"A beacon of light in the ever darkening world of games."

INTRODUCTION

I thought when I first saw this game, that it was another Resident Evil clone, although that's usually a good thing since most Resident Evil clones are better than Resident Evil itself. Anyway, I decided to wait (And I waited a year) until i could get it cheap, it wasn't on my ''must buy'' list, and while so many games were coming out at that time, I forgot all about Eternal Darkness (Hereafter refered to as ED) until all the major releases died down.
I ended up getting this around the 5th of january 2004 and it's ended up being one of my favourite GC games, and maybe even one of the best games I've played in years.

I'd like to point out I never give a game a 10/10, no game is perfect, and all games can be improved upon, so I may give a game a 9/10, a 9.5/10 or maybe even a 9.9/10 but NEVER (unless the game is perfect, which isn't really possible) a 10/10.

It's hard doing a review for ED, since It's strongest point is It's story and I don't want to give even the slightest bits away, I'll try and keep the review as Spoiler free as possible though, and most things I say concerning item's, characters, and the storyline are said in the manual of ED, exept perhaps one or two things which wont be seen more than 5 minutes in to the game.

STORY 9/10

Just short of amazing, certainly the real reason to get this game. The story is better than what you will find in most films these days, and is almost book quality.
I have never played a game with such a deep and original story that has such likable and well thought out characters, which is told in such an intelligent and involving way.

As in most games the story is told through cutscenes and sometimes (but rarely) FMV's,
these cutscenes are lengthy and if you miss even the slightest bit it can confuse you so much that you can lose a grasp on what's happening in the story, to combat this Silicon Knights put in a feature that lets you watch any cutscene you've seen as many times as you like, this is a very welcome feature, and without it the story would be impossible to follow.

The storyline revolves mainly around the ''Roivas family'', most of all Alexandra Roivas, she being the main heroine, after her grandfather Edward dies a brutal death in his mansion on Rhode island, she seeks to uncover how and why he was killed, while at first it seems like another Shen Mue style storyline, it's anything but. Shortly after starting, the detective style story vanishes and it starts to focus more on the main storyline which revolves around creatures called ''The Ancients'' these Ancients ruled the earth long before humans existed, but somehow got trapped by planitary changes.
There are groups of people that want to help the ancients return to earth and regain there position as the dominant species, and in doing so destroy humanity.
And then there are the ''chosen ones'' (the characters you play as) called upon to stop this from happening, everyone of which ends up recieving a mystical book crafted from human skin and bone, called The Tome Of Eternal Darkness, which plays a bigger part in the gameplay than the story really (it stores your items, ''magick'', and is even how you access new levels), and since the game spans over two millenia, you get to play as various characters with there own stories in different times of history, such as a Roman in 26 BC Persia, or a doctor in 16th century Rhode island.
At first it may seem weird, and even quite random taking on these roles, but after a while their individual stories end up having something major to do with the main story in one way or another.

I do have a minor complaint here though, and that's the lack of explanation in many places, which can make it hard to follow what's going on, forcing you to work it out for yourself, this can cause great frustration, and headache at times.
But this is only a minor complaint, and I doubt you will easily find a game with a story that is even half as good as this one.

GAMEPLAY 9/10

The unusual thing about the gameplay, is that without the story ED has, it would be quite boring, the story suits the gameplay style, and vise versa.
The gameplay will be slightly familiar to those who have played Resident Evil, for example, the puzzles are very similar, you have pretty much no control over the camera, and the mansion is much like those featured in the Resident Evil series. The similarities end there though. For a start the gameplay has a bit more of a ''hack and slash'' style combat system, (exept in places where you use projectile weapons of course) and it doesn't feel half as claustrophobic, or slow, it has a much smoother feel to it, puzzles don't get you stumped, they slow you down, although whether that's good or bad depends on taste.

It's hard to tell exactly what genre ED is, but i guess if it was close to any current one it would have to be survival horror, in that the main part of the game takes place in a spooky old mansion. Although I do think it's a genre of it's own really.

While playing as the main character, Alexandra Roivas, most of the time you will be searching the mansion for ''Chapter pages'' these are pages of The Tome Of eternal Darkness, where your items, and ''Magick'' are stored. (more on that later). Once you find a Chapter page, Alex can read it, this is done by you actually acting out what happens in that chapter, (basicaly each chapter page is like a level) you do this by taking on the role of the character that the chapter revolves around, at whatever time he or she lives in, and in whatever location he or she is at, be that Persia, Rhode Island, Cambodia, etc.

The combat system isn't exactly phenominal, but it suits the game fine, you can target different body parts of an enemy, either the arms, the body, or the head, and then fire, or if using a sword, swing at the selected body part, as expected hitting it's head will decapitate it, and hitting the arms will cut them off, while hitting the body will sometimes chop the enemy in half.

Some enemies are very powerfull, usually this is where you will want to use ''Magick'', ''Magick'' as you might have guessed, is a form of magic: used in combat, and to solve some puzzles. Using the START menu you can create a spell providing you have all the components. They usually are: at least three ''Runes''(coloured symbols), a ''Spell scroll'',(just a scroll) and a ''Codex''(a stone tablet).
Once you have all the components of a spell you can cast it. Usually all the components will be close together, to make things more simple.
When you cast the spell, the runes you selected light up on the ground and a loud voice says the name of each one, this is fun to watch, and at first I just cast spells for the fun of seeing this happen.

One thing that is very unique about this game, and what has been refered to as a ''gimmick'' by the cynics, is the sanity meter. Every time you see an enemy your sanity drops,(indicated by a green bar) and when it's under about half way, bizarre things start happening, some of these are very clever, and have fooled me many a time, such as insects crawling across the screen, or your characters head falling off, many of these add to the atmosphere of the game, and do make it much more scary.
You can recharge your sanity meter by doing a ''Finishing move'' on an enemy. This is much like on Soul Reaver, where once you have killed the enemy you press B to finish it off (usually in a satisfyingly brutal way). Gimmick or not it is a great feature that adds alot to the game, and even makes it harder in alot of places.

GRAPHICS 7/10

I'm giving the graphics a 7/10 because in all honesty, they're not terribly good, those of you who play games for eye candy I suggest you look elsewhere, I however find it hard to judge a game like this on it's graphics, and while it is a disapointment that they're very average it doesn't seem to effect the game in any major way.

Most of the backrounds look from OK to average, while some look good, others, such as when you get to see outside (albeit very briefly) look very blurred, due to too much bluring effects being used.
Some of the backrounds suffer from pixilation or smeared textures as well, this would be unforgivable had the character models been bad, they're not, they move as they should, and the faces look and move well. most of the weapon animations are good as well, especialy the gun animations, which I should note are different for every character.
The fire effects however, belong on the N64. Saying that, this game was apparently supposed to come out on the N64, so at least Silicon Knights have a worthy excuse for the lack of brilliant graphics.
Nothing else to say here other than that the enemies are well designed and as bizarre as you would expect from a game like this, although mainly consisting of zombies, there are many other original and quite frightening beasts throughout the game.

CONTROLS 8/10

The controls are everything that's expected in a game of this sort, holding R goes in to target mode, the anilogue stick then selects a body part while in this mode, A fires/slashes, B does a finishing move, examines things, picks up items etc. Z reloads a projectile weapon, L makes you run if you hold it while walking. Start opens your inventory, shows your map, opens the options menu and lets you cast and create spells. You can assign spells to the D pad and Y button so you can cast them quickly. The only reason this doesn't get a 9/10 is because much of the time it's hard to target the right enemy, which has caused me to die too many times.

SOUND/MUSIC 8/10

The voice acting is brilliant, unlike most games, the actors actually knew what emotions the characters were feeling when they talked, and portrayed them well, it's rare to see this in a game for some odd reason, but rest assured the voice acting is perfect in this game without exception.
The music, when it can be heard, is good, but not perfect, while most of the music sets the tone fine, at other times it's quite annoying, although the music on the boss battles is some of the best i've heard in a while, which is always a good thing.
Alot of the music is unusual for a game of this sort, it does somehow work though and is in no way bad, just don't expect anything amazing.
The sound effects are very good, the guns sound like guns, the footsteps sound like footsteps, and the voices that say the name of each Rune when you cast a spell are fantastic.
Also some of the sanity effects are audio based, and sound utterly terrifying.

REPLAYABILITY 5/10

Well most people will complete it once and that's it, there are however 3 paths to take, each one has small differences and should interest you if you like to finish games 100% , or just really enjoyed the game.

The game should take 17-18 hours at an average pace, and about 30 hours to do all 3 paths.

BUY OR RENT?

I really can't say rent here, not buying, or at least completing this masterpiece of a game is a sin, and despite my first beliefs this IS a must own game.

TOTAL SCORE 9/10

more of a 9.3 really, Silicon Knights have shown that even though the gaming industry no longer cares about the games, only the money that comes from them, it is still possible to make brilliant games, with equally brilliant storylines.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 02/22/04