If you know me, you also likely know I take the archival side of this hobby seriously... seriously enough in fact I have begun making disc copies of games in my collection that I have previously finished and are DRM free so the discs just work. It makes for a nice looking shelf collection to boot. However, when I was showing a very good friend what I was working on, she recognized this game in particular. We pretty much decided on the spot that it would have to be one of the titles I stream for First Person Friday (one of my weekly Extra Life streams). And having absolutely loved it back in the day, I was more then on board and made it the very next one I played. Now as I finish it, I think this might have been one of those games where the glasses were a little bit rose tinted... not much, as the game was still fantastic, but, I could definitely see a few cracks in it I did not before.
Now before we begin I have to also be fair to this game. This was a return visit, even if from a MUCH earlier time in my life, so I chose to use a mod called Undying Renewal when playing this time which promised some QoL updates such as wide-screen support and control updates that would make the game more in-line interface-wise with what we have today... but it may have done a little more then I expected. As such, your experience may vary from mine this time around. But regardless, come inside. There is still a lot of great stuff in the Covenant family manor.
Story: It has been a long time since Patrick Galloway saw his friend Jeremiah Covenant. They had fought in the horrors of WW I together: not just the ones you would expect, however. They were in a unit meant to resolve things when soldiers find themselves against that which does not seem so much of our world. In fact it was during these times Jeremiah had saved his life... so when he found a six month old letter from his friend asking for help, he could not say no. Packing his bags, he boarded a boat to Ireland to see what he could do.
And of course it isn't long after he reunited with his friend that all Hell broke loose as monstrous supernatural beasts smashed their way into the mansion, requiring an extermination in the immediate and an explanation shortly after. Jeremiah, as a child, had unknowingly unleashed a curse upon his siblings to remain well after they had died. Without many choices left and deathly sick himself, he had called on Patrick for help.
This basic setup will begin your adventure as you travel with Patrick, investigating the various leads into just what Jeremiah has unleashed upon the world in his ignorance, what is really at stake, and to try to put the souls of the Covenant family to a peaceful rest. The story along the way will develop in the form of a few cutscenes and many many writings and journal entries you will get along the way, fleshing out what you are up against, who is involved, and really the scope of something far bigger then any of the Covenants could have expected. There are very few real twists and turns in this one so much as a slow and deliberate buildup as the game leads you by the nose from point to point in a rather linear horror adventure... but it plays up to the strengths this offers very well as the world Clive Barker created comes to life around you.
Simply put this game is a masterpiece of ingame story telling, using the world, cutscenes, journal entries, and just about everything available to it to tell a tale of a family curse the likes of which you can only expect from Mr. Barker's imagination.
9/10
Graphics: Before the Unreal Engine had made a name for itself over the game that brought it into being, it was used in games beyond the series... and this would be one of the earliest. At the time it was a rather detailed looking game and still looks really good if dated today and to this end, you are about to play a very dark and moody first person shooter from the eyes of Patrick Galloway as he wanders the mansion, the grounds, and a few historical locations in his quest to help Jeremiah resolve the family curse.
This particular outing shows hints of just what this engine would become capable of over the years. Large rooms with relatively complex architectures, large open spaces, and just an overall brilliant attention to detail will not save it from it's age, but it look fantastic despite it. And that's before you get to look at Oneiros, a dreamlike dimension which takes what the engine could do at the time to new heights with floating impossible architectures seamlessly merging with real space, yet defying them in a display the likes of which we rarely see even to this day!
Unfortunately the characters you share this world with do not fair the test of time as well as the world itself. Do not get me long, they are fairly complex and detailed for their day, but anything human shows it's age abundantly well in the low-detail bitmaps that tend to make up faces and all the animation within said faces basically comes down to "the model has a moving jaw and little else" we see in old games. Compared to what we have now, it is a bit jarring to get used to. And then we get to Patrick himself.... you can add long flowing locks of hair to the above problem: It feels like an attempt was made at hair physics, but it probably should not have been at this time.
And while humans are definitely more common in this game then others of it's type, they are far from the only thing you will see. Which is good, because like most games of this particular era, monsters and monstrous forces definitely fair much better then their human counterparts. Dog-like himanoid creatures will bound at you with a realistically moving gallop. Flying eels will swim through the air with frightening speed. And many other creepy crawlies I want you to discover for yourself will also make their way, looking anything from cool as hell to shlocky in the way a horror film would do it (so in the best way possible). But the real stars here are the Covenant siblings.
Yes they were all human once and I did say what I did about human characters with all seriousness, but once is the key term. Each of Jeremiah's brothers and sisters all have taken on more surreal traits, reflecting how the curse has effected them, and each one is a spectacle all their own you will enjoy seeing in their full glory. Furthermore, the game seems to understand buildup in this nature, building up each one you run into as more messed up (and cooler transformations) then the last. They are definitely a highlight in this field.
8/10
Sound: As with any good horror game, Undying has a good solid sound track to rely on. In this particular case, the game will hit you right away with a short but powerful Gregorian chant to set the supernatural tone the game is going to offer you, though they were smart enough to let the music take a back seat after that initial impact, leaving it to just underly the tone. It is all done with classical instruments "stressed" to make the mood of the place your in just feel that much more ominous, and it does it's job, wavering between that moment when something just might happen to pure raw awe at what just did.
However, nothing here stands out exceptionally well, nor really can it, as most of the music pieces are lucky to be more then a few seconds long. This is pretty clever in that the game can mix bits as it needs, but it does mean that when I say the music is not going to stand out, I MEAN it's not going to stand out.
Your weapons, unfortunately also will not really stand out here. Explosions (when they do happen) just don't have the same meatiness other games might give them. They sound dangerous, just not as basey, and a lot of guns loose their heft for the same sound issues. It doesn't sound bad... quite the opposite, in fact, but it sounds like you would hear it on a TV show, not in a movie theater, if you get where I am going with this.
Even the voices this time around are not as good we might expect. Everyone did a descent job, do not get me wrong, but I would be lying to you if I told you anyone was on their A game this time around. Patrick Galloway in particular sounds rather disingenuous with his journal entries carrying a lot more emotion (and less fake accent) then the actual voice actor.... and unfortunately he isn't alone. Jeremiah is supposed to be a man on his death bed, but he sounds healthy as he could ever be. Furthermore, his voice actor did NOT know how to present a man afraid for his life like they tried to display as often as not.
And the same could be said for all the random servants you will talk to. They are every bit as flat an characterless as everyone else, though these are generally secondary characters without even having names, so I wouldn't expect them to get any special treatment. Really the only voice actor who I think let lose and had fun with his character was man who played Aaron Covenant, who got to be a little bit crazier then everyone else and it shows... he is actually a treat every time he shows up, but he is literally the highlight in the game's entire body of voice work. It's a shame no one is credited with the act.
But unlike most games I seem to review, it's the sound effects that are the real star of the show, fairing much better as everything from the howls of monsters you have yet to see to random laughter (Im assuming it's Aaron Covenant floating nearby), to glass shattering or even your own foot falls (which vary depending on what you are walking on), the devs really paid attention to make the details matter. This world oozes atmosphere and the sound effects themselves are certainly a huge part of that. The voice acting may do a lot to explain the story, but this is what will give the world it's feel and make you glad to spend your time here.
6/10
Gameplay: As noted in the graphical section of this review. Undying is a first person shooter first, if not one that is based on telling a horror story at least as much as it is in shooting up monsters. And you will be doing plenty of that as the game barely goes through a room or two without sicking something horrific on you... but this is also where the gameplay suffers a little. I generally do not complain if a game is too hard (after all, this is what difficulty levels are for: if the game is too easy or too hard for you, you can customize your experience). However, I will complain about a difficulty curve, especially around this choice... and here's where the game has issues the way I played.
Your milage may vary as I was using a mod to update the game to modern day standards as I noted in the opening of this review, but while I ran into this completely insane difference in difficulty here. Between the first enemies you face literally flying across the map in leaps of doom that make it exceptionally hard to deal with them in particular and a love of spawning enemies behind you for cheap traps, I found normal kicking my shit in at least as often as back in the day. You would think just setting the game on easy would fix this, but it actually goes way to far the other way, making most of the game an absolute breeze until the absolute last few levels, but even those moments can be handled without too much difficulty with little bit of cautious saving that the game is likely going to teach you to do so you don't lose out on exploring little nooks and crannies in the map. It's kinda disappointing that they couldn't get a difficulty scale between options here right, or rely less on monster closets (minus the closets) so you could plan accordingly, but to be fair the enemy behavior that makes those first creatures unreasonable may have been fixed based on comments and notes on the mod's newest update I didn't get to play with, so as I noted even using that your experience may well vary from mine.
How the various weapons behave, on the other hand, is a lot better. Before you finish the game, you will have a descent selection of weapons: both physical and mystical in nature, and everything behaves about as you would expect. Patrick's trusty revolver, for example carries 6 rounds and when you reload, he will have to take the time to reload each bullet before you can fie again. It doesn't take less time if you do it more often, but you don't lose ammo reloading early. It then becomes the single most accurate shooting weapon you will have for most of the game and a work hoarse of your arsenal. The other is your shotgun, and you are going to be happy when you get this. It only carries 2 rounds before you have to reload, but it reloads faster and you can either fire twice or set it to unload both barrels at once. Either way will grant you a much more powerful hit then the pistol. Add to this multiple ammo types you can collect and these two weapons will likely carry you through most of the game.
That ammo, btw, will be selectable in the item list which you can scroll through, but this will quicky prove to be the cumbersome way to do this, as this is probably the first game to use an item wheel and do so successfully. Hold down you item menu button and time slows down while circle of selectable items dominates the screen. To select anything simply move your mouse over what you want and let go of the button, then hitting ENTER will let you use it. Alternatively, you can left-click the item to use it immediately. But this mod adds an additional trick to this: Right-clicking up to any two items will leave them highlighted in a blue glow, marking them as a favorite of sort. Once this is done, tapping that same button for the wheel will not bring it up, but select one of the two options. Repeating the tap will toggle between your two choices, letting your two favorites be reachable even quicker.
Though this wheel feature will be far more useful for the other unique feature this game brings to the gameplay: your spells. You will collect these as you play, and since all of them are found at specific points in the story, you will not miss any of them. Things like seeing hidden super-natural events, or running stupid fast, or even throwing lightning will be yours to use at your will by the end of the game with the easy of a right mouse click (to go with the left letting you shoot your active weapon). But where weapons need ammo (for the most part) spells need mana. This does regenerate as you go, but you will find a few items that both increase the speed at which this happens (whorls) and others that increase the maximum you can have (mana wells), slowly turning this option from a side you can use to give you an edge to potentially your main weapons by the end of the game. Add to this amplifiers you can find to level up your spells (up to level 5 for maximum power) and have the potential to really fling some aethereal force around.
Though unfortunately once you get past the feel of combat, this isn't a game that is going to offer a lot in the gameplay department. I wouldn't normally mark that as a bad thing. After all, an action game that relies on fun combat and great feeling weapons shouldn't need much more to be a great game... and this game supports this side with a gloomy horror vibe and story far more to enhance this basic gameplay beyond even that. However, this game is a little deceptive here as it feels like you should be exploring an open house to find things as you play to look into. You do not. This is a game of locked and jammed doors to keep you on a rather linear path from the beginning to end. For many the moment to moment gameplay will distract them from this. And when I played this back in the day, I was one of those people. But for me today, it was very very obvious from pretty much the moment Patrick arrived at the manor's front door.... and if the environment and story didn't hold my attention as much as it did, this would have been letting the gameplay, fun as it is, ruin the immersion.
The end result is an overall smooth game with a few warts on the way... potentially warts that were added by the version of the mod I returned to this game with and as such, potentially improved or even fixed should you choose to use it to.
8/10
Bugs: While I did not run into any bugs while playing, I do have to make note of the way the game handles saving. This is a game that when installed will take up around 600 MB of space on your hard drive... until you start saving your game. The saved games can and likely will double it before you are done, at least if you use all the slots since each save is a collection of files representing your current stats and a saved off instance of where everything was on every map you ever visited ever... even if you can not go back to it (which will likely be the case due to the linear nature of the game). While today the total going over 1 GB is barely a drop in the bucket, this is an issue I noticed when I played back in it's original release... when my PC's massive hard drive was a whopping 8 GB in total.
Digital Rights Management: This is a game you are only going to find two ways: If you can find a physical retail disc, or if you pick it up on gog... and I highly recommend the latter since it is DRM free. The disc release, unfortunately, uses SafeDisc as DRM, so unless playing on an older machine you never upgraded past certain patches of Windows 7 or earlier versions of Windows or on a LINUX OS with Proton, you are not playing the physical release as it will not work.
Source: PC Gaming Wiki
Score: When I played this game back in the day, I absolutely fell in love with it. In fact this was how I came to know the name Clive Barker and would be my gateway to try the infamous Hellraiser movies, of which I collected the original 8. But playing it now, I can see the cracks I didn't then. Do not get me wrong, it is still a great game and worth of it's classic status. It just clearly shows weaknesses of it's time as well things that a second playthrough made far more obvious when I still remembered parts to be excited for (or dread) vs being a teenage idiot playing the next "action horror game" cause I loved the theme.
In the end, I would say this is still a great game worth playing, but that's what it is... a great game, not an absolute classic.
System Requirements:
- 1.8 Ghz processor
- 2 GB RAM
- Anything that runs DirectX 9.0c
- Windows 10
- 1 GB Hard Drive space
- Recommended: Undying Renewal mod
- Intel Pentium II running at 400 Mghz or AMD K6-2
- 64 MB RAM
- Anything that runs DirectX 8 with 16 MB VRAM
- Windows 95 OSR2
- 1 GB Hard Drive space
System Specs:
- Ryzen 7 (5700X) 3.4 Ghz
- 32 GB RAM
- AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT (8 GB VRAM)
- Windows 11 (64 Bit)
Source: gog.com
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