Clive Barker's Undying

The Good
Clive Barker's Undying is another inductee to my “Games I regret playing too late” list. It joins Grim Fandango, Thief and many more. What we have here is a Horror FPS written by Clive Barker , developed by Dreamworks and surprisingly published by EA.

Undying as a first person shooter plays like most out there at the time, especially Unreal and it's no surprise since it's powered by the Unreal 1 engine. Gameplay is linear and it works very well in this kind of a game. First few minutes into the game I was expecting it to be a detective exploration game with some sparse shooting to be done here and there but I'm not disappointed at all.

With an entire mansion to explore you would think “Open Ended” but most doors will be locked and the ones which are open are the ones you need to go through to advance in the game.

What really separates it from being generic is it's plot, characters, level design and atmosphere. Execution of these are marvelous. And heading into this game clueless can yield a lot of surprises.

The plot is the main motivation for you to come back to this game. It deals with an Irish occult investigator named Patrick heading to his friend's mansion on this strange island. Patrick owes this friend his life for saving him in the past and therefore agrees to investigate this “family curse”

The games story is told through superbly executed cut-scenes and more importantly reading Journals. If reading too much in a game scares you then not to worry as the text content is to the point, interesting, well written and reasonably short. Come on just read this awesome line!

“Father always said, 'Self-reflection is the key to enlightenment.' Allow me to reflect on this day. How could I have saved my father from a slow, painful death? I could have hit him harder.”

You may probably like the simple names given to the characters for e.g. 'Bethany', 'Aaron'. And some well thought of names for locations like “Eternal Autumn”..Well at least was awesome for me.

Level design is almost flawless as well as diverse. From the mansion to an infernal realm to pirate hideouts to catacombs to a monastery and a paradise like world. I never expected such diversity. The developers have squeezed every inch of the Unreal engine here. Top this off with some amazing artwork, texturing and modeling. Everything so well detailed, even places which don't have much importance in the game.

Paintings, fireplaces, lamps, statues everything is present in the mansion's environment. Even the other levels have appropriate attention to detail such as shacks, tribal drums, basins etc.

The monsters and characters too are realistic and detailed which makes the frightful experience better. Like Lizbeth's tits. Monsters are challenging and some have a back story to them. Your weaponry is rather unique and well balanced, some rather useless. It includes a Revolver, Speargun, Scythe, a freezing Tibetan War Cannon and you can't have a FPS without a shotgun. There's a journal entry for each weapon, DON'T FORGET TO READ!

There is even a weapon which plays a major part in the plot. I can't remember how it's spelled so I'll call it the green stone. It has it's own crazy usage and side effect if used too much. You even collect items like alternate ammos for the Revolver and Shotgun, Medikits and many other objects like Dynamite. Upgrades to make your mana pool larger or regenerate faster.

Along with your wide variety of weapons you have Spells. Some cool ones, some meh. Some are used to solve puzzles, some are for arsenal, they consume mana which regenerates fast. Through the course of the game you will discover spells like Lightning, Skullstorm, Shield, Dispel Magic, Invoke, Ectoplasm, Haste. You can upgrade them by using amplifiers. Upgrading of course means increasing duration, strength, power, speed etc. All depends on the spell.

“Scrye” an important spell, so important that it needs it's own paragraph. It's pretty much the signature of the game. This Spell allows you to view events from the past and hidden objects invisible to the naked eye. The games lighting can get dark and Scrye will also act as your only light enhancing source.

Scrye is also probably one of the scariest parts of the game. When ever you are in a place or room which has something to “see”. You hear some creepy as f**k whispering voice which says “Scryee”, “Look.....”, “Seeee....” and then you have to switch to Scrye and watch the sweat drip from you as are about to hit that right mouse button.

Not all Scrye events are scary but damn I remember when I had to Scrye at that Covenant family portrait early in the game. It was f**king awesome.

Sound is perfect. Check out those sadistic laughing skulls when you use skull storm or that powerful bang of the shotgun not to forget that creepy ass whisper when you have to Scrye. But really you will mostly marvel at the atmospheric sounds. Raindrops getting louder as you move towards a window. Howler howling in the distant, lightning, calming sound of a fireplace you name it. Perfection in detail here I tell you!

Music when it occasionally appears in game is again, perfect! The menu music is epic. And finally voice acting ranges from good to above average but never descends into cheesiness.

The Bad
Some problems plague this game however. Firstly the controls. Had a hard time switching weapons, inventory and spells within the game with the default config. Luckily the game allows you to set hotkeys, which is a real saving grace. However on first play you will keep going into the menu and setting them as you are unaware of what skill or weapon is important.

There is however some circular menu system which allows you switch weapons and spells. But that fails hard and falls flat on it's face.

I wouldn't have whined about the above but the game will require you to switch between skills and weapons during battles, especially boss-fights. It's a good thing your medikits are automatically used as your health reaches half or I'd have another reason to whine about.

Apparently this game was supposed to be also ported to the Playstation 2. It will explain the above mentioned circular system and also the fact that the game has too many loading screens. And when it has to load the game's screen goes black with just loading text in the middle. It's really a thorn in the arse when you are immersed in the game.

And yeah I still don't understand what the hell is up with those colorful pretty icons on the hud?! It's like selling candy floss and strawberry ice cream at a butcher shop.

You'll find weaponry like the Phoenix (which works like a less powerful version of the Unreal Tournament Redeemer) useless. With the Speargun it appears at the last part of the game. Even stuff like Dynamite and Molotov Cocktails don't work well. Good weaponry is crucial to a FPS, Unreal Tournament did this very well.

(if you want to avoid a slight spoiler skip this paragraph) The last part of the game Eternal Autumn really seems like well....Unreal. Yes the game Unreal. Except for the Handmaidens you have less monstrous characters and more alien like tribal enemies. In fact they look like the enemies from the first Unreal game. I really found this part more disconnecting in the entire game's experience.

In fact the above was the biggest disappointment in the game. For me at least.

Lastly I loved the games ending but again the sequel was canned due to poor sales so we have a rather confusing ending. But I still love the last line of Patrick as well as that last particular scene. It really makes you scream “WE WANT A FKING SEQUEL NOW!”.

The Bottom Line**
Undying has received good critical response In the media as well as earned a cult following. Cult following in the gaming world of course translates to “Good game which nobody brought”. As far as the underground hype it gets, it's well deserved. But I wouldn't call this the best horror game ever.

In the Action horror category there is a lot of contenders with this game but in the horror FPS genre I've still not played any as satisfying as this till date ( March 2010). Doom 3? not even close. F.E.A.R? Came halfway to that level. And I'm playing this game almost a decade after it's release.

As for hopes of a new studio handling a sequel I'd rather see this game keep it's dignity than have a shitty offspring which is the usual case with these modern trends.

Undying will appeal to fans of both Horror and shooters. People often whine about the fact that it doesn't have multiplayer but then again it's a single player game. And it's re-playability is like that of a book. You loved reading it, you'll be reading it again sometime in future.

The Good
First of all, the production values of this game are high. It uses the Unreal engine and to great effect with very nice graphics and lightning. Outside environments has weather effects like rain and snow which adds greatly to the atmosphere. Especially in one place where you are entering a monestary while the snowflakes fall around you in the cold air and the fullmoon shines in the dark sky. All the while gregorian chants are heard in the distance. Highly atmospheric to me at least.

The sound is one of the best I've heard in a computer game and suits this game perfectly. All the weird noises and spooky sounds made my heart beat very fast when I played the first levels of this game, and I played with headphones in the middle of the night in a dark room which added much to that. Even the main menu screen has some really powerful creepy music that chills you. This is the most scary game I have played, more so than f.ex system shock 2.

In the game you play as Patrick Galloway, an Irish veteran of world war one and an occult scholar who has been invited by his friend and warbuddy Jeremiah Covenant to his family's old mansion on an island outside the Irish coast. It seems like some old family curse is haunting the manor, with strange goings on and with most of the servants having fled the place and his own health deteriorating. So of course he asks you to investigate, and rather soon you encounter some nasty creatures that wanna rip your throat out. In fact, every different creature kills you in a different way, with some gruesome cutscenes showing your character being "finished off". But, at your disposal to fight these nasties you have a range of weapons and also spells since you're an occultist. You begin the game with a revolver and an artifact called the Gel'ziabar Stone. Later on you get more weapons like a shotgun and also magical weapons like a tibetan war cannon shaped as a dragons head. The inventory is a simple list of equipment like ammo for your guns and medical packs to restore health. Some weapons like the gun and shotgun can use special ammo like the silver bullets which does more damage.

The left mouse button controls the firing of the physical weapon and the right mouse button the spell you have ready. This way you can have two attacks in quick succession, by having a weapon in one hand and an attack spell in the other. Or you can have a defensive spell instead and fire with the weapon with the left mouse button and heal f.ex with the right. The different spells you learn along the way can be upgraded in power by "amplifier stones" which raises the power of them up from one to a maximum of five. Here you have to choose which to upgrade and which to not because there is a limited number of amplifier stones you come across. One cool spell that you can cast, is a group of screaming chattering skulls you hurl at the enemy and is rather deadly at higher power levels. To cast spells there is a mana indicator which gets drained when you cast a spell but automatically starts to replenish itself afterwards. So after a spell is cast you must wait some often valuable seconds to raise your mana level back so it can be used again.

The artifact known as the Gel'ziabar stone has two functions. One of them lets you use it as a temporary amplifier stone, which increases the power of your spell by one but at the same time takes up your weapon hand. The other use is to "scrye". At some points in the game you can use this to see things as they truly are which is often not a pleasent sight or to look back in to the past to see what has happened at the location.

To help keep notes on things there is a journal that gets updated everytime some new information is gathered or the story is advanced. Scattered across the mansion are also journals to read to find out what is going on.

The monsters and creatures are well done. I was impressed by some of the bosses, especially the second one.

Undying has great and beautiful locations, like Oneiros, a dimension connected to the house with strange beings and islands floating in empty space. Having played Realms of the haunting I can see that they got some inspiration from that game. Overall, this game is very well made and the level design and worlds are great and imaginative. And that makes it such a pleasure to play.

The Bad
The linearity. When you move around the huge mansion all doors except the one you must follow won't either budge or is stuck fast, annoying. Again from ROTH. I understand this is not an rpg but I would have loved to be able to examine the whole mansion the way i wanted. The journals you find and read are only flavour put there. It doesn't feel like I am investigating a haunted house on my own which is a shame because it would have made the game much more interesting. Now you're railroaded through the house and fighting monsters. I would have loved to be able to gather clues and evidence by my own and let me solve things the way I wanted. A game a little more open ended where you solved the puzzle bit by bit. Another "flaw" is the last world levels which are a little bit repetetive.

The Bottom Line
The game is more like a horror-action game similar to Dark corners of the world than a roleplaying game since it is kind of linear and doesn't have any rpg elements in it like f.ex System shock. Though not nearly as linear as DCOTW. Still, one of the best FPS's out there.

The Good
Oooh boy, what an atmosphere! Being that horror master Clive Barker (who penned the Hellraiser series, amongst many other scary novels/movies) is at the helm of this game, you know that you’re definitely in for a frightening experience. This game is reminiscent of the System Shock series in a few ways, mainly the fact that you seem to be the only living, sane human amongst a gamut of insanity, in addition to the game being an FPS and having a somewhat RPG-styled spell system. The cold, clammy environment of Ireland + decaying old mansion = one hell of a disturbing setting. Add to this the constant presence of mutilated/disfigured apparitions, black magic, demons, rotting corpses, otherworldly dimensions, grotesque monsters, veritable lakes of blood, and even Clive Barker’s infamous “hooks n’ chains” that seem to be in everything he does. And the graphical engine, which is the Unreal Tournament engine, conveys all of this horror in beautiful detail. If you like the sound of that, and/or you’re a fan of Barker’s work, then this is the game for you.

The Bad
In spite of the wonderful and terrible carnage I mentioned above, there are some issues that need to be addressed. The only problem I really had personally, was the AI of the monsters. For some reason, even though I was in plain sight, they would just stand there (or float in some cases) and not attack me whatsoever; I could even walk right up in their face and nothing happened (of course once you attack them it’s a whole new ballgame!). This didn’t happen constantly, but enough to get annoying after awhile. There’s also A LOT of load screens throughout the area, because the game was going to ported to the PS2, but this never happened. In turn, the interface tends to be a bit console-ish, with circular inventory menus which can get irritating.

The Bottom Line
Overall, this is wonderfully twisted, gory and fear-provoking game that could have only come from the mind of Clive Barker. Even scarier than the game itself is the fact that it tanked in the market, and was quickly reduced to the cutout bins within months of release. A sequel was even planned for it (as the ending showed), as well as the aforementioned console port, but there’s a 99% chance none of this will be happening. Sad, very sad. Regardless, don’t play this with the lights turned out during a thunderstorm!

PS-I also think it would make a fantastic film, with ‘Lord of the Rings’ director Peter Jackson’s CGI company WETA doing the monsters and other special effects, and Clive himself directing and producing. Granted, it wouldn’t be a mainstream hit, but it would definitely be cool for horror fans.

The Good
This is the hardest part, figuring out where to start. Undying had me by the balls within moments of starting it up, and didnt really let up until way later near the ending during a rare dull stretch. The storyline, crafted in part by Clive i've-quit-doing-horror Barker, centers on a family decimated by a curse unwittingly unleashed on them by one of the children, and its subsequent demise. The player joins the last surviving member of the family, Jeremiah Covenant, as he attempts to gather up the threads of his ruined family and make sense of it all, and finally to put a stop to the curse. Jeremiah is sickly and dying, and the player, taking the part of an old war buddy who has had more than a slight run-in with the occult, offers to repay a wartime favor by searching the Covenant estate for clues. Shortly after his arrival however, he learns that a rival from his youth is also present at the manor, and seriously messed up stuff start happening.

The plot basically takes you chasing down the spirits of Jeremiahs siblings as they go after his life. You learn the way the family unravelled and you trace the evil that has tainted their blood back to the very source. During the game you visit some truly interesting locales; EA must have paid their level designers way too much for this one. The Covenant estate, complete with lighthouses, pirate caves, cathedrals and underground tombs is amazingly detailed, and the other two dimensions you visit truly feel.. different. It's hard to explain, but whoever came up with these ideas, EA best not fire them. The gameplay however is fairly basic. The plot can be seen as a simple reason for the player to shoot his various guns and things at a varied list of monsters in lots of different locales, as well as use some spells to blow up stuff and solve some puzzles while looking for the occational switch or key. Mind you, i'm not complaining. Hell no.

Some feel the gameplay was overly simplistic for the subject matter, or rather, that that quality of the subject matter was too good for a shooter. To me however, Undying represents what any action fps should strive for; total game world immersion that doesnt catch onto annoying quirks of game logic, lets you simply play the game and poses you with a storyline that doesn't make you feel like an idiot. Undying is relentless, frightening, intriguing, moving and at times, astonishingly impressive.

Impressive. Undying was the first game in a very long time to make my jaw drop. There are certain key moments to the game that really made my day. To this date i still have saves right before these points so i can show my friends. Some moments are technically impressive, others are just impressive in their brilliance. Here are some highlights:

A well filled with water. When an incantation is invoked an Abyss-style water tentacle forms a bridge between two platforms. I have never seen water behave like this in any other game.

Invisible floors. In the demon dimension of Oneiros, certain parts of the game force you to take leaps of faith over yawning chasms to segments of floor that materialise out of thin air. This needs to be seen.

A certain spell you'll use quite heavily is the Scrye spell, a spell letting you take a glimpse beyond time and space, or rather at what is, what was, and what can be. The game uses this spell to show you some truly grisly things. At the very beginning, scrying at a lamp post will show you a man hung, rats drinking from the pool of blood gathering at his feet. Other places paintings on the walls will take on a demonic quality: A man in a chair appears surrounded by hungry demons, a horse on green hills becomes a horse on dying burning fields in twilight. A moment that really struck out for me was scrying a statue, having the statue tear his chest open and display his beating heart, begging you to kill it. Savage stuff.

The moon door. Seeing the reflection of a run down cathedral in a pool of water change to its image hundreds of years earlier, in full splendor. Again this needs to be seen. I couldnt believeit.

One of the siblings is a mad painter. Upon uncovering his barnyard studio, he gives you a demonstration of his skills. He paints an image on a wall in front of you. Slowly you realise its a picture of you - with a huge tentacled demon behind you. You turn around, and there it is. The game sets you up in ways that can be truly chilling.

The tomb. As you crawl through cramped dusty fogged corridors, with the rattling of bones all around you, visibility is near none. And somewhere in far distance you hear deranged singing, coming closer and closer. This is one of the defining moments of the game for me.

The design team behind Undying have every ounce of my respect. What they have done with the setting is truly amazing. Clive Barker needs proper credit for the aspect of the game he really touched on, and that's character and monster design. This guy should be on EA's permanent payroll. What he's done here is magic. The many creatures you encounter in the game are truly menacing. Not one of them made me laugh, which is rare for a horror game. Blood drinking cloaked and tentacled sorcerors, horned head eating half-men, waving squid faced cthulhu-style assassins that literally come out of shadows.. This is gold. Another thing well worth noting is the death sequences. Every time you die the camera pulls back to give you a full view of the offending monster giving you the coup de grace. Some of these animations are truly gruesome and often i found myself deliberately dying just to see them all.

I think one of the truly crowning aspects of the game is the sound. There isn't much else to say than point out the fact that next to the Thief and System shock games, no other game i've played has even nearly touched on the brilliance of Undying. The voice acting is bearable to brilliant, the music is always fantastic (Bill Brown working his magic), and the creature effects are mindboggling. Apparently the sound of a certain creature slithering was a mixture of a vacuum cleaner and a banana being peeled or something. Another cue on the ingenuity of these people.

The Bad
Sadly, there are problems, although i never thought they were PROBLEMS in the first place, merely issues that could have been adressed to enhance the experience. The story loses its drive at times, particularly when the player leaves the manor and the previous wealth of visual cues and hints at the family demise give way to weird alien constructions and landscapes. Oneiros and Eternal autumn, both realms featuring heavily near the end of the game, are fairly straightforward shooting segments, and its been noted that these segments lifts the veil from the players eyes somewhat and belie the actual simplicty of the gameplay. A while after this revelation, the gameplay can seem rather samey, although, i must say, i truly enjoyed just drinking in the atmosphere of it all.

Another issue, strangely enough for a single player game, is related to game balance. At a certain point in the game you acquire a melee weapon known as the scythe of the celts, and from there on there is little reason to use any other weapon. This is a weapon that kills most things in one or two strikes, and actually heals you. The pure strength of the thing is pretty depressive, considering the varied and interesting weaponry you can get your hands on.

A third niggle has to to with the final boss fight of the game. Suffice to say, i thought the game could have been a little cleverer here rather than just pit you against a huge monster that takes a ton of damage. The other boss fights had been superb events, and the last fight simply came off as slightly... Lame. The ending however, chillingly, left room for a sequel. However, now we know there will be none. I'm going to lament this fact for a very long time, as Undying represents some of the best horror FPS action i have ever seen, and probably ever will.

The Bottom Line
A fast paced, deeply disturbing trek through the true heart of hard core horror fiction. Dreadfully impressive, and downright intimidating in it's amount of polish.

The Good
Undying is scary. At it's most intense moments it can become so extreme that you need a break so that your heart rate can level out. Ominous corridors with curtains blowing right out into the centre, obscuring your view, heavy storms, lightning and of course, hideous monsters and ghouls. There are times when you can use a magic that allows you to see or hear events from the past. These are often horrific visions such as an intestine splattered bed coupled with the screams of a young child or a painting in which the images become demonic. The visuals are fantastic and very well done both architectural and organic. Watch out for the ghost who persues you with bloody hooks. The music and sound is magnificent. Orchestral pieces and for once, decent voice acting are most welcome additions to Undying. The story is really good and unfolds at just the right pace to maintain interest over the course of this longer than average game. This is all well and good but what about the gameplay? Wonderful. The weapons and magic systems are great but never make you feel like a one man army. There's a lot of skill involved here and as I mentioned before the quest is huge so there's many nights of intense action to be had.

The Bad
On approach to the final section of the game, it gets a little less interesting but never drops below good. Also the game is a little linear, leaving doors you need to go through open and others shut tight only to be opened when you need them later. This is a minor niggle at best.

The Bottom Line
A horror adventure/ 1st person shooter which is terrifying and fun to play. One of the best horror games for any platform. Judging by the recent and suprising news that the Playstation 2 incarnation has been cancelled due to the PC versions poor sales, fans of horror adventuring and 1st person games alike would be wise to pick it up while it's still available as I'm betting that Undying won't be given a repeat pressing. Brilliant!

The Good
The most worth mentioning feature of the game was the stunning story line.As you play the game you feel that you are part of some great mystery which only you can unfold.In my view this game can be converted into a successful hollywood movie.The second most astounding feature is its great graphics & thus great graphics which is one feature every gamer looks forward to.There is no need to describe the sound effects of the game as it has won numerous awards for its marvellous sound effects which can produce shivers down the back of even the bravest of gamers sometimes.Overall you will find this game the most horror of all games released so far including the horror games released for other consoles.If you have not played this game yet then you have missed a great gaming experience in my view.Thanks.

The Bad
There are two features of the game which are not upto the mark of excellence in my view. Firstly, the surruondings are not quite interactable that is, I mean to say that you cannot braek a glass window or move a chair.Secondly , the end is not upto expectations.The final boss in the game looks kind of funny .You expect to see a horrible grand looking final boss after seeing through a number of creatures that can create your worst nightmare and in the end you get to meet something you cannot describe.

The Bottom Line
In my view this is an excellent game in almost all respects.The graphics ,the sound ,the story are all brilliant and I think every gamer who loves horror ,action ,adventure or fantasy games should give it a try.

The Good
The story line is fantastic, but who would expect anything less than something overseen by Clive Barker. From my understanding, the story was already worked out before Clive came on board, but I do know that he was responsible for redesigning the main character, Patrick, as well as providing the voice of one of the villains and designing some of the monsters.

The game starts off very strong, you are quickly pulled into the mystery of the Covenant family and their curse. The atmosphere is creepy and stifling - you feel like you can't escape the horrors that lurk in the Covenant mansion.

The game is powered by the Unreal Tournament engine, contrary to a previous review of this game which stated it was a quake 3 engine. It has been heavily modified to handle the shadows and characters and it really shows. The level design is, for the most part quite good and the monsters are unique and well designed.

I found the music and sound to be fantastic. No complaints here, I often listen to the soundtrack just to get into the mood!

The Bad
There was no cooperative multi player, something I always look for in a single player title. However I do think that Undying plays just fine alone, in fact it probably increases the fear and tension throughout the game.

I did not like the UT powered engine. The game struggles in many areas to perform, and brought my beefy machine to it's knees in many situations (single digit framerates). Also, the sound often popped/crackled, which for me destroyed a lot of the mood created.

I also was quite disappointed by the last 1/3 of the game, it moved away from the mansion setting and moved towards some bizarre areas, which I was not too impressed with. Lastly, the ending was vague and I found the story to be inadequately explained. I like open endings but this ending was so open the earth could have fallen through it.

Lastly I did not like the frustrating slowness of the save/load mechanism. It took too long and became a great hindrance to my enjoyment. I read that the game was being developed for a release on the PS2 (which was canned) - due to memory restrictions, the game has an increased amount of 'loading' screens, which gets quite annoying after a while and breaks the tempo. While I understand why they did this, it still is annoying and unrequired for the PC version.

The Bottom Line
A good title, worth your time and money and is guaranteed to scare your pants off in many parts. There are some great elements to this game, so don't let my negative comments discourage you!

The Good
The first thing that got my attention was the atmosphere. While it starts with the cliche dreary night in an old mansion, I got the feeling that this wasn't the average cheesy horror flick as soon as I saw the howling beast prowling just outside the manor gates. The period architecture and design with curtains fluttering in open windows, dark musty catacombs, and wind swept ruins are both fitting and fighting. What truly gives the gameplay its depth is the superb direction. Rarely has any game kept me in suspense and not alone truly made me jump in my set as Undying has.

The plot slowly begins to unfold when you meet an old friend, Jeremiah. The story, which in itself is a rarity in FPS, is an intriguing and horrifying mystery of a cursed family with twist befitting a novel. Most of it unfolds as you talk to the mansion's inhabitants or read lost journals and letters. While it's not entirely original it does add a great bit of depth to an otherwise ordinary FPS.

The monsters and beast in the game are fairly good, but not exceptional. The roster includes some that are rather typical for a horror game, and most are not original either. The others though are really inspired. Most of them are by far not weak and are sometimes surprisingly conning. Also most are quite viscous in close quarters. To make matters worse, for the player that is, some tend to be in groups, making encounters all the more challenging. This is somewhat balanced by the stronger weapons and spells that are acquired later in the game, but many are rather slow to reload or recharge, making some encounters a real fight for survival.

As for some of the more technical aspects, the graphics and textures are average and sometimes poor, but still fit nicely with the setting and architecture. The map architecture on the other hand is great, much better than Unreal, which used the same engine. The models and animation are somewhat mixed. Some are good, but others have too few polygons and wooden movements. The facial texture animation, however, at times was surprisingly well done, with realistic expressions. While these seem like minor gripes the game still fairs well for its time.

The Bad
My biggest gripe with the game is how torturous dying in the game is. While watching the various fatalities that the enemies preform are interesting, they grow old quickly, yet for some reason you cannot skip past them. You are forced to watch them again and again and again. The same holds true for most cutscenes during the game. After that, instead of loading your last saved game, it loads a secret saved game that is created each time you enter a new section of the game. While this maybe be typical for a console game, it is simply inexcusable for one on the PC. So if your not fast enough to reload when you die, you have have to watch the enemies brutally deal its finishing blow and wait for the game to restart back to the beginning of the section before you can load your own saved game.

Also, the gameplay seems somewhat unbalanced. You have to travel a great deal before you meet the first boss, but the bosses and major beast become much more frequently during the second half. It's seems as if the ran out of ideas and started rushing the game to a conclusion, which is a merely a rather cheesy setup for a sequel.

Some of my other gripes are the game's linearity. While this is somewhat common in a FPS it is to the point of being ridiculous. The mansion is full of doors that seem to be stuck, even though the door might have opened before and some of them are even ajar, yet fail to budge. The conversations are also linear has they simply play out from beginning to end without any interaction whatsoever. Also the games creators seem to believe that there were silver bullets lying around a monastery in the 1200's!

The Bottom Line
Undying is among the best action games in the horror genre with a great story, settings and plot that will keep you hooked to the very end. I've played many and this is by far the one only one that has successfully made me jump or wince time and time again. This game is not for the faint of heart, but if you're game for a good scare then I recommend Undying.

The Good
Clive Barker's Undying is a well plotted shooter that loses its impact in the final 1/3 of the game. In Undying, you are Patrick Galloway, a man who's life has been touched by the supernatural. An old war buddy has called you to his estate to help him unravel a family mystery. The family story is revealed through journal entries that you find and through a scrye spell that shows how events unfolded in the past. The scrye spell was my favorite part of the game.

While the game plays as a first person shooter, the ability to use weapons with one hand and cast spells with the other is a distinct touch. Some spell/weapon combinations even complement each other. There is little inventory management and the linear design of the game means that you will have access to every weapon and spell.

I specifically liked how each weapon and spell had advantages and drawbacks. The revolver is powerful but has a long reload time; the shield spell is helpful but blocks your vision. Also you have the ability to "amplify" spells through power-ups, which offers a slight degree in variation of gameplay.

Graphically this game was impressive, I particularly liked the lighting in the outdoor areas. Characters looked great and sound was immersive.

AI was passable, the best AI comes from creatures deciding what attacks to use at what range. Also some creatures used cover for protection, but most encounters involve having creatures run straight at you.

The Bad
This game seemed to unravel towards the end. I really enjoyed the game up until the first boss (which was rather far into the game). Tension had been slowly building and I felt significantly challenged. Towards the end of the game, I was simply too powerful. I ended the game with 50+ health packs, most of my spells were maxed out, and I had tons of ammunition. This game lacked the bullet conservation aspect of most "survival horror" games.

This game is also very linear. Innumerable doors are sealed which prevented me from getting lost, but I began to wonder why the designers bothered putting doors in to begin with. I would have enjoyed exploring more rooms even though they might not have had any useful items or information. At the end of the game I felt like I hadn't missed any areas (unlike the Thief series) and feel that there is little replay value.

Finally, bosses were easy to beat. Like most game bosses, there is a method to beating them and discovering the method to defeating these was very easy. Often, I had much more trouble with the ordinary creatures leading up to the bosses rather than the bosses themselves.

The Bottom Line
This game is very similar to Realms of the Haunting but technologically light-years ahead. I really liked most parts of the game and was only really disappointed with the final level. Spells and weapons were great and there were several scary moments. Unfortunately this game sold poorly and it seems that no sequel will be made. Its strengths are its unique spell/weapon system, character models, and price. Its weaknesses are its linear design, lack of replay value, and a weak endgame.

The Good
In 2001, I was pleasantly surprised to play Clive Barker’s Undying. It was a horror/FPS. Intriguing! I thought. The game was marked down to about $6.99! With a cool $20 in my pocket, I decided to take a risk and buy a game I never played. And I still had some cash left in my pocket….nice!

In Undying, the player assumes the role of Patrick Galloway, and Irishman, exiled from his homeland after the strange and horrific murder of a woman, a case in which he is the main suspect. He returns reluctantly after receiving a letter from an old friend, Jeremiah Covenant. During the “War to end all wars”, that’s WWI. Galloway’s life was saved by Covenant. It was also during these dark days that Patrick first realized he had strange gifts.

He is one of the few in the world that can use magic. Including a strange spell called “Scrye”. When used after being cued by an eerie voice say “look”, he can view past events. Armed with his magic, and his trusty pistol, he sets out to help his old friend.

The plot thickens when Jeremiah reveals his family curse to Galloway. It seems that his siblings all deceased, save one, have returned from the grave. From here he must deal with each. As well as an interloper mage known as Kesinger, whom Patrick has unfinished business with.

Undying is a lengthy adventure, that managed to keep my interest from start to finish. Not an easy task. It plays like a FPS, albeit a FPS with many unique twists. Aside from standard guns, shotguns, pistols. there are also non-standard ones at your disposal, magic relics, and phoenix eggs. You also have an array of spells at your disposal, from a handy shield, to a nightmarish spell that summons cackling skulls for you to fire at your foes.

You can equip a weapon in one hand and a spell in the other. And can be used in tandem. Furthermore some spells enhance your weapons. For instance, the lightning spell plus a gun give your bullets an extra electrical punch. There are also items that can be used in battle, or out. These include health packs and dynamite, to name a few. They all must be used. All thought health packs can be set to administer automatically if your health drops to low.

There are various types of ammo available for your weapons as well. Both silver and standard bullets can be used in your pistol. Magic is upgradeable, spells become more powerful with the use of special items. You can also increase your mana, via mana wells. Arcane Whorls also increase magic potency.

This game is truly scary, unlike many so called horror games. This is achieved mainly by the excellent graphics and sound/music.

The Graphics are amazing. This is thanks to the use of the always powerful Unreal Engine. Despite being five years old, this game still looks good. The character models are well done, particularly the detail of the facial animations. The monsters look creepy and even better sound horrifying! The weapons all look nice. As do environments, and spell and lighting effects.

The areas in the game often invoke a sense of dread. From the Covenant Manor, to ruins of a monastery, all the areas are well designed. The Onerios area comes to mind. Onerios is a dream city that exists just beyond the veil of reality. It was once powerful, but has lost much of that power after it was nearly obliterated by a magical cataclysm.

The sound department is where this game really excels. Just listen to the song on the game’s main menu in the dark and tell me that that it did not freak you out! There is little music to be had here but what there is works so well we don’t need more.

The sound effects do one better. This is where most of the games terrifying moments come from. In 1978, the film, “Halloween” proved that sounds and music can be used to invoke dread and horror just as well if not better than violent images. From the creepy whispering “see”. To the noises made by the monsters. The cackling of the summoned skulls as they fly from your control is in a word wicked!

The Bad
This game practically screams sequel. Alas, we will almost assuredly never get one.

The difficulty is unbalanced. Playing on normal mode is almost impossible. Yet the easy setting lacks any real challenge.

There are horror game problems here. The game insists that you watch a cut scene of your death, every time you die.

The Bottom Line
Undying is simply one of the most satisfying FPS out there. Trust me I have played almost all of them. This is also one of the most original games of it’s genre. Newer Halo wannabe type games can learn a lesson from this one.

The Good
Patrick Galloway started investigating the occult as an easy way of making a profit out of superstitious and gullible rich people. In Ireland, at the beginning of the 20th century, it was a fine business.
However, the more Patrick delved into the occult, the more he started to believe there are things beyond our understanding. Things no sane human mind should be in contact with.

Then the great war started, and Patrick was called to serve. He almost dies in an incident against the vicious Trsanti, but Jeremiah Covenant, captain of his unit, saved his life and left him at a hospital.

Years passed, and one day Patrick received word from Jeremiah, asking for his help to restore order in his estate. Patrick owed his life to this man so he wouldn't even think about declining.

At the fastuous manor of the Covenant family, the air is thick with premonitions. At the entrance, Patrick receives a vision, one of the Trsanti corsairs has been hanged from one of the nearby light posts, at some point in the past.
In the middle of the manor, a black tower with the appearance of an edifice older than time itself, rises defying. Mysterious lights flash on top of it.
Something evil can be sensed all over the place, lurking in the shadows, hiding inside the walls, watching from the other side of the windows.
Inside the manor, Patrick receives another vision. A ghostly man, dressed as a rich gentleman greets him. Suddenly he disappears and some hideous creature whose skin seems totally peeled-off, with chains hooked all over his body, stares at Patrick.
There is death in the air.

Jeremiah is no longer the strong and determined man he was at the war. He looks —and sounds— like a pathetic shell of a man, waiting for death to come for him... before something even worse beats it.
His words for Patrick are eloquent enough: "My siblings are dead, Patrick... but I don't think they're gone..."
***
Five Covenant siblings. One ancient damnation. There is work for the spook-hunter.

Despite the rather compelling STORYLINE —one to be expected from a product with the signature of Clive Barker all over it— backed up with a sheer amount of text and dialogues, Undying is nothing more than a first-person shooter (FPS).
Along with a number of more-or-less typical weapons you get to use some magic spells (both offensive and deffensive), each of which can be progressively enhanced, but the game is still far from a RPG or anything like that.
The story is more of a cosmetic resource to glue the levels together than anything else. Patrick will talk with the characters himself with no choices to make for the player, and the whole journey is a pretty linear ride. Even in the manor with all its labyrinthic structure, the only doors that will open are the ones you need to get through.
Soon enough, you will notice the game has an unspoken structure: you can tell there are several different levels, each one of which is ruled by one of the demonic Covenant siblings.
Anyway, don't take me wrong. We are talking positive here: the game HAS a pretty compelling story. I specially enjoyed the storytelling, the way the story is presented. Every time you start a level you will definitely know who you're up against, but along the way you will be fed information on someone else, letting you know for sure that there's much more to come. Along the way, through conversations and all kinds of text fragments, you will be fed information about the secret that hides behind the Covenant family, the manor, a circle of stones in an island nearby, an ancient monastery, and even a connection with Patrick's own past...

One of the strongest points of the game lays among the INTANGIBLES: it's the atmosphere. Every single one of the locations where the game takes place is conveniently horrifying.
The sheer-sized manor is of course a haunting place —specially with all those lightnings during night storms. So are the catacombs underneath the family mausoleum. Then you reach some surreal and twisted otherworld which looks just as haunting. Then you get back to the manor, and you go out, and even the daylight looks eerie somehow. Then you go to the ancient monastery, which has been abbandoned for centuries, yet not unhabited...
You get the picture.
Every now and then a cutscene suddenly fires off, the camera pans with long shots that really take their toll on your nerves, and then something happens.

CHARACTER GRAPHICS are pretty good, as it's the concept behind them.
The regular monsters are the most neatly designed creatures I ever saw in a video game. All the unhuman creatures are incredibly well done. They are gross, they are ugly, and they REALLY look menacing.
As for the Covenants, every single one of them has a strong personality and will introduce him/herself in a way that will make you think it twice before running heads first towards he/she. Even the poor Jeremiah will have his good 15 seconds. Every one of the siblings deserve being the main villain in their own story.

BACKGROUND GRAPHICS are a mixed bag: For one thing, the texture resolution is pretty low, so you can see clear texture blurs when you come close enough to a wall, a window, and what all not. On the other hand, not only the atmosphere isn't ruined at all by this, but also the design of the locations is really good. Both the real (such as the manor) and the unreal (like the wacky dreamland of Oneiros) places show a great work from the designer's part. Fine art and rich imagination, full force ahead.
On top of this, there are LOTS of fancy effects to enhance the atmosphere: foggy corridors, heavy-pouring rain, thunders that crack illuminating the manor with creepy flashes and deafening sound, et cetera. Later in the game, there is a given breed of creatures that stings and poisons Patrick, distorting his perceptions for a few seconds... you have to see the way the world looks for those five seconds. And try to aim and shoot while thus stunned, too.

The SOUND is very good. I'm not much of a soundscape freak —hell, I need walkthroughs to pass even the most silly sound-related puzzles— but this is one of those games in which the sound is definitely above average. Even I can tell so.
Both music and background sound effects enhance the suspense atmosphere to unbelievable levels. Several times I found myself ACTUALLY SCARED while slowly sneaking through certain lonely levels, with the background sounds, the eerie music, the distant howling, and what all not.
There is a given level in which, while navigating some dark catacombs, you will hear, somewhere in the distance, a harsh voice which can only come out of a corpse humming a lullaby. Enough said.
Voice acting is very good, each actor fits their character perfectly, they sound convincing enough and they all have a nice Irish accent: "Aeh owed hem meh life, though...", or something. Neat.

GAMEPLAY-wise, there is not much to say. Like I mentioned, the game is a typical FPS, based on the Unreal Tournament engine. This last bit, for one thing, assures smooth gameplay alright.
It's worth to mention that the combination of the traditional weapons and the magic spells (Patrick fires weapons with his left hand and casts spells with his right hand) can turn quite interesting sometimes, enhancing gameplay slightly. Not only you can use two different attack modes at once, but there are a few possible ways to combine magic and weapons so they complement one another. One of the coolest combinations is to charge the crossbow's arrows with the lightning spell, so whenever someone is hit in an open area with such arrows, he/she is immediatly struck by a thunderbolt coming down from the skies.
The effects of some of the spells are very imaginative, and amusing to watch, like the scrye spell, which distorts reality and shows things that are hidden to the human eye. Whenever there's something plausible to be scryed, you'll hear a spooky voice whispering "scryyyye", "seeeeee", "look aroouuund", or something like that. Brrrr.
Of course, among all the fancy spells, there is the always-praised resurrect spell, which brings dead enemies back to life to happily join our noble cause.

Finally, the game has a REPLAYABILITY ingredient in the form of bonus stuff that you can uncover through console commands, or by performing certain special actions in certain places.
Among others, you get to enter a shooting gallery, watch a disco coreography starring some of the game's characters (including a few monsters), get a huge scary monster to join sides with you through the whole game, witness a gigantic sheep coming out of a barn... go look around in the net for the cheat codes, some of these joke levels are really worth seeing.

The Bad
Like I said, Undying is just a FPS. Moreover, this is yet another game which at first sight makes you believe you got a lot of choices to make, but at some point —earlier than I'd have liked— reveals itself as the most linear thing. You will see lots of doors, but the only ones that will open are the ones that you need to go through in order to advance in the game.
In outdoor areas, a little wandering around will soon show you that these areas are not as 'open' as they looked like.
The game is indeed yet another FPS, and nothing more.
Even though it looks like there is much more inside at first sight, soon enough you end up finding out that it would be the same if all those cinematics, the diary notes, the kilometers worth of text, and the dialogues just weren't there. The game itself consists of running through that door that opened, kill everything that moves towards you, run through the next door that opens, kill some more stuff, run through yet another door, and eventually meet a boss character, and whack the beejezus out of him/her.
Rewind and start over. And over again until you see the credits roll.

The game deserved more from the developers. The strong storyline, the appealing characters, the haunting atmosphere —everything was there to make a way more ambitious project out of this.
I'd have loved Undying to be some sort of the early-1900's horror-story version of Deus Ex, so to say.

The Bottom Line
I think Undying is a great game.
If you enjoy horrors, and you can live with the fact that this is yet another FPS with little to none interactivity with either characters or background (unless you count beating up as interactivity, that is), you won't be disappointed by it.
I don't think you can possibly get bored with a game with such a strong atmosphere as this one. Every time you might think the ride seems to get too long, something will happen that will keep you interested.
And as a FPS, it's a funny game too.

I said the game deserved more work from the developers, but I also think it deserved more attention from the public. Apparently it wasn't well received, and official word is that the sequel (which the ending lets open doors for) will never see the light.
Another shameful unfair chapter in videogaming history, and counting.

The Good
There are so many good things about this game that they can not be all mentioned here - but I'll try. First of all, the graphics are outstanding. The view is clear and landscape shows all the way to the horizon line. Enemies look great and move realistically. Then sound... voice talent is way better than in most other games, and sound fx are great. The game balance is great, and two-hand combat system works well - one hand for weapons and another for magic.

But the thing I like the most is the atmosphere and storyline. It had real writer this time and you can see that. The storyline is just awesome, better than in any other FPS. And the atmosphere... sometimes this game is really scary, and always eerie and dark. I still see dreams about blood dripping from floor and making stains to the roof. And the best thing, with one spell, you can see events of the past - those visions are one of the greatest things in the game.

The Bad
Well, there are a few annoying jumping "puzzles" to beat. Also in the end the gameplay mostly becomes boring, just cast shield, swing the scythe, repeat... And the system requirement is pretty high.

The Bottom Line
Great shooter with awesome storyline and atmosphere. If you liked Half-Life, you'll love this!

The Good
- The FPS gameplay was based on the Unreal Tournament game engine; suffice to say it works pretty well. The horror themed graphics and textures are good enough and help create an atmosphere.

• The music and sound effects are sharp. The voice acting is okay.

• The game difficulty is more than acceptable; it's possible to beat it even if you play on the highest skill. It has some tense fights.

• The plot is hooking. There is an intriguing story which get unraveled at a decent pace while maintaining the gamer's interest. The four (or maybe five) Covenant siblings are distinctive personages with a dark backstory. The quests to hunt each sibling have their own perils, puzzles and monsters. The enemies are also distinctive and could require to think in different strategies.

• You get some cool weapons, both conventional and mystical; some weapons have different modes and modified ammo available. You also get some very cool original spells, with aggressive or defensive power; the magical energy, or "Mana", unlike other games alike, regenerates itself, so you won't need to worry about getting magic flasks (although you can get items to boost your Mana and improve your spells).
  
  The Bad
  - The uninspired level design can make the game get old and linear. The unevenness of the quests makes it seem deformed (the last quests feel rushed). Also, the puzzle solving aspect gets tiresome (I'm sick of the usual "get the key" solution).

• The difficulty is not consistent. Some levels, particularly at the beginning of the game, can be really hard to pass, while others, some in which you even get to fight bosses, offer little challenge. Besides, at some point in the game, and from then on, they started making the typical mistake of providing the player a ridiculous and excessive amount of ammo and health items. Some enemies (like the monastery monks for example) are unrealistically tough.

• Unfortunately it has AI glitches. While the enemies are diverse, most of them are quite stupid and can get stuck unrealistically.

• Some plot points are poorly explained. The ending leaves you confused and wanting to know more.
  
  The Bottom Line
  If you like horror themed games and FPS, you should check this out.

The Good
EA did a lot of work on this game. There are a multitude of little details that create an immersive atmosphere. Like Clive Barker himself, The developers derived a lot from established fantasy and mythology. The sad, sordid tales of the Covenant family add to the storyline as you see how each member descended into madness. The monsters were unique and stood out from the usual FPS fodder.

The sound was perfect. The sound of loading your gun, to the ethereal call to scrye hidden scenes, it completes the game unlike many before or after.

The graphics were amazing, considering that it used the now considerably dated UT engine. Especially remarkable was the detailed models, nearly photo realistic in some scenes.

Game play was intense and kept you on raw nerves.

Music was sparse and didn't interfere with the game play. It was an eclectic mix of classical and world beats.

The game really rewards exploration by hiding goodies everywhere. And occasionally, you'll get a glimpse of someone's macabre sense of humor.

The Bad
First off, No freakin' sequel. The game ending was wide open. The inventory required some quick juggling to keep alive in tight battles. In an attempt to balance the weapons out, you'll find out that in battles with mixed creatures, you're going to do more retreating than attacking.

The Bottom Line
A thinking person's FPS. Better than Doom 3 with a fraction of the hardware requirements.

The Good
Hard as it is for me to single out anything spectacular about this game, there must be some reason why I played it so rigourously all the way to the end. I normally don't blitz on games at all in that way. I did with Max Payne, but I don't know what kept my attention on that one either.

It's probably because both games are incredibly easy to get into, fun, and not especially challenging. Undying grabs your attention pretty early on, and even though the control system leaves something to be desired, keeps you playing without much of a hitch. All the elements of a solid game are here: the graphics are good, the sound is good, the story is good, the gameplay is good, and the length is good. Nothing special, just good.

The animation though, is very good. The enemies really move nicely, especially the howlers and skeletons. There is also a fair amount of variety in the enemies I think, but some people admittingly don't think there is. Also, this game has brought back the tradition of boss creatures to fight, which deserves much thanks in my opinion. The spells are good. The weapons are ok. That's it really. Sometimes you get whisked off to a totally different environment for no real reason other than to provide a change, but that's ok because every FPS does that. Half-Life did it. System Shock 2 did it. I don't mind.

The Bad
Still, this game, even in an optimised condition, is never going to be like Valve's trailblazing debut. It's an FPS, it's a good FPS, but it doesn't try anything different. There's nothing to make Undying stand out from the crowd other than the addition of bosses and the funky 'scrye' spell. Serious Sam stands out by being so wonderfully excessive, but that's one of the few around that do. But anyway, it's unfair to compare every shooter to Half-Life. So on with the more niggling complaints: Firstly, the story gives off a slightly false impression. The stage is set for something deep and mystifying: Your war-buddy calls you to his house to unravel the secrets contained within the Standing Stones (which his father spent most of his life trying to figure out), and to find out about the curse that has plagued his family, what has become of his siblings, and what all these monsters are doing here. I don't want to spoil the experience for anyone who is thinking of buying this game but you find out very little. It turns out the plot doesn't really mean anything anyway, and it never moves on until the end like so many other games.

Secondly, why are all the bosses so easy? I admit I played this game on 'easy' because I'm a wuss, but I rarely got hit anyway so it didn't matter. The first boss is easy, the second is ridiculously easy. There are more but they're not really worth saying much about. In fact, one of the normal enemies I found tougher than any of the bosses in the game. The whole game is still not hard though. At one point I was carrying 60 health packs. The bosses aren't much fun to play again either because they...oh I don't have the room to describe it. All I can say is that ideally, bosses should have the pressure on you ALL the time. Metal Gear Solid 2 did it right when I played it. In that game I fought a guy on a rooftop who seemed to be constantly coming up with ideas of how to kill me, and who would actually try to corner me. Fighting bosses should be like fighting a guy in a boxing ring. It should be that intense.

Thirdly, why are there doors that jam for no reason at all and prevent your access? I've never known a house to have so many. I suspect the reason is probably because...

Fourthly, the game loads every time you go into a new area. Other than annoying you, this makes navigation of big places very difficult.

Fifthly, the sound in this game is good. But what makes it nowhere near System Shock's league is that many of the sounds aren't real. You can hear howlers when there aren't any around, they're just in the general vicinity. It's scripted sound and it doesn't work because it doesn't tell you anything. All FPS developers take note: ambient sound is at it's most tense and frightening when it is from real activity. What makes SS2 a work of genius is that when you hear a monkey, you KNOW there is a monkey near you for certain, and the volume and direction of the sound will tell you where it is. That's when you panic because you know the speakers aren't lying. So even when it's silent you're filling you're pants because you sit there praying you won't hear anything. Ocassionally SS2 does use music and sounds to heighten the tension. The moment you enter the cargo bays where currently dormant but evil robots are pressed against the sides of a very thin corridor which you must walk down, and you hear that soft hum and tiny rush of air sound, every hair stands up on the back of your neck. That is how it should be done. Less sound, more meaning.

Sixthly, the thought that servants would continue to work in a house where people are being eaten alive is laughable, let alone that they should be as nonchalant as ever about it.

The Bottom Line
A good game. It has faults sure, but it's still fun. Few of the faults are major, they just stop the game from being a really good regular game like Medal of Honour, instead of a good regular game. (Stop me if I'm confusing you ;O)) Either way, the game would never have been anything other than regular. Easily it's biggest fault is that it doesn't try hard enough.

The Good
Story is just awesome. Journal entries was written by Clive Barker himself. It's intriguing, and finale is quite surprising. Game is really fearful. Especially when you play it first time. Rooms of the manor are so dark and creepy that you will shit bricks from every noise). Another cool feature is several different death models for every monster.

The Bad
Nothing, really.

The Bottom Line
This horror shooter will scare you to your bones. Sound, graphics and story is just perfect. What does make this game so special? It's style. There is something from Lovecraft and Poe, and there is a lot of text that create this gothic, dark atmosphere of unspoken horror.

The Good
Undying is a great shooter, packed with a great pace, and lots of imagination. The levels and enemies are original and truly scary, and they are all rendered via the Quake3 engine, which means they all look impressive too.

At it's worst, Undying is merely a decent, plot-based shooter. But at it's best Undying is a truly scary experience. I have never in any other shooter experienced the kind of terror that this game provides, which comes in the form of "jack in the box" scares as well as some clever creature and level designs. More than once I found myself screaming as a howler sneaked on me from behind, or as I frantically tried to shoot a pack of enemies that dodged all my attacks. And this is were Undying nails it, when it puts you in desperate nerve-wrecking situations, thus you find yourself in some situations clearly out of survival-horror titles, were you find that you are outnumbered, outmatched, and out of ammo, and where you just have to hold on to your hat and run for it!

I haven't felt a feeling of desperation like this in a game for a looong time, but as always, it is so nerve-wrecking that sometimes you have to take a break from it, and sometimes you need to work up the courage to face the game again. This is, of course, excellent. Nothing deserves my admiration more than a game that doesn't pull it's punches, and Undying goes at it with gusto.

The Bad
Even though the entire interface, menus and music, etc. are all specially themed for the game, I found the in-game interface to be quite off the mark. In game, you have a series of brightly-colored "user friendly" icons representing your spells, weapons, etc. and... well, it sort of kills the mood sometimes! I don't understand how this ended up as this since the other menus and screens in the game are very moody and inspired.

But well, that's minor nagging really, the thing that really kills this game is the lack of value. One can't help but feel a "Now what?" sense of emptiness after finishing the game. Sure, it's a great experience, with a good storyline, and great moments, but it's totally linear, and though that could also be said of Half-Life, that game had multiplayer and user-made mods support. Undying has nothing! Not even alternate game modes, (a thing which has helped other horror games, like Resident Evil, extend their longevity) so in all I can't really see how EA expects one to dish so much cash for a game that has so little to offer.

The Bottom Line
Undying is an excellent horror plot-based shooter. It deserves all of my praises and recommendations, but I'm not sure if it deserves my cash. Other games offer much more extensive and lasting experiences for the same price. EA figured that since they were the only horror-oriented fps in town, they could get away with doing a half-assed effort, and well... let's just hope you learned the lesson EA, because I would really like a fully-loaded Undying 2, or even an Undying "Gold" or GOTY update.