Eternal Darkness will immerse you into a world that is suspenseful and satisfying - if you can survive the encounter.
Story: The plot of the game revolves around the main protagonist of the game, Alexandra Roivas. She is flown out to Rhode Island to her grandfather's mansion, where she finds him murdered - decapitated with no signs of intrusion, or any clues giving a sign to his murder. Alex decides to take matters in her own hands and discover the cause of her grandfather's death. Along the way, she stumbles upon an ancient book embedded with skin and bone, entitled 'The Tome of Eternal Darkness'. As Alex turns through the pages of the ancient tome, she learns of dark forces, also known as 'Ancients', in their quest that will lead to the end of humanity. Along the way, she becomes familiar with other 'chosen characters' and their quest to stop the darkness, including her grandfather and other members of the Roivas line. Through reading the ancient, dark tome, Alex learns of her destiny which has been laid upon her centuries ago, as well as the twelve other characters in their quest to stop the annihilation of humanity.
Presentation: From the ground up, you'll find that Eternal Darkness has a unique, dark style that is immensely satisfying and is one of the strongest points of the game. The game immerses you in a dark and moody setting that - and everything from the smallest detail will draw you into the game's worlds. Overall, Eternal Darkness sports one of best production values of it's age - from amazing artistic achievement, excellence in sound and voice acting, and a style that it can definitely call its own. While it appears like a Resident Evil clone at first glance, you'll learn that in ways, it's farther from it than any other action thriller in it's particular genre - and all you have to do is immerse yourself in the fantastic world that Silicon Knights has created for gamers. It is no surprise, that with a story found in a game like this - that this is what is that keeps gamers coming back for more.
Graphics: One of the more interesting aspects of the game, Eternal Darkness sports a style that seems quite different than the remake of Resident Evil for the GameCube. While it does not bathe in technical brilliance, Eternal Darkness succeeds in being one of the most artistically impressive games available on the system. Everything in the world is richly detailed in ways that will send chills down your spine - from amazing level design, and some devilishly alluring enemies, you'll find the game has an absolutely brilliant level of artistic achievement. Though while the game has been released for a number of years and shows it age, even Eternal Darkness has some technically beautiful moments. One of the best features of Eternal Darkness' graphics, are the characters. Each of the games characters are vivid with detail and emotion, and animate fluidly with some of the best animation work for the game's age. All of the game's environments are detailed in three dimensions, the stylized look in combination with the technical level of detail will impress you at moments. As another though, Eternal Darkness was continued from a game that originated on the Nintendo 64, so realizing the level of achievement that Silicon Knights produced in this title for GameCube is saying something. Eternal Darkness sports some of the greatest artistic productions of any game to date.
Sound: Truly one of the greatest features of the game, Eternal Darkness sports an excellent level of sound that is both ambient and spectacular. The game utilizes a soundtrack that truly immerses you in the game's moody environments and it works fabulously without taking you away from the game's intense situations. As well, Eternal Darkness sports brilliant voice acting for all the characters represented in the game; all voiced using the brilliant screenplay written for the game. Throughout the game, you'll also encounter an excellent array of sound effects used throughout the game that contribute to the game's famous 'Sanity Effects' - from hearing voices, doors creaking, children crying, and women screaming - it may sound sickening to say that it is quite satisfactory of hearing such retched sounds emerging from your speakers. Eternal Darkness is a brilliant game in terms of sound effects, and is one of the game's strongest aspects.
Gameplay: With great graphics and excellent use of sound, it is clear that Eternal Darkness spots some excellent production values that really makes the game shine. But the question is, how does the game play hold up? To put it blunt, Eternal Darkness immerses you in one of the most original and some of the best game play experiences you'll experience on the system. Throughout the game, you'll being to play as Alex as she uncovers the cause of her Grandfather's death. But after reading through the Tome of Eternal Darkness, you'll live through the twelve other characters who are mentioned in the tome, including the game's antagonist and serviceman to the dark Ancients, Pious Augustus. Each of the game's characters have their own unique styles and personalities that you'll be drawn to throughout the game, and each of the characters have their own levels of strengths and weaknesses. As you play through the game, you'll spend time puzzle solving making your way through different environments in the game: from the Cambodian Angkor temples, to a French Cathedral, and Ruins in the Middle East, you'll find a nice variation of locations spanning across the world. You'll revisit some of these locations again and again, and is actually, a great thing as you watch how each level has changed over the centuries in between each visit. As you solve puzzles and make your way through the games dark dungeons, each character will stumble upon the Tome and once they do, they will soon encounter dark enemies that are works of the evil ancients, and their plans to overthrow humanity. As such, combat is one of the key features of Eternal Darkness, and Silicon Knights has done a relatively great job immersing players in fields of battle. As you are playing a game that spans over two millenniums, you'll also have the ability to wield the most technologically advanced weapons of each age. From swords wielded by Roman Soldiers, ancient daggers of the Middle East, blow guns influenced by the Khmer people, or modern weapons of gunpowder from World War I and the present age, you'll find a lot of variety in the weapons available to you in the game. Another great feature about combat, is that Silicon Knights has added a slight level of depth to the game's combat that will promote some more strategic level of thinking by players. As you control the game in a third person perspective, the character whom you are playing will be able to select certain body parts of whomever their character may be battling, unveiling certain weak points and even prohibiting some monsters from utilizing certain abilities. Even so, even the game's enemy AI will try to work their way around their loss of limbs, or even become more aggravated by the process. It is a great feature and a unique concept of the game that works well, and it is always a pleasurable sight to behold of beheaded zombie, mindlessly swinging it's limbs away in search of its decapitator. Now the combat in the game, is rather secondary to the game's 'Magick' system, which also heavily influences the games puzzles. Throughout your adventures in Eternal Darkness, your characters will stumble across magical ruins and tapestries that allow your character to perform magical spells. Some of them including healing yourself, powering up items, or even summoning magical zombies or foes that you will be able to control and use at your disposal - all of course, limited by the amount of magical power your character possesses. The magical system, is also incredibly important to the game's storyline, as your magic is composed of 'elements from the Ancients,' or the dark forces at work in the game. The elements all work in a rock, paper, scissor style, and you'll need to collect all three elements, as well as study them in your ultimate battle to stop the Ancients from humanity's destruction. The magical system in Eternal Darkness came as a surprise - and a good one at that, as it works extremely well and while not being too complex, adds an extra layer of depth to the game which simply would not be the same without it. Now quite possibly the feature in Eternal Darkness that the game is most famous for (which I believe Nintendo even patented), is the game's Sanity Meter, and is probably the game's darkest, creepiest, and most alluring element to the game. As your character travels through the game, they'll experience enemies and dark pieces of magic that will make the character well: go insane. As your character loses their sanity, they'll begin to experience unnatural things happening in their surroundings - the question is, is it really happening, or is just happening in your head? As you play, you'll experience the game's many scenes of insanity, which label themselves as 'Sanity Effects', and a lot of them quite simply test your own insanity as well. Hearing a mother and a child scream at the sharpening of the blade will do nothing but send a sickening chill down your spine, and watching as walls bleed, or unnatural happenings such as the decapitation of your own character for no apparent reason will leave you confused, shocked, and spooked. Even so, Eternal Darkness sports Sanity effects that are directly linked to you, the player, such as the game sporting the horrible 'Blue Screen of Death', the game suddenly muting,, the horrible realization that all your data on your memory card has been erased, or perhaps a screen stating the continuation of the game in the next game, 'Sanity's Redemption'. While some gamers have already been informed beforehand of the effects that will plague them as they play the game, others haven't and as a result, really believe that what's going on 'on-screen', is really happening in the real world. The game's sanity effects are a very original, and an absolutely brilliant feature of the game that is probably the game's strongest point, and playing through the game to find all of the game's sanity effects is one that would definitely be worthwhile. As you make your way through Eternal Darkness and experience the brilliant level of storytelling, the continuing deep magic system, Eternal Darkness is a game that needs to be played before it's brilliance is full realized. While the game can be beaten in a bout seven hours (which in fact, is quite easy to do as the game is rather linear), you'll find that taking the game slow and exploring each of the games nooks and crannies, and learning as much as you can about the different characters, environments, and the overall storyline of the game is exactly what you'll want to do. Value: While Eternal Darkness can be beaten quickly, it is not something that most gamers would want to do. The overall level of production put into this game will show just about any gamer, the brilliance and level of detail that the developers put into Eternal Darkness. The game sports an absolutely amazing storyline, brilliant use of sound, and excellent characters and environments, that it would be no surprise that any gamer would want to complete this game again. In fact, if you complete the game three times and specifically choose each of the games three magical elements, you'll find yourself in store for a surprising, dark, and satisfying ending to game. From the moment you put Eternal Darkness into your GameCube, and from the moment you battle your way throughout the world the end of the game and the final showdown with the ancients, you yourself will become completely enticed by the world the developers Nintendo and Silicon Knights have created for you that will test your own sanity; seeing how well you can survive along the way in in the rich, dark, satisfying game that is Eternal Darkness. Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem, stands as an excellent example of how an action, horror adventure game should be.