SYNOPSIS

There was pain without hope of healing. There was life that refused to end long after the mind had begged the body to cease. And worst, there were dreams come true. Clive Barker's Books of Blood

Long acknowledged as an extraordinarily imaginative storyteller who has earned universal acclaim for his compelling feature films and literary work, Clive Barker turns his attention toward the interactive arena with Clive Barker's Undying, a video game that expands the very foundation of the format. In this game, Barker worked closely with DreamWorks Interactive (DWI) to meticulously create a world of arcane magic, supernatural abominations and ancient horror. The fully developed sinister characters Barker has fashioned to tell this dramatic story of avarice and revenge further enhance this fascinating tapestry. Players in this game assume the role of Patrick Galloway, a mysterious cipher of a man who has made a career out of researching various forms of the supernatural and the occult. Set in 1923, Clive Barker's Undying begins when Galloway receives a desperate letter from Jeremiah Covenant, a close friend with whom he served during World War I. Covenant - the eldest of five children and the only sibling still alive - is in rapidly failing health, and implores Galloway to travel at once to the Covenant's ancestral estate on the coast of Ireland. Jeremiah is convinced that with his friends' vast experience in the supernatural he might be able to reverse what he believes to be a curse that has beset his family, leaving it financially impoverished and morally bankrupt. Both Covenant parents are dead;the mother died giving birth to her fifth child, Lizbeth, while the patriarch was violently murdered. It is Lizbeth, the Socialite, who was the first to die, from a mysterious wasting disease that forced her to depart London's high society and return to the family's remote manor. Twins Bethany (a ruthlessly ambitious schemer) and Aaron (an artist savant who eloquently communicates through his art as he descends into madness) embody the concept of sibling rivalry. "Black Sheep" Ambrose dies when he returns to Ireland many years after the murder of his father. Pursued by local police, Ambrose throws himself off a cliff into the raging sea below, leaving the ailing Jeremiah the sole surviving family member. Or is he? Upon his arrival at the imposing Covenant estate, Galloway quickly learns that all four deceased siblings have "reanimated," empowered by their seemingly limitless capacity for greed, cruelty and depravity. During their first meeting, Jeremiah recounts a childhood game in which the five children imitate rituals Jeremiah had found in a dusty old book hidden away in the library. The instructions called for the ritual to be performed at an ancient circle of standing rocks, located in the stormy waters that battered the Irish coast near their home. The children used a ring of standing stones on the manor grounds, unbeknownst to them this seemingly innocent reenactment of a forgotten ritual is to blame for the sinister and fatal results. Each of the undead siblings has returned to life intent on completing what they first set into motion those many years ago at the standing stones. The real peril to the Covenant family is the horrifying curse that dictates when the last child dies, and then at last the true purpose of the standing stones would be revealed. In order to save his friend and unravel the curse that has destroyed Jeremiah's family, Patrick Galloway must confront - and conquer - five perilous quests. Each of these challenges pits Galloway against one of Jeremiah's treacherous undead siblings and the ferociously lethal supernatural creatures that they summon and command. In addition to the life-or-death encounters with the Covenant siblings, Galloway must also face his venomous and reviled archrival, Otto Kiesinger, a ruthless wizard who is intent on breaking the curse and taking for himself the powers that ensue. Ultimately, Galloway discovers an evil force more ancient and powerful than he could have imagined - The Undying King. This otherworldly king first tried to enter our world many years ago, but was thwarted when he was sealed by a human sacrifice buried beneath the same circle of standing rocks where the children played. Once again, The Undying King threatens to destroy not only the Covenant family, but also the very fabric of our earthly existence. In his harrowing journey of self-discovery, Patrick Galloway thoroughly explores the vast Covenant estate, with its surrounding grounds, Neolithic caves, ruined monastery and foreboding catacombs. He travels effortlessly through time and alternate planes of existence, with all of these exhilarating elements incorporated into the video game format with a searing assault on the senses that reminds you that Clive Barker is one of the creative forces behind this project. Under the supervision of Producer Brady Bell and game designer Dellenkamp Siefert, a creative team of 20 collaborators has been working on Clive Barker's Undying for the past 18 months. "DWI was created to produce great games with a rich story and interesting characters, and that's been our main focus with 'UNDYING,'" says Bell. "Clive Barker's contributions have been significant, and he was more generous with his time and skills than we ever expected.