It is not often that a visual artist like Clive Barker gains so much fame that interested groups outside of the industries that he usually works in would want to hire him for his skills.
Clive Barker's Undying was one such endeavour. Dreamworks Interactive and EA Games were very, very much smitten with his prowess at weaving horrifying yet intriguing stories that they used his name to promote the game - for better or worse.
As to be expected from a game whose art direction and writing is led by Clive Barker, the game is very much about its story. Yet, there is a peculiar caveat here: the game is a first-person shooter. Granted, there were shooters with strong stories before, such as Half-Life and No One Lives Forever, but Undying, once played, would give the impression to any experienced game consumer that it had practically raised the standards for good stories in shooters.
To describe the story in any way here can be considered spoilers outright, such is its quality. However, this review would have to concede several themes and plot points of the story, because the story is very heavily intertwined with the gameplay designs.
The player takes on the role of a certain World War I veteran, who had encountered adversaries with supernatural powers in a German theater of that war. A bullet from his trusty revolver ended the life of the leader of said adversaries, but not before the latter had struck him with a magical attack that would mark him as the latter's successor of sorts, as well as the bearer of an ancient and enigmatic artifact.
He was revived by his comrade and friend, and thus owed his life to the latter. His friend, who is an apparent Irish aristocrat, decided to call on this debt years later in order to solve a familial crisis whose severity had gone beyond mortal reasoning.
Conveniently enough, in between the time of the start of the story and his apparent rescue by his friend in World War I, the player character had learned to harness the powers that he has been bestowed with, effectively taking on a career that deals with the occult.
Thus, the player is informed that the protagonist will be battling supernatural forces with means that are both mortal and sorcerous.
The game, however, does not start with all-out action against said supernatural forces. Instead, in typical Clive Barker fashion, the game starts out with a seemingly slow and very foreboding prologue, complete with dark corners, flashes of lightning and eerie antique mansions, as well as the odd shadow-play that disappears almost as soon as the player has spotted it.
This is a game where its designers relish in crafting scenes that stoke the player's terror just beneath the surface. It is certainly not for the faint-hearted or those prone to having nightmares.
The sense of foreboding does not stop either when the hideous creatures that hound the protagonist's friends eventually reveal themselves in their full, unholy glamour. The game continues to make use of designs that evoke ominous themes for its levels, such as wind effects on models with jiggle-bones physics, and also for its skyboxes, many of which reveal leering faces or ghastly sigils if the player stares at them long enough.
For those who are more meticulous, these design considerations would appear to be intended to distract from the less-than-stellar texturing that and bump-mapping that the game has for its levels. However, they still serve the purpose of directing the player's attention to any important on-screen occurrence or locations. In contrast, the game designers resorted to a lot of lighting tricks that drown unimportant nooks and crannies in deep darkness that would deter all but the most curious players.
(That said, these ominously dark locations usually have nothing in them, and are also lousy hiding spots as all enemies in the game disregard lighting effects in the AI scripts for purposes of drawing line-of-sight.)
Despite the cloying atmosphere of oppressive dread, the game constantly reminds the player that he/she has control of a protagonist that is more than a mere mortal. The protagonist has a plethora of spells to use against the dark creatures arrayed against him, and he also has the ability to carry around a tremendous number of weapons and other equipment, as befitting the hero of a game that, if not for its dark themes, would otherwise resemble a shooter. (That is, the protagonist has a "magic bag", which was a convenience that was typically common to protagonists of shooter games at the time.)
Governing the protagonist's well-being and his magical prowess are his health meter and his mana meter. The protagonist is very much mortal, though exposure to stuff of the arcane has rendered him quite difficult to kill by human standards. In other words, his toughness is very much akin to those for protagonists of typical shooter games, i.e. he can keep moving around and fighting with little debilitation until his health simply drops to zero.
Having his mana drop to zero is not a fatal matter, but he needs mana to cast his spells. Different spells cost different amounts of mana to cast, and some can eat up quite a lot. Mana recovers over time automatically, fortunately (unlike Health).
The protagonist starts out with only the most basic of tools: his Scrying spell, his trusty revolver (the very same one that he was armed with in World War I) and the aforementioned mysterious artifact.
The Scrying spell, in addition to serving as a narrative tool (specifically with respect to the protagonist's new occult profession), also serves to put into play an interesting game mechanic. This game mechanic involves the mysticism of the "third eye", or a vision that sees other things that the mortal one cannot. In-game, this spell, once cast, allows the player to trigger visual changes in the environment – many of which are quite gruesome to behold but nonetheless yield useful information that would be important to the tasks at hand.
This spell also shows off how easily the game can change graphical filters and textures quickly, as activating the Scrying vision visually changes how the player perceives the environments in the game, especially the ones that are still set within the mortal realm. It also happens to highlight models in view, which is very handy in dark locations.
The Revolver is the first of the protagonist's weapons. It is a reliable fall-back weapon, being quite accurate and having decent accuracy. This weapon is also the first to accommodate the game mechanic of different types of ammo for a certain weapon; mortal weapons like the Revolver tend to have rounds of the unusual kinds, such as Silver Bullets for the Revolver, which are more effective against unearthly enemies.
Switching rounds require a complete reloading animation, however, and some weapons can have very long animations. It is unfortunate that, despite the protagonist's clairvoyant abilities, the game does not give him any spells that allow him to scout ahead for enemies. This is of course to preserve the theme of foreboding doom, but there does not appear to be any way to quicken reloading animations – not even the Hasten spell, which only increases the player character's movement speed.
The mysterious artifact, called the Gel'zibar Stone, is another fall-back weapon, albeit one that is not mortal and does not require any ammunition. The Stone, when wielded, lights up in any locations that would yield to the Scrying spell's effects; this is handy if a player has cleared a region of the current map and would like to uncover any secrets, of which there are many in this game.
The Stone also completely negates the Scrying spell's mana cost (more on this later), thus allowing the player to explore cleared regions and Scrye to his/her heart's content.
The Stone also enhances the current spell that the protagonist is wielding, up by one level (more on this later too) to the ultimate maximum of level six, which makes the spell exceptionally potent.
The Stone can also be "fired" to produce a rudimentary knockback effect on enemies. This would seem quite harmless, considering that the player cannot "fire" this rapidly, but there are plenty of precarious places in the game, such as cliff-sides, that a player can force enemies off from (especially those that do not drop any items when slain).
From these three tools alone, the player can have very early tastes of the game mechanics, including that of the player character being able to wield a weapon simultaneously with a spell, i.e. the player does not need to switch in between weapon and spell. The player can still only fire off one of either at a time though – something that the game does not inform the player of – but the downtime in alternating between the firing of a gun and the casting of a spell is very short, thus making this game mechanic quite effective in what it is supposed to do.
Some other weapons and spells in the game are picked up in either a nonchalant manner as weapons are in typical shooter games, e.g. off a corpse of a valiant-but-slain human who attempted to resist the inhuman forces at work in this game, or obtained through completion of a plot development and as a reward for completing an arcane (and often deadly) puzzle.
Some weapons and spells appear to serve as the equivalent of weapon archetypes found in typical shooter games. For example, the Skull Storm spell is effectively a rocket launcher of the arcane (and much creepier) sort. There is also a shotgun, which is a weapon that was to be expected when the player has to deal with a lot of vicious monsters with little regard for personal space. (The shotgun does have special and wicked shells for the more troublesome of fiends, however.) There is also a sniper-rifle equivalent of sorts to be found in the Speargun, though it has a special property that allows it to be used with another spell, making it so much more devastating.
The spell that stands out the most is Ectoplasm, which is actually a very simple spell that would greatly amuse veteran players of the shooter genre. It can be considered the arcane equivalent of the rapid-firing weapon archetype. Casting it sends otherworldly energy and mass at whatever is in front of the protagonist, who can spam this spell repeatedly to saturate the target. At its maximum levels, this spell simply goes through walls, increasing its utility – and fun factor -when coupled with the Scrying spell.
Other spells appear to be highly utilitarian and suitable for many situations; in other words, they function a lot like power-ups, albeit very portable ones. For example, Haste makes for easier platforming puzzles and quick retreats, while Shield is always handy to bring up before a fight that the player knows can be won using weapons only or when running past a gauntlet of enemy fire and/or hazards.
In addition to costing different amounts of mana, different spells also have different casting times. It is unfortunate that the game does not include any in-game forewarning on how long a spell takes to be cast, but a player would soon figure it out, albeit the hard and painful way.
Some weapons function very much differently from weapon archetypes typically found in shooters, however.
Notable weapons include the Scythe of the Celt, which has a tremendous presence in the storyline. It should suffice to say that in lieu of a big and powerful gun that is typically to be found in shooters as the nastiest weapon that the player could have, Clive Barker's Undying gives the player a melee weapon instead. This weapon also has a very fun alternative mode, which greatly increases the damage that it can do and also transfer health reaped from enemies into the player character, at the cost of continuously draining mana.
Another notable weapon is the Tibetan War Cannon, for its default use of area-effect attacks that slow down any approaching enemies – a weapon design that was rare in shooter games at the time due to gameplay balance issues.
Most of these weapons and spells are quite refreshing in design (even if their utility may not be original), especially those that are actually effective at what they are supposed to do.
There are some weapons and spells which are a disappointment, unfortunately, mainly due to reasons such as poor design considerations that may have arisen due to thematic concerns. For example, Molotov Cocktails appear to be the equivalent of grenades, i.e. they are meant to be thrown at bunches of enemies, but they lack any explosive power to scatter them. Another example is the Phoenix Cannon, a weapon that would have been impressive if there had been more ammunition for it. (It uses Phoenix Eggs, of all things.)
The Spell Invoke would have been useful, if it was not so costly to use and its benefits so dubious. It raises slain enemies to become temporary allies, but poor pathfinding and rudimentary AI makes them more of a hindrance and help, especially in tight spaces. Moreover, accidentally attacking them simply resets their AI to one that is hostile to the player. The Invoke Spell happens to be the only way to permanently put down the enemies known as Skeletons, but it has little other practical use.
The Lightning spell, despite having one of the best graphical effects in the game, is woefully underpowered when used to blast enemies with. It would appear to be best used to power up the Speargun, which electrifies its ammunition. Otherwise, it is only needed to solve puzzles involving lightning rods, which is a disappointment for this spell's design.
More often than not, the protagonist himself will make a remark upon retrieving a particular weapon or spell, usually imparting a tip or two on how it should be used.
In addition to his remarks upon obtaining them for the first time (some weapons can be acquired more than once, due to their ubiquity in the level in play), the protagonist will also make appropriate entries in his journal, which have more details on them including any mystical lore that they may have. Most of these journal entries are quite well-written, and their lore – if any - may have may have been directed or penned by Clive Barker himself, such is their quality of intrigue.
As new entries and updates are made to the journal, the game will produce an indicator, which is handy if the player would like to do some reading if only to appreciate the writing for this game (which is good). Game-time conveniently pauses whenever the player accesses the journal.
The journal also has pages concerning other matters, such as the protagonist's travails and his musings on whatever has happened during the course of the game. Most of these are optional to read of course, though he will also make an important journal entry if he comes across an arcane puzzle; the game will produce a visually different update indicator when this happens, which is also handy.
In addition to collecting weapons and spells (in the form of scrolls), there are also other collectibles that are of benefit to the player's efforts.
There are the usual health pick-ups, which come with different aesthetics according to the themes of the level in play but otherwise provide the same effects (and are simply labeled as "Health" in the inventory system). However, to prevent the game from becoming too much like the typical shooter, these health items only confer their benefit over several seconds each, and only one may be giving its effects at a time (e.g. the player cannot use several health items simultaneously).
This has the effect of making the player approach battles more carefully, but as stated earlier, the player lacks reliable means to scout ahead, pretty much forcing the player to have this item available for use by default.
Perhaps the most important item of the arcane sort is the Amplifier, which is an artifact that can be consumed to increase the potency of spells that the protagonist has learnt, by increasing the levels of spells. (Apparently, incantations are not the only components of spells.) Spells of higher levels generally last longer and are more effective at what they do, so Amplifiers are understandably rare.
They also happen to be very, very difficult to find, being hidden away in the most off-the-treaded-path places. To compensate, they appear to have unique graphical effects and audio emanations.
Arcane Whorls and Mana Wells are also collectibles with the same main purpose as the Amplifier: permanent improvement of the player character's statistics. The former increase the rate at which the player character regenerates mana, while the latter increases his mana capacity. Likewise, both are very difficult to locate, but they also lack any significant audio emanations. These two items also cannot be stored, but considering their singular-purpose effects, having the game use them on the protagonist on the spot would be acceptable.
These three arcane items serve to reward the player who has enough curiosity to explore the levels in Clive Barker's Undying, and many of them can only be obtained by solving puzzles. This, of course, adds to the time of playing the game, albeit time spent in a satisfying manner.
The other items in the game are not as impressive, unfortunately. For example, Dynamite Sticks have little purpose outside of solving puzzles that require explosive solutions; the protagonist does not appear to have any penchant for throwing them, despite having the grit to cast deadly magical projectiles also of the explosive sort. Some others, like Ether Traps, appear to have scripting that only works in some levels, which is a bit disappointing. Fortunately, the usage of these items is not crucial to the main gameplay.
As mentioned earlier, the protagonist will have more than just the oppressive and alien atmosphere of this game to confront. There are many enemies in the game, and some of them have special killing animations that would humiliate the player for having the protagonist fall prey to them.
The game starts off easy on the player: feral rats and bats are the first few enemies to be fought off. Eventually, the game will introduce dangerous, inhuman creatures, as well as incorporeal ghosts and other undead.
The more magical and otherworldly ones cannot be hurt by mortal ammunition (except the more wicked sorts). There are also enemies of the mortal and human kind, to break up the pace of the game (which would otherwise seem like a monster-hunting game), and to challenge the player with hostile guns that the player also happens to have.
The player will usually be left to his/her own devices to figure out the best weapon to slay a newly encountered enemy, but once he/she does, the protagonist will update his journal with an appropriate entry for said enemy, citing details like its vulnerabilities and strengths.
In addition to enemies, there are plenty of environmental hazards in the game. For example, the one that is most common in the mansion that makes up for most of the game's environments is the poltergeist, which flings stuff at the player character. (Of course, this is not exactly an "environmental" hazard, but the player should be informed that stuff flying here and there in this game is really only clever item manipulations.)
The more highlighted of the battles in this game involve the bosses. As mentioned earlier, the protagonist has a friend with familial problems, involving estranged and not-really-dead relatives. These individuals serve as most of the bosses in this game, and each has his/her own interesting story to tell of their fall from human decencies to utterly depraved and cruel existences.
Most, if not all of them, can end the protagonist's life very quickly if the player makes mistakes. They also cannot be defeated with sustained fire too, because the game designers had decided that their enigmatic and inhuman nature should warrant the requirement of unique killing blows by the player character, as well as the recognition of any advantages that the surrounding environment may offer. The player will know which weapon to do the job, but looking for the tell-tale signs of said bosses' vulnerable moments and how to trigger them are different matters.
Most bosses would perform peculiar animations to show that they are vulnerable, but the cues are only visual. Considering that boss battles tend to have other enemies around to divert the player's efforts away from their masters, the player would not know of the bosses' vulnerability unless he/she is looking directly at them.
There are many enemies in this game, so the player would be looking at a lot of models. Most of them are very hideous and ugly to look at, but their aesthetics appear to conform to their lore designs and the themes of the game. It is unfortunate though that the human ones do not seem to be any more different; most of them are also quite hideous to look at, which is likely a result of the use of the aging Unreal Engine Version 1 (which debuted in 1999).
However, the game makes up for this by having great animations. Voice-overs have matching lip/maw/jaw/mandible-synching that is far more than decent, and the inhuman models are animated in an appropriately disturbing and unearthly manner. The human models are also, thankfully, quite well animated as well, especially in how they turn around to face something in another direction. (Most games at the time resorted to simply spinning the models in place for such an occurrence.)
The best models and animations, however, appear to be reserved for weapons and spells. Each of them looks great, and some are particularly ornate. The more arcane ones have secondary animations that appear to make them seem alive and sentient, with notable examples being the Tibetan War Cannon and the Skull Storm spell.
The game's graphics may have been held back by the utilization of an aging (and therefore cheap to license) game engine, but its audio designs are not as hampered. In fact, they splendidly fit the themes and intended presentation of the game.
There are plenty of creepy noises in this game: thunder, disturbing chirps and clucks, unnatural growls and howls, etc. They are used either for purposes of ambience, or to give a voice (of sorts) to the creatures in the game. Each sound clip appears to be quite unique relative to the others, so the player would find it easy to associate each sound clip with the occurrence that it accompanies.
(One notable exception however is the sound effects for the Tibetan War Cannon, whose grunts and growls appear to be shared with the enemies known as Howlers in the game. This can lead to a lot of false alarms and unwitting neglect on the part of the player.)
The voice-overs in the game are also as stellar. The protagonist is usually a cool-headed person, as befitting one who is well-versed in the occult, but there are also moments in the game where he understandably sounds terrified and horrified at what he had encountered. The other characters have fewer lines than he does, but they are not of any lesser caliber.
The music soundtracks are another hallmark of this game. Most of them are of the gothic, orchestral sort and are plenty moody and ominous. These are often used for levels that are set in the vast mansion and its surrounding estates. There are also other soundtracks, which are bizarre to listen to and are used for levels that are set in mortal realms other than the one that the protagonist belongs to. All of them would make the skin crawl, likely even that of players who are hardened to entertainment media of the horror genre.
Clive Barker's Undying was supposed to have multiplayer features introduced into it after the official launch of the game. It was therefore quite the disappointment that this promise was scrapped, due to the developers and publishers being discouraged by the poor sales of the game. Nevertheless, the single-player segment of the game is already strong enough to make this game stand out as an excellent - if underappreciated - one.
In conclusion, Clive Barker's Undying is a pleasantly surprising and shocking game. While it lacked the hyping and promotion that could have made it into one of video game history's greatest games, retrospection of said history would identify this game as one that has set the par for weaving story and gameplay designs together.