movie but the second opened the doors on something *greater* I think. And speaking of great, I really, really like the style of critical analysis you adopt - I'm so tired of loud and bombastic reviewers, you put so much insight and effort into this and its really interesting. Really glad a friend pointed me towards your videos!

Hell yeah just what I needed to keep my Saturday night interesting.

Very interesting video, I played Jericho back in the day as a kid actually and really enjoyed it, maybe because it was so simple and straight forward.

Yes! Thank you for mentioning The Great and Secret Show. That book and Weaveworld are very under-appreciated, in my opinion :)

I'm replaying Jericho right now and while the gameplay does have some snags here and there, the story and style is just a treat. It has some amazingly unique lore: the firstborn, the Jericho squads throughout the years, the Pyxis, the antagonist being a tantrist, and so much more. It's well worth playing through even on easy difficulty, just for the concepts.

Looks like i'm the only one who liked Jericho

Clive Barker is easily one of my favorite authors, but I never realized that he lent his voice to video games beyond "Jericho". Special thanks to Noah for offering this fantastic display to "Undying", as well as an amazing analysis for what makes Barker's particular creativity so appealing and enduring!

jesus, how long i waited for thiiiis

I loved the design of Jericho but the story with very few exceptions and gameplay were so devoid of redeeming qualities. Barker is one of the biggest inspirations in my own creative processes and if it didn't have his name on it you couldn't have convinced me that he over saw that monstrosity.

Awesome video, as always. I'd love to hear your take on the Hitman series, especially Absolution(which I personally loved but has received a lot of flak) and their recent move to an episodic format. Looking forward to your future work.

I was a lot younger when I played Jericho and I have to say that I really enjoyed it back then. As an older gamer now I might find it dull if I picked it up again, but back then... damn... I loved the game.

A GREAT choice of games for Halloween :)

These videos are my happy place.

Out of all the remakes and remasters possible in the video game medium, these two games deserve another shot! Mainly for the reasons you illuminated; you remake original games that are FLAWED and fix their core systems!

Your videos are goddamn fantastic. I may kill myself from happiness if you do a series retrospective on all the witches games

"But there have been Get Well Soon cards written by Barker with greater depth of narrative and character than Jericho" DAMN

Its good to know people still remember Undying, the game my dad let me play at 4 years old and helped make me afraid of the dark even now, at 26.

I love your every video so much man. You are my childhood! :) Keep it the fuxck up!

Hi Noah, I randomly discovered your videos with the Homefront one, and until then I thought no one would ever surpass SuperBunnyHop in terms of video game analysis. Well I was wrong. Since last month I binge watched the hell out of your videos and loved every second of it, they are clear, entertaining, informative and very nice to listen to (your kind of "lyric" way of writing is perfect to learn new words for a french guy like me). Other people also seem to notice that your videos are all about content and not so much esthetics, which is fine to me, I don't know if you would be able to make so much content if you had to add a week of editing. Have you ever considered giving your audio and video content to a video editor fan ? As an editor myself, I'm sure some people would be very interested in helping you with that, and since English is not my mother language, I know sometimes the editing makes me understand an essay better when I lack vocabulary. Anyway, thank you so much for your videos, I'm always amazed by your writing talents. I can't even begin to imagine how much work is needed for your videos.

*Weaveworld* is a great Fantasy-Horror adventure! My fav Barker book (altho I've only read 4 or 5, wa-ay back in the '90s)

You have sent me on a massive tangent by telling me that rich people in the 18th century made fake ruins on their land. This has blown my mind.

I'm one of those few people, who loves Jericho and doesn't really like Undying. Though I'm a huge fan of horror, I'm not much of a fan of it in games. I find most survival horror games frustrating, rather than scary. And in Undying, like you said, it's easy to get lost. That's a huge problem for me, I hate running around, trying to figure out where to go. Jericho is very linear and not a great shooter, but it never frustated me. It plays pretty straightforward and allows to just kick back and enjoy the story and spectacle.

"Without the irritating vagueness [of Lovecraft]." What vagueness? Lovecraft describes everything. In "Mountains of Madness" the protagonist tells you over and over again, that he is no archaeologist, but reconstructs the whole history of the Old Ones just through their reliefs. And at last, it is not the vagueness of unknowing that drives the people mad, but the certainty, that the Mythos is real. I like your videos verry much. Sorry for my grammar, I am from Germany.

Great video as always. I was wondering if you'd ever take a look at the Neverwinter nights series. They both received a rather negative response back in the day, but through time they've been remembered with strange fondness.

Now I want to go read some Clive Barker. Thank you.

I am one to admit as you said, i couldn't progress to the next chapter as i could not find it. Farthest i got was the green valley in daylight leading up to a lighthouse i believe. I ran in circles there for quite some time before accepting awkward and disappointing defeat. The opening few hours of the game will always stay with me, especially having experienced it as a 12 year old

19:50= "tribal drums play in the background and you fight half-naked cave-men with spear-guns." =I can totally imagine that's what Clive Barker's house is like on Saturday nights... :) I'm serious, that's the deal... LOL

I just want you to know that I love your videos.

great work!! i dint play jericho but looks great i played undying around 2005 and it was veyr long

Jericho has some great ideas, wish the game attached to it was better.

It's worth noting that Count Magnus Wolfram is still in Undying as a character. He's seen during the opening when Patrick is recounting the story of how he got the Gel'ziabar Stone, he's the guy who's holding it who Patrick shoots at. Essentially the old protagonist being killed by the new one. However one flaw I noticed with Undying is it feels slightly jarring during the opening to have Patrick say he suspects that there are magical forces that exist, and be completely unsurprised to the presence of magical creatures and to start the game already knowing magic. It feels like a holdover from Magnus and always felt slightly out of place to me.

I actually really like the premise and character designs of Jericho. I wish it was possible for it to get a second chance, like a remake with changes to the game's structure, gameplay, tweaks to the personalities of the squad and the removal of son of the cliches...

Thank you for commenting on the dynamite puzzle. Now I know I wasn't the only one!

I don't comment much on YT, but goddamnit I love your videos.

I wish I could look up how many times I've watched this.

I would love to have your take on Cthuhlu mythos (inspired) games like Call of Cthuhlu, Eternal Darkness, etc.

I love how well read you are =)))

Hi Noah, I just discovered your channel through this video, and it was a rather enjoyable one. It was good that you mentioned that Barker joined the Undying team later in the project’s life since many believe Undying was Barker’s baby from start to finish. Your video was published in 2016, so I’m not sure if you’ll read this, but I wanted to bring a few details to your attention. Worst-case scenario, other people watching your video may see this. While it’s true that Clive Barker helped the team by changing some aspects of the game, such as the main character-Patrick may not be the most memorable video game protagonist, but he is far more relatable than Magnus would have been-others were far more dubious. One notable example is Lizbeth and the howlers: the original idea of the team, which is what the team went with although it isn’t explicitely stated, is that she had somehow seduced the howlers to do her bidding; Barker’s idea was to have Lizbeth give birth to the howlers, and he had even planned a cutscene depicting the event-a very Barker idea. Thankfully, the team insisted to stick to the original idea. There are also other concepts that sadly did not get developped in the game. One is Eternal Autumn, which you were right to call awful in its current form. From what I remember, the team simply had to wrap up the project and left it in a very barebone state, but it was supposed to be expanded compared to what we got in the end. One interesting tidbit is that Bethany supposedly did not create it but stumbled upon it and took control of it. As for the finale, it is quite confusing, with the mummy turning to dust, the alien (Lovecraftian?) monster, and very little information. I strongly believe that a work of art (be it a book, movie, or video game) is its own best explanation, and that if you need to resort to extra-diegetic sources then something is wrong with it. That said, knowing the original plan of the team, even if it only partially made it into the final product, does help there. The idea is that, ages ago, a powerful otherworldly entity (the final boss) found its way into our world, lured by a well of eldritch energy. The place of this well of energy was at what would later become the islands of standing stones, and the entity lodged itself under the island and started to slowly consume the energy. People from the neighbouring land became aware of the monster’s presence and decided to trap it there. To do that, they erected the standing stones and completed the ritual by burying their king alive on the island. According to the story, the man was a powerful hero who decided to sacrifice his life in order to trap the monster, but the in-game cutscene shows that he may not have been so willing after all, or maybe had second thoughts. In any case, the ritual worked and the beast was trapped. You have to imagine the monster residing under the island with the standing stones on top: since it looked like a crown, the monster was henceforth called the Undying King. Fast-forward to the events of the game, and Jeremiah cast the ritual on his sibblings and himself that basically tied them to the island and the King. They became immortal and gained powers in undeath, but their destruction at Patrick’s hands basically weakened the ritual that held the monster prisonner. After Patrick killed Jeremiah at the end of the game, the ritual was finally broken and the King was able to expulse the stones and hero’s body (which then turned to dust in front of Patrick) that held him ensared. Finally free, the King attacked Patrick. There, a bit lengthy but I hope you (and any who read it) found it interesting!

jericho is one of my guilty pleasures. Its a shame we never got a sequel.