Clive Barker's Undying

About Clive Barker's Undying

Clive Barker's Undying was made by DreamWorks Interactive and published by Electronic Arts, and GOG dates its release to February 19, 2001. It carries the name of Clive Barker, the author of horror fiction. GOG is the one store selling it today, DRM-free for Windows, with an October 2025 update that adds a wrapper for modern systems, caps the frame rate at 60, turns off mouse acceleration and sets Direct3D as the default renderer. It is in English, voiced and written.

The story begins with a mistake made long ago. The Covenant children read a strange ritual aloud as a game and set loose something terrible. Many years later Jeremiah Covenant, the last sane sibling, lies on his deathbed, and his weakening life is all that holds the curse back. He sends for Patrick Galloway, who served with him in the Great War and has since made a career of putting down evil. You play Patrick.

It is a first-person shooter, and you fight. One hand holds a weapon, such as a revolver, a double-barrelled shotgun or a curved blade; the other casts spells, held up beside a glowing stone. Enemies range from skeletons rising among gravestones and hooded men with clubs in torch-lit corridors to pale, clawed creatures that glow in the dark of stone halls and floating figures that hurl green fire. Some rooms are soaked in blood, and the things you pick up include a human heart. The places range from dim wood-panelled mansion corridors to graveyards, a stone church in the snow and a world under a red sky.

What sets it apart from the other shooters on this site is its tone. It is less about firepower than about a family's rotten history, told through a gothic setting, and its mix of guns and magic gives every fight two tools. The look is that of its time, with early 3D models and low-resolution textures.

Critics liked it: Metacritic shows 85 from 29 reviews, none of them negative, and GOG's buyers give it 4.5 out of 5. GOG lists about 10 hours for the main story on HowLongToBeat.

It suits players who like older horror shooters such as F.E.A.R. and DOOM 3, and anyone who wants a gothic ghost story they can shoot back at.

How to play Clive Barker's Undying

1. Buy Clive Barker's Undying on GOG and install it on a Windows PC.
2. Start a new game and listen to Jeremiah's story of the curse; it sets up everything that follows.
3. Move and aim with the mouse and keyboard as in any first-person shooter.
4. Use your weapon hand for guns and blades and your other hand for spells, switching between them as each enemy needs.
5. Explore the estate and the places beyond it, reading what you find and picking up ammunition and items.
6. Fight the creatures and the cursed members of the Covenant family to break the curse.

Tips

• Keep both hands in use: a spell can hold an enemy off while you line up a shot.
• Pick up every note and book; the family's history explains what you are facing.
• Play in a dark room with the sound up; the game leans on gloom and shadow.
• If the mouse feels off, the GOG update has already turned off mouse acceleration; adjust sensitivity in the options.
• Save often; the fights can turn quickly when several creatures come at once.

Questions