Atmospheric, Creepy, and Well Worth a Try
You are Alexandra Roivas. You return to Rhode Island from your college on the West Coast after receiving a phone call informing you that your Grandfather had had an "accident." You arrive to find that the "accident" in question involved the forcible removal of his head and the the police have absolutely no idea who or what is responsible. You decide to perform your own investigation and find the Tome of Eternal Darkness. This is where your nightmare begins.
Gameplay-Eternal Darkness does a whole bunch of things really well, and falls completely flat on several others. After you find the eponymous Tome of Eternal Darkness, you "become" the people in the chapters you read. You travel back to several different periods in history, experiencing each subject's fight against The Darkness. The entire story takes place in four different locations, with subtle changes to the architecture or layout each time you visit. While some may say that it's a case of lazy level design, it is successful in it's intended effect: a strange feeling of deja vu.
There are several different factors that make this game a must-play. The targeting system is absolutely amazing. You can target specific body parts, lopping off pieces of your enemies. Separating an enemy from his head does not necessarily mean that you win, and thus the targeting introduces a basic element of strategy to the game.
Then there are the sanity effects. This is what Eternal Darkness is known for. They range from sound and visual effects to things that actually affect your gameplay. It's a lot of fun to let your sanity meter (another new element) drain to see what kind of things happen.
Unfortunately, it's not all good. The camera is completely fixed in this game. You have absolutely no control over it. If you happen to find yourself in a fight right where the camera switches angles, it can be disconcerting at best, downright fatal at worst. It's especially bad when you're faced with Trappers. You can have absolutely no idea where they are and suddenly find yourself in the Trapper Dimension. It can get extremely frustrating.
The magick system is decent at first, but is tedious to upgrade. When you first find a spell, it gives it to you if you have the correct runes. But once you find the circles of power, you have to go through and upgrade all the spells manually. It can get a bit time consuming to upgrade each spell to five- and seven-point levels.
Overall, the gameplay is good. But the camera, magick, and slightly unbalanced pacing of the game (you can play the first two-thirds of the game in about four hours; the last third takes about 5 hours by itself) drag it down just a bit.
Visuals-Simply put, Eternal Darkness is gorgeous. The architecture of the buildings accurately recreates the styles of each period and the lighting really brings out the differences in candlelight and torches versus electric lights. The people look good (although they move a bit stiffly) and the enemies, while not numerous, are impressive to behold.
The cutscenes stand out as well. Each one is not only relevant, but exceptionally well put together. Most of the "pee your pants" moments come in these scenes (the end of Paul Luther's chapter stands out).
Sound-This is one of those games you buy a surround-sound system for. Excellent music sets the right mood for all situations. The battle effects are realistic, although the gunfire is a bit weak. But the real highlights come when your sanity starts to dwindle. You start hearing all sorts of screams, cackles and, occasionally, the creepiest, almost sepulchral laugh that will make the hair on the back of your neck stand straight up. It absolutely has to be heard to be believed.
Value-While the game itself is only about 8-10 hours long, you have to play through it three times (defeating each ancient) to get the best ending. While the game plays more or less the same each time, there's enough different in each playthrough to keep it from getting completely tedious.
The masses were clamoring for some M-rated fare on the Cube and Silicon Knights certainly delivered. Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem is an excellent game that stands out in the survival-horror genre, and even holds its own with the Resident Evils of the world. It's a must-own for anybody who's a fan of the genre, and a must-play for everyone on sheer artistic merit alone.