Interviewed by Cnet and Gamespy prior to the release of his first computer game, Clive Barker related that he told his designers to "make the hero someone I want to sleep with." While Barker's preferences in men may run towards the buff, shaggy haired, and Irish--one must wonder what sort of misogyny would compel him to fashion a cataclysmic battle with a giant vagina at Undying's conclusion.

Undying, a first person shooter set in Ireland of the 1920's, is an epic tale of a cursed family and their country estate--or at least, that's what Barker would like us to believe. It is hard to invoke Poe's "Fall of the House of Usher" when you have a "Tibetan War Cannon," that lobs giant balls of ice, in your left hand while you are spewing forth streams of "ectoplasm" from your right. Most of the "flavor text" penned by Barker, accessible in books and scrolls in the game, is worse than insipid and the environments fail to live up to the H.P. Lovecraft aesthetic from which they are drawn. What is left, however, is B-movie charm and cheap but effective scare tactics that go "boo" when you least expect it.

While the weaponry in the game is just antiquated versions of the usual suspects, it is the magic system that truly sets Undying apart from its peers. A magic stone, capable of repulsing enemies away with a shockwave, glows in particular locations, inviting you to use your "scry" spell, which allows you a momentary glimpse at the world of magic that remains hidden to mortals. While at times the effects are trite and predictable, there are others that are well worth the price of admission. Though most of the spells are offensive in nature (and even these sometimes have their use in solving puzzles), many of the other spells have more creative uses, such as resurrecting fallen foes to fight at your side, disenchanting the magic of others, and putting troubled souls to rest at long last. "Amplifiers," devices that increase the function of your spells (both quantitatively and sometimes qualitatively) can be used to augment your casting ability--and in the areas that you specify, which is an attempt at including replayability to the game. A rather poor attempt, considering that only a few spells are worthwhile to maximize in power and players will find themselves hoarding the amplifiers until they truly need them: only to find that they are nearly all yet unused at the game's final vaginal battle which comes too soon.

Using the Unreal Tournament graphics engine, Undying is often beautiful, provided that you have the hardware to run it in 32 bit color--otherwise, you are better off smearing mud on your monitor. The sound effects and musical score are excellent when they do not stoop to Halloween cliches of jingling chains and hushed whispers.

With Undying, Clive Barker is joining the ranks of John Romero (Daikatana) and American McGee (Alice)--game designers that promote themselves with a strong brand of bravado, arrogance, and ultimately, denial, as their products cannot help but fail to deliver what they promise. But that does not mean that Undying is not a hell of a lot of fun on a visceral level.