Long acknowledged as an extraordinarily imaginative storyteller who has earned universal acclaim for his compelling feature films and literary work, Clive Barker turns his attention toward the interactive arena with Clive Barker's Undying, a video game that expands the very foundation of the format. In this game, Barker worked closely with DreamWorks Interactive (DWI) to meticulously create a world of arcane magic, supernatural abominations and ancient horror. The fully developed sinister characters Barker has fashioned to tell this dramatic story of avarice and revenge further enhance this fascinating tapestry. Players in this game assume the role of Patrick Galloway, a mysterious cipher of a man who has made a career out of researching various forms of the supernatural and the occult. Set in 1923, Clive Barker's Undying begins when Galloway receives a desperate letter from Jeremiah Covenant, a close friend with whom he served during World War I. Covenant - the eldest of five children and the only sibling still alive - is in rapidly failing health, and implores Galloway to travel at once to the Covenant's ancestral estate on the coast of Ireland. Jeremiah is convinced that with his friends' vast experience in the supernatural he might be able to reverse what he believes to be a curse that has beset his family, leaving it financially impoverished and morally bankrupt. Both Covenant parents are dead;the mother died giving birth to her fifth child, Lizbeth, while the patriarch was violently murdered. It is Lizbeth, the Socialite, who was the first to die, from a mysterious wasting disease that forced her to depart London's high society and return to the family's remote manor. Twins Bethany (a ruthlessly ambitious schemer) and Aaron (an artist savant who eloquently communicates through his art as he descends into madness) embody the concept of sibling rivalry. "Black Sheep" Ambrose dies when he returns to Ireland many years after the murder of his father. Pursued by local police, Ambrose throws himself off a cliff into the raging sea below, leaving the ailing Jeremiah the sole surviving family member. Or is he? Upon his arrival at the imposing Covenant estate, Galloway quickly learns that all four deceased siblings have "reanimated," empowered by their seemingly limitless capacity for greed, cruelty and depravity. During their first meeting, Jeremiah recounts a childhood game in which the five children imitate rituals Jeremiah had found in a dusty old book hidden away in the library. The instructions called for the ritual to be performed at an ancient circle of standing rocks, located in the stormy waters that battered the Irish coast near their home. The children used a ring of standing stones on the manor grounds, unbeknownst to them this seemingly innocent reenactment of a forgotten ritual is to blame for the sinister and fatal results. Each of the undead siblings has returned to life intent on completing what they first set into motion those many years ago at the standing stones. The real peril to the Covenant family is the horrifying curse that dictates when the last child dies, and then at last the true purpose of the standing stones would be revealed. In order to save his friend and unravel the curse that has destroyed Jeremiah's family, Patrick Galloway must confront - and conquer - five perilous quests. Each of these challenges pits Galloway against one of Jeremiah's treacherous undead siblings and the ferociously lethal supernatural creatures that they summon and command. In addition to the life-or-death encounters with the Covenant siblings, Galloway must also face his venomous and reviled archrival, Otto Kiesinger, a ruthless wizard who is intent on breaking the curse and taking for himself the powers that ensue. Ultimately, Galloway discovers an evil force more ancient and powerful than he could have imagined - The Undying King. This otherworldly king first tried to enter our world many years ago, but was thwarted when he was sealed by a human sacrifice buried beneath the same circle of standing rocks where the children played. Once again, The Undying King threatens to destroy not only the Covenant family, but also the very fabric of our earthly existence. In his harrowing journey of self-discovery, Patrick Galloway thoroughly explores the vast Covenant estate, with its surrounding grounds, Neolithic caves, ruined monastery and foreboding catacombs. He travels effortlessly through time and alternate planes of existence, with all of these exhilarating elements incorporated into the video game format with a searing assault on the senses that reminds you that Clive Barker is one of the creative forces behind this project.

You take control over Patrick and walk around like in every other first person-shooter through the several locations of the game ranging from the mansion itself over other earthly locations to Oneiros and Eternal autumn, which are other plains of existence. On your way you uncover the mysteries of the family by reading books and papers which lie around the mansion or by talking to the few people still alive on the island.

Also reading might help you understand what is happening here, it won't help you survive against all the strange creatures that hide in the shadows and attack you without asking. It's also impossible to defeat the ancestral spirits without some serious firepower, so besides your trusty revolver, you'll also find several other weapons during the course of the game like Molotov cocktails, your lovely shotgun or a freeze gun shaped like a dragon head. Since you are fighting the paranormal, you also have access to several spells which allow you to see enemies before they see you, revive the dead or shoot Ectoplasm. Since you hold all your weapons in the left hand and you cast your spells with the right hand, it is possible to use both at any time.

Alternative Titles

Undying

Platform

PC

Developer(s)

DreamWorks Interactive

Publishers(s)

EA Games

Genres(s)

Action, First Person Shooter, Horror

NA Release Date

February 21, 2001

EU Release Date

March 16, 2001

ESRB Rating

Mature 17+

PEGI Rating

PEGI 18

MVGL User Score

7.4 by 45 user(s)

MVGL Difficulty

-

Composer(s)

Becky Allen, Bill Brown, Bryan Celano, Jeffrey Eisner

Website

Official Website

Added by

75 User(s)

This game also exists on:
Mac

Coming soon...