Saturday Morning Gaming: Clive Barker’s Undying
Clive Barker really messed with my head in the 1980s. Hellraiser was one terrifying and Hellraiser 2 somehow managed to creep me out even more. So, of course, I did my best to watch all of his stuff.
In 2001, he came out with a *VIDEO GAME*. I think it maybe took me three days to pick it up and I played it obsessively. Unfortunately, this means that I also played it at night… which was a mistake.
FPS Horror is probably the best horror genre. The game can hide stuff from you, give you jump scares, force your eyes to a particular part of the room… and then WHAMMO. Have a grotesque thing jump out at you.
Well, this runs with that and this time it’s Clive Barker messing with you.
In Undying, you are Patrick Galloway, a professional debunker of superstitious nonsense. However, in your travels (and in the Great War), you’ve encountered a handful of things that *MIGHT* be real. One of which resulted in your life being saved by Jeremiah Covenant. Jeremiah Covenant is now dying and he has asked you to help him at his estate where his four younger siblings have already passed before he did but now, it seems, their ghosts are making a great deal of trouble.
And… go. You’re off and playing a first person shooter where you’re playing through a Clive Barker story about the four ghosts and figuring out how screwed up everything was, is, and is going to be.
There are some fun weapons (ice, fire, lightning) and some creepy scenes that you can watch whenever you use your Gel’ziabar Stone.
And the game is, as a game, exceptionally solid. If you’ve played Duke Nukem 3D or Unreal, you’re already intimately familiar with how Undying is going to play.
Run around, jump around, scream in horror, shoot wildly. You’ll recognize health packs and ammo cases and you’ll interact with the occasional mirror.
And GOG.com has it for a buck-fifty.
If you don’t mind older games and you’ve never played this one, you’ll be charmed by it and google whether it has a sequel (it doesn’t… didn’t sell well, I guess).
Well, *I* thought it was a great game that deserved better. It was a Clive Barker FPS shooter and I couldn’t be happier to play it again.
So… what are you playing?
I played quite a bit of Undying. I enjoyed it, but I never finished it. I’m not sure if I just got involved in a different game or if I hit a spot that I decided was annoying. Unfortunately, I doubt it would play well on a Steam Deck, which means I would be unlikely to ever touch it. Being able to play in bed is just too convenient.
I am near the end of the main quest of Persona 5 Royal. Secrets have been revealed, and I understand the machinations and plots that lead my character (and the world) to their current state. Some characters are not who they seemed to be. I have to trek my way through the final dungeon and beat the final boss, then off to the third semester, which is the additional content added in Royal. I have really enjoyed the game. I think I have around 80 hours into it. Usually, by this time (or even earlier), I have reached the point of just pushing myself to the end for the sake of finishing the game (or sometimes just bailing altogether). I’m still playing this one out of enjoyment, not obligation. I might even save this one for a NG+ run somewhere down the road, though I think I will need a long break first. There are quite a few confidants that I did not get very highly ranked, including a few that I managed to miss until too close too the end of the game.Report
It got *VERY* Clive Barker in the second half. Like, even I was saying that they couldn’t get away with this stuff in a movie. Ah, it was a different time…Report
“Helldivers 2” has set up a cross-promotion with, of all things, “Killzone” (an FPS franchise that had its last game release ten years ago).
The cross-promotion involves some limited-time-available cosmetics and a unique gun (which is kinda-better-than-the-free-guns but not an Instant Win Button.)
What’s notable about this is that the stuff is only available in the real-money shop, not the Spacebucks shop. (As in, to buy the Killzone stuff you have to pay actual dollars, versus just playing the game and getting in-game points to spend on upgrades.) So I guess “exclusive items in the cash shop” is the monetization plan for Helldivers going forward.Report
Epic Game Store’s free Christmas game is Control.
It’s a good one. It’s reviewed here but, hey, it’s *FREE*. If you like single-player third-person shooters, pick it up now and read the review at your leisure.Report
In that SungWon Cho video you linked in the Control review, what’s that silly voice he’s doing? I’ve heard a similar voice done in a few other contexts, but was there a particular comedian or character that originated or popularized it?Report
Snagglepuss, I believe. Either Snagglepuss or Ed Wynn.Report
Ah, Ed Wynn as the Mad Hatter. That’s it!Report