Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem
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Waiting for a Call of Cthulhu video game? Look no further..,
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.
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|One of the most engrossing games for serious gamers.,
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!
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