Customer Reviews

Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem

5 star:		(173)
4 star:		(31)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

There have been quite a few attempts at video games based upon Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos, but they never seem to make it to the market. Although Eternal Darkness is set within its own little universe, it borrows heavily from the mythos, and Lovecraft's influence is readily apparent.

The game begins when your character, Alexandra Roivas, decides to investigate the mysterious circumstances surrounding her grandfather's death at their ancestral mansion. Through an absolutely brilliant plot device, the player is able to take control of many of Alex's ancestors from ages past and several other characters from all over the world. Each of these chapters help the player piece together the mystery and reveal the hidden agenda of a group of extremely powerful and malevolent entities.

Gameplay is very smooth. Holding down one controller button allows you to lock on an enemy target, and with a flick of the control stick you can aim at specific body parts. Some baddies fall when they are decapitated, some you have to take apart limb by limb before they will fall. As with most third person games, camera angles are fixed and sometimes problematic, as you may find yourself being disembowled by some horror just off screen.

Combat is relatively well balanced, and the puzzles in the game find a way to be interesting without being terribly difficult. the graphics are quite good, many monsters can be on the screen without any noticeable slowdown. The monsters themselves are quite detailed and look great, but they don't vary a whole lot towards the earlier part of the game.

The magic system is very cool. You must find runes of power hidden throughout the game (often inside of monsters). Each rune corresponds to an alignment, an effect, and a target. By mixing and matching the runes, you can create many different spells. There's also a large variety of mundane weaponry to collect and to toss a beating with.

Each of the characters you control seem to have their own strengths and weaknesses. Some are excellent melee fighters, some excel at throwing spells. Some have a ton of health, while others are quite fragile.

By far the coolest aspect of the game (and the part that perhaps owes more than a little to Chaosim's Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game) is the sanity system. Everytime you undergo something hideously supernatural, you lose a little bit of your mind as you struggle to grasp the situation. This manifests as hallucinations, both visual and audial. You may get an unexpected phone call, or have a horrible vision of your own demise. This effect is truly very creepy. I've already had statues come to life and watch me cross an empty hallway. I've seen walls bleed, and bugs crawl across my television screen. There are several ways to regain your sanity, but sometimes it's just fun letting it fall a little bit to see how creepy things can really get.

Resident Evil may have been an inspiration for Eternal Darkness, but it is a poor comparison. This game is truly a wonder to experience, and definitely a killer title for the GC. It's worth every penny.

The opinions I've read below on this game seem to be about 80% who absolutely love it and 20% who hate it, and as far as I can tell the people who hate it are either young children who can't appreciate anything other than a hack-n-slash gorefest, folks who prefer shallow, poorly constructed games such as Resident Evil, or worst of all, people who only played it for five minutes or not at all. I fall in with those who love it.

Eternal Darkness didn't get the promotion or the acclaim it deserved when it came out, but don't let that fool you. It's still one of the best games on any of the current generation of consoles, hands down.

This game is all about mood. Play it at night with all the lights out. Everything from the lighting to the ambient sounds is designed to establish a creepy feeling, and it really hits home in several key parts, especially when your sanity meter is running low.

Ah, the sanity meter. Yes, it's every bit as crazy as you've read. One reviewer wrote that there are only 10 different insanity effects. He most likely avoided going insane most of the way through the game, because the truth is there are around 100 different effects, ranging from minor things you'll barely notice to "What the...?" I won't spoil them for you, as they're one of the best parts of the game.

It's got a compelling storyline and a mythos based on the works of H.P. Lovecraft. You control 13 different playable characters who all exist at different points in history. Although there are really only 4 different stages, each of which is repeated a few times by different characters, the stages do change from one visit to the next, sometimes making them very different places from last time you saw them.

The gameplay itself involves navigating through the stages with one of the characters, encountering several types of creatures, and solving puzzles. The combat system gives each character several different weapons, including close-range, long-range and projectile combat. You can target different areas on a creature's body, some more effective than others. There is also a highly satisfying magic-casting system where you combine sets of runes to make new spells.

You may notice in other reviews that some claim the game is way too easy, while others say it's too hard. Some also said the game is too short. What happens is, at the beginning of the game there are three different branches you can take in the story, and these dictate the difficulty of your quest as well as the creatures you encounter, including a completely different mid-game boss creature in each branch. However, once you complete the game once, you can go back and start again with one of the other possible stories, and when you complete all three you are treated to a special ending.

If you're looking for a quick fix shoot-em-up scare-me bloodfest, don't bother. If you're looking for a disturbing and riveting game that will stay with you long after you turn off your GameCube, don't let this one pass you by!

i chose to get a gamecube rather than one of the other systems because of this game (and mario sunshine). having now played eternal darkness makes me realize i made the right decision. the graphics are excellent, the sound amazing and the story totally involving. it's the little details that make the difference; when you're walking on hardwood then walk on carpet the sound of your steps changes accordingly.

the best part is the gameplay. the menus are intuitive and moving around is not a chore like it is with resident evil. i was able to put it in and start playing without wading through a manual to learn the basics.

it starts out slowly; i was concerned that it would be too easy and uninteresting. by the time you have completed the first couple of tasks with the first few characters the gameplay becomes a lot more involving and difficult.

the sanity meter makes the game. when you face certain zombies they lower your sanity level; you can regain some of it back by killing them- but not all. once you're near the end of your sanity blood will start dripping on the floor, the camera angle will be tilted and the background effects become more spooky. the rest of the insanity effects i'll leave for you to experience first hand. you start to doubt your gameplay and, oddly, just after finishing up for the night i expected the same in real life- it's that surreal.

there are minor things one could take issue with, but then show me a game that is perfect. i can't recommend this game highly enough. there is a perfect balance between logic, exploring and fighting. this is all coming from someone who is not usually a fan of these types of games; i generally enjoy games like ssx tricky, super monkey ball and tony hawk 3.

Well to be fair this is also the only psychological horror action-adventure game on any platform that I know of.

This unique game has an amazing atmosphere and really great soundtrack. The graphics are also really good.

You play the game as the grand-daughter of some guy that just died and so you visit her mansion. While you are there you start finding chapters of this ancient book and for each chapter you find you get to play as the character the chapter is about. The first chapter is a guy from ancient roman times so your gameplay is a legionaire with a sword... during your play of the first chapter you make choice that effects the rest of the games story so you can play the game three times with the three choices available to you at the end of the first chapter. If you play all three story lines then you get the full ending...

First play through took me about 20 hours. Second and Third time took me more like 10-12 hours each cause the puzzles are pretty challenging the first time through.

I think there is something like 12 or so chapters and in each one you play a different character. Everything from legionaire to priests to reporters to fire-men. Male and female characters both. In between chapters you have to spend time with the lead character in the mansion finding the next chapter.

The story of the game makes it well worth playing through three times. It is a classic and it deserves the good reputation it has.

This is the first survival-horror game that I've ever played. I never really got into the genre, but this game always intrigued me. I read about it when it first came out, and the game's new feature of the sanity meter sounded really cool. One of my friends (who is now my roommate) has the game, so I finally tried it, and was blown away.
Right from the beginning, things start off creepy, and they only get worse (which, for players, means better). You start out as Alex Roivas, a young woman in her 20's whose grandfather was recently murdered. The police are stumped, because there doesn't appear to be any sign of a break-in, nor does it look like Grandpa Edward Roivas put up much of a fight. This would normally lead to a ruling of suicide, but the state in which they found the body makes suicide an impossibility. Alex decides to investigate herself, and you navigate her grandfather's mansion. Everything in it references the dark and macabre, from paintings of murderers to books in the library about some of the darkest periods in history (the Inquisition, the Salem witch burnings). Eventually, Alex discovers a book called the Tome of Eternal Darkness. When she reads it, she is transported to another time, place, and body. Whenever players "read" a new chapter of the book, they take over as another character in another historical period. A Roman centurion, a young Cambodian girl, a British photographer, and a few of the Roivas ancestors are just a few of the people that you'll control throughout the ages.
As the story unfolds (which depends on a choice you make as the centurion), you learn about the Ancients, three god-like beings fighting for control of the world, and if one is summoned, will reign destruction upon the galaxy.
Not only is the story engaging, the gameplay is great. The weapons and magic system are great. I love the fact that you can design your own spells before you are actually "supposed" to learn them. This game has some really cool weapons, like the elephant gun, the broadsword, the double-barreled shotgun, and the fireman's axe, which is great for chopping off heads. Due to a unique and great aiming system, you can aim at specific body parts, being able to chop off heads or arms.
The other aspect of gameplay is the sanity meter. Sanity is a running theme throughout the game. As your sanity decreases, weird things start to happen, and not just to your character in the game. Many of the effects are directed at the player, and even if you know what might happen (like me), many of them will still catch you off guard. And while some effects do effect the characters (many of them foreshadow future events that will happen to them), they do rattle the cages of the players as well. This game has an insanity effect that targets Alex, and it is the only thing in a video game that has EVER made me jump is shock and even horror.
I guess the one thing that I would change is the whole "choose your path" thing at the beginning of the game. You have three paths to choose from, but they are, for all intents and purposes, the same. The only thing that changes between path to path is the Ancient that Pious summons, which does have a few effects. The color of that ancient will play an important role througout the game, but besides that, the missions are all exactly the same. In order to get the full ending, you have to play the game 3 times through (one with each Ancient), but it would be more of an incentive if each Ancient had a different path to play. Oh well, it's a small grievance.
Overall, this is one of the most interesting, creepy, and all-around fun games in a while. It may be too intense for some people, but I urge you to give it a try.

I'm about halfway through my second time playing this game, and I've decided it's my favorite videogame of all time (I'm 35). A choice made at the beginning of the game determines one of three plotlines available. You get a special ending if you beat all three, and I believe most people will want to. This game looks great, sounds great, has great voice acting and GREAT WRITING! You truly feel as if you are immersed in a great movie. As a tribute to the horror of H.P Lovecraft and Edgar Allen Poe it succeeds better than I would have imagined. The system by which you loose sanity and experience weird effects when it gets too low is brilliant. Though Resident Evil's character models and pre-rendered levels look better, Eternal Darkness has a much more engrossing story to tell. Its levels still look great, and they are not as stiff and static as Resident Evil. In fact, Eternal Darkness has the most fluid and perfectly positioned camera system I've seen in a game, and I've noticed most pro critics agree with me on that one. It's much easier to move and fight in this game than RE as well. If you like fantasy or horror even a little bit, DON'T MISS THIS GAME!

That reminds me, for those who don't know yet, the Resident Evil franchise has been officially declared a Nintendo exclusive series. All future Resident Evil games for the next five years or so will only be available for Nintendo hardware. That includes several new RE games and all the old ones with completely updated graphics, for those who have been loyal to Nintendo and may not have played them all. Okay, with that out of my system, I'd like to say that Eternal Darkness has some elements that are not going to be found in any other game. Multiple characters in a continuing storyline is one thing. Another is the all-new Sanity Meter. It's actually possible for your character to go insane and start hallucinating because of the impossible things that happen. You may eventually stop trusting the game, because you'll go through a certain part and start seeing strange things that shouldn't be there, and then find that they aren't, and that your character imagined the whole thing. You start to lose your sanity when you try to avoid the monsters you should be destroying, so you can always go back and finish them to keep from losing your mind. That is something great you won't find in any other game.
As far as graphics are concerned, everything in Eternal Darkness is incredible looking. From the textures, to the lighting, to the facial expressions on the characters. And the hit detection is great, too, because unlike some games, when you fight in a small room with a sword or a mace, you may find it difficult to fight because your weapon keeps hitting the wall. There are a lot of things about Eternal Darkness that make it a great game.

Lucky Nintendo fans - first the remake of Resident Evil, and now Eternal Darkness, yet another horror game in which you are killing zombies in a mansion with limited ammo. The similarities stop there, though, as ED manages to blow the doors off of everything Resident Evil established.

The plot is ED's shinest feature - you literally watch a supernatural cult develop through 2000 years of history. Large, Lovecraftian creatures who think nothing of swallowing small planets like Earth are battling each other across the universe and we just happen to be at the wrong place. You'll explore a few special temples at various points in history, as a Roman legionare, or Gulf-war firefighter, or Franciscan monk, or Indiana Jones-type archeologist, etc. It's fascinating to visit the same places 200 years later and watch how they change, or how different people in history react to supernatural oddities.

Gamewise, ED is pretty standard for survival horror - exploration, puzzles, and combat. The exploration is fun because of the above mentioned time-traveling element, and the puzzles are rather easy, with hardly a stumper in the enter game. Combat is perhaps the best, with the right combination of stratgey and action. Monsters are pretty easy to pick off by themselves, but it takes time, and they often come at you in waves, forcing you to think fast and direct your attacks effectively. Magic is very fun, in that you can explore and experiment, learning new spells before the game is ready to give them to you.

The much touted "insanty effects" are very interesting, and certainly add to the spine-crawling horror of the game, but I felt it was too easy to avoid them. I don't want to give everything away, but as you encounter strange monsters your sanity level drops, and eventually the walls start bleeding, statues and paints turn their heads to look at you, and even weirder things happen, including effects that jump out at you the player, and not just the character.

Graphically, I can't say ED is "perfect". It can be pretty ugly at times, especially the character models, and the animation is kinda weird.

All signs say this game doesn't play well a second time through - you know the story, and the magic system completely. There is only 1 real secret in the game, and 1 alternate ending. Maybe it might be interesting to re-experience the very complicated plot a second time, but certainly not a third. Still, I consider ED a worthy purchase, my first for the Gamecube, in fact. Buy it.

Let me start off by saying that this game totally rocked my world. In my opinion it blows Resident Evil out of the water, offering so much more to the gamer and ultimately a more rewarding experience. Resident Evil is great, don't get me wrong, I own it and love it. It's just that Eternal Darkness is so much better, in my opinion at least. So let me break it down:

Gameplay: The gameplay is top-notch. The controls are great, your character is very responsive, not slow and stiff like Res Evil. The targeting system and combo attack systems work so well that i find myself having alot of fun just going around killing bad guys. You can cut a monsters head off or maybe just both their arms instead, then when they're lying on the ground you can finish them off with a final blow (which recovers some of your sanity). This brings me to the sanity meter, which is so awesome. Every time you encounter monsters you lose some sanity, if it goes down all the way expect strange things to happen (no spoilers here). Let's just say that experiencing the insanity effects is one of the coolest things in the game. There is also a deep magick system (yes- that's magic with a k) which enables you to combine rune stones to create your own magic spells. Very cool indeed, offering even more depth to the gameplay.

Graphics: The graphics can range from great to spectacular. The lighting and ambience to each level is superb (especially indoor levels). The collision detection is nearly spot-on (with a few minor issues). When you swing a sword against a wall it will scrap against it and create sparks. It's details like this which put the graphics into the spectacular category. The graphics may not impress you more than Res Evil, but when taking into consideration that Eternal Darkness offers a completely 3D world to explore (no 2D prerendered backgrounds here) Eternal Darkness is more impressive.

Sound: The sound is also another area that this game excells in. The voice-acting in particular is some of the best i've ever heard in any game (blows the voice acting in Res Evil out of the water). And the musical score and sound effects are both outstanding as well. Everything draws you into the experience, making the story really come alive.

Overall: It may actually be the story that is Eternal Darkness's strongest point. Without giving anything away it is very dark and cool. You will switch between 12 different characters over the course of the game, spanning the course of 20 centuries. There's a solid 25-50 hours of gameplay (depending on the gamer), with alternate gameplay paths. There's even supposed to be an "uber-ending" if you beat the game 3 times, which is something I could easily see myself doing (the game is too much fun to put down). Eternal Darkness is just so much fun and has some very unique elements that elevate it to the level of masterpiece. It even supports progressive scan, 16x9 widecreen, and Dolby Pro Logic II modes! A must-have game, which no self-respecting GameCube owner would be without. Don't hesitate, purchase this game NOW!

In 1996 I picked up a game made by an unheard of developer called Silicon Knights. The game was the epic Blood Omen: The Legacy of Kain. Since then Silicon Knights have been my developer simply because of the brilliance behind the story, and while Crystal Dynamics have done a decent job with Kain since, none of the current stories light a candle to the original.
It has been four years in development, and Eternal Darkness has been well worth the wait. I have only spent a few hours with this game, but what I have played so far is a refreshing experience literally all its own. This game cannot be compared to Resident Evil at all. Walking dead aside this game bares no resemblance to the survival horror genre. Co-developed by Nintendo the game has a Nintendo style of game play that is ingenious, beautiful, smooth, and brilliant.
The graphic are not on par with Resident Evil, but yet is still breath taking, and it is one of the better-looking GCN games. But this game was never about graphics anyway. With Silicon Knights it's never about graphics, but an intriguing story line of epic proportions. Despite the low polygon character models the subtlety of the games details is amazing. Small things like a floor filled with screaming faces are both disturbing, and appreciated. Too bad Capcom never thought that one up.
The best part of this game is the sound. This is the best sounding game I have ever heard on any game on any console. Resident Evil has the best Graphics; Eternal Darkness has the best sound. The music isn't much to sing songs of praise about, but the ambience of the game, and the way things sound distant when they're in the background... the amazingly realistic sound effects... and dare I mention the voice acting? So far I swear I have heard the voices of Simon Templeman (known for his role as Kain, playing Pias Augustas) Rene Aburjonis (SP?) (Best known as Odo in DS9, but also Janus Aldron in the recent Legacy of Kain games) and possibly Michael Bell (Knows for his role as Raziel). I'm not sure on this because I have not seen the cast, but its nice to hear voices that I know and love behind this game. The voice acting, aside from Alex's fake sounding crying, is on par with Legacy of Kain, probably because of the voice actor's selected for the game. Simply one of the best.
The most interesting thing about this game is the packaging. The fact that this game is developed by Silicon Knights is in fine print. Nintendo is making it very clear this very M rated video game is a Nintendo game, and considering that Nintendo themselves co-developed it its a claim that they are entitled to. I was aware that Silicon Knights was a Nintendo Second Party, but from the looks of it, SK may have been made a part of Nintendo, much like EAD, HAL, and R&D, which would be a brilliant move on Nintendo's part. SK could single handedly target the adult audiences that Nintendo is making an extra effort to obtain. I have a feeling this won't be the last Nintendo made M rated title. I hope it will be the first of a new trend because this game so far was well worth the wait... especially when the weird things start happening.