Clive Barker's Undying

5/5

Horror games were still rare in 2001 and Undying delivered a great experience back in the day. Your journey on an remote Irish island brings you to a haunted mansion, its garden, catacombs, ancient ruins and even another dimension. The gameplay is fluent and streight forward. It's always fun replaying the story. Clive Barker's style is written all over the places. If you like his books you'll love this game. At the end you can even experience some Lovecraftian horror in this FPS masterpiece. Technically it's based on the first Unreal engine and therefor has some strange flaws like kind of glossy and polished looking textures which is weird for this gothic style setting. And the viewing angles sometimes stretch figures oddly. Maybe Quake 3 engine would have suited the game better. The GoG Version unfortunately is poorly adapted to modern systems. When a clean installation and start from GoG Galaxy the version looks pretty much like back in the day. In the in game setup you only have a few 4:3 resolutions to choose from. In the folder you find nGlide 3dFX wrapper to change the resolution. During the game I experienced some minor graphic glitches. Go to the forums and get the fan made patches for better textures, gameplay tweaks and widescreen support.

This is the first FPS I've ever played, back in 2001. And a horror one too. It's got a simple story (but with a major twist just before the end), solid and fast progressing gameplay, many innovative weapons, differing environments that match with the setting, and boss battles. Around 15 hours for a playthrough. I liked the protagonist Patrick Galloway, how he remained calm throughout all the horrors he had to face. Too bad we didn't get a sequel or another horror game with him as the protagonist.

I would have loved to experience this on release. The dated graphics take NOTHING away from this game. Well worth the price even if it's not on sale.

I originally played this game many many years ago and the experience has always stuck with me ever since. CB:U has it all; guns, ghosts, evil cultists, creepy paintings, magic and an atmosphere that'll make you afraid of the dark all over again. Whether you're a Clive Barker fan or not, this is one horror FPS that doesn't disappoint on any counts and an experience that absolutely should not be missed by anyone who enjoys a good scare or great old games!