Clive Barker's Undying

One of the best fps horror of all time. Great story & gameplay, amazing atmosphere, mysterious characters and unique weapon's and spells. 10/10 in my opinion.

Undying is a difficult game to rate. While it starts on a very strong note, the final levels are bad to where they leave a really bad taste in the mouth. Written by Clive Barker, Undying has one play as Irishman Patrick Galloway, who wants to pay back a life debt by helping out his old friend, Jeremiah Covenant. Jeremiah is the last surviving member of the Covenant family, who are now haunting their mansion as undead creatures. During the first few hours, the players gets to explore said mansion. The first enemies Patrick encounters are Howlers, which pose an actual threat due to their speed and agility. One has to make every of the six shots in Patrick's revolver count, since the first damaging-dealing spell Patrick also gets doesn't do much. At this point, most of the narrative is conveyed through excellently written journals, while unholy appararitions and bone-chilling sounds help create a thick and menacing atmosphere. After getting out of the mansion for the first time, Patrick ventures down the catacombs of Lizbeth, the first boss, and even gets to visit a monastery, both in present time and past. Human enemies make their appearance for the first time, and between the rich atmosphere, detailed and vast environments, and varied level design, the game is at its absolute best. Things get worse though. First, Patrick gets the Scythe, which takes out most enemies in one or two hits. Furthermore, he gets the shield spell, which blocks basically all incoming damage and is dirt cheap to recast. At this point, the game starts to become very dull and increasingly uninspired. The narrative dries out, scares are scarce, and the shield and scythe combination means the player won't ever lose ammo or health. By the end of the game, I was sitting at full ammo and over 150 health packs. After two poorly designed back-to-back boss encounters, the game is over. To sum it up: Get this, but stop playing after disposing of Ambrose (or Keisinger), and thank me later.

So this game has a fun, original horror themed design with a nice variety of weapons and many interesting magic spells to use in the fights. However, not every spell is equally useful. Some appear to be broken as upgrading them seems to do nothing. The boss fights are inventive although some of the bosses' weaknesses are kind of tough to find. The game has somewhat bland graphics, but the level design is really interesting in places, especially the way water behaves in some areas. Also has some genuine mind-fuck or scary moments. If you like FPS's to start with, consider this a 4-star cause it really isn't weak as FPS's go.

Before F.E.A.R., Undying was pretty much the benchmark of successful fusion of FPS and horror. Clive Barker helped shaped the game's plot and background that is somewhat inspired by Lovecraftian horror and together with Dreamworks Interactive's technical prowess at providing a tight and engaging gameplay experience, the final product is downright one of the best first person shooters ever made. One thing I liked about the gameplay is the usage of both conventional and magic weapons simultaneously, which I find lacking in modern shooters that implement both weapon types like the Bioshock series where you fire them separately. The Unreal Engine 1 looks terrible by today's standards though, and unfortunately due to the poor sales when it was released back then, there isn't actually a fanbase devoted to provide a HD mod or warrant a sequel. Something that you might consider if the graphics are a turn off.

Replaying this nightmarish game after nearly 15 years and its still good! Sure did freaked me out before in my old computer and now so much better playing on newer pc's. This game is a lot creepier than Clive Barker's JERICHO. There's just something disturbing about this whole family/cult/lovecraftian theme going on. I couldn't finish the game before when I was younger - now I plan to end this mystery right here right now! Playing on Nightmare Difficulty and loving it!! Yer most powerful weapon in this game - the QUICKSAVE/LOAD key lol. Play it!! - with headphones :)