Clive Barker's Undying

Clive Barker's Undying is a video game in the action genre developed by Electronic Arts Los Angeles and published by Electronic Arts, Inc. originally released in 2001. It is currently playable on Windows.

There was always a curse on the Covenant family that killed them all with a painful disease or drove them to madness. In the late 19th century, the father of the current generation of Covenants reopens his old but abandoned mansion and thus discovers strange standing stones on a nearby island. Possessed by this discovery, he locked himself in the library and wanted to discover the meaning of these stones. Out of curiosity, in 1899 his three sons and two daughters stole a book about the stones from his library, went to the island and performed a dark and powerful ritual that marked the beginning of the end. Over the next 20 years, almost every member of the family went insane and either committed suicide or died of something else.

Now the year is 1923 and the last member of the family, Jeremiah Covenant, lies on his deathbed with cancer in his body, but he is not alone in his home. The spirits of his brothers and sisters haunt the house, strange events occur, and evil creatures roam the mansion. In a last-ditch attempt to not only end the family curse, but also to put his companions to rest, he turns to Patrick Galloway. Patrick was part of your squadron in the first great war and, after a fierce battle against creatures you have never seen before, he has specialized in abolishing such powers from the earth.

You take control of Patrick and walk as you would in any other first-person shooter through the game's various locations ranging from the mansion itself over other earthly locations to Oneiros and Eternal Autumn, which are other plains of existence. On your way you will discover the mysteries of the family by reading books and papers found around the mansion or talking to the few people still alive on the island.

Although reading will help you understand what is going on here, it won't help you survive against all the strange creatures that hide in the shadows and attack you without asking questions. It's also impossible to defeat the ancestral spirits without some serious firepower, so in addition to your trusty revolver, you'll also encounter other weapons in the course of the game, such as Molotov cocktails, your lovely shotgun or a freeze gun in the shape of a dragon's head. Since you're fighting the paranormal, you also have access to various spells that allow you to see enemies before they see you, revive the dead or shoot Ectoplasm. Since you carry all your weapons in your left hand and cast your spells with your right, it is possible to use both at any time.

As the name suggests, Clive Barker, the creator of the Hellraiser movies, had a big influence on the making of the entire game. He also wrote the backstory.

Clive Barker's Undying is available at a reduced price on the following websites and is no longer abandonware.