Clive Barker's Undying

Takes you back to that time when people used their imaginations to make a cool thing.

The graphics are outdated, but the story is rich. Fantastic for when you're looking for something scary to play.

It took me over 20 years to give this game another try and I really wish I have tried it earlier.

Clive Barker's Undying is an unusual game. It starts as a horror mystery in a mansion and it ends as a battle of the wizards all over strange landscapes. Set in the 1920's, you play as Patrick, an irish adventurer and researcher of the occult that answers his old war friend Jeremiah's request for help. Jeremiah lives in an isolated mansion on an island, and there have been some strange going ons recently. Ill equipped to deal with the horrors that haunt the mansion, Patrick starts his investigation. The gameplay consists of going through a series of levels that range from the aforementioned mansion to more... unusual places. Level variety gets a 10 here, you are always wondering what sort of crazy place you are going to end up in next. They have plenty of collectibles to find, so it's worth your while to explore them. The combat combines classic FPS action with magic, and the game expects you to use both spells and your weapons to survive. Both categories are also varied, so you (usually) have many options in how to approach the encounters. The game itself isn't particularly difficult (I played on Normal, i could have definitely gone for Nightmare), but you can get destroyed by the enemies pretty quickly if you're not careful. And if you die, you get sent to the beggining of the section, which sometimes is pretty far back, so saving often is recommended. Another frustrating feature is that quite often you will have multiple paths to take, but when you take one the way back will be locked. And a lot of powerups can be found in those alternate paths. This can become very frustrating, and it puts a sour dent on an otherwise really solid game. The story, penned by Clive Barker, is very interesting. Uncovering the mystery and family history were very entertaining to me, and it held my interest all my way through. In conclusion, Undying is a pretty unique game, and if you like shooters and horror (and functional mirrors) it's definitely worth checking out.

Arguably one of the most fun and underrated games ever made. Good to replay over and over.