You see, everyone in the Jericho Squad isn’t just good with a firearm; they play home to a number of arcane abilities that you have to master and use in tandem with a smoking gun barrel. More on this in a moment. What happens next, though, is an ingenious little storytelling one-two punch from Barker that sees Ross butchered before his squad eyes by a bat-winged, razor-taloned Hell creature. And despite being shuffled loose the mortal coil, Ross is very much alive in the spirit world, possessing the bodies of his six-man (and woman) team at will, which is at first a little nauseating, but secondly Jericho’s major hook that sets it aside from other squad-based shooters and allows you to mix things up on the battlefield.
With six characters to soul surf between, there’s a meaty wedge of firepower and superpowers on offer. There’s Lt. Abigail Black; sniper and telekinetic who can control her bullet for precision hits; Sgt Frank Delgado, lunkhead with a chaingun and the ability to wield flames thanks to a fire parasite that lives in his arm and Sgt Billie Church, raven-haired samurai sword-brandishing slicer and dicer with the power of blood magic. Then there’s Jones; astral projector, handy with a sub-machine gun; Simone Cole, baby of the gang rigged up to a supersuit that slows down time, loads up team members with ammo and has the ability to find weak spots in enemies.