Like real literary quality writing. And a very strong atmosphere.

People tend to shit on Clive Barker's Jericho and compare it to this game unfavorably. First of all, I don't think they're very comparable games. Yes, technically both are first-person shooters, but Jericho is a squad-based adrenaline-pumping gorefest, whereas Undying is a slow, atmospheric action-adventure. Second of all, mechanically Jericho is a much more competent shooter than Undying.

Undying's biggest problem is really the fact that it's a shooter. It should've been a pure adventure game, because from this perspective it's pretty sick. The story is intriguing and instills that Weird/Gothic dread that is gradually rising as you move forward. The environments perfectly encapsulate that Lovecraftian sense of cold indifference of the world around you. And reading notes is probably the most fun I had with this game.

However, even the note-reading is very jarring here as a mechanic, because it's very counter-intuitive with the rest of the gameplay. Undying essentially functions similar to Doom 3, in that it throws no more than 3-4 enemies at you at once and makes you go into your Journal (PDA in Doom 3) to explore the story. But the two things Doom 3 has that Undying doesn't are:

1. Core shooter mechanics from the original Doom, although slightly dumbed-down to accommodate the horror atmosphere and demanding game engine.
2. A sense of rhythm. Meaning, the sections where you fight enemies and the sections where you explore and read/play logs are clearly separated.

The combat in Undying is just atrocious. The weapon roster is small, the feedback is not satisfying, most enemies spawn behind you and move silently or teleport, thus feeling very cheap. But the literal worst aspect of this game is the respawning. You will NEVER be left alone to take in the atmosphere and let the dread permeate you. Every few seconds a new goofy enemy spawns that is not scary in the slightest and ruins whatever horror the game is actually building. You also get spells, most of which have such specific use-case that they're worthless in 99% of combat encounters.

At the end of the day, it's just painful to watch how this game keeps ruining itself, where incredible potential for an outstanding horror game is constantly undermined by its poor combat. A clear case of the gameplay being so bad that it deters me from putting time into investigating the story I am so interested in.