Clive Barker's Undying

Clive Barker's Undying - a horrorgame from 2001 - hits the urge for a classic game of this genre just enough to take a closer look at it. I would recommend this game solely to an teen/adult audience, casual and pro-player alike. But whats the reason for that? Story: Let me start with the story. Youre playing as Patrick Galloway, soldier of the first World War and now a specialist in black magic, the occult and alike. Your fellow soldier Jeremiah Covenant writes to you to help him out with a curse which haunts him and his manor. The story itself is stereotypical horror with hints here and there whats going on. The story itself is interesting up until the third boss. After that it feels like it went downhill pretty fast. Not only are the twists obvious - the characters themselves start to get stale and predictable. Graphics & Audio: The graphics are (for a title from 2001) pretty good. They show in detail the different enemies and bosses aswell as the enviroment. Even though many places are dull and empty (like the mountains and monastery) the manor (which should have been the mainstage) is a fantastic dark place with horror right around the corner. I even encountered a few jumpscares - a nice surprise - in a otherwise very rushed combat/game. The Audio is good. Haunting sounds, screams, people talking. The mix is good and not overused. Definitely a big plus to keep one intersted in the game. Length & Difficutly: The game itself can be played in three different difficulties. Easy, medium and hard. With around 8 hours of playtime (rushed after 3/4th of the game) the game is of normal length for an fps with a story. I would say it could add up to 12 hours if played on hard. The bosses are not as hard as they should be, especially the endboss is a big let down. But still: 8 hours are worth the money. So, what would I recommend? The game itself is worth the money you spent on it. 4/5 Stars because the beginning till mid/late game are great. The Endgame is lackluster.

I still have the original game on CD back then, which I had some difficulty running on Win 10, even with the Win 95 compatibility settings applied. Thank goodness GOG made it possible, so now I can run the game at max resolution on my current gaming PC without any crashes at all. Even though this game was released back in the 90's, the creepy Victorian gothic and Lovecraft-inspired themes makes it one of the best horror game I've played. If you have a good set of Dolby computer speakers , do yourself a favor and crank up the sound while playing this game at night, especially when playing through the catacomb levels.

When I played the game I was not expecting to be playing one of the most frightening games I had played on all my life. The tension and all the gory imagery coming from the villains and even the environment makes you to shiver in fear. Too bad the last chapter looks more than a FPS mission but still the game is badass. I wonder if Clive will make a sequel for this but if you want to follow other Clive works you can try to find Clive Barker´s Jericho which is another horror game (highly recommended).

The three games I look back with the most fondness for are Undying, Max Payne (1), and Unreal Tournament 2004. This game has an incredible and scary atmosphere. The sound design is among the best I've ever heard. You must play this with either good headphones (preferably alone in the dark) or with a nice sound system (also alone in the dark). You should also play it in either October or November, because the atmosphere is very much in harmony with those months (except for you, southern hemisphere). The story is also fantastic. You absolutely must read the text. It's not extensive, but that's where the story is told, and it's a great story. I've read a few complaints about the game being "linear". I consider that a feature, not a bug. I don't want to go around trying random doors. I'm so glad the game just locked the doors I wasn't supposed to go into. Another complaint I read is that the first sibling is much longer than the others. This is a good thing. The game is really two games in one. At first, it's a true horror game. You are weak and terrified, crawling through dungeons with monsters that can easily destroy you. By the time you finish the first sibling, you are becoming a powerful wizard, and the game is more of a horror-themed action game. It's still a blast, and the atmosphere is still fantastic, but the terror gives way to action, and I think that's how all video games should do it.

Gameplay-wise this game is near perfect. You have your weapons and spells which you gradually find throughout the game, you use them to fight. The spells can be upgraded with amplifiers (make sure to fully upgrade the Shield); the weapons, fortunately, lack this annoying now ubiquitous crafting/upgrading system. With the spells you will not see any pesky counters telling you how many amplifiers you’ve collected and missed. Certain enemies are weaker to certain weapons and spells – do experiment, it’s rewarding. The difficulty is adequate and puzzles aren’t too hard to figure out on your own. They levels are extremely well-designed, and in no way boring or even confusing, but somewhat too long. Too few events happen at too large intervals. It’s that the story is somewhat vague. It’s missing details (I WAS reading the journal notes, I still stand by that) but the general idea of what’s going on is clear. At the end of the day it's enjoyable and worth playing. You will need a special patch and dgVoodoo to run the game at a modern resolution.