Before 'Call of Cthulhu' drove us insane and 'Dead Space' required dismemberment, there was Eternal Darkness.
What's really great about this game?
1. Going insane. Sure, i suppose that you're not really supposed to try to go insane, but if you do you will find it well worth it. I have NEVER played a game before where the screen totally threw me off, sucked me into the shoes of the character, in quite the way this game did. Whether its entering a room to find i'm 1 ft tall (for 10 seconds), walking on the ceiling, or any number of other camera tricks, the innovative insanity meter falling off the cliff totally removes the third wall of what in other games is the viewer of the action, ie your perception. Its done remarkably well and you have to play the game to really get a sense of how deep it goes.
2. Historical evil / multiple protagonists. If you told me that i'd play a new character in each level and that i'd not only enjoy it, but that it would add to the value of the game, i would've thought you were either lying or had poor taste. However, in this game it works like nowhere else. Driving the plot and adding to the overwhelming sense of doom, playing through time works wonderfully and is a huge strength of the game.
So what's not perfect here?
1. Well, the magic is OK but not great. To be fair, the system set up to grant you greater magical abilities works well and is certainly well conceived, but as a factor of gameplay, i'm not the hugest fan.
2. The monsters aren't great. OK, some of the monsters ARE great - are really great. It's just that many of them are semi stick figures (and not scary). Of course the real fear comes from being trapped with 10 of them ambling towards you while you try to run away!