I adore that quote about the main character design, it's probably what made him my favorite horror creator of his time. His voice and perspective was so unique for the mediums he chose to work in.
Clive Barker is one of the greatest horror writers of all time, I absolutely love his works, Tortured Souls, Scarlet Gospels, Abarat and of course his Hellraiser series. His aesthetics, characters, settings, all of it is downright perfect in my eyes.
He's definitely more of a better writer than Stephen King yet less celebrated. I wonder if it has to do with him being gay and British or if he was just not into adaptions of his work. Most of his stuff is amazing and many TV shows like Buffy the Vampire slayer and video games have borrowed from his worlds.
When I was about 8 in 2003, I went to a car boot sale (think of a yard sale but in a massive field) in seaham in the UK about ten miles away. I was wandering around with my older sister looking for stuff to buy with the £10 my mother gave me, I bought some boxes hot wheels cars and some Pokémon cards. Then I came across a table filled with PC and ps1 games, there were a bunch of gems there some of which I already had, then I saw Undying with a sticker on it saying 50p. I bought it after reading the back of the box and couldn’t wait to get it home to play on the family PC. The opening part where you enter the mansion and encounter the howler enemies absolutely terrified me, but I pushed through. The scrying mechanic to reveal hidden horrible things, especially in the paintings was the coolest thing I ever saw. I love this damn game, and I’m glad to say I still have that same copy I bought for 50p when I was 8. Great video man, you’ve inspired me to boot it up again 🔥
Oh my fuckidy fucked... This is THE game I played deep into my childhood, got scared shitless, and tried to remember what this game was my WHOLE LIFE until now, when I'm 25. Thank you so much, dude. You pulled out oldest splinter out of my brain :D
Same here, I remember my uncle playing this game and always wanted to play it, when I wal a child i was scared to play, and as soon as the sun started to go down I would leave the computer room and leave my uncle playing alone and i was looking for a couple of years now the name of this game to play it myself.
Same! I'm in my mid 30's now, same as my brother who played back in the day, I used to watch but one day he left to meet a friend and I was there just me and the game literally shaking. What an experience! Still my favorite, was hoping for a remaster or remake.
Polish speaker here. It's so rare to see someone remember this country exists. Man nice to see a shoutout.Wish you luck on your quest to learn the language for it is ridiculously complex. Amazing video as always!
As soon as he mentioned EA I thought “oh here we go again. How did EA fuck someone this time?” They are often so money while ironically pulling funds for marketing, effectively shooting themselves in the foot financially. Ridiculous.
I played this game when I was a child. It is a great, imaginative, scary, exciting and enjoyable game. I am now 41 years old and I used to play it 15 years ago and sometimes I open it. I thank Mr. CLIVE BARKER for making this game, but I don't know why the next version of this game was not published and my next opinion about this game is that the environment of the game was very scary with the pink and mortal sky and scary and dark characters and finally I hope that the next version of this game will be made again. My name is HABIB It is from the country of Iran and the city of Tabriz
Are you sure that what you're imagining is realistic? Just remember what type of people there are. The quote "you can faceroll your way through the game with just guns" is going to be the breaking point for majority because the majority is stupid, and far stupider than you'd expect. Look at Scorn. And that's because this is our conditioning, this is what people want. Just imagine a couch-potato with a fat stack of pork grimes on his lap playing through this game. When after hours of going around in a circle he finally closes the Piss because he has work tomorrow at the 7/11. Then if he remembers he doesn't like this game he'll just ask for a refund because he would never think to jump through the mirror. C.o.D. told him to run around in a circle in Cold War. This doesn't.
I used to play this waaaaay back in the day, I was maybe 7-8, and I remember being so terrified of the howlers in the distance that most of the time I just never made progress forward. I've since gone back and got this again through gog, absolutely adored it, but the call of the howlers still sends a shiver down my spine for some reason. This game aged like fine wine, with a few sour spots around, but is otherwise fantastic. I was so excited to see this pop up on my front page. Love your work, Ragnar
was not expecting the Tim Sweeney smear but it was a welcome surprise. fantastic video and that Clive Barker interview quote about the protagonist is unbelievably funny. thank you for shining a spotlight on old games like this that not only still hold up, but are gold standard for the action adventure genre!
Truly an underrated, criminally obscure classic. I still replay it every couple years around Halloween. Great atmosphere and the art direction & aesthetics, not to mention gameplay, mapping and storyline were awesome. Also I really love the look of the classic UT99 engine; saturated colors, reflective surfaces, early realtime lighting/shadows and all. Photorealistic textures and stylized models mean it still looks great today, and the sound design with 3D positional audio make it sound great too. It all tied together into an awesome game. Speaking of the literary aspect, there's about 150 pages worth of in-game diary entries, letters, and documents to collect and read. More, the original big box release came with a _ton_ of supplementary material, including a 40-page faux leatherbound edition of Jeremiah Covenant's journal too (which can't be read anywhere else as it doesn't appear in the game itself). All of it written by Barker. The amount of backstory that went into this world was immense. It's such a shame we never got a sequel... That all being said, or perhaps gushed, Oneiros was the Xen of Undying lol. Anyway as I always say, c1993 to c2003 was truly the golden age of PC gaming; and IMO it's kind been downhill since then with few exceptions -- perhaps a plateau at most. It just seems back in those days there was a steady stream of absolute _incredible classics_ coming out all the time; with massive leaps and bounds in graphical technology happening what seemed like every month, medium-pushing gameplay, and colossal amounts of innovation and passion from legendary talents. Now we have the cancer of lootboxes, DLC, pay-to-win, betas being released at full price and requiring endless patches... And almost everything mainstream/AAA suffers from extreme lack of originality -- it's nothing but sequels and prequels and remakes; just bland, safe, zero-risk/zero-innovation pap. The AAA scene has gone to utter shit, with a very few exceptions. Mind you the indie community is enjoying its renaissance right now too, but still... Put it this way, a game like Undying would never be made today except as a small-budget indie project. I miss that old era of the golden age of PC gaming.
Just a quick correction to the video: Clive Barker is English, not American. Thanks so much for covering this game. It's one that has always intrigued me, though I haven't had the chance to play it. You make the game sound even more interesting and engaging than I could have imagined. Great work.
YES. So glad you made a video about this game. Clive Barker's Undying is truly a gem that stood the test of time. I remember the first time that amazing haunting main menu music started playing, the first time i opened the time portal and the ruins of the old monastery around me turned into a snowy version of its complete former glory centuries ago. That 2 hands weapon system/ different ammo types was crazy for it's time, and slicing somebody's head with the scythe never gets old. For me this is a golden remnant from the Wild West era of video games development and undoubtedly influenced a lot my decision to become a game developer later on. And honestly ... i know that Hellraiser/ Hellbound is the hallmark Clive Barker property, but the vibe & atmosphere of this game for me is way more enticing. Maybe it's because the main character indeed feels grounded in reality yet charming & self composed, and the Irish hills & castles give this game so much charm. It led me to read some of his other books, like Coldheart Canyon, which made me appreciate Barker's creativity & talent even more.
Seeing the beginning of this game and how the stone could make you see alternative versions of paintings in the house to reveal what happened to the family while I was at a friend's house was one of my first real experiences with horror video games and for that alone I will always love this game's vibe.
Clive Barker's Undying is to this day the ONLY game that outright scared and shocked me so hard, I had to stop playing. And I'm freaking 36. Spoiler prevention. That freakin' statue that rips its chest open. Had NEVER seen anything like it before, and I outright panic fired.
@@mcgibs The one with a long rant in blood in what's otherwise just some random storage room? Yeah. That one was a bit creepy. A subtler one for me, was the maid's corpse just after you leave the magic realm for the first time. The blood from her drips UPWARDS and pools on the ceiling. That one sent a shiver down my spine, with just how subtly wrong it was. Just... tons of cool little scares in that game. Man, did Undying deserve better.
Somehow you always manage to dig up all my old favorite obscure classics, and then write them far more eloquent love letters than I ever could. Thanks, mate! It's a delight to hear you talk about these games.
When this game came out I just consumed every little bit of information about it. I was so stoked to read everything abut it and in the end...I was a scared boy, never being able to play a horror game like this. I'm curious about it ever since and am thankful that you get to cover it here.
Thank you for writing love letters and creating videos that accompany them beautifully instead of getting your head so caught up in "needing to stay up to date with analysis" and trying to only play the latest and the greatest, whether you like them or not, and simply trying to manufacture something to talk about. I love that your videos are very clearly products of passion. Awesome video!
I played this game only two years ago! Someone I loved then really enjoyed the story of Undying when he was younger, I ended up playing this for hours and hours at a time just to talk to him about it, though admittedly I sucked hard and resorted to cheats in the end. Made me so happy to see this video come out! Thank you so much for such a wonderful retrospective!
I remember this, loved the game back then! This and Realms of the Haunting are probably my favourite classic horror shooters and are among my favourite horror games of all time.
I could not agree more. When I first played Undying, I thought that Realms of the Haunting must have been an inspiration during development. There are just too many similarities between those games.
Yes, Yes a thousand times yes. I have wondered for a lot of time why not every single retro game channel on youtube sings praises to this game yet. Thank you this video. I often remember the chant from the main menu clearly. It is so cool. You included it at some point as background music but haven't mention how glorious it was too.
I remember seeing pictures of the game in a magazine and being fascinated by it. By the time I had a pc and money to buy it myself years later, I'd already forgotten about it. But maybe it's time to finally acquire it and play it myself...
I'll always remember getting American McGee's Alice at EB Games and the guy behind the counter talking me into getting this as well. Life altering gaming experience
One of my favourite games of all time. The first one I ever beat on all difficulties (though not hard with the shield spell). I got it from a friend as a kid and was hooked instantly. The gameplay and atmosphere were one of a kind. The only not so good thing was the last level (prehistoric) and no wonder RagnarRox didn't even show it in this video, it is so uninspired compared to everything else.
Yep, the enemies in the prehistoric levels were so overpowered that even my scythe felt meh against them even when aiming at the head. As an idea and environments it was great addition, but it overstayed it's welcome and the difficulty spike was pretty intense.
because of you Ragnar I purchased this game today, I am a big fan of Clive Barker and I forgot about this game, that said It sounds like a masterpiece and I will be playing this week and weekend, amazing content as always brother!!!
As a Clive Barker girlie who grew up in the 90s? I didn't get to play Undying. I did grow up with reading Cabal and playing Jericho, which became my favorite nostalgic game (also hated? I loved it and heard it had a cult following but bad reception and would LOVE to see it remade :( ) this was such a cool vid to pop up on my feed. The instrumental NIN at the start was also *chef's kiss*
New game I never heard about. This is why I love this channel, cause it always expands the scope of what I think is interesting to me. Always stay positive Ragna
This was probably my favorite game growing up that I could never talk about because no one else had ever heard of it. Thank you so much for covering it. And yes, I immediately caught the BioShock similarities too you can't miss it.
One of my favorite fps's, anyone who hasnt played it should pick it from gog or so. Bit slow starter, but gets going well. Wouldnt mind if they did remaster or proper remake.
Clive Barkers Undying was the birth of my gamer tag! Thank you for this love letter! I would love it if they remastered and re-released it! Gaming isn't like it used to be!
I absolutely agree that 2001 was an overlooked period for games, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Medal of honor Allied Assault, American Mcgees Alice, Clive Barkers Undying, Computer port for Halo Combat Evolved, and Giants: Citizen Kabuto 28:54 holy shit! even though ive played through the game dozens of times I didn't know you could do that!
I remember loving this game when I was in college. Once I got the flaming skull spell, I named it Mortie (after the floating skull in Planescape Torment) and always had it summoned because the skull would turn to face enemies so I could use it as an early warning of things sneaking up on me. It became a sounding board for me when I was walking around and not sure what to do.
This is game that deserves a remake but I sadly doubt will get one. Updated graphics and controls would do some of the fine tuning it needed when released. Clive's work is some of my favorites and his understanding of marginalized people being demonized, literally and figuratively, is always timely, insightful and adds a vicious insight to his work.
Your videos never fail to impress me. You always manage to find the sweet spot amidst informative, entertaining, and... well, absolutely filled with love for the genre. I knew about this game but never got to play it, seems like it might be time to give it a try now.
Great video. This was the first game that really SCARED me. Other games were creepy or had jump scares... this scared me. Loved the walk down memory lane. Thanks.
It's my favorite horror game. I always was surprised that it didn't sell well and that it doesn't receives much coverage on youtube. I don't like replaying games, but I did reply Undying couple years ago and it was still enjoyable. When I first played it, in was on of the most immersive games I've ever played, it felt like a portal to another world.
FINALLY somebody's talking about this one! Any time a Clive Barker game comes up it's Jericho and I always loved this one. If any game deserves a modern remake, it'd be this one.
Best rain effect in the era, Ability to see spirit realm, Dual-wield weapons+spells. This game has so many innovation which make a lot of surprise for me back in the day.
Still have the short story book this game was released with. I got this game in highschool and it blew my teenage brains out! Really pushed my love for horror games with amazing lore to the next level. Also love the content dude! Easy sub!
I remember playing this horror FPS game, and its one of the most unique games ever. It's made by Clive Barker himself. Really wish that Night Dive Stidios remaster this classic.
One of my all time favorites, influential on my own career. A gorgeous (and you nailed the notion) love letters to one of the real lost gems of gaming.
I really wish clive barker did more games I remember watching the trailer for this in the American McGee's Alice game over & over again way back when. I only got to play it recently, it's been a holy grail game for me & I'm happy it didn't disappoint. I'm happy it's getting more attention
This was my first horror game. I was 14 years old when i first saw this masterpiece. It has everything a game needs to have these days without any BS DLSS, ray tracing, motion capture features. Old school. Great voice acting, great writing, great atmosphere and setting, excellent level design. A lot of beautiful horrific hours. After all these years, returning to the mansion, with almost everything forgotten from my first playthrough, it is a wonderful gift.
I didn't need to watch the video to like! Though I'm very excited to watch it right after I finish my breakfast. This horror game was my childhood and my brother's! I would watch him play this and if he weren't around, I would make my cousin play this game. She would do these panic pot shots when monsters came close. I'd never dare play this when I was a kid. It was an introduction to atmospheric games. The very first for me and the lore was really interesting. I just love this game to bits.
you've inspired me so much to preserve and search for old games! i'm so glad you covered this one in particular and i will always be excited for what you do next
I love your channel, even though the games you cover are usually not my style. I like your content due to the care, research, production and exquisite writing you deliver. But every now and again comes a video that tops it all up with a game I never knew existed and it's now a necessity for me to experience its playthrough. Undying is one of such cases. Thanks a lot, Ragnar.
Thank you for this video! This game was one of those gems I stumbled upon by accident, I bought the game for my girlfriend at the time, I had no real interest in it myself but, since her PC could not run it well I decided I’d give it a go and to this day it is one of most treasured gaming experiences.
The sound track is a masterpiece I listen to this day, by the legendary composer Bill Brown; he being the genius who did the soundtracks starting from Quake 2, to (my other favourite soundtrack of his) C&C Generals, to the 2009 Wolfenstein.
Dude, fam, this is my game. I played the shit out of this back in the early 00s. I never expected this from you, even if you do make all these wonderful videos on old games and I watch every single one of your videos even if I didn't play most games, but this video will be something else for me, personally. So I'm going to leave this message here and thank you before I even watch it.
I know you've talked a lot about Lovecraft...But pretty please with a cherry on top! If you can find it in your heart to do a video essay on CoC: Dark Corners of the Earth, I for one would be a very happy subscriber. As would everyone who haven't heard of the game before and decide to try it out due to a video of yours. 😁
played itmultiple times, one of the dearest games to me, with an amazing story. this gem deserves remake or short film / series. truly gem in fps genre.
This is by far one of my top favorite games of all time. I first found out about it as a trailer on my American Mcgee's Alice game menu. It didnt sell me initialy since the trailer didnt give anything away, but years later when youtube was becoming the norm and i saw more gameplay footage, i bought it in an instant.
I'm so glad this game is getting some appreciation!! I'm the only person I know who even remembers it, and that final fight with Aaron still haunts my damn nightmares 20+ years later.
I consider myself someone who really likes to play the classics that I have not been able to enjoy at the time and had never heard of this game. Ragnarox has given me a great gift by presenting this game. Obviously i'm going to play it asap.
I played this the first time around 2008 or 2009 and I tried to play it like you would Doom or Duke Nukem etc etc. However the game stuck with me and I felt like I was missing part of it, so a few years ago I grab a copy off of GoG and set about actually playing it and damn man, I'm glad I did. I love this game, and now because of this video I am going to have to go play it again! I'm glad I managed to grab a copy of Unreal Gold before it got delisted, along with Unreal Tournament 99, these two games was among the first pc games I ever bought back in the time of AOL dial up internet and the fact they have been delisted is tragic, I know Unreal Tournament is focused mainly on multiplayer with little to no actual story but its still fun and I'll never forgot the first time I step out of the prison ship at the start of Unreal and looked around.
Oneiros was the absolute highlight of this game. The blood red sky, ruined architecture and accompanying mystical soundtrack. You'll want to play it over and over again!
Two memories attached to me 1. first time I saw a game on an LCD monitor instead of CRT 2. first time seeing a game in 60fps. Absolutely surreal for 10 y/o me
The first game that made me scream. I still have a copy of this and Alice. Those 2 I would spend countless hours wandering and taking in the scenery and the music!
I bought up an old physical copy of Unreal because of Epic Games removing/shelving all the old UE titles awhile ago. Obv, the game is widely available through other avenues, but eh, I wanted the legit deal. I recommend everybody back up their games on some form physical media. You have the right to do so. We also really, REALLY, need to do something about always online DRM shit. We shouldn't have to worry about our game libraries being effectively bricked just because a company refuses to have an end of life plan for their online DRM products. A couple days work and a patch release would save tens of thousands of games from disappearing forever. Technically they're already supposed to do shit like that. Consumer rights laws include a right to repair and it applies to software and digital goods, it's just not enforced. Let's hold their damn footsies over the fire so that they're held accountable eh?
I've been a lifetime fan of the works of H P Lovecraft, and this was the first game I can remember playing that embodied the atmosphere that I experienced from reading his stories. This was an under-rated classic in my opinion.
![BLACK BAG - Official Trailer [HD] - Only in Theaters March 14](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Du0Xp8WX_7I/mqdefault.jpg)
I adore that quote about the main character design, it's probably what made him my favorite horror creator of his time. His voice and perspective was so unique for the mediums he chose to work in.
Clive Barker is one of the greatest horror writers of all time, I absolutely love his works, Tortured Souls, Scarlet Gospels, Abarat and of course his Hellraiser series. His aesthetics, characters, settings, all of it is downright perfect in my eyes.
Love him too ❤
His creativity and mind is second to a few others
He's definitely more of a better writer than Stephen King yet less celebrated. I wonder if it has to do with him being gay and British or if he was just not into adaptions of his work.
Most of his stuff is amazing and many TV shows like Buffy the Vampire slayer and video games have borrowed from his worlds.
Books of blood and Abarat were my shit as a kid
"Tortured Souls, Scarlet Gospels, Abarat and of course his Hellraiser series" are these games or novels?
@@mufassirshoaib1572 books, some of them have art included.
When I was about 8 in 2003, I went to a car boot sale (think of a yard sale but in a massive field) in seaham in the UK about ten miles away. I was wandering around with my older sister looking for stuff to buy with the £10 my mother gave me, I bought some boxes hot wheels cars and some Pokémon cards.
Then I came across a table filled with PC and ps1 games, there were a bunch of gems there some of which I already had, then I saw Undying with a sticker on it saying 50p. I bought it after reading the back of the box and couldn’t wait to get it home to play on the family PC.
The opening part where you enter the mansion and encounter the howler enemies absolutely terrified me, but I pushed through. The scrying mechanic to reveal hidden horrible things, especially in the paintings was the coolest thing I ever saw. I love this damn game, and I’m glad to say I still have that same copy I bought for 50p when I was 8.
Great video man, you’ve inspired me to boot it up again 🔥
Hearing Ragnar speak Polish was something I'd never even expect to happen in my life.
Then you weren't paying attention to the type of content he's into!
hahah amazing
Oh my fuckidy fucked... This is THE game I played deep into my childhood, got scared shitless, and tried to remember what this game was my WHOLE LIFE until now, when I'm 25. Thank you so much, dude. You pulled out oldest splinter out of my brain :D
😂😂😂👍👍oldest splinter
Same here, I remember my uncle playing this game and always wanted to play it, when I wal a child i was scared to play, and as soon as the sun started to go down I would leave the computer room and leave my uncle playing alone and i was looking for a couple of years now the name of this game to play it myself.
It was a good memory@@el_coxis5148 😅
@@el_coxis5148 That is so endearing. Thanks for sharing your stories.
Same! I'm in my mid 30's now, same as my brother who played back in the day, I used to watch but one day he left to meet a friend and I was there just me and the game literally shaking. What an experience!
Still my favorite, was hoping for a remaster or remake.
Polish speaker here. It's so rare to see someone remember this country exists. Man nice to see a shoutout.Wish you luck on your quest to learn the language for it is ridiculously complex. Amazing video as always!
🇲🇨🇲🇨🇲🇨
Poland exists???
@@matthewhager270 speaking as a Polish, I really doubt it.
@@IdiotinGlansthe Black Death didn’t think Poland existed, why should I? /s
Friendly reminder that bobr is still kurwa
I love how EA is a content warning lol. Great video as always!
As soon as he mentioned EA I thought “oh here we go again. How did EA fuck someone this time?”
They are often so money while ironically pulling funds for marketing, effectively shooting themselves in the foot financially. Ridiculous.
I played this game when I was a child. It is a great, imaginative, scary, exciting and enjoyable game. I am now 41 years old and I used to play it 15 years ago and sometimes I open it. I thank Mr. CLIVE BARKER for making this game, but I don't know why the next version of this game was not published and my next opinion about this game is that the environment of the game was very scary with the pink and mortal sky and scary and dark characters and finally I hope that the next version of this game will be made again. My name is HABIB It is from the country of Iran and the city of Tabriz
Imagine this getting a reboot & the sequel. What a world 😭
Are you sure that what you're imagining is realistic? Just remember what type of people there are. The quote "you can faceroll your way through the game with just guns" is going to be the breaking point for majority because the majority is stupid, and far stupider than you'd expect.
Look at Scorn.
And that's because this is our conditioning, this is what people want. Just imagine a couch-potato with a fat stack of pork grimes on his lap playing through this game. When after hours of going around in a circle he finally closes the Piss because he has work tomorrow at the 7/11. Then if he remembers he doesn't like this game he'll just ask for a refund because he would never think to jump through the mirror. C.o.D. told him to run around in a circle in Cold War. This doesn't.
Would be a dream!
@@TheKueiJinAre you mentally stable?
I saw the title and I got insanely happy that you're talking about this game ❤. I'm so hyped to watch this, I know it's gonna be gold
Same here. I got excited, and happy that he's doing a take on Undying.
my thoughts as well! Clive Barkers Undying is a VERY hidden gem.
I used to play this waaaaay back in the day, I was maybe 7-8, and I remember being so terrified of the howlers in the distance that most of the time I just never made progress forward. I've since gone back and got this again through gog, absolutely adored it, but the call of the howlers still sends a shiver down my spine for some reason. This game aged like fine wine, with a few sour spots around, but is otherwise fantastic. I was so excited to see this pop up on my front page. Love your work, Ragnar
was not expecting the Tim Sweeney smear but it was a welcome surprise. fantastic video and that Clive Barker interview quote about the protagonist is unbelievably funny. thank you for shining a spotlight on old games like this that not only still hold up, but are gold standard for the action adventure genre!
Truly an underrated, criminally obscure classic. I still replay it every couple years around Halloween. Great atmosphere and the art direction & aesthetics, not to mention gameplay, mapping and storyline were awesome. Also I really love the look of the classic UT99 engine; saturated colors, reflective surfaces, early realtime lighting/shadows and all. Photorealistic textures and stylized models mean it still looks great today, and the sound design with 3D positional audio make it sound great too. It all tied together into an awesome game. Speaking of the literary aspect, there's about 150 pages worth of in-game diary entries, letters, and documents to collect and read. More, the original big box release came with a _ton_ of supplementary material, including a 40-page faux leatherbound edition of Jeremiah Covenant's journal too (which can't be read anywhere else as it doesn't appear in the game itself). All of it written by Barker. The amount of backstory that went into this world was immense. It's such a shame we never got a sequel... That all being said, or perhaps gushed, Oneiros was the Xen of Undying lol.
Anyway as I always say, c1993 to c2003 was truly the golden age of PC gaming; and IMO it's kind been downhill since then with few exceptions -- perhaps a plateau at most. It just seems back in those days there was a steady stream of absolute _incredible classics_ coming out all the time; with massive leaps and bounds in graphical technology happening what seemed like every month, medium-pushing gameplay, and colossal amounts of innovation and passion from legendary talents. Now we have the cancer of lootboxes, DLC, pay-to-win, betas being released at full price and requiring endless patches... And almost everything mainstream/AAA suffers from extreme lack of originality -- it's nothing but sequels and prequels and remakes; just bland, safe, zero-risk/zero-innovation pap. The AAA scene has gone to utter shit, with a very few exceptions. Mind you the indie community is enjoying its renaissance right now too, but still... Put it this way, a game like Undying would never be made today except as a small-budget indie project. I miss that old era of the golden age of PC gaming.
Clive Barker's Undying aka Clive Barker's The Mood, one of the best atmospheres I've seen in a game to date !
Just a quick correction to the video: Clive Barker is English, not American.
Thanks so much for covering this game. It's one that has always intrigued me, though I haven't had the chance to play it. You make the game sound even more interesting and engaging than I could have imagined. Great work.
YES. So glad you made a video about this game. Clive Barker's Undying is truly a gem that stood the test of time. I remember the first time that amazing haunting main menu music started playing, the first time i opened the time portal and the ruins of the old monastery around me turned into a snowy version of its complete former glory centuries ago. That 2 hands weapon system/ different ammo types was crazy for it's time, and slicing somebody's head with the scythe never gets old. For me this is a golden remnant from the Wild West era of video games development and undoubtedly influenced a lot my decision to become a game developer later on. And honestly ... i know that Hellraiser/ Hellbound is the hallmark Clive Barker property, but the vibe & atmosphere of this game for me is way more enticing. Maybe it's because the main character indeed feels grounded in reality yet charming & self composed, and the Irish hills & castles give this game so much charm. It led me to read some of his other books, like Coldheart Canyon, which made me appreciate Barker's creativity & talent even more.
Seeing the beginning of this game and how the stone could make you see alternative versions of paintings in the house to reveal what happened to the family while I was at a friend's house was one of my first real experiences with horror video games and for that alone I will always love this game's vibe.
Clive Barker's Undying is to this day the ONLY game that outright scared and shocked me so hard, I had to stop playing. And I'm freaking 36.
Spoiler prevention.
That freakin' statue that rips its chest open. Had NEVER seen anything like it before, and I outright panic fired.
Another moment was the bloody handprint room.
@@mcgibs The one with a long rant in blood in what's otherwise just some random storage room? Yeah. That one was a bit creepy.
A subtler one for me, was the maid's corpse just after you leave the magic realm for the first time. The blood from her drips UPWARDS and pools on the ceiling. That one sent a shiver down my spine, with just how subtly wrong it was.
Just... tons of cool little scares in that game. Man, did Undying deserve better.
I hope Nightdive can somehow pick this up
Somehow you always manage to dig up all my old favorite obscure classics, and then write them far more eloquent love letters than I ever could. Thanks, mate! It's a delight to hear you talk about these games.
When this game came out I just consumed every little bit of information about it. I was so stoked to read everything abut it and in the end...I was a scared boy, never being able to play a horror game like this. I'm curious about it ever since and am thankful that you get to cover it here.
Thank you for writing love letters and creating videos that accompany them beautifully instead of getting your head so caught up in "needing to stay up to date with analysis" and trying to only play the latest and the greatest, whether you like them or not, and simply trying to manufacture something to talk about. I love that your videos are very clearly products of passion. Awesome video!
I played this game only two years ago! Someone I loved then really enjoyed the story of Undying when he was younger, I ended up playing this for hours and hours at a time just to talk to him about it, though admittedly I sucked hard and resorted to cheats in the end. Made me so happy to see this video come out! Thank you so much for such a wonderful retrospective!
Niqqa ghey😂
I finished with cheat u already got cheat in games its called quick save
I remember this, loved the game back then! This and Realms of the Haunting are probably my favourite classic horror shooters and are among my favourite horror games of all time.
I could not agree more. When I first played Undying, I thought that Realms of the Haunting must have been an inspiration during development. There are just too many similarities between those games.
Realms of the haunting is Undying classic🙂
Yes, Yes a thousand times yes.
I have wondered for a lot of time why not every single retro game channel on youtube sings praises to this game yet.
Thank you this video.
I often remember the chant from the main menu clearly. It is so cool. You included it at some point as background music but haven't mention how glorious it was too.
Clive Barker definitely deserves more praise. Such an underrated horror icon.
I loved this game so much when I was a kid. There’s something about the atmosphere of old games that the new ones fail to capture
I remember seeing pictures of the game in a magazine and being fascinated by it. By the time I had a pc and money to buy it myself years later, I'd already forgotten about it. But maybe it's time to finally acquire it and play it myself...
I'll always remember getting American McGee's Alice at EB Games and the guy behind the counter talking me into getting this as well. Life altering gaming experience
Your polish is good, You sound a little like a Czech person speaking polish, but it's fully understandable. Keep it up!
One of my favourite games of all time. The first one I ever beat on all difficulties (though not hard with the shield spell). I got it from a friend as a kid and was hooked instantly. The gameplay and atmosphere were one of a kind. The only not so good thing was the last level (prehistoric) and no wonder RagnarRox didn't even show it in this video, it is so uninspired compared to everything else.
Yep, the enemies in the prehistoric levels were so overpowered that even my scythe felt meh against them even when aiming at the head. As an idea and environments it was great addition, but it overstayed it's welcome and the difficulty spike was pretty intense.
because of you Ragnar I purchased this game today, I am a big fan of Clive Barker and I forgot about this game, that said It sounds like a masterpiece and I will be playing this week and weekend, amazing content as always brother!!!
Damn it... at 20:12 when the frigging Bioshock music kicks in, right as your nail home your point about how much it borrowed... *chefs kiss*
As a Clive Barker girlie who grew up in the 90s? I didn't get to play Undying. I did grow up with reading Cabal and playing Jericho, which became my favorite nostalgic game (also hated? I loved it and heard it had a cult following but bad reception and would LOVE to see it remade :( ) this was such a cool vid to pop up on my feed. The instrumental NIN at the start was also *chef's kiss*
New game I never heard about. This is why I love this channel, cause it always expands the scope of what I think is interesting to me. Always stay positive Ragna
This was probably my favorite game growing up that I could never talk about because no one else had ever heard of it. Thank you so much for covering it. And yes, I immediately caught the BioShock similarities too you can't miss it.
One of my favorite fps's, anyone who hasnt played it should pick it from gog or so. Bit slow starter, but gets going well. Wouldnt mind if they did remaster or proper remake.
Clive Barkers Undying was the birth of my gamer tag! Thank you for this love letter! I would love it if they remastered and re-released it! Gaming isn't like it used to be!
I absolutely agree that 2001 was an overlooked period for games, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Medal of honor Allied Assault, American Mcgees Alice, Clive Barkers Undying, Computer port for Halo Combat Evolved, and Giants: Citizen Kabuto
28:54 holy shit! even though ive played through the game dozens of times I didn't know you could do that!
Aw man, I remember Helloween4545's Let's Play of this game. His rants about jammed doors and, later in the game, ladders still crackle me up.
Just played this because of this video. Loved the fast paced narrative. every conversation knows exactly when to end.
I remember loving this game when I was in college. Once I got the flaming skull spell, I named it Mortie (after the floating skull in Planescape Torment) and always had it summoned because the skull would turn to face enemies so I could use it as an early warning of things sneaking up on me. It became a sounding board for me when I was walking around and not sure what to do.
This is game that deserves a remake but I sadly doubt will get one. Updated graphics and controls would do some of the fine tuning it needed when released. Clive's work is some of my favorites and his understanding of marginalized people being demonized, literally and figuratively, is always timely, insightful and adds a vicious insight to his work.
Wish Nightdive would take a crack at it. Might be one of the games ive come back to the most
Your videos never fail to impress me. You always manage to find the sweet spot amidst informative, entertaining, and... well, absolutely filled with love for the genre. I knew about this game but never got to play it, seems like it might be time to give it a try now.
Great video. This was the first game that really SCARED me. Other games were creepy or had jump scares... this scared me. Loved the walk down memory lane. Thanks.
Loved the ending with Anton drawing! He is a wonderful artist!
Had to look up games released in 2001. That was indeed a crazy good year for gaming.
The way I fucking shrieked when Clive said "bring me someone I wanna sleep with" fucking icon god hes so good.
It's my favorite horror game. I always was surprised that it didn't sell well and that it doesn't receives much coverage on youtube. I don't like replaying games, but I did reply Undying couple years ago and it was still enjoyable. When I first played it, in was on of the most immersive games I've ever played, it felt like a portal to another world.
FINALLY somebody's talking about this one! Any time a Clive Barker game comes up it's Jericho and I always loved this one. If any game deserves a modern remake, it'd be this one.
the SOUNDTRACK is still on my playlist, i am still obsessed with it, this track is on par with silent hill 2 osts!
Best rain effect in the era, Ability to see spirit realm, Dual-wield weapons+spells.
This game has so many innovation which make a lot of surprise for me back in the day.
I was very happy to see you posting about Undying. I picked it up again last week. It's always been one of my favorites.
This game is so nostalgic to me! Thank you so much for covering it!
Still have the short story book this game was released with.
I got this game in highschool and it blew my teenage brains out! Really pushed my love for horror games with amazing lore to the next level.
Also love the content dude! Easy sub!
I remember playing this horror FPS game, and its one of the most unique games ever. It's made by Clive Barker himself. Really wish that Night Dive Stidios remaster this classic.
One of my all time favorites, influential on my own career. A gorgeous (and you nailed the notion) love letters to one of the real lost gems of gaming.
You sir have an excellent taste in games. This game is the definition of underappreciated.
I really wish clive barker did more games
I remember watching the trailer for this in the American McGee's Alice game over & over again way back when. I only got to play it recently, it's been a holy grail game for me & I'm happy it didn't disappoint.
I'm happy it's getting more attention
I was about to buy this game on GOG, now I am definitely gonna. Awesome vid!
This was my first horror game. I was 14 years old when i first saw this masterpiece. It has everything a game needs to have these days without any BS DLSS, ray tracing, motion capture features. Old school. Great voice acting, great writing, great atmosphere and setting, excellent level design. A lot of beautiful horrific hours. After all these years, returning to the mansion, with almost everything forgotten from my first playthrough, it is a wonderful gift.
I didn't need to watch the video to like! Though I'm very excited to watch it right after I finish my breakfast. This horror game was my childhood and my brother's! I would watch him play this and if he weren't around, I would make my cousin play this game. She would do these panic pot shots when monsters came close. I'd never dare play this when I was a kid. It was an introduction to atmospheric games. The very first for me and the lore was really interesting. I just love this game to bits.
19:17 AH! So that's where the sample comes from in Cygnosic track "The Darkness"
you've inspired me so much to preserve and search for old games! i'm so glad you covered this one in particular and i will always be excited for what you do next
The childhood nostalgia that just hit me
Was playing this a student at highschool. Still remember how scared and addicted i was. What a marvel of a game..
YES!! Been waiting for this video for too long!! Thanks!!
I love your channel, even though the games you cover are usually not my style. I like your content due to the care, research, production and exquisite writing you deliver. But every now and again comes a video that tops it all up with a game I never knew existed and it's now a necessity for me to experience its playthrough. Undying is one of such cases. Thanks a lot, Ragnar.
Thank you for this video! This game was one of those gems I stumbled upon by accident, I bought the game for my girlfriend at the time, I had no real interest in it myself but, since her PC could not run it well I decided I’d give it a go and to this day it is one of most treasured gaming experiences.
The sound track is a masterpiece I listen to this day, by the legendary composer Bill Brown; he being the genius who did the soundtracks starting from Quake 2, to (my other favourite soundtrack of his) C&C Generals, to the 2009 Wolfenstein.
Dude, fam, this is my game. I played the shit out of this back in the early 00s. I never expected this from you, even if you do make all these wonderful videos on old games and I watch every single one of your videos even if I didn't play most games, but this video will be something else for me, personally. So I'm going to leave this message here and thank you before I even watch it.
My college roommate introduced me to this game and I immediately fell in love. I had to get my own copy. Which I still have.
one of my all time favorite games which I probably completed 10 times, replayed it a few years ago and still loved it!!
I was not aware it was on GOG, and dirt cheap too. Glad I picked it up!
I know you've talked a lot about Lovecraft...But pretty please with a cherry on top! If you can find it in your heart to do a video essay on CoC: Dark Corners of the Earth, I for one would be a very happy subscriber.
As would everyone who haven't heard of the game before and decide to try it out due to a video of yours. 😁
played itmultiple times, one of the dearest games to me, with an amazing story. this gem deserves remake or short film / series. truly gem in fps genre.
6:05 - oh, my sweet summer child, you have no idea what hell you're stepping into...
This is by far one of my top favorite games of all time. I first found out about it as a trailer on my American Mcgee's Alice game menu. It didnt sell me initialy since the trailer didnt give anything away, but years later when youtube was becoming the norm and i saw more gameplay footage, i bought it in an instant.
I'd never heard of this game, but it's so cool. Thanks for showing it off!
I'm so glad this game is getting some appreciation!! I'm the only person I know who even remembers it, and that final fight with Aaron still haunts my damn nightmares 20+ years later.
I always get excited when I see a new video from you, they're always so insightful to listen to
Anton Oxenuk's speedpaint at the end goes hard. Loved it!! Great vid, as always ♥
I consider myself someone who really likes to play the classics that I have not been able to enjoy at the time and had never heard of this game. Ragnarox has given me a great gift by presenting this game. Obviously i'm going to play it asap.
I played this the first time around 2008 or 2009 and I tried to play it like you would Doom or Duke Nukem etc etc. However the game stuck with me and I felt like I was missing part of it, so a few years ago I grab a copy off of GoG and set about actually playing it and damn man, I'm glad I did. I love this game, and now because of this video I am going to have to go play it again!
I'm glad I managed to grab a copy of Unreal Gold before it got delisted, along with Unreal Tournament 99, these two games was among the first pc games I ever bought back in the time of AOL dial up internet and the fact they have been delisted is tragic, I know Unreal Tournament is focused mainly on multiplayer with little to no actual story but its still fun and I'll never forgot the first time I step out of the prison ship at the start of Unreal and looked around.
Excellent coverage of an underrated classic. I particularly enjoyed the part about development and Clive Barker's influence on it.
Undying is a masterpiece. Excellent video!
I still have this game on disc.. ahahha I LOOOOOOOVE IT! I wish I could find it as a digital download.
This is one of my favorites. Greatest game you never played, lol. Civvie-11's review of this gave me a good chuckle too.
Oneiros was the absolute highlight of this game. The blood red sky, ruined architecture and accompanying mystical soundtrack. You'll want to play it over and over again!
Thank you for doing this video. Legit one of my favorite FPS games, if not video games in general. So underrated.
Two memories attached to me
1. first time I saw a game on an LCD monitor instead of CRT
2. first time seeing a game in 60fps. Absolutely surreal for 10 y/o me
The first game that made me scream. I still have a copy of this and Alice. Those 2 I would spend countless hours wandering and taking in the scenery and the music!
Great vid Rag! Happy holidays!!!
Loved it man. The game and your video. kudos from argentina. brought many awesome memories.
I bought up an old physical copy of Unreal because of Epic Games removing/shelving all the old UE titles awhile ago. Obv, the game is widely available through other avenues, but eh, I wanted the legit deal. I recommend everybody back up their games on some form physical media. You have the right to do so. We also really, REALLY, need to do something about always online DRM shit. We shouldn't have to worry about our game libraries being effectively bricked just because a company refuses to have an end of life plan for their online DRM products. A couple days work and a patch release would save tens of thousands of games from disappearing forever. Technically they're already supposed to do shit like that. Consumer rights laws include a right to repair and it applies to software and digital goods, it's just not enforced. Let's hold their damn footsies over the fire so that they're held accountable eh?
This game still makes my skin crawl at times. The cutscene where Jeremiah explains why he summoned Patrick, the monastery levels etc. Brilliant game.
24:03 I consider myself quite a hardcore fan ,but I actually didn't know about the stones power! Thanks !
I've been a lifetime fan of the works of H P Lovecraft, and this was the first game I can remember playing that embodied the atmosphere that I experienced from reading his stories. This was an under-rated classic in my opinion.
I loved this game. My friend bought it when we were like 14 years old and we spent 2 days together playing nonstop. It scared the shit out of us.
This game was awesome. It's rare to see other people talk about it. Highly underrated game.