"A stunning adventure with an incredibly deep story."

Introduction

Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem has been in the works for 4 years, spanning the end of the Nintendo 64 and the launch of Nintendo GameCube. Once scheduled as a GCN launch title, Eternal Darkness was pushed back to December 3rd with Super Smash Brothers: Melee and Pikmin. As that date
neared, the title was pushed to February, then March, and finally onto June 24th. People were skeptical about that date holding, but in the end it did. Launching alongside the Memory Card 251, Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem is the first game that Nintendo has released in 6 months; and it was well worth the wait. A psychological thriller, Eternal Darkness earns it's 'M' rating by showing excessive blood, flying body parts, and gruesome scenes. But that's not the main reason it was rated that way. The rating is right on due to the fact that the game will slowly make you go insane, along with your character(s). If you thought Resident Evil Remake was scary, write your will and prepare funeral arrangements before playing this game.

Graphics

The first thing you'll notice while watching the nice FMVs (Full Motion Videos) is that the background of space in most of them is a bit grainy. A tad like the N64, no? This detracts from the game when the FMVs are used, but mostly, the game will use regular cinema scenes. FMVs are only used when the game boots, planets are aligning, the small ''updates'' as you claim each chapter page, and the final boss battle. When you get past these grainy effects, the character models and backgrounds in the full motion videos are simply stunning and have a very 'creepy' feeling to them, more than any Resident Evil or Silent Hill.

To talk more about in-game cutscenes, yes, the dreaded black box around the scene is back, but that's the worst thing you'll see. The facial animations are superb, with the mouths movely fluently with each word, unlike the more recent showings in Lost Kingdoms and Resident Evil. Eyes will shift at movement and heads will turn in conjunction with posture. It's a bunch of these little things that make the game a site to see.

Say goodbye to individual hair strands, cause the ''blocky'' hair style makes a return with Eternal Darkness. However, most of this hair doesn't have the black lines in it to try to fool in thinking their different strands (Link in Zelda 64, anybody?) but rather a smooth surface making it look like a buzzcut or close shave.

Enemies in this game look dark. Hold a picture of one up to a baby and no doubt they will cry. Skeletons have an eerie feeling to them and zombies eyeball-less heads will make you take a closer look at their gruesome faces. Some of the later enemies are even more unique; bonethiefs, a praying mantis type enemy, are slightly transparent and are a wonder to see as they step across the ground or leap to attack your face. Horros include three different individual faces on their body, and if you look closely enough (which is INCREDIBELY hard while battling these guys) you'll see each eye follow you around. While they may not stand a chance against Resident Evil's pre-rendered graphics, these are simply some of the best real-time enviroments in a long time.

Gameplay

The gameplay part of this game is where the meat lies, and what makes it an excellent game instead of an ''above average'' game. Players can control 12 different characters, spanning from a Roman Centurion in 26 B.C. to a Spanish monk during the Inquisition to a firefighter during the Gulf War. Each character has different weapons due to their time period; for example, Karim, an arabian boy after a girl's heart, finds a Ram Dao Blade while an ancestor of the Roivas family uses Flintlock Pistols during pre-Revolution times. The amount of details to the time periods are amazing - the developers even said they wanted to put stain glass windows into an early time period, but they researched and discovered stain glass was not around back then, so they had to scrap that from the chapter. Kudos to Silicon Knights for what must have been an abundance of research.

The way the characters interact with their environment is unbelievable and possibly the best I have seen in a long time. As your character walks by a painting or something on the wall that can be examined, he/she turns their head and glances at it as they walk by. When running through a hallway and a fire flickers, the character will turn their ehad to look at it briefly and investigate what the noise is. A very well done feat and hopefully we will see it again in future games.

The Magick system will be odd a first, and not only because it's spelled with a 'k'. In Chapter 3, it will feel the magic is thrown onto you way too quickly, and you will feel you're being rushed with everything. However, if you read all the text that concerns magic in that chapter, you'll slowly ease into it as you progress in the game. Other than a somewhat steep beginning learning curve, the magic system is ingenius; spells are made by putting an alignment rune in slot one, two specific runes in the other slots, and, in the five point and seven point spells, additional 'Power' runes, more commonly known as Pargon. However, all is not perfect. For example, to cast a spell you must wait for the voice of the ancient of the alignment you used to call out each rune. Doing so in combat is tedious, wastes times, and leaves you open to attack. While casting a spell, you cannot move, be attacked or attempt to attack. You're basically a sitting duck, which adds to the difficulty of the game. Usually, you'll be best off with casting a Shield spell in a room with no enemies so you cannot be attack or hurt while casting the spell you actually want to cast while in battle. Overall, that is the one fault with the system that I have found.

The insanity effects are a very innovative idea, and are very fun to witness. Even though I have not encountered all of them, I have experienced many of them. The game will use your insanity to change the objects in the main mansion; for example, after Chapter 3, I got the scare of my life in the bathroom upstairs. Also, I was very freaked out when a head sculpture followed my throughout a hallway. The game doesn't rely on ''shock'' scares as much as Resident Evil or even Half-Life, but slowly freaks you out and tinkers with your mind.

Sound

The first thing you'll notice when you take control of Alex is the whispering and monster noises in the mansion, even though nothing's there. After playing RE for a long time, it'll freak you out, since you'll think something else is in the room besides you. However, once you figure out that the effect is supposed to add to the scarieness of the game, you'll start you appreciate the different footsteps according to your character, the clinking of armor while running around as a Roman Centurion, and even the sound of body parts being dissected as you chop off heads and arms. It's all very nice yet expected from such a title.

The voice acting is simply superb and very well cast; it makes you feel like the characters are actually talking instead of a hired person. Pious, as the skeleton, sounds very dark and evil, yet retains a somewhat human posture in his voice, while Alex Roivas, the main character, has a very ''stand up for yourself'' type of female voice. The voices and dialogue make the game feel that more realistic.

Lastly, the background music of the different chapters. If you liked the Forest and Fire Temple music from Ocarina of Time (or even if you didn't) you will simply love the music. If the chapter takes place in that udnerground complex that Pious, Karim, Roberto and Michael travel along in, you'll hear a soft Persian/Egyptian temple music, while the main mansion houses a slow metronome of clocks blending in with footsteps of your character, only iniinuating that somewhat bad - very bad - happened here. In my personal opinion, music is the most underrated part of a game, since it can make or break an atmosphere. The sounds that Silicon Knights made here create an atmosphere that fits the level but more importantly will include the player in the game.

Fun Factor

Bored fans of survival horror games rejoice; this is not, I repeat, is not another stand-still-and-shoot-until-you-run-out-of-ammo-then-run type of game. In almost every level, you can equip a melee weapon (such as the Ram Dao Blade or the Two Edge Sword, my two favorites) and one or more projectiles, ranging from chakrams to crossbows to flintlock pistols(1 bullet before reloading, yuck) to the modern age Assault Rifles with 3 different settings. You'll simply love starting up a game, grabbing a sword, then running up to zombies and skeletons and slicing off the head, then the arms as you watch them flail around. For this reason, I believe players will find themselves using swords and other melee weapons (torches, anyone?) over projectiles except for Horrors. Chopping off monster's body parts is probably the most fun one will have in a while. Definitely something to enjoy - whether it's pumping lead into a Bonethief's face or severing a zombie's head, it's all good.

Overall

I've had a truckload of fun from the beginning of the first chapter all the way to the final boss fight of the third and final path - and i'm still enjoying it, still being surprised, still being scared. Eternal Darkness can easily become more of a sit down and play type of game than Resident Evil or Silent Hill, due to the ability to save in any room with no enemies in it and the Jump to Game (Chapter Select) option unlocked after completing two different paths. Eternal Mode (Invicibility) unlocked after beating all paths is the best way to experience insanity effects; you can run around with your meter at zero and take no damage. This is the game to pick up, even if you hated or didn't like Resident Evil, and are anxiously waiting for Mario Sunshine. Trust me, you'll be happy to play a tropical island adventure after this.


Graphics 9.2

Some blocky models and grainy cinemas, but character designs in the FMV's
are INCREDIBLY rendered and backgrounds look thrilling.


Gameplay 10

A magic system that makes sense, large amount of innovative insanity
effects and two different characters create an amazing experience.


Sound 9.7

EXCELLENT voice acting and good background music, but many of the monsters
sound too much alike.


Fun Factor 9.5

Chopping off body parts, burning zombies with a torch, or even using
assault rifles and grenades against Horrors will entertain you for days.


Overall (Not an Average) 10

A memorizing experience with a cornucopia of styles of gameplay. After a
six month drought, it's the first AAA title you must have from Nintendo.

Value: Buy

A definite buy. Rent only for those who flinch at the site of blood and/or
are squeemish. Convince your friends to buy it too so you can discuss
gameplay strategies and the plot.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 07/24/02, Updated 07/24/02