History VideoGame / CliveBarkersUndying

* TheOtherMarty: The game's original premise had the hero as a tattooed, muscle-bound shaman versed in the ancient arts. When Clive Barker came aboard, the first thing he had the development team do was overhaul the hero into Irish paranormal investigator Patrick Galloway, wisely deciding that an everyman hero would work much better for the story (not to mention the AuthorAppeal factor). The hero's original design didn't go to waste, however: he can be seen as the Trsanti shaman wielding the Gel'ziabar Stone in the flashback cutscene.

** Although, both {{Lets Play}}s comment on her being attractive and her [[HaveANiceDeath victory pose over Patrick]] makes it obvious she was intended to be hot in uncomfortable ways. CliveBarker's stuff tends to be "interesting" like that.

* IdiotBall or TooStupidToLive: Jeremiah. Let's go over his plans again: [[spoiler:You are the weakest of the five undead siblings that no mortal weapon can kill for real. You trick the hero into finding a supernatural weapon that actually can and into using said weapon for killing your stronger siblings, their armies of demonic mooks and extremely powerful evil wizard. So far so good. Very smart of and good for you. Revealing everything to and mocking/threatening said hero while you have no demonic armies or powers to hurt him in any way? Not so much.]]

* PuzzleBoss: A lot of the bosses are pretty much invincible until they run out of juice. Lizbeth goes invincible with her LimitBreak, and you have to wait for her to tucker out before you can take her head off. Ambrose gets all [[AttackOfTheFiftyFootWhatever gigantimous]], and you have to wait until he's distracted so that you can [[ForMassiveDamage hit his weak point for massive damage]]. Aaron is invulnerable until one of his spears gets stuck, at which point you rush in and finish him off.

* WizardDuel:The battle against Keisinger in Oneiros. Both of you have an identical and sizable array of spells (with the exception of flight, yours [[VideoGameFlight is limited]], his is not) which you've painstakingly acquired through the length of the game, you're both flying around at the top of a ziggurat floating in his insane pocket dimension, ducking behind columns, using shield counterspells and charging up blasts of lightning and fireballs to cast at each other [[DualWielding with distinct gestures for each hand]] in first-person.

!This game contains examples of the following:

* BlackSheep: Even without the curse, Ambrose was a hellion that eventually joined up with pirates and even [[spoiler:killed himself rather than be arrested by the police]].

* BossArenaIdiocy: Aaron wields a chain that he uses as a whip against you. The only way to defeat him is to position yourself in front of one of the rings on the wall and dodge his attack. His chain will get trapped in the ring, and you can attack him while he's busy trying to get the chain out.

--> [[spoiler:Father always said "self-reflection is the key to enlightenment." Allow me to reflect on this day. How could I have saved my father from a slow, painful death? I could have hit him harder.]]

* DisposableWoman: The maids pretty much exist to get killed by Howlers. The male servants seem a bit better at living.

* LivingStatue: The game has a weird bit where to get to the upper floor of a room in magical alternate dimension, the player must use the scrying spell on the statue in the center of the room. This shows it's heart exposed, which the player must then shoot with his gun. This causes blood to pour out and allow the player to swim to the upper level.

* PsychicAssistedSuicide: The spell Invoke allows you to reanimate monsters and destroy undead. If you use it on a living human being, they will jerkily turn their weapon on themselves as they beg for their life in terror, slitting their own throat or blowing their brains out.

* VideoGameCrueltyPotential: Throwing motolov cocktails on humans will make them run around screaming until they die. The player can also amplify the Invoke magic which causes human enemies to kill themselves against their will.

* AnimateDead: The game has the Invoke spell, which raises dead enemies to fight on your side for a little while. It also [[ReviveKillsZombie insta-kills skeletons]].

* WizardDuel:The battle against Keisinger in Oneiros. Both of you have an identical and sizable array of spells (with the exception of flight, yours [[VideoGameFlight is limited]], his is not.,) which you've painstakingly acquired through the length of the game, you're both flying around at the top of a ziggurat floating in his insane pocket dimension, ducking behind columns, using shield counterspells and charging up blasts of lightning and fireballs to cast at each other [[DualWielding with distinct gestures for each hand]] in first-person.

* WizardDuel:The battle against Keisinger in Oneiros. Both of you have an identical and sizable array of spells (with the exception of flight, yours[[VideoGameFlight is limited]], his is not.,) which you've painstakingly acquired through the length of the game, you're both flying around at the top of a ziggurat floating in his insane pocket dimension, ducking behind columns, using shield counterspells and charging up blasts of lightning and fireballs to cast at each other [[DualWielding with distinct gestures for each hand]] in first-person.

* WorldWarOne: A part of Patrick's and Jeremiah's backstory. The jury is still out (probably forever) on Keisinger (while he certainly doesn't sound it, his name is German, his aristocratic title - if not self-awarded - makes him likely to come from Germany, and he certainly is old enough to have joined).

* HeyItsThatVoice: CliveBarker himself provides the voice of Ambrose Covenant.

* WizardDuel:The battle against Keisinger in Oneiros. Both of you have an identical and sizable array of spells (with the exception of flight, yours [[VideoGameFlight is limited]], his isn't,) which you've painstakingly acquired through the length of the game, you're both flying around at the top of a ziggurat floating in his insane pocket dimension, ducking behind columns, using shield counterspells and charging up blasts of lightning and fireballs to cast at each other [[DualWielding with distinct gestures for each hand]] in first-person.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: A lot of things were dropped during development. According to WordOfGod, the game was even supposed to have a multiplayer mode.
** Eight different spells were cut out. The game was even supposed to have three selection wheels: one for weapons, another for offensive spells, and another for defensive spells.
*** Mindshatter: disorients (it's the spell used by the Sil Lith in Oneiros).
*** Powerword: scribes a rune on the air and damages anyone on sight (used by the Veragos in Oneiros).
*** Ward: organic mines (used by Bethany).
*** Firefly: makes enemies glow, allows spells to seek enemies.
*** Shala's Vortex: originally supposed to protect from magical damage, before it was merged with the shield spell (which was initially supposed to protect only from physical damage).
*** Phoenix: initially a spell, not a weapon (used by Keisinger). Dynamite was supposed to be the missing weapon.
*** Phase: invisibility (used by the Drinen in Eternal Autumn).
*** Incantation of Silence: mutes sound.
** At early stages of the development, the game was supposed to be called "Strange Aeons" (a Creator/HPLovecraft reference) or "Siog" (a Celtic word for "Spirit World").
** A cut level would have featured an Irish village overrun by Trsanti.
** The gameplay would have been much less linear, and have more freeroam.
** A dropped Scrye event was supposed to show Bethany coming back [[spoiler:after being killed by Keisinger]] and banishing Keisinger to Oneiros.
** Some items were also dropped. The wizard eye, for example, was like a surveillance camera that could put anywhere, but was dropped along with the multiplayer mode (being pretty much useless in single player). One can still be found in the DebugRoom, though.

* WizardDuel: Although many parts of ''[[CliveBarkersUndying Undying]]'' came off as kind of generic, the battle against Keisinger in Oneiros was, in [[EricDVH my]] opinion, the best wizard duel I've seen in a game. Both of you have an identical and sizable array of spells (with the exception of flight, yours [[VideoGameFlight is limited]], his isn't,) which you've painstakingly acquired through the length of the game, you're both flying around at the top of a ziggurat floating in his insane pocket dimension, ducking behind columns, using shield counterspells and charging up blasts of lightning and fireballs to cast at each other [[DualWielding with distinct gestures for each hand]] in first-person.

* BlackMesaCommute: Before too many mangled corpses begin showing up.

* IdiotBall or TooStupidToLive: Jeremiah. Let's go over his plans again: [[spoiler:You are the weakest of the five undead siblings that no mortal weapon can kill for real. You trick the hero into finding a supernatural weapon that actually can and into using said weapon for killing your stronger siblings, their armies demonic mooks and extremely powerful evil wizard. So far so good. Very smart of and good for you. Revealing everything to and mocking/threatening said hero while you have no powers or armies to hurt him in any way? Not so much.]]

* IdiotBall/TooStupidToLive: Jeremiah. Let's go over his plans again: You are the weakest of the five undead siblings that no mortal weapon can kill for real. You trick the hero into finding a supernatural weapon that actually can and into using said weapon for killing your stronger siblings, their armies demonic mooks and extremely powerful evil wizard. So far so good. Very smart of and good for you. Revealing everything to and mocking/threatening said hero while you have no powers or armies to hurt him in any way? Not so much.

----

* AndIMustScream: Aaron was [[spoiler:chained up and eaten alive by rats]], [[FridgeLogic with his jaw removed so he couldn't scream]].

* UncannyValley: Bethany's Handmaidens, who were her own creation. If you look up close they have porcelain masks like victorian dolls. Behind it there is a grotesque mockery of a face. They were her demented version of servants. Must have missed all the hired help around the mansion.

* {{Determinator}}: Let's face it: Patrick pretty much IS this trope. Let's see here: Survive WorldWarOne? Check. Survive at least decades of conflict with Otto Keisinger? Check. Get through Irish customs unnoticed in order to fulfill a life debt? Check. Fight through wave after wave of unspeakable abominations that have racked up quite the kill count? Check. Handle the ArtifactOfDoom with fairly marginal damage? Check. Kill off the undead and superhuman Covenant siblings one by one? Check. Go into HELL to defeat Keisinger? Check. Survive [[spoiler: Jeremiah's]] betrayal? Check. Take down the [[spoiler: EldritchAbomination]] that helped cause this godforsaken train wreck in the first place? Check. Basically, by the end, he is pretty much surviving more-or-less because it seems like he can't bloody DIE.

* OffWithHisHead: The only way to destroy the undead Covenants, and it has to be done with a certain weapon at that. This is also one of only two ways to make a skeleton stay down for good, the other being ReviveKillsZombie.

* ShutupHannibal: "You know what [[spoiler:Jeremiah]]? You talk too much." * slices off his head*

* UncannyValley: Bethany's Handmaidens, who were her own creation. If you look up close they have porcelain masks like victorian dolls. Behind it there is a grotesque mockery of a face. They were her demented version of servants. Must have missed all the hired help around the mansion.

*** Phoenix: initially a spell, not a weapon (used by Keisinger). Dynamite was supposed to be the missing weapon.

** At early stages of the development, the game was supposed to be called "Strange Aeons" (a HPLovecraft reference) or "Siog" (a Celtic word for "Spirit World").

** The gameplay would have been much less linear, and have more freeroam.

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* AllThereInTheManual: The game comes with Jeremiah's journal, where he explains how the Covenants were cursed and how they all met their untimely end.

** At early stages of the development, the game was supposed to be called "Strange Aeons" (a HPLovecraft reference) or "Siog".

** A lot of plot details were cut from the game because of time constraints near the end. This is why the ending is rather confusing and incomplete. [[spoiler:The basic mechanics behind the curse are as follows - The Undying King is basically an EldritchAbomination and the Celtic human sacrifice was essentially a seal to keep said Undying King locked away. When Jeremiah took his siblings to the Standing Stones Island and read from the book, he ''undid'' that old seal and recreated it in a specific way... the ''siblings'' became a living seal, both corrupted and rendered effectively immortal by the power of the Undying King.]]

* BeatingADeadPlayer: The game had a unique "kill-the-player" animation for every single enemy in the game (except for the Greater Monto Shonoi).

* DeusExMachina: Played with in the [[spoiler: giant hellhound that makes it possible for you to defeat Ambrose.]] It seems like it [[AssPull comes out of nowhere,]] but read Patrick's journal and he'll mention that if you use the Gel'ziabar stone too much; you know, the one [[spoiler: Ambrose]] just stole and is using against you; a "strange dog-like beast" might show up to menace you.

* EldritchAbomination: the Undying King, plus many of the creatures in Oneiros.

* GoodBadBugs: Many of the grunts were coded to say a quote as they entered the room where they attacked you but the game had apparently no provision for dealing with a situation where the player killed him before he could speak. This can lead to a situation where you slice off the head of one of the nomadic grunts and his severed head at your feet, looking at you, says "I'll see you in hell!"

* AllThereInTheManual: The game comes with Jeremiah's journal, where he explains how the Covenants were cursed and how they all met their untimely end.
** A lot of plot details were cut from the game because of time constraints near the end. This is why the ending is rather confusing and incomplete. [[spoiler:The basic mechanics behind the curse are as follows - The Undying King is basically an EldritchAbomination and the Celtic human sacrifice was essentially a seal to keep said Undying King locked away. When Jeremiah took his siblings to the Standing Stones Island and read from the book, he ''undid'' that old seal and recreated it in a specific way... the ''siblings'' became a living seal, both corrupted and rendered effectively immortal by the power of the Undying King.]]

* BlackSheep: Even without the curse, Ambrose was a hellion that eventually joined up with pirates and even [[spoiler:killed himself rather than be arrested by the police]].

* BreatherLevel: The Monastery. Non-threatening human enemies MUCH less dangerous than the fast, monstrous Howlers AND tons of health and ammo? Ahhhhh....
** By the way... What's the reason for ammo for [[BlatantItemPlacement modern weapons in a medieval monastery]]?

* PortalPool: The method for traveling between the past and present versions of the monastery.

* RevivingEnemy: The skeletons. Using the Tibetan War Canon sometimes prevents them getting up and invoke instantly destroys them (although it uses a lot of mana). The scythe puts a perminent end to them.