Clive Barker's Undying

by Electronic Arts

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00005V97I
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: March 1, 2002
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #36,468 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Solid horror adventure., July 13, 2002

By 

bonsai chicken (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Clive Barker's Undying (CD-ROM)

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.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A solid scare, and great fun!, June 1, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Clive Barker's Undying (CD-ROM)

Being a fan of Clive Barker, I was very anxious to see what Undying had to offer. Well, I played the demo once, and actually had nightmares about it -- a clear indication that I had to have the full game!

I was not disappointed, either. This is the most frightening game I've ever played, and I've played a lot of games. With creepy atmosphere, eerie settings, chilling sound effects, dark storyline, and horrific adversaries, Clive Barker's Undying offers solid scares that just don't let up. For fans of the genre, this game is a must-have!

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Play This With The Lights ON, April 25, 2003

By 

"marablade" (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Clive Barker's Undying (CD-ROM)

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.