True, the howlers are annoying, especially at the catacombs. I almost stopped playing with the confusing level design and at some parts with the endless howlers. But wait till you get the Scythe :D
Sweet payback the next time you meet them. It's seems like the developers noticed that this was annoying so they added a kickass weapon that will kill them in 1-2 hits.

But yea, moving sideways and shooting at them works pretty well. Using the Chezar-stone and Ectoplasm is also a good combo.

Well, I got the same impression initially, but that's because the howlers behave differently than standard shooter enemies today, once you realize the difference, you adapt easily.

First counter-intuitive fact is that the howler jump attack is actually homing, and it homes perfectly, so no amount of strafing will save you. Today's gamers expect the physics of the game to behave correctly, so when he sees a monster jumping at him, he strafes and tries to hit the enemy in-flight as he passes him. In this game, the dodge fails, and the attack blurs and turns your vision, making your shot miss, which adds to the frustration. Second problem is that the howlers duck frequently, presenting a really small target, making hits with revolver problematic.

The correct way is to exploit their mechanics. Their jump, despite the flawless homing, has a limited range, and a preparatory animation. So, if you see the animation, you must not wait for the attack and dodge it, but run AWAY from the howler, and his jump will come short.

The correct way to fight howlers, however, is I believe the green stone + ectoplasma combo. The ectoplasma can be spammed constantly, since the mana regenerates, and when the howlers jump at you, you just use the stone which bounces them back. Try it, you will find out they are suddenly ridiculously easy.

Reading so many negative comments about the howlers and the weapons is actually ridiculous. :D Why is it that these days every time players face a challenging, unique and smart enemy type they instantly shout "bad design"?

Come on, you can't be that bad, you just have to get used to them, once you figure out how the howlers move and learn how to shoot them in the head they'll be no problem. Actually figuring them out was one of the most fun parts of the game for me.

Dude. You have a random chance to miss in Undying. How on earth is that good design in an FPS?

And the difficulty curve in the game is a joke. Not to mention constantly clown car enemy respawns. Thank god for most of the modern FPS games realizing all of the above are a terrible ideas.

I'm not sure I'd describe an enemy that runs up to the player and jumps at them as "challenging, unique and smart." Use the stone to knock them back when they get to close, and murder them with your regenerating magic. Repeat eighty thousand times because the early game has basically no enemy variety. I like the game more than Fenixp seems to (I recommended it to someone or other on these forums), but I can still admit its flaws.

Oh when somebody asks for a horror-themed FPS, I'll definitely say 'Undying'. The game just seemed to hate me when I have played it, and threw every single one of my personal bugbears in my face.

You have a million ways to kill a Howler. You can combine the stone with ectoplasm which is great at the beginning of the game because the stone amplifies your magic and you can push them back with it but it's not the most effective way to deal with them later on when their numbers increase. If your aim is fine you can basically one-shot them with the pistol even on nightmare difficulty and if you combine that with the occasional ectoplasm you can deal with them in no time. The ice gun is also very useful because it slows them down so combining that with ectoplasm can also be a good idea. After you get the scythe and find the armor spell that becomes the best combination: the scythe is very useful because you can chop down their heads with it and if you use its alternate attack mode it also regenerates your health depending on how many enemies you've struck down with it. Anyway by the end of the game you'll just kill them with exploding skulls. :D

As to why I've said that the howlers are unique, smart and a very good enemy design in general: first they have two attacks (as most of the enemies in the game) which was not a very common thing back in the day. Their jump attack is very hard to dodge at the beginning because it has an insane range and their bite punishes those who don't deal with them fast enough when they are close and both of those attacks can deal a very high amount of damage depending on how badly they got you. I found this a very good design because they also have a very clear weakness: if they miss their jump attack they suddenly become very vulnerable (great opportunity to shoot them in the head). they also move in a very unusual, animal-like fashion which makes it realtively hard to deliver headshots from a long range but if you really want to be fast and efficient in the game that's exactly what you have to do.

They were considered very smart at the time because they behave like animals: if there are more of them they usually attack in packs and if you meet with only one howler, do some serious damage and it manages to escape there are some instances when it will alert other nearby howlers, regroups with them and attacks you.

Overall I think Undying is a very good game design because it encourages exploration and wants you to find those hidden amplifiers, mana wells and mana boosters. It's basically a powerup item based RPG deep down. It also wants you to experiment with the different magic-weapon combinations and spells, in other ways: it wants you to be resourceful. I remember that back in the day people complained how hard the skeletons were to defeat because they are very bulletspongy but if you were smart you could one shot them with the Invoke spell which makes them disintegrate (also using Invoke on human enemies makes them commit suicide) . The cro magnons at the end of the game work in a bit of the same fashion: they are hard to deal with until you find out that you can combine your lighting spell with the speargun and if you hit an enemy with the spear out in the open a huge lighting comes down from the sky and kills it in one hit.

You're right, the game lacks enemy variety in the beginning just like most FPSes of the time (remember the first few levels of No One Lives Forever, arguably the best FPS ever made? They were bad.), however at least you have 3 types of howlers.

As for the difficulty curve: if you want to prevent the game from becoming too easy on the later levels when you have more stuff to deal with everything, play on Nightmare difficulty, that will shut you up. :D

Thank you for posting this; the ectoplasma / green stone combination salvage the game for me. Initially I didn't understand the post of these items, because alone they seem under-powered but together with the right rhythm they make play a lot more accessible.

If anyone is still reading this, I have a tip for you regarding the Verago enemies (cloak-wearing flying enemies with tentacles for arms which fire a 2-skull Skull Storm at you), which you encounter in Oneiros when hunting down Keisinger.

At first, I pumped them full of lead, but in groups they are very dangerous.

That is, until you use Dispel at them. I had it amplified up to level 3 I think, and it took out several in a single casting. It kills them instantly, so remember that if you are playing on higher difficulties and are having trouble with them. I think that since these are 'pure' magic enemies, you can Dispel them literally.

Dispel also works against Skarrows, and the area where you learn the spell is full of them.

Anyway, howlers are frustrating, but it gets easier when you find the right strategy. The bigger problem is the near-perfect accuracy of all ranged enemies in the game, from skeletons to the tribal people in Eternal Autumn. Especially the latter,they ALWAYS hit me with their spearguns, even though I was jumping and strafing like crazy.

Silver bullets work against them as well.

You have to keep moving and use the pistol as soon as you see a werewolf.

Pistol can take out werewolves from long range.

I didn't have much problem with the difficulty in this game.

Yeah, the pistol seems like a low-tier weapon, but it is actually the only weapon with unlimited range in the game (barring maybe some spells) – as long as you can see your enemies, you can shoot them. This enables you to kill them when they're still far away. If they get close, quickly switch to the shotgun or Scythe. The shield spell also helps.