"Not as good as I had hoped"

Eternal Darkness

Gameplay: 7/10
Graphics: 7/10
Sound: 9/10
Innovation: 6/10
Replay Value: 7/10

Before this came out, it was hyped up to be the one title that Nintendo needed. It was going to change how everyone felt about the company's whole “kiddie” image. Remember that? Well, with such importance relying on this game, then you would expect it to deliver. Its games like this that can either make or break an image, but it some cases it'll do neither. As far as Eternal Darkness goes, that's a little hard to tell.

Eternal Darkness has been in development for quite a while. Silicon Knights had originally planned this game to be released on the Nintendo 64 (Much like Dinosaur Planet aka Star Fox Adventure, you can pick up old magazines or look at old website articles and find previews of it), but it was scrapped at the last minute for the Gamecube. The most interesting thing about Eternal Darkness is that it's a darker, more mature game for the Gamecube, and it's by Nintendo. As I'm sure you know, the big N isn't really known for making dark and scary games, so a (now former) Nintendo second party known as Silicon Knights (Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes) developed it. This seems to be the trend for the future as Geist is also being developed by a second party and appears to be a more dark game than what we're used to from Nintendo. Let's face it, Nintendo has covered basically every genre known to gamers and has excelled in every category. Developing a more dark and mature themed game is something that gamers have wanted to see Nintendo tackle for a long time.

Due to the complex nature of the story, I can't tell you too much without giving any spoilers. The main character in the game is a twenty something girl named Alexandra Roivas (who strangely looks very similar to Buffy the Vampire Slayer for some reason….) who goes to her family's mansion when her grandfather and only living relative, Dr. Edward Roivas, is mysteriously killed. We soon learn that her grandfather is part of a grand conspiracy to prevent the impending apocalypse. Three ancient Gods are trying to revive themselves in order to take over the world, and all three are competing against one another (think Call of the Cthulhu). The story travels across many chapters, and through many different time periods. It tells the past of a book Alex finds in the Mansion called “The Tome of Eternal Darkness”. Each chapter covers one time period, and one person who is trying to prevent the oncoming doom. The story goes much, much deeper but I wouldn't want to spoil anything for you. Despite the complex nature of the story, playing as eight different characters has its downfalls. Since there are that many characters playable in the game, there isn't very much development time for that character's personality. At times I found myself wondering why they were doing certain things, and why I should care about them. Perhaps Silicon Knights should have cut down the total amount of characters from eight to four. That way, it would offer more development time for each character in the game, and would allow the player to better understand their actions and gain feelings for them.

The graphics in Eternal Darkness are certainly disappointing, especially when the game was in development for a good four years. Silicon Knights really could have done a better job. None of the textures are very impressive, and they look blurry upon closer inspection. The graphics aren't terrible, but they aren't anything more than mediocre. The characters and the environment could've used some sprucing up. Something I did enjoy about the graphics was the character animation. Every enemy and character has a different animation. They all walk and move differently depending on if they are running, walking, hurt, or sneaking. It's pretty cool.

The gameplay is what it all comes down to in the end. Either a game is fun to play, or it isn't. This is where a game can really deliver and become a classic. Eternal Darkness, sadly, did not. The gameplay is the most disappointing feature in this game. We can loosely compare this game to Resident Evil, since it's also a survival horror game on the Gamecube, but the two are really different. The puzzles in Eternal Darkness were very easy. Most of the time, they were insultingly easy. There wasn't a single time where I was wondering what I was suppose to do, or where I was suppose to go. Just about everything is straightforward. It's basically push this block here, and the door unlocks, or hit this switch, and so and so happens. I was disappointed that the puzzles didn't really take advantage of the environments as much as they could have. The combat system is mediocre. Your character is armed with either a sword (or axe, or mace) or a gun (everything from a musket to an M16), and can target certain parts of an enemy by holding down the left trigger. This sounds like a good idea, but it makes combat really easy since you can use the same basic strategy for almost every enemy. Just enchant your sword, run up to them, target their head, and whack away! I actually found this easier and more effective than using a gun. Besides physical combat, your character can use magick. The magick system is one part of the gameplay that I actually enjoyed. Your character can use different spells depending on different runes that they collect. Once you collect certain runes, you can combine them to learn a new spell. For the most part, the enemies are somewhat original, but there are far too few of them. Through out the entire game, there are only about six different types of enemies. This makes combat get really repetitive, really quickly. The lack of variety in the enemy types is something that particularly annoyed me in this game. Each God has a grand evil army! Silicon Knights really could've used their imagination to come up with lots of very unique enemies to combat in the game instead of just a handful. The main advertisement point for the game is the sanity meter. This is displayed in the form of a green meter on the top your screen. When you start a chapter, it is full, but as you combat enemies and view supernatural things, it starts to drain. As it drains, many “sanity effects” can occur. These can range from walls bleeding, to the game (seemingly) shutting off and corrupting your memory card. They're supposed to make the game harder, and for a little bit, they do. Later on in the game, however, the just become an annoyance, and you can replenish your meter with a simple spell. After a few chapters, there is really no point to it. This was really a disappointment to me after Silicon Knights touted the sanity effects as having drastic effects on gameplay, and would be a main element of the game. What we got was a simple gimmick that only affects the game for a few seconds, if at all, and can be gotten rid of very quickly. After the first hour or two of gameplay, you've seen just about every sanity effect that there is. If there is to be a sequel, it has to be tweaked so that it will do what Silicon Knights promised in the first place, or just completely removed from the game.

There is one thing that is superb about Eternal Darkness, and that is the music. There really isn't a lot of “music” to speak of, but the voice acting is very good. All of the characters have voices that match their personality and character well, and don't sound like idiots when they talk. The good voice acting is also a nice change from the usual sup par acting found in most other video games. It really gives more a feel to the characters, and Eternal Darkness shows the difference that it can make. It's just more realistic than “You are the master of unlocking.” Also, if you have Dolby 5.1, crank those speakers up! It supports surround sound, and let me tell you, there isn't anything quite as good as hearing distant screams in surround sound.

I have to recommend Eternal Darkness as a rental title. If you rent it, and it pulls you in, see if you can buy it used for about $20. It's worth that much. It's not a terrible game by any means, but it fell short of expectations. Eternal Darkness is a solid title, but it has its flaws. I can't wholeheartedly recommend it when there are just so many better games in the genre. If you want a good Survival Horror game, then go check out Silent Hill, or Resident Evil, however, if you want a game with a good story and decent action, then pick it up. Otherwise, give it a rent, or just pass on it if survival horror isn't your thing.

Final Score (Not an average): 73%

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 07/24/04