Undying takes place during the 1920s, where the character that gamers play, Patrick Galloway, has been summoned by an old war friend of his to solve the curse of his family and estate. Each of his four siblings has seen death in the previous years, and it won’t be long before he is taken, as well. Practically as his dying wish, Patrick is asked to search around the Covenant Estate and find out the reason behind his brothers and sisters deaths. The quest will take him to the brink of sanity, and he’ll discover a sinister evil at work that’s more powerful than he could ever imagine. Not only will he have to battle an ancient threat, but he’ll need to keep an eye on rival of his that’s also staying on the Covenant Estate: Kiesinger.

One of the reasons that first person shooters continue to receive so much attention is because they’re well known to be a genre that quickly advances in the field of visuals. Undying is no different; it makes fantastic use of the Unreal Tournament engine to produce a world that’s chock full of incredible textures that give a darn near photo-realistic look to the Covenant Estate and its surreal surroundings. It’s amazing what DreamWorks has been able to bring out of the year-old engine, and as the game progresses it only becomes better and better. Almost half of a dozen highly-detailed, smoothly animated enemies will bounce on the screen at once, and the game won’t even start slowing down. It’s all a testament to the lessons that DreamWorks has learned their second time around, and the superb job they have done in utilizing the engine to really warp the player in.

More or less, the main reason what Undying such an experience is because it does a fantastic job of immersing the player into its settings. No doubt due to some help from Clive Barker, DreamWorks has succeeded in making just as, if not more scared to play the game at night than I was with Gathering of Developers’ Blair Witch Project series. Walking through the Covenant’s mansion, the impression of an enormous mansion with hundreds of rooms surrounding your character feels very real. You run from room to room to room, and many of them have open access to explore. A good portion of the “extra” rooms you come across might not have anything that made it worthwhile to check out, but it only adds to the feeling that you truly could wander around the house for hours on end, and still not see it all. And beyond merely the Covenant mansion, the game’s environments have an entirely distinct look to them that will often times have you simply looking around the landscape, and observing the scenery.

A problem that was present in the excellent first person shooter Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force was that the game was over all too quickly, but thankfully, DreamWorks has made Undying a long, engrossing experience that will have you glued to the screen for weeks. You have to embark on five different quests in order to gather all the materials needed to take on the game’s final boss, and completing even the first quest will take hours to do. And the great thing is, the game rarely has a dull moment. You always have to be on the alert for a group of Howlers who feel like popping out from around the corner – while there might not always be one, the game’s atmospheric sound and artwork always give the impression that death is only a mouse click away (and it usually is).

What we have come to expect from most titles in the genre are that though there are more powerful weapons that are earned during the course of the game, but there're usually one or two in the arsenal that are used 95% of the time. You won’t experience that in Undying. For one, running out blasting in Undying doesn’t get you far; the enemies in the game are ruthless, and it only takes a few well-placed swipes for them to knock the head off your character’s shoulders. Since there isn’t an overabundance of ammunition and health in Undying (though there isn’t a severe lack, either – if you’re careful, there should be enough), approaching situations during the game in the right fashion are crucial. A common example is using the Octoblast spell in conjunction with bullet fire; magic points automatically regenerate over time, and because magic is usually not enough to take on an enemy on its own, when it’s combined with a physical weapons it becomes a lethal addition. Every creature in Undying has a specific strategy to it, and it’s adapting that strategy to a given situation that makes the game not only more challenging, but adds tension to a situation where you are frantically trying to switch weapons while four howlers are leaping as you strafe.

There was little talk about Undying (what there was came from Clive Barker’s attachment) leading up to its release, but now it seems to be the talk of the town. First person shooter fans, adventure fans and game fans should definitely check out what DreamWorks has to offer with Undying. It combines an atmosphere that will have you changing your shorts at least twice per playing session with beautiful visuals and balanced gameplay that requires some actual thinking to make it through successfully.