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Clive Barker's Undying

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A Techtite Review

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The road to making a multimedia "thriller" is a tricky business. Suspense is a major hurdle, as is story, and as far as making any set of mere 3D polygons look particularly scary, well, that's the biggest hurdle of them all! Ever since the flawless, award-caliber Alone in the Dark --equally inspired by a horror story veteran, H. P. Lovecraft-- game designers have tried to go one better. The latest such attempt is Clive Barker's Undying, and it turns out to be one of the best haunted house-type games I've played in a long while. 

In this game, you take on the role of Patrick Galloway, an Irishman in 1922, who owes a life dept to Joseph Covenant. He gets a letter from Joseph, asking for his help; how could he refuse? Little does he know, he is entering a house with more dangers than he bargained for; all of Joseph's siblings have become monsters of some sort, because of an old family curse. You must protect Joseph --the last of the "mortal" members of the Covenant clan-- from being killed by his own sisters and brothers! This prelude to the story can be read in an intriguing miniature "journal" by Joseph, included in the game box; a welcome addition to a gripping thriller.

This house is often a marvel in macabre design. Enhancing the eeriness is a skill of Patrick's, giving the ability to "see" what normally would be invisible to the naked eye, like ghostly figures and other paranormal phenomenon. At one point, for example, you're in the room once owned by Joseph's young sister, Lizbeth. When near a portrait of the late sibling, a voice from nowhere whispers, "Looooooook..." to indicate this is a place where all is not as it seems. Using your special sight spell reveals a different look on the painting, of the monster Lizbeth has become. Talk about Haunted"...!

Not that Patrick's "look" spell is the only successfully used spookiness in this haunted house. Music, in particular, is spectacular, and either equals or exceeds the sounds heard in games like The Seventh Guest or Phantasmagoria. Furniture, blood red carpeting, and old paintings on the walls enhance the feeling of this being a classic, gothic, "haunted house" in every sense of the word. In several hallways, thin white curtains act like ghosts billowing in the wind caused by the windows behind them. In one of my favorite scenes (shown here), going near a haunted swamp, while looking at the ruins of an old chapel, reveals the way the chapel looked when it was still standing. Cool!

In time, you of course meet up with Lizbeth in her undead form, as well as Joseph's other siblings: Aaron, Bethany, and Ambrose. Likewise, there is obviously a bigger force at work here, which cursed the family, and this curse must be put to an end as well. Each of these characters has their own unique powers, and defeating each requires a certain different skill each time. This can involve any number of normal weapons, arcane weapons (like the scythe), or magic spells you learn on your journey (including a flaming skull-bomb). What is the best way to defeat Aaron --with his super strength-- might not be the best way to defeat Lizbeth, or Ambrose. Many often have that one Achilles' heel which must be used against them, often making boss fights an adventure puzzle more than a mere "battle" per se.

As for gameplay, imagine what would happen if a game with schematics similar to Resident Evil, was given a game engine similar to Unreal Tournament. In short, you have all the thrills of the classic Resident Evil game series, though full freedom of movement, and superior textures and environments as well. Sure, the game has pretty unforgiving minimum requirements (400Mhz processor, plus a video card with at least 16Meg of Video Ram), though it uses these features of top-notch computers to the hilt. When you get your first glimpse of Patrick overlooking a boat in the moonlight, you'd almost think that you're playing a CGI game like Myst; the real-time 3D graphics are that well rendered. This goes double (if not triple) for the villains you face (like the witch shown here), often with very ornate, intricate costumes, and each with spectacular AI, strengths, and weaknesses.

The game gets even bigger kudos in one respect; unlike several top notch games recently --Oni and Giants: Citizen Kabuto in particular-- there is an actual save game feature that you can use at any time (except, of course, during a cinematic). Remember when this used to be a feature used in all games? Now, I find myself praising a game if it has a save game feature at all. In this game, with such tough enemies to fight, it's a welcome addition. There may be only a few save game slots, though they're there, and can be used at any time.

There's very little to not like about Undying, though there are enough gripes to keep it from a "Deep Impact" rating. For one thing, there are times when the action is a little too fast and furious. In one "puzzle," you are fighting a Covenant monster sibling that cannot be hurt in his ghostly form; it's a race to get to his corpse --which can be fought-- before his invincible specter form does you in. Sure, this is one of the truly gripping moments of the game --and in its own way, particularly scary, as you try to avoid him at every turn-- though it's also pretty annoying. As you'd expect, the final battle isn't much better, and I'd prefer if the game ended soon after defeating the final sibling, instead of a plot twist that is a little cliché. The final boss, whose majority of offenses can lead to "instant death," is not the best way to end the game experience as a whole.

This game is also one of the many recent PC game titles that is truly, positively not for kids. Keep in mind, Clive Barker is the guy who made the Hellraiser movies in theaters! From decapitation to zombies without flesh...sure, it's only a bunch of polygon characters in a game, though it can still creep out the squeamish. Walk in a puddle of blood caused by a major battle, for example, and leave a trail of bloody footprints. It has its merits for fans of the haunted house game genre, however, and for fans of games like Resident Evil, it might be what they've been "dying" to see on store shelves.

	Final Rating : Large Crater. A very nice haunted house thriller, from the man responsible for the Hellraiser saga in movies.
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You might also want to order : Clive Barker's Undying: Prima's Official Strategy Guide