While Eternal Darkness has its flaws, rarely has a game achieved such originality and depth.
Now, I will bear in mind that this game is ancient by video game standards (it was designed for the Nintendo 64 for Pete's sake!), but even knowing that I must say I was disappointed in some ways with this title.
Eternal Darkness is a survival action-horror game, somewhat in the skein of Resident Evil, but with far more freedom-of-movement and a distinct RPG bent thrown in too.
In many ways I can see why this got the praise that it did: it is inventive and epic on a scale that is all too often attempted, yet rarely achieved in gaming. The story is first-rate and would make a great film.
The RPG element is the spell system. As one collects Runes, they can be combined in any number of ways to produce any number of spells once you find spellbooks to get the recipes. One of coolest features is that you can just experiment on your own and create speels that you're not supposed to have yet just by combining runes as you see fit! This feature is well thought out and brilliantly executed. I felt like a mad alchemist as I experimented with combining runes.
Using the spells is great fun. You get a real sense of evil power as deep, demonic voices rumble out the hidden names of the runes in your spell as you cast it (yes, the voices change to actually speal the name of each rune involved in your spell - brilliant!)
As for the dungeoning action element, I am split - it's great how each chapter you play as a new character with different strengths and equipment. It's great fun to play as a fast, tough Canadian firefighter with a fully automatic machine gun after plodding through a middle-ages chapter as a slow, fat Egyptian with nothing but a sword.
Where I differ from most is that I found elements the action gameplay design that I hated: movement of the characters awkward and ugly. I constantly found myself missing my targets and getting stuck on scenery (one of my pet peeves).
This is one of those games where the camera perspective changes all the time. In most games of this variety (Resident Evil, Onimusha) your character moves with "tank" controls. While this can be hard to get used to, it defeats the frustration of always having to realign your cardinal points in every room you enter. In Eternal Darkness, I found myself repeatedly exiting rooms that I had just entered because north was now south! And getting the drop on enemies was impossible sometimes.
The game sports a PC-style save system where you can save almost anywhere - except when enemies are closing in. One problem - the game doesn't inform you of its save system. I got the impression, since it went through a big show of asking you to create a game save file, that it was one of those auto-save games. Well, as I found out after playing three long chapters, it wasn't. I had to start a new game and sit through all the cinematics again. Not a big deal - I guess I should know better by now - but it wouldn't be much for the developer to let you know to save.
One of the most unique features - wait, totally unique - is the Sanity Meter. As you face each enemy, you are scared into losing some of your sanity. When you lose most of your sanity, the camera tilts, the colours bleed away, you hear voices, and, once it's all the way gone, (I will not spoil it for you)you are treated to some of the most daring and inventive tricks I have ever seen in a video game anywhere.
As far as puzzle-solving went, I found that most of the puzzles were challenging but not too difficult. The rest, though, were so impossibly obscure that I could not see how anyone could figure them out without a walkthrough (of which I had to avail myself at least a couple times on each chapter).
This is a survival HORROR after all - so was it scary? Yes. It was. There were definitely a coupls of jump-from-your-seat moments, and the overall atmosphere is so persistently dark and gross that you will find yourself leaving a light on and checking under your bed before you go to sleep (as if you didn't already still do that).
The audio was excellent - I played in Dolby Pro Logic II mode. The soundfield was deep and thick and filled the room. Both the soundtrack and voice-over acting were film-quality and the creepy whispers and shocks worked perfectly to keep my heart racing. Best of all were the various Gods' voices that chanted the unique names of each rune in my spells. I felt like I could rain sorcery-hell on my opponents.
Overall, despite some frustrations, I recommend Eternal Darkness wholeheartedly. It is ambitious and very well made. I will keep my eye on anything else that Silicon Knights develops in the future.