I expected more from Clive Barker after Undying. Formulaic and convoluted with an unsatisfying ending.
The levels are mainly tight and cramped, and very linear, except for a few levels that are a bit more open. Still, the gameplay reminds me of an understated Serious Sam. Nothing ever jumps out at you, not really, they basically spawn and run at you in hordes as you unload clip after clip into them.
This is somewhat pleasurable for a while but quickly becomes tedious, as does the "run and revive" tactic which is always necessary. Gun some creatures down until a teammate or two falls, at which point you run over and revive them. If you fall, they do the same for you. Only if every squad member dies do you have to restart - and that will probably happen a few times; the game seems to go from being relatively easy and boring to ridiculously difficult and boring, randomly.
Every single boss encounter except one entails the boss somehow making himself invulnerable, at which point you do something to remove the invulnerability, take some pot shots, rinse and repeat.
And the story - I was sober the whole time but felt drunk, as it made no sense. Why am I warping around from age to age? Who is this person that wants to eat me and why do I care? You never feel like you're part of a story, you feel like you're grinding through level after level of monsters to reach some revelation, but alas, it never comes.
Without spoiling anything - after all, you are looking for the Firstborn - when you find this creature and kill it, there is about 3 seconds of yelling "Get out of here!" and then a picture of the dawn with the credits rolling. You're left thinking, "Did Clive Barker lose his abilities to create a scary game, much less story?" Some say perhaps the game developers didn't translate it well; if so, they seemed to do a much better job with Undying, and I even heard C.B. state this game would be disturbing and he wouldn't produce anything less.
Gore and violence with about 6 monster types minus the bosses does not equal disturbing or scary. Don't buy this game; if the ending movie had at least been long and tied everything together it would have been somewhat worthwhile, but as is, this game is TERRIBLE.