The system turned out to be really quite elegant, and my early doubts were belayed after my first few brawls in the game. The control system was easy to get used to, with the left mouse button relegated to my chosen weapon and the right button to casting spells, and the mouse wheel used to cycle through either your technological armaments or your magical tricks (or, in my case, both, as I had the spells cycle with mouse wheel up and the weapons with mouse wheel down). While at first I thought this dual-hand approach would be awkward, it was actually quite reassuring to carry around a trusty gun in one hand while my other hand dabbled in the arcane arts. While, for the most part, gameplay is similar to any other FPS, Undying mixes the action up a little by not only offering a wide variety of creative weapons - from the requisite pistol and shotgun (but with ingenious ammo types such as silver bullets and phosphorous shells) to more esoteric armaments like the iceball-lobbing Tibetan War Cannon and the extremely powerful but close-ranged Scythe - but you'll also find eight spells along the way that serve both defensive and offensive purposes. Creatures will also dodge, spin, and generally try to stay out of the way of your direct line of sight so as not to open themselves up to an easy shot from your pistol or a shocking blast of lightning. This approach to different styles of combat makes it feel like you're actually fighting a variety of different creatures rather than just the same AI wrapped in a different skin. Some creatures, like the Howlers, attack in packs, with one grabbing your attention and distracting you while the others flank you and rip at your back, while other creatures, like the mindless skeletal warriors, come at you head on with little care for their well-being. Speaking of waiting for creatures to leap out at you, I was genuinely impressed with the AI in Undying.
While there were a few times in Jeremiah's ransacked, desolate manor where I found it tedious to traverse from one end of the mansion to the other, I was still tense and on edge because I was primed for a Howler to slip in through the window at any moment. That's not to say there's not plenty of action in the game. This game is all about atmosphere, and part of that atmosphere is keeping you edgy just waiting for the next beastie to jump out and claw off your face. This isn't Quake or Unreal - baddies don't jump out at you constantly. As any horror fan will tell you, it's scarier waiting for something to happen. Unlike most first-person shooters, Undying isn't about constant action and mouse clicking. While the creepy, spine-chilling storyline is obvious Barker, he also had quite a hand in the pacing and atmosphere of the game. With that said, it's obvious that not only did he lend his name to the title and influenced the main character, but Clive Barker was also intimately involved with the entire game design process.
I don't think a burly, bald, tattoo-laden protagonist would have fit in well with a game set on an island off of Ireland at the turn of the 20th century.
Hopefully you've all had a chance to read our preview of Undying by now, so I don't have to delve deep into the back story or Jeremiah's "family problems." What I will say, though, is that I'm personally glad the folks at DreamWorks Interactive decided to heed Clive's advice and go with the period-fitting, curly-locked Patrick Galloway as the main character rather than the bald-headed, tattooed Magnus. Clive Barker's Undying is now avaiable, and the results are every bit as scary and enthralling as any of his movies or books, and in some cases even more so because you're intimately involved with the action as it happens. While any horror fan is quite familiar with Clive Barker's novels and his work on movies such as Nightbreed and the Hellrasier series, he had as of yet left the interactive world of videogames untouched.