Clive Barkers Undying (2001)
A towering achievement of atmospheric Gothic horror wrapped up in a game with some really cool ideas at its core that's unfortunatley held back by some very old school game design. Seeing Clive Barkers name plastered all over this title, I assumed it was more of a marketing gimmick than anything else, but I couldn't have been more wrong. Barker is probably the greatest living horror author in my opinion and this game is greatly elevated by his work, starting with the decision to replace the edgy 90s badass protagonist with the much more interesting and entertaining Patrick Galloway. A veteran of WW2, he is called by his old war buddy Jeremiah Covenant to investigate a family curse and the rest of the covenant siblings being transformed into monsters. And the game is jam PACKED with Barkers writing. From journal entries by the various family members to newspaper clippings about creepy local happenings and in character descriptions of the events and tools in the game, you can find so much text and it all is brilliantly written and lets you feel Barkers fingerprints throughout. Also included in the original release was a physical diary detailing the fall of the house of covenant, which has been digitally preserved by the good folks at GOG and gives a lot of cool background and lore that is a ton of fun to read. But putting aside the writing for a moment, the gameplay also has some really cool ideas. The central mechanic here is a system where your left hand has weapons and your right has a variety of magic spells, an idea that Bioshock would later innovate on. This allows for a lot of various synergistic options and a fair handful of secret functions and Easter eggs that are a ton of fun to seek out. And the atmosphere is absolutely incredible. The mansion that acts as a central area is gloriously Gothic and deliciously labyrinthine and a special shout out to the incredibly cool other magical world you occasionally traverse while fighting your spectacularly hammy rival Otto Keisinger. However, there is one aspect of the game that has not aged particularly well, and that is the dificulty. Its fine for a game to be hard, even frustrating at times, but enemies just deal SO MUCH damage here and it leads to a lot of repeated deaths and reloads that it distracts from the game itself. For me personally, the atmosphere and story of this game was the real draw, so replaying all of these super enemy dense sections just got old really fast. Outside of that though, man what an experience. Looking forward to revisiting this around Halloween! 8/10
A towering achievement of atmospheric Gothic horror wrapped up in a game with some really cool ideas at its core that's unfortunatley held back by some very old school game design. Seeing Clive Barkers name plastered all over this title, I assumed it was more of a marketing gimmick than anything else, but I couldn't have been more wrong. Barker is probably the greatest living horror author in my opinion and this game is greatly elevated by his work, starting with the decision to replace the edgy 90s badass protagonist with the much more interesting and entertaining Patrick Galloway. A veteran of WW2, he is called by his old war buddy Jeremiah Covenant to investigate a family curse and the rest of the covenant siblings being transformed into monsters. And the game is jam PACKED with Barkers writing. From journal entries by the various family members to newspaper clippings about creepy local happenings and in character descriptions of the events and tools in the game, you can find so much text and it all is brilliantly written and lets you feel Barkers fingerprints throughout. Also included in the original release was a physical diary detailing the fall of the house of covenant, which has been digitally preserved by the good folks at GOG and gives a lot of cool background and lore that is a ton of fun to read. But putting aside the writing for a moment, the gameplay also has some really cool ideas. The central mechanic here is a system where your left hand has weapons and your right has a variety of magic spells, an idea that Bioshock would later innovate on. This allows for a lot of various synergistic options and a fair handful of secret functions and Easter eggs that are a ton of fun to seek out. And the atmosphere is absolutely incredible. The mansion that acts as a central area is gloriously Gothic and deliciously labyrinthine and a special shout out to the incredibly cool other magical world you occasionally traverse while fighting your spectacularly hammy rival Otto Keisinger. However, there is one aspect of the game that has not aged particularly well, and that is the dificulty. Its fine for a game to be hard, even frustrating at times, but enemies just deal SO MUCH damage here and it leads to a lot of repeated deaths and reloads that it distracts from the game itself. For me personally, the atmosphere and story of this game was the real draw, so replaying all of these super enemy dense sections just got old really fast. Outside of that though, man what an experience. Looking forward to revisiting this around Halloween! 8/10