Clive Barker's Undying

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
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.