Confirming this Hollywood Reporter story, Codemasters has officially announced Clive Barker’s Jericho, a new horror game from the master of horror in development at Mercury Steam. Critically lauded for his effort in 2001’s Undying, Barker partnered with Majesco and Terminal Reality to work on Demonik, which also had a movie in the making. However, that game got cancelled due to Majesco pulling out of the high-end games market, instead focusing more on casual games and portable titles.

This deal with Codemasters will see Barker realize his concept to a full-fledged game which is being developed for next-generation consoles and PC for release in late 2007.

“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,” said Barker.

Clive Barker’s Jericho deals with the mysterious reappearance of a lost city in a remote desert. When a form of evil that goes right back to the dawn of days resurfaces from there, a Special Forces squad, trained in both conventional warfare and the arcane arts, is sent in. Their mission: Hunt down and destroy the evil that lurks at the heart of the city before it destroys humanity.

“Players will constantly be given new challenges, new environments, and yes, new horrors and abominations to face every step of the way,” continues Barker. “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…”

Further information can be found on the abovementioned Hollywood Reporter story which mentions that Clive Barker is attached to the project “every step of the way;” it also reveals the following about the title:

“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.”

It’s that fourth dimension that makes Jericho more than a maze. The first battles encountered on the quest are against relatively modern imprisoned soldiers, while further in are World War I infantrymen, Crusaders and other warriors, each drawn from an earlier historical era than the last. “Some are evil, some are not, and you have to make up your own mind,” Barker said.

“It becomes a more primal experience as well, because the means of combat become more crude and the people become in a way simpler,” he said. “I think the player is going to get quite a series of spectacles because they get closer to something that makes the devil look like Pollyanna.”

Clive Barker is also working on The Scarlet Gospels, a horror novel that will see him writing about Pinhead from the Hellraiser series after what seems like eons.