Clive Barker's Undying

TL;DR: Finished in medium difficulty with little difficulty. If you're familiar with the FPS genre and like exploring around, you should probably go for hard right away. The game has a beautiful atmosphere and interesting combat mechanics. Undying is a cool game if you're into slower paced FPS. For a 2001 game the whole setup generally works very well. Usually the outdoor levels age pretty badly, but in our case most of them are gorgeous (in a horror movie sense) and use cliffs & void intelligently. The beginning is quite hard as you don't get many weapons and cruise around the big scary mansion. Combat is basic and is more survival than anything. You can really feel the stress building up with the eerie sounds around you and enemies coming from behind. As the game progresses, the enemies and levels get more "alien" and the scary atmosphere dissipates. The upside is that combat becomes more dynamic when you start switching between spells to get buffs while firing your weapon of choice. Most of them are useful until the end and can sometimes combine together, so It is worth taking time to experiment around and understand how everything works. I felt the story suffers from this though. It goes maybe a bit quickly from hearing weird noises in the corridor as a somewhat vulnerable occultist, to blasting beholder like creatures as a battlemage powerhouse.

So System Shock 2 was basically the start of modern first person horror PC games. Unfortunately it was kind of clunky and the RPG system (breaking weapon!) really detracted from the experience. Undying was basically the first post-SS2 game that made the focus all on traditional action FPS gameplay. It half succeeded. For the first half of the game, it was pretty good. A spooky intro before any enemies appear. Weird stuff happening. The early ghoul/wolf enemies (howlers) were the first melee enemies in an FPS game to actually be a threat (SS2 and Doom monsters could be endlessly back stepped). The weapon/magic system was innovative at the time. Then, shortly after you dispatch the first sibling, it starts unraveling. You go from spooky gothic monsters to fighting human monks (snooze), unscary pirates, and finally cavemen(!) in a level that seems like it was taken out of a Turok game. They obviously ran out of time making the game and you're rushed straight to the last boss. So you had half a good game...for the time. It has NOT aged well at all. The action is clunky and the enemies are just annoying after 15 years of advancements. And that's while you're still in the first half! Once the boring 2nd half kicks in, all but the most hardcore nostalgia players will most likely quit. For the super nostalgic and game historians only.

This game is a one of a kind master piece written by a master novelist. Like many adventure games written by novelist it doesn't have a decision tree plot. Although Clive Barker in a interview once said he wished the game could have been made in a sandbox that the player could just explore. The world is so organic with details and life that you get immersed and forget your in a old school collapsing tunnel game engine. Unlike other FPS this game does not throw hordes of weak enemies at you. The few enemies they throw at you are usually well timed and terrifying. Best way to think of this is Amnesia without your character being so helpless. If you don't have patience for adventure games and looking for thin plots that you can just make a dash for the finish line and not miss anything... THIS GAME IS NOT FOR YOU! This game rarely spells anything out for you and like Clive Barker books you really have to play it twice before you pick up on a lot of the smaller details. Foreshadowing and plot details are finely interwoven into the game environment. Very easy to miss if you get into a rush and you can end up confused on whats going on. Absolutely amazing with how much detail was packed in with so little tech they had to work with back when they made this game. Makes me wish someone would turn Clive Barker loose with a modern sandbox game engine.

There are hardly any horror themed shooters being made these days that manage to creep you out. This game has a truly eerie setting that manages to do everything to grow into you, leaving behind an experience you won't be able to forget anytime soon. The graphics and gameplay are great, if you see it as a game of its time. The only let-down in the game is that in crashes randomly (Windows 7 user here). But still it doesn't ruin the experience. This game certainly earns my recommendation - Truly a "Good Old Game".

... this is the only PC 'horror' genre game that genuinely made me jump. But, I'm not going to give those 'jumps' away. Play it ... you'll see. =) Recommended!