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Clive Barker's Undying

Clive Barker's Undying

List Price: $39.99
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: very underrated
Review: I'm impressed! This game is HUGE and has tons of mood. You'll find yourself in places like on top of a roof in a thunderstorm, in the dungeons of a haunted mansion, in a pirate cove, in the past, in a cave next to a giant waterfall, and even in several alternate dimentions. The game has great graphincs and sound, although not cutting edge anymore. (I think it's an enhanced Unreal engine.) Author Clive Barker has injected a cool story and mood that really makes this game jump to life. It was worth the $50 when it first came out, and it's almost too good to be true when you can get it for $10. If you like 3D shooters and/or scary stories, you won't be disappointed.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Quality games sometimes get overlooked.
Review: If you are a fan of horror games, or just a fan of a good First person shooter, with a twist, this is the game for you. Ofcourse there is the typical FPS fair, such as shotguns and pistols, but you can also cast spells, and you can alter the strength of each cast, and in some cases the modes of the conventional weapons. This is done quite seemslessly, and in no time you will be using these features like it is a common aspect of games. The fact that the controls are so easy to get use to but, definitely adds something unique is a great thing. The good news of an excellent game such as this getting, looked over by mainstream gamers, is that it is cheap for you. If you are tired of the recent trend of releasing big name buggy software, and you are looking for a excellent game that you can play from start to finish, and be scared and entertained, this is the one. This is not for the young, or squeemish, mind you, but it is for those looking for fun.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Solid horror adventure.
Review: In Clive Barker's Undying, you take on the role of an occult investigator named Patrick Galloway. You've arrived at the request of an old war buddy, Jeremiah Covenant, at his manor in the hopes that you can solve the mystery of its hauntings and find out what exactly happened to the other members of his family.

The first thing that bears mentioning is that this game is actually scary. The suspense is high and the atmosphere is enveloping. The original Quake is the last game that held my interest this way (Thematically, I prefer supernatural adventures to futuristic ones like Unreal and Quake II.) I had to keep a light on while I was playing this, especially in the early stages.

There isn't a lot of logic to the proceedings, the most glaring example being the way housekeeping staff casually go about their chores as other workers are being slaughtered a couple rooms over. But if you can ignore things like this, you'll get by.

Graphics are impressive. Though things like sky and water are not as exquisitely rendered as in Unreal, other scenery still looks great. The snowfall in the monastery level, in particular, is beautiful. Monsters look real and other characters look nice as well (Was I the only one who was sorry to see Lizbeth go?) Cinematic cutscenes are well directed and exciting. You almost forget you're watching a computer game.

Just as important is the sound which puts you right in the middle of the action, with well-defined directionality (try rotating while one of the servants is talking to you.)

The game isn't exceedingly difficult to work through. My biggest difficulty was getting lost in the mansion and monastery, because I just don't have a great memory for finding my way around those kinds of scenarios. (I had the same problem with the Sunspire Tower in Unreal.) Puzzles aren't too obscure.

Complaints regarding the lack of multiplayer capability are not legitimate, in my opinion. The story is such that having more than one player simply wouldn't make sense. This isn't a blastfest.

My only real complaint concerns the amount of resources required to play the game. Unbelievably, the manual actually suggests you shut down *every* background process (via task manager) other than Explorer. You shouldn't have to do this, and in fact you don't, although it took me a lot of fiddling before I finally got the game to run. It still crashed a couple more times while I was playing, but that was forgivable (as every gamer knows: save early and save often!) At the very least, make sure you have the latest drivers for your video card.

I finished the game today and I have to say that I am quite satisfied with it. It isn't perfect, but it will keep you entertained (and frightened) for a good while. For the budget price it's now selling for, it's a great deal.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Clive Barker's Undying Does Not Disappoint
Review: Innovative, clever and creative are three words that aptly describe the gameplay of Clive Barker's Undying. I kept finding myself saying "how clever!" at things this veteran gamer has never seen before. The boss killing was a bit redundant and the game was a little linear, but despite those flaws the game is great, spooky fun.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Overlooked, but still wonderful.
Review: It's absolutely terrible how few people know about this game. Not only can it run well on older systems, but it is also one of the best designed games I've ever played. THIS IS A SCARY GAME If you want a scary game to rival Resident Evil, BUY IT NOW. The ESRB rating is "Mature". They're right. This spectacular game is very violent, very gorey, and very realistic (Only in terms of physics and such. The storyline is a bit fantastic). Speaking of storyline, this was based on a novel, and tells the story very well. It is almost as if you are actually reading Clive Barkers book, with visuals.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Play This With The Lights ON
Review: Just for the record, my sister at the other end of the house could hear a delightful assortment of freakish howling, orchestral crescendos, the loud banging of bullets being shot, maniachal laughter, and crying... and then she heard my startled shrieks. I often found myself in front of the screen with my hands icy cold and trembling.

I originally got this game because of the trailer on American McGee's "Alice", and having heavily enjoyed that game I went ahead and tried this one out. I was prepared for the horror of this FPS, but how can anyone ever really be fully prepared for that unbelievably large, multiple-canined, tentacled, flying creature that comes at you eager to bite into your flesh and you know there's no way to exit this room unless one of you is on the ground twitching?

Granted the game is linear (most of the doors, save the one you have to go into in order to progress, are magically locked or stuck so you HAVE to go into that one open door) so that you can't really beat the bad guys in your own choice of order and one who enjoys exploring before progressing might find this annoying. This isn't such a big deal though because you do get a good amount of blooming in the story line in this way without skipping or missing any steps. And I found that the ending was a little disappointing (this was why I gave the game a 4) but I won't get into details (I don't want to be stalked by angry mid-gamers).

I've read that some gamers were annoyed by constant loading breaks, but this never really became a problem for me. They were brief and were a good opportunity to save. The only thing that rocked my boat was the few glitches and freezes I had to endure (but they were very few!), and this was just a reminder to save OFTEN. My new WindowsXP had very little difficulty with this game, but my friend's Windows 95 did, so if your computer's old, buy with caution! Another thing that got frustrating was weapon reloading... because sometimes it took so long, you were dead by the time your weapon was ready to fire again. But this little anger-making piece only made it a bit more fun because you could use both hands independantly at the same time. Once you got the hang of this (keeping off enemies with spells by your right hand while reloading your gun with your left), you were set.

Overall, a great game. Horrifically entertaining, with awesome cutscenes that were borderline movie clips, great graphics, very good orchestration. Looking for a good spook and some fun? Get this! But don't play with the lights off.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Clive Barker, you are one sick mofo !!!
Review: Ok, I picked this game up (for cheap) because I thought it looked like fun, but little did I know... later that night I would be turning on more lights in my place and double-checking that the doors were locked. Playing this game late into the night FREAKED me out. I won't give away anything when I say that early on, when our hero (you) confronts some only-from-Clive's-twisted-mind werewolves-on-speed-like creatures called Howlers, the tone is set for the pensive state you will find yourself in for the rest of the game. As others have mentioned, the sound in this game alone is amazing and can set your nerves on edge. You start to identify certain sounds with different horrific adversaries, and they bleed those sounds in slowly sometimes, so you know - IT'S COMING FOR ME - but you can't see it yet! (...) but I found myself constantly running to hide until I could gauge the situation and figure out my plan of attack. I haven't finished it yet and I shudder to think what evils Mr. Barker and the good folks at EA have in store for me. The only thing that sucks, and I mean SUCKS (not in a good way) is that apparently the game didn't do well at all, so they cancelled plans for continuations of the story. Come on, EA, kick the marketing department's arse for dropping the ball and bring this sucker back to life!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: The absolute creepiest of all...
Review: One warning up front: this game is not for people who don't like horror movies. Actually, it's even scarier than a good horror film, since you are interacting with the subject matter and the monitor is right in your face. "Undying" is definitely the creepiest, most frightening gaming experience I have had in 25 years of playing computer games. The game is not great, but it does a number of things well.

Gameplay: You are called to Ireland in 1923 to help a friend who believes that he is being haunted by his four cursed siblings (all dead). You start at the family mansion with a revolver and a single spell as you track down clues. From there, you go on to a mausoleum, monastery, pirates cove, two other planes (Oneiros and the Eternal Autumn), and a few other places to confront each sibling. The most frightening scenes take place in the mansion and the monastery, with monsters jumping through windows, coming out of the floor, and falling from ceilings. And there are a lot of nice touches that will get you, such as the scry spell that lets you see some disturbing images that are not apparent to the naked eye. You can't trust any mirrors, windows, or even candles. The enemy AI is among the best I've seen. Monsters attack in packs, dodge, hide behind things, and generally try to shock the hell out of you. The atmosphere for at least the first half of the game is incredibly creepy and foreboding, largely due to some good visual effects and some truly excellent sound work. There were many times that I found myself paranoid about being in a well-lit room with only one door. You can just imagine the feeling of being in the bottom of a dark dungeon, surrounded by all sorts of disturbing sounds and enemies with no exit door in sight!

Unfortunately, all is not well with "Undying." While the control scheme is clear and probably typical for first-person shooters, it can be hard to cycle through weapons and spells during combat. Also, the quality of the storyline takes a nose-dive about halfway through. The game has a five-star beginning and a one-star ending. The first third of the game (the Lizbeth chapter) is superb and well done and is easily the best part of the game. The last chapter (Bethany) should not have been included, since the use of cavemen (yes, cavemen) was really just silly and had no place in a horror-themed game. The last encounter involving an unexpected opponent was unnecessarily hard (on medium difficulty setting) and downright ridiculous. Thankfully, there are not many jumping sequences in the game, but there are a few that are truly frustrating. I would advise anyone playing this game to have a walkthrough guide handy (there are good ones at www.gamefaqs.com and www.gamespot.com). Although you can't really get lost in this game since it guides you by locking you out of certain areas, there are 5-10 places that you can get stuck. Generally, I only needed a walkthrough to find a few well-hidden secret passages and to figure out the tricky combat patterns required to defeat two of the bosses.

Regarding technical matters, the game comes with a nice well-written journal, in addition to the in-game journal. You can't save the game at the exact spot that you want, but instead only at the last loading screen. It took me about 35 hours to complete the game on medium difficulty. I found no bugs in the game after patching it, but it still crashed to desktop a few times during the loading of auto-saves.

Graphics: Good, but by no means great. Character/monster models are convincing and architecture and landscape are done well. Lighting effects build atmosphere, and there are some very nice special effects. The big problem with graphics is how the natural environment is rendered. Some bodies of water and all skies are just awful. There is nothing worse than hearing the howling wind outside just to find that the sky looks like a first-grader's watercolor painting. Except for these issues, graphics are quite adequate.

Sound: This area deserves 5 stars. Whoever did the sounds for this game knows how to scare people. The music itself is good and can be intense when it needs to be, but the sound effects are truly amazing. All of the things that you would expect in a horror game are there, including howling wind, monster growls, shattered windows, dripping water (or blood), and hideous laughter that comes out of nowhere. However, there are a few things that you won't be expecting, such as the playful laughter of children in a room that has a known history of grotesque happenings. The sound people did a fine job on this game.

In sum, I recommend "Undying" to anyone who likes horror-themed entertainment and first-person shooters. While it will frustrate you in a few places and the storyline ends with a whimper, the overall package is good enough to warrant many hours of your time.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A Good Game
Review: Pros:
-rich color, nice looking water, beatiful maps
-good story
-good spells/weapons

Cons:
-slow at first
-reloading of maps

For the price, you can't expect to find a better game. The colors/textures are fantastic and help to make up for somewhat blocky models and landscapes. Water looks really nice. The settings of the various episodes are really fantastic, scenery is gorgeous. This game may even challenge your graphics card.

The story is good, you have a concept of purpose and aren't just killing things pointlessly. The maps are very enticing to explore - the mansion, monastery. The weapon's are ok, the best being the scythe. At the beginning, gameplay is slow for a while, but a little before you get the scythe, the pace really gets going. One annoyance is that when moving through the mansion, the game has to reload the map for various sections.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Could be a good game but...
Review: The graphics, sounds and the story in this game are good but the saving feature is just a real pain. Levels are so small that once you entered to the room and want to move on the next area you have to wait for the next level to load, and when that happens repeatedly 4 - 5 times for 20 minutes of game play it really not only gets annoying, but almost pisses you off. Another thing: once you died you have to wait for the level to start again and than load your last save since the game doesn't load it automatically. And it happens very often so instead of actually having fun playing you have to stare at the screen with the sign "LOADING" most of the game. So basically it all spoils fun so much that you want to just give up and throw the disk to the garbage.
This game could be a good piece, but developers did their best to spoil the fun


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