Clive Barker's Undying

aka: Bu Si zhi Ling
Moby ID: 3457
Windows Specs
Note: We may earn an affiliate commission on purchases made via eBay or Amazon links (prices updated 3/26 10:20 AM )

Description official descriptions

There always was a curse upon the Covenant family which killed them all either with a painful disease or drove them into madness. At the end of the 19th century the father of the current generation of Covenants reopens their old but abandoned mansion and thereby uncovers strange standing stones on an nearby island. Possessed by this discovery, he locked himself up in the library and wanted to uncover the meaning of those stones. Out of curiosity, in 1899 his three sons and two daughters stole a book about the stones out of his library, went to the island and conducted a dark and powerful ritual which marked the beginning of the end. During the following 20 years almost every member of the family either turned mad and killed themselves or died from something else.

Now it is the year 1923 and the very last member of the family, Jeremiah Covenant, lies on his deathbed with cancer in his body but he is not alone in his house. The spirits of his brothers and sisters haunt the house, strange events happen and evil creatures stroll through the mansion. In a final attempt to not only lift the family curse but also to put his fellow ancestors to rest, he calls upon Patrick Galloway. Patrick was part of his squad in the first great war and after a fierce battle against creatures, they had never seen before, he had specialised in abolishing such powers from the earth.

You take control over Patrick and walk around like in every other first person-shooter through the several locations of the game ranging from the mansion itself over other earthly locations to Oneiros and Eternal autumn, which are other plains of existence. On your way you uncover the mysteries of the family by reading books and papers which lie around the mansion or by talking to the few people still alive on the island.

Also reading might help you understand what is happening here, it won't help you survive against all the strange creatures that hide in the shadows and attack you without asking. It's also impossible to defeat the ancestral spirits without some serious firepower, so besides your trusty revolver, you'll also find several other weapons during the course of the game like Molotov cocktails, your lovely shotgun or a freeze gun shaped like a dragon head. Since you are fighting the paranormal, you also have access to several spells which allow you to see enemies before they see you, revive the dead or shoot Ectoplasm. Since you hold all your weapons in the left hand and you cast your spells with the right hand, it is possible to use both at any time.

As the name suggests, Clive Barker, the maker of the Hellraiser movies, had great influence in the making of the whole game. He also wrote the background story.

Spellings

  • Клайв Баркер. Проклятые - Russian spelling
  • 不死之灵 - Simplified Chinese spelling

Groups +

Screenshots

Promos

Videos

See any errors or missing info for this game?

You can submit a correction, contribute trivia, add to a game group, add a related site or alternate title.

Credits (Windows version)

141 People (103 developers, 38 thanks) · View all

Lead Animation
Animation Team
Art Director
Lead Artist
Technical Art Director
Art Team
Lead Design
Design team
Producer
Associate Producer
Lead Sound Designer
Assistant Sound Designer
Music
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 84% (based on 43 ratings)

Players

Average score: 4.0 out of 5 (based on 112 ratings with 17 reviews)

It's never too late for the Covenant's House Party!

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.

Windows · by dreamstealer (126) · 2010

The crack'd and crook'd manse

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.

Windows · by Vashna (17) · 2007

“Scryyyyeeeeee…….”

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.

Windows · by BJ Hoskins (9) · 2003

[ View all 17 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
Spoiler-ish screenshots? Giu's Brain (503) Dec 30, 2012

Trivia

Cancelled sequel

The game had an open ending because the developers were already planning a sequel. Unfortunately, the sequel was canceled because of poor sales of the game.

Family portrait

A family portrait of the Covenants is displayed in several rooms of the estate (and on the box, and in the advertisements...). While it is a striking picture, it is also impossible according to the time lines presented in the documentation and story. The picture shows Jeremiah seated in his post-war infirmed state. Jeremiah did not return from the war until after Lizbeth's death and Aaron's disappearance.

Music

  • A good deal of the music files used in Undying are actually recycled directly from Dreamworks Interactive's previous game, Trespasser. For example, the music that plays during the boss battle with Ambrose in Undying also plays during your first meeting with a T-Rex in Trespasser. The music which plays during Undying's final battle is taken from the Town level of Trespasser when you find two T-Rexs fighting each other.
  • In the main theme song, you'll hear the choir sing "Spiro Spero, Spiro Scio." In latin, that roughly translates to "hope to breath, Hope to understand."

Player character

Originally, the hero of the game was supposed to be Magnus Wolfram, a large, creepy-looking man with a bald, tattooed head. When he was introduced to the project, Clive Barker suggested that the team develop a more human, identifable protagonist (which led to the creation of Patrick Galloway).

Magnus' character model still exists in the game, however. It's used for the creepy Trsanti shaman that Galloway fights in the game's opening cinematic.

In an E! Online interview, Barker actually said (about the main character):

Make him somebody I want to sleep with. (...) What we had before was this kind of big fellow with all these tattoos, but there wasn't any charisma there. I think we needed somebody who the player was going to want to be...It would be like having Regis Philbin playing Indiana Jones.

Awards

  • GameSpy
    • 2001 – Best Sound of the Year

Information also contributed by ClydeFrog, Scott Monster and Terrence Bosky

Analytics

MobyPro Early Access

Upgrade to MobyPro to view research rankings!

Related Games

Clive Barker's Jericho
Released 2007 on Windows, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3
Quern: Undying Thoughts
Released 2016 on Linux, Windows, 2020 on Xbox One
Undying
Released 2021 on Windows
NecroBouncer
Released 2022 on Windows, Macintosh
Clive Barker's Jericho (Special Edition)
Released 2007 on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3
Eternal Sonata
Released 2007 on Xbox 360, 2008 on PlayStation 3
Death or Treat
Released 2023 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, Xbox One...
Fushi-ō no shiro
Released 2009 on Windows

Related Sites +

  • Bill Brown - Music Composer
    Listen to streaming and downloadable MP3 music tracks from this title at the composer's official site.
  • Clive Barker's - Undying Fan Page and Walkthru
    Undying walkthrough, FAQ and enemy descriptions
  • Scary Creatures
    An Apple Games article about the Mac version of Clive Barker's Undying, with commentary provided by Aspyr's President Michael Rogers (August, 2001).
  • Standing Stones
    Fan site for Undying, with editing support. Currently running a contest (with prizes) for the best original map.
  • Standing Stones
    Undying fansite with walkthrough, cheats, maps and more.
  • Standing Stones
    An extensive Clive Barker's Undying fan site containing walkthrough, game guide, editing tools, community maps and more...

Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 3457
  • [ Please login / register to view all identifiers ]

Contribute

Are you familiar with this game? Help document and preserve this entry in video game history! If your contribution is approved, you will earn points and be credited as a contributor.

Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Matthew Bailey.

Macintosh added by Corn Popper.

Additional contributors: Alan Chan, Unicorn Lynx, Aapo Koivuniemi, Benjamin Slade, Apogee IV, AdminBB, Zeppin, Klaster_1, oct, Patrick Bregger.

Game added March 25, 2001. Last modified January 27, 2024.