A Look at the Demo: Clive Barkers' Undying

I’ve only been able to grab the demo on this one and it is huge. This one weighs in at nearly 100 megabytes! Of late, a 100 meg download is almost common place. As time progresses the demos get larger and larger, it must be a pain in the gluteus maximus to have a dial-up connection to the net.

Back to the game, Electronic Arts elected to use a modified version of the unreal Tournament engine and it is well suited to Undying. Some of the interior architectures are simply stunningly rendered, realistic is a word that pops to mind. The game is really a visual feast. With huge textures and 32-bit color support you might find it dragging on your machine if you don’t have the horses. Fortunately, my Radeon 64meg DDR video card can handle this Undying beast.

The monster models are complex and elaborate. Arguably, they are some of the best models created for a PC game. Including those created for Quake III.

As for the gameplay, it’s pretty much a typical first person shooter but with a touch of horror. Horror-meister Clive Barker was brought in to help with the creepy atmosphere and it works. Some of the scarier moments involve not what you see but rather what you hear. You often hear enemies before you see them and when you’re playing this game the first time around it is spooky! Sometimes you’ll hear disembodied voices and then you’re on alert only to find something or someone else!

All the enemies attack differently, which is a nice change. Sometimes the monsters will rip off your characters’ head or rip out his heart! Kool – a sick pup like me has gotta love this stuff!

So, should you waste your time downloading this puppy? First keep in mind that it is an adult game, no you’ll likely not your kiddies chugging through this game. Once you come to grips with that then I would absolutely recommend taking the time to download this game. Clive Barker’s Undying will take a dial-up user the better part of a fortnight to download but it is easily worth the time and effort. Electronic Arts has come up with a first person shooter that is a winner!

OK, I almost forgot that Undying commits a cardinal sin by today’s gaming standards: there is no multiplayer! How can this be? When will they learn? Ya gotta have an online component when the game is originally released. It’s not just as good to release it as a patch or with an add-on sometime down the road. Save for this failure, Clive Barker’s Undying is a wonderful treat.

Go To Page: 1 2