"This Gem Makes The GameCube Worth Owning"

Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem is one of those rare games that you probably don't know much about, nor will you understand it until you've actually played it. Make no mistake, this game is indeed a ''survival horror'' game, however, it is not along the same lines as Resident Evil or Silent Hill. If you're expecting some big gorefest where you'll be blasting away zombies in alley ways at awkward camera angles and puzzles that make little to no sense, you'll be disappointed. Not to sound rude on the whole Resident Evil/Silent Hill franchises, but I've never been a huge fan of horror games (or movies for that matter) where it's basically one huge bloody gorefest and loud noises that try to scare you. Eternal Darkness (ED) is considered a ''psychological thriller.'' Sure, there's plenty of blood, even zombies, but it is entirely different than other games in the survival horror genre. This can be good or bad depending on your taste of the genre. Instead of ''in-your-face-blood,'' Eternal Darkness portrays its fear in the strange subtleness of everything it has to offer. Plus, the major difference between this little gem of a game and other survival horrors, is the fact that there's an RPG taste to it and magic involved, as well as a great feature called ''Sanity Effects'' that make this game well worth owning.

Story: 8/10

Alexandria Roivas has just seen the murdered body of her grandfather Edward Roivas, and is determined to explore his creepy old mansion to look for clues and unravel the mystery of his murder, since the police seem to have give up on the case without any obvious evidence as to what happened. From there, Alex must search the mansion to find pages of a book called the Tome of Eternal Darkness and read through an unknown history to find out what exactly is going on.

That is the story in a very thin nutshell. There are about 11 playable characters in this game, each with their own part of the story to tell that will ultimately lead up to its conclusion. One thing I really enjoyed about this aspect was the fact that each and every character's story is told from a different time period: from the Roman Empire, to the Renaissance, to World War II, and even up till today. It really has a vast history of rich characters, and going from different time periods really breaks up most of the repetition, which is a very good thing.

However, sometimes I feel that there might have been too many characters to really get a feel of development. Many times I'd finally start to like a character and be into his/her part of the story, and before I knew it that section was overwith. Another thing about the story's characters was the fact that the main character, Alexandria Roivas, is pushed into the background by everyone else it seems. She's a stiff, and in my opinion, underdeveloped character that had much potential but unfortunately is pushed back by practically everyone else. There really isn't much life to her, and one might even say that her grandfather Edward Roivas is the main character, considering he is the one to narrorate most of the game anyways from beyond the grave.

The plot of Eternal Darkness is really good. I can honestly say I liked it a lot, but I can't help but feel it had some unfortunate drawbacks in the development of both the plot and even more so the characters. But I suppose there are a noteable amount of games that are bogged down by convoluted dialogue, so I can't complain too much in that regard. And the villain in this game is really cool.

This game was meant to be played at least 3 times through, so if you are unsatisfied or confused about the story, playing through three times will get you the ''real'' ending.

Gameplay: 9/10

There are many aspects of gameplay in Eternal Darkness, so I'll start out with the fighting. Basically you can either wield a melee weapon (be it a sword, or even your fists) or a projectile weapon (crossbow, gun, etc). Your melee weapon is your primary weapon, because it will do much more damage than any projectile weapon can, and with a spell you can even enchant the melee weapon. There are many different enemy types in Eternal Darkness, and projectile weapons are only useful in certain, not as often, occasions. Anyways, you can actually target different areas of your enemies be it their left or right arms, their torso, or their head (except their legs...although that could have been cool). Some enemies have different weaknesses, so keeping that in mind attacking different limbs can be useful. Hack off a zombies head and watch it walk blindly around for some time, or just knock it over with your shotgun. The fighting mechanics in this game are fairly good, but not exactly extraordinary. You can only do so much when it comes to hacking off a few limbs, or burning something. But to be honest I don't really know how this could have been improved upon. It isn't exactly a fighting game, but I suppose some more options could have been nice.

The next part of the gameplay I'd like to bring up are the spells. There is magic in this game, and it plays a very, very integral part to both the gameplay and the story. There are 4 different alignments (one is a secret in the game) that will effect different spells. For example, if you were to cast a ''Recover'' spell under the red alignment, it would fill up your health bar. If you casted the same spell under a blue alignment, it would fill up your magic, and under a green alignment your sanity. It all makes for some very interesting gameplay. Throughout the game you'll be getting different runes, and you can combine these runes to try and create a new spell, however, all of these spells become apparent as the game reaches the ending so trying to find new spells isn't exactly necessary or beneficial. There are also different levels of the same spell, bigger ones being more powerful obviously. The one catch to casting any and all spells though is that you have to stand still until the spell has completed. It's something that adds to the ''survival'' part of the game, but unfortunately sometimes it can result in some cheap kills... Other spells include summoning creatures, enchanting your weapon, and revealing invisible objects. There are 12 spells total.

But if there's one thing that makes this game stand out and really carries everything else on it's shoulders its the Sanity Effects. What are the sanity effects? Basically whenever your character see's a monster, they lose a bit of their sanity (shown in a green bar, similar to health or mana). If your character has no sanity left, they start to lose health. But anyways, if you have low sanity and you go into a room, really crazy halucinations start to happen. It's sort of hard to explain until you've actually experienced it first hand. When I first played this, I had no clue what the sanity effects were until it finally dawned on me why so much weird stuff was going on. To be more specific, you can walk into a normal looking room and suddenly your head will explode; or maybe spiders will start to appear to be crawling on your screen; blood dripping from walls; and sometimes the effects will screw with the gameplayers head - one time the game said it was deleting all of my save files and that my controller was unplugged. I cannot emphasize this enough when I say the sanity effects are really cool and really what make this game worth owning and worth playing on more than one playthrough. There are so many different sanity effects you'll want to see as many as you can.

Of course, like in any game, there are puzzle aspects and what not. Fighting, sanity, and especially magic all pertain to a part of the puzzles, and there's always key finding and item fetching.

Boss fights? There are hardly any really, but the few that are there are pretty cool.

Graphics: 10/10

Quite honestly this game is beautifully done in regards to the graphics. Character models and animations are marvelously and really show what the GameCube is capable of. Environments, backgrounds, and FMV's look beautiful and are very easy on the eyes. The game has great graphics, what more can I say?

Sound/Audio: 8/10

For the most part, ED has some absolutely great voice acting. The music is not something to really take notice for though, or rather lack there of I should say. But to be honest, it's the lack of music that really bring out this games eerie feeling. What's creepier? - walking down a hallway with loud music playing or no music (or at least very soft) at all? I think the latter, and it definitely fits in this game. Plus, when there are appropriate times for the music (mainly during FMV's) it sounds great.

Camera and Controls: 8/10

The camera works very good. In fact I think it uses one of the best ''fixed camera positions'' engine that I have seen really. The controls are pretty straight forward and work really well in relation to the GameCubes otherwise awkward controller button layout.

Replayability: 9/10

The game should keep you interested enough to play through it again. There are 3 different endings to the game, and if that's not motivation enough, then seeing different sanity effects should do the trick. There are only a couple secrets in the game, but if you find them, they are immensely rewarding. Also, playing through your second and third times will have for the most part the same story (but obviously different changes) but will have slightly different enemies and slightly different ways to solve puzzles using magic. Also, each time you beat the game you unlock something. I think the third and ''real'' ending to the game should merit enough desire to play through the game again. Also, first time through the game may take you 15 to 20 hours to beat. Second and third times will be anywhere from 8 to 10.

Buy or Rent?:

If you own a GameCube, you should definitely buy this game. I'm not a fan of the horror genre of games, but this game, with its obvious differences from the genre, was fantastic. It's one of those rare great games that are only available for GameCube, so I think buying it is a good idea. If you're still not sure though, renting never hurts.

Final Thoughts:

I originally bought my GameCube to get Metal Gear Solid The Twin Snakes (also made by ED creator Silicon Knights) but I heard a lot of good things about this game so I decided to pick it up, and liked it so much that I didn't even care to get MGS:TT right away. In my opinion, Eternal Darkness is a great game that's short from perfect in a few regards. One thing that always angered me about this game though, was the fact that whenever I actually died, it was always for cheap and lame reasons. Reasons like getting pinned into a corner by two Horror beasts so I can't even move, or the character I am controlling is too fat to run fast enough away from a fast creature... A block function might have been nice, but also might have made the game too easy. But there I go again about the fighting mechanics. Regardless though, I thoroughly enjoyed this game. Highly recommended.

Overall: 9/10

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 04/13/04