Eternal Darkness tells the story of 12 characters and their fight to prevent The Ancients from taking over the world.
You play the game as several characters involved in an epic conflict between God-like entities referred to as Ancients. Willingly or not, all characters are used as pawns in a war that will define the fate of mankind.
The main protagonist comes in contact with The Book of Darkness, an occult tome that describes the ancients influence on mankind on the last 2000 years. Every chapter in the book introduces a new character - hero on anti-hero. Success in the chapter grants the main protagonist new powers, spells and abilities, that allow some of the puzzles to be completed and advancement of the game. Success in Eternal Darkness means the end of the chapter, what by no means ensure survival or sanity.
The games does a very good job of presenting an epic struggle without using cliches. Most of your characters are normal people that come in contact with supernatural forces that can easily drive them insane. The bright side is that this dark knowledge also come with power.
The characters models are well varied and each has its own speed, melee
and firearms ability as well as its own health, sanity and magic bars. Melee and ranged weapons also vary from character to character, what further makes every chapter in the game unique. Each character has a different way to react to the power and curse bestowed upon them and while some of them are just dungeon explorers, other provide a very interesting and satisfying - if not happy - ending.
There are fewer scenarios than characters, what means you get to play on the same map with more than one character. That's not a problem in itself but a particular place - an abandoned temple - was designed with way too many traps and backtracking, what makes it not as fun as the others.
The combat system is a tad repetitive because melee weapons are much better than firearms. You can chop down an enemy much faster using a broadsword than a shotgun, not to mention that reload times will punish you. Also, unless the enemy is imune to weapon damage, you don't need
to use offensive spells at all. Thankfully, even though attack spells are not that hot, defensive spells are key to defeat the games most powerful foes.
Spell casting is the best reward you'll get from reading the Tome of Darkness. With each chapter, you'll learn one or more spells, that will be used not only in combat but also to solve most of the game's puzzles. Casting a spell requires you to find a given number of runes and a spell scroll that teaches you which runes should be used with each spell. Each spell is tuned to one of the ancients, that represent magic, vigor and sanity. So, you can cast a recover spell with the vigor rune to recover health or avoid madness by tying it to the sanity rune.
Eternal Darkness has good graphics, plenty of scenarios and a fair number of in game movies. The music fits well in the atmosphere and in game sound effects are amazing. Insanity sound effects and spell casting will probably get your attention.
The puzzles are challenging enough to give the player the feeling of accomplishment yet not frustratingly difficult.
I'd say Eternal Darkness is more than just the analysis of its combat, level design or spell casting system. I felt compelled to find all the book's chapters and to see who would be my next character, where I'd play with it and how would its story close. I've finished the game 3 times, one time for every ancient and have unlocked the "final ending".
It was a rewarding experience as some of the details in the story can only be noticed in the second or third go. It's not a tough game and not so horror hardcore as Silent Hill or Resident Evil, so it'll most likely please more than just survival horror junkies.
Survival horror freaks should bear in mind that this ain't a hardcore game but it can be fully enjoyed for those who appreciate a action adventure with an occult background.