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Eternal Darkness

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 10 / 25
Date: November 05, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Eternal Darkness is a great game. I enjoyed it a lot. It is like House of Dead and Zelda with the zombies poping up to get you. It is Mature for a reason and may be scary because it is so realistic, but overall a exteremely fabulous game.

Mature???

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 6
Date: December 30, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I think enternal darkness is a great game. Its a mix of resident evil and house of the dead. Plus this game is mature which shows that us game cubers arent little kids. It has great graphics and s fun through the whole game

More Then Hack And Slash

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 6
Date: January 09, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I think some people forget to mention that this game was originaly intended for the N64 and a demo was shown of it. In the demo for the N64 you were able to cast out spells and even mix the spells with your weapons to make a new one! I will also mention that demos throughout Toysrus ect was only 5% of the actual game. Not only that but you will be able to play as 13 different characters spanning over years and years of storyline, its incredible. So dont think of this game as just a Resident Evil clone game....cause its more then that and better!

Game Cube game definiately not for kids

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 6
Date: April 01, 2002
Author: Amazon User

This game is a great example of how people just assumed that Game Cube games would be only for kids. Let me just say that this is no kids game. This game incorperates all good aspects of suspense movies. The game makes you see things that do not exist. You have to use many tactics to stay alive, sometime fight, sometimes run away, but always outwit. The sanity meter is an amazing innovation. The game makes you feel that you are slowly going insane. This game will keep you asking the question, "Is that what I think it is?" and, "Did that just move?"

I would recommend this game to all gamers who think Game Cube games are for children. And I'd recommend that all parents buying games for children should look elsewhere. This is one video game that is NOT for the kids.

Great concept, Good Game

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 6
Date: November 19, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Every body who owns a game console, chose their console for a reason. Usually there is a title that looks so enticing to the game player, that he/she will plunk down a large chunk of money for a system, just so they can play that one game. Now, if you own a GameCube, Mario is a likely candidtate for this sort of influence, or pehaps the new Metroid games (one is for Game Boy Advance) that have me salivating now. Well, Eternal Darkness had this effect on me. I purchased this game because of the amazingly positive reviews I read. I watched the trailers on the intenet, and it looked so awesome to me, that I had to get a GameCube. Well I played Eternal Darkness (ED from here on out) and it is a really good game. It is fun, and there are a lot of innovative features to it. The sanity meter is genius. This concept will undoubtedly be used again, although never to the same degree of surprise that this first game gave us. By the way. Do yourself a favor and do not read what all of the insanity effects are before you play the game. It will ruin them for you. Why four stars then you ask? Well. For one, the game was too hyped. It is not a genre beginning title (what is anymore.) It is not survival horror like the Resident Evil GameCube remake is. (RE is superb by the way) The game was pitched in such a way that led be to believe it was scary. It really wasn't for me. Yes there are a lot of wonderful surprises with the sanity/insanity effects and all, however, it never acheives the level of creepiness that RE carries all the way through it. It is really an adventure game. I love the dynamic camera. In RE, the camera angles are stills. ED's camera angles are mobile and fully rendered in 3D! The magick is great. There are a few monotonous parts, but in the end the game is very satisfying. This game is more of a 3D adventure than survival horror. Yes is is bloody and greusome at times, yet these aspects alone do not define the survival horror genre. Keep these things in mind, and you will no doubt love this game. It really is fun and unique, just not the 5 stars I would have liked it to be.

Unrealized Potential, Undeserved Recognition

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 12 / 35
Date: March 29, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Originally penciled in as a late addition to the N64's library, Eternal Darkness was eventually shifted over to the freshly born GC, where it was meant to be the first of many mature-themed first party titles brought to the system. Looking back over the years that have come and gone since, that string of adult-leaning N-published games never really came to be, and the Cube faltered in a similar fashion to its immediate predecessor. But this is now, and for Darkness, that was then. The birth of a new console meant an opportunity for a clean slate and instant anticipation.

The storyline revolves around a blonde-haired, blue eyed, athletic woman named Alexandra Roivas. Constantly haunted by dreams of the undead, she's awakened late one night by a telephone call that informs her of her grandfather's brutal, untimely demise. As the man's only living relative, she's asked to meet with police about the situation, and quickly finds herself drawn into the web of magick, satanism and otherworldly struggles that had defined her late relative's life. The entire story effectively transpires on the grounds of the old man's mansion, which isn't nearly as dull and repetitive as you'd think, thanks to the inclusion of a single intuitive plot device. Hidden among her deceased patriarch's things, Alexandra discovers the necronomicon, a book bound in human flesh that holds the secrets of her family's legacy and the majority of the game's variety. Most of the book's pages have been torn out and scattered throughout the mansion, naturally, but upon discovering a new chapter, Alexandra will dive right in - somewhat literally. Each new set of pages tells the story of a different character and his or her interactions with the book itself, and as Alexandra reads, you'll take control of that character, playing your way through their tale. As such, Eternal Darkness feels more like a series of intertwined short stories than a single, game-spanning epic... a welcome change of pace . What's more, it allows players to travel unbound throughout time and space, adventuring through a roman war expedition one chapter, conquering an Indiana Jones style aztec temple the next, without the need for a silly, out-of-place object like a time machine (or worse).

Truly, there are a lot of really good ideas at play here. I loved the idea of playing the role of an 18th century noble with medical aspirations, performing rudimentary autopsies on the bodies of demons after a battle. The suggestion of a steep tower of corpses, a sacrifice to an ancient, forgotten god, is an amazing mental image. Even the continued use of the book itself as a means to explain Alexandra's growth as a character and a magician was extremely well-concepted. Upon reading in explicit detail about a distant relative's discovery of a magical spell, it's only natural to assume she'd have a fairly good understanding of how to go about casting it herself. Imagination most definitely isn't the weak spot in Sanity's Requiem; it's the execution and realization of those ideas that bothers me.

Take the system of magic, for example, what should've been one of the most important aspects of the game. The idea is that there are three distinct pools of magical energy, a red pool, a green pool, and a blue pool, that simultaneously have power over one color while falling victim to the other. Green is stronger than red, for instance, while blue overcome green, and red conquers blue. It's a brilliantly simple idea, but one that falls flat due to being underexplained and overly detailed. You'll know that the boss you're fighting is using a green special attack, and that you should be counterattacking with a blue assault, but exactly which spell you should be using is only revealed through an abysmal series of trial-and-error kamikaze strikes. Even then, half the time you aren't casting at the right time, or you're not standing in the right place, or the boss has shifted to another form. If I had a dime for every time I had to resort to an online FAQ after reaching the point of frustration during this game, I'd be able to buy a replacement copy and hurl the original into the wall, frisbee style, as stress relief.

It's this maddening sense of frustration and helplessness that really strikes the most damning blow to my overall opinion of the game. After a half-dozen hours or so of gameplay, you'll be so utterly defeated and annoyed that your motivation to continue will begin to pay a heavy toll. As Alexandra learns more and more about what's going on with her heritage and what was really behind her grandfather's murder, you'll find yourself actually comprehending less and less. It's a problem I had with what was formerly one of my favorite comic books, Hellblazer, a year or two ago: because the story is supernatural and underworldly in setting, the writer(s) assume that the solutions to problems don't necessarily need to make sense, so long as they sound spooky and look cool.

Much of the gameplay is in keeping with that same ongoing trend: stupendous ideas, lame execution. Probably the most unique element of the game is its "fright meter," which slowly drains as the on-screen individual sees freakier and freakier things. I know I'd be a little weirded out if a rotting hunk of meat and bones suddenly climbed out of the wall and started lurching toward me... we're conditioned to expect our heroes to immediately continue their quest without missing a beat, so it adds a new dimension to the proceedings when you realize that video game characters can get scared, too. If your fright meter gets too low, you'll even start to experience some hallucinations and so-called "horror effects," which are a real blast and range from the minute to the absurdly out of place. Sometimes you'll see something moving in the corner of the room, other times you'll actually foresee your own death, but the hallucinations will always subside at some point. They don't move the plot along, like the amusing asides in the original Metal Gear Solid did, and only seem to exist to provide a few extra "holy crap" heart-skipping moments. Which is par for the course with a horror game, I'll concede.

Gameplay in general is fairly slow-paced and monotonous, with few action-heavy sequences and a whole lot of aimless wandering and exploring. Even the boss battles are usually relegated to long sessions of striking, wandering around avoiding attacks for a few minutes, and then striking again... like a hilariously slow chase scene. For a game that's so overflowing with narrow corridors, doorways and exquisite surroundings, you'd think that collision detection with the walls wouldn't be such a handicap, but in Darkness it quickly becomes your worst enemy. If your weapon should happen to strike a wall in mid swing, your character will immediately halt their attack and stumble backwards for a few moments, giving your enemies all the time they need to tear you to pieces. Attempting to fight a single enemy in a hallway is often like threading a needle: you'll miss half a dozen times before you get it right.

In the same vein as the Resident Evil series, the teenaged bonding moments that are used to fill out a blockbuster horror film are replaced here with a series of riddles, puzzles and tricks. I expected as much, but couldn't have anticipated how easy and linear most of Darkness's riddles really are. With only a few exceptions, every item is miraculously found just before it's needed, to the point that the pieces basically solve the game's problems for you. If you find a statue, chances are good you'll find a peculiar, statue-shaped hole in the next room.

Eternal Darkness' visuals have aged even worse than the rest of the title, and I'm not entirely sure they were ever really up to snuff. Sure, there's always the argument that these graphics were "stunning when they first came out," but I didn't play this game when it was first released, and even though it's just four years old, today they look extremely shoddy. Human skin textures are particularly bad and lumpy, but even the environments and items suffer from weak textures and a ragged, blocky basic structure. The one exception to this rule is with the creatures themselves, which are all brilliantly designed and extremely well-executed. I'd compare the lot of them to most of the bad guys in Silent Hill and perhaps the most gruesome baddies of Resident Evil. It hurts just to look at most of these guys, the way their flesh seems to stretch and strain to withhold the ugliness that's going on underneath. The only thing I could wish for there is a wider taste of variety, since the rogue's list seen here is extremely shallow.

Considering all that came before it, Darkness' audio is surprisingly well done. The Cube does everything in its power to deliver a solid surround-sound experience, and those effects come as close to accomplishing the spooky vibe these developers were obviously shooting for as any other aspect of the game. Musically, the game's soundtrack is uneventful. It swells and sways as necessary, and occasionally gives a nice bit of mood to a location. It isn't repetitious, which is probably my greatest pet peeve about in-game music, and it doesn't get in the way, but it also doesn't stand out on its own. Let's put it this way: I wouldn't rush out to the stores to buy Eternal Darkness: The Original Symphonic Score. The voice acting in general is very good, with few exceptions, and though the dialog the actors are asked to deliver is usually stilted and unbelievable, they go beyond the call of duty to give their roles a personality and motivation that was sorely lacking in the script. Especially good are the noises, shallow screams and ambient ticks of the insanity effects, and each character's resulting reaction to them. While the same phrase is sometimes repeated at the conclusion of one of these sequences, it's not something that ever really bothered me and actually took steps to reveal the characters as more honest and true to life. If you're freaked out and seeing things in an unfamiliar mansion, I doubt the first thing to enter your mind is "come on, let's at least get a little variety into the dialog." You're going to scream the first thing that comes into your head, whether you've said it before or not.

To summarize, this feels like a series of very good concepts that were just drawn too thin, which is odd because the game itself, clocking in around twelve hours, is fairly short. There were so many superb, imaginative concepts that died on the way to the screen here that it really became something of a sad theme for the whole picture. Whether it was the truly surprising insanity effects, the unique limb-targeting system or the original system of magic, no matter how good the idea, the execution was always killing the potential for me. Despite the lingering offering of replay value here (there's supposedly a super secret ending if you finish all three potential paths) I just didn't find myself motivated to go through it all again, especially considering how slow, plodding and ultimately dreary the majority of the actual gameplay was. Considering the amount of people that had pimped this game to me, and the incredible reputation it seems to have gathered in the years since, I found myself more than just a little disappointed. As a "must-have" title for the GameCube, Eternal Darkness is nothing but a major league let-down.

*breaths heavily* ...this isn't really happening to me.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: July 02, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Pros: The developers conentrated on story telling not just graphics and sound.
Cons: Dialog over dramatic in some instances but I guess it adds to the insanity.

This game isn't bad at all. It's one of the upper ups that is out right now for the Gamecube or any other system for that matter. Sanity effects are a chain of eerie events that start occurring when your character's sanity meter is low and is a very welcome effect on my part. It distorts the character's perception of his/her surroundings but there's more! Some effects don't just mess with the character but you, the player as well. One effect made me go " *gasp* AHHHHH!!!!!!!WHAT THE HECK?!?!" not just "huh? Oh COOL!". That's all I gots to say about that. Don't want to give anythin' away. ^-^

The graphics are near jaw dropping though the character's movements are not motion captured. The sound is Wicked. It has it's fill of nicely orchestrated tracks as well as some excellent sound effects such as believeable moans and growns of people seemingly being tortured in some manner. Some of the characters are drama queens though but it's all good 'cause they sometimes get a chuckle out of me. Personally, I like to add my own little effects as I play. Ex. When I hear a scary sound, I sometimes make the character stop dead in his/her tracks and run the opposite way while saying, "oh Spit Man!!" or "oh hell no! I ain't goin' in there!" ^-^ Makes it more interactive for me. I'm not saying that the game lacks a "gotta keep playing" factor 'cause dudes and dudets, trust me, it doesn't. The story progresses nicely and will make you keep thinking of how your current character's chapter will end.

Some puzzles are stumpers while others are so easy that you'll pass the solution along and later come to realize that you knew how to solve it the whole time. They're the kind of puzzles where you'll say, "der! 'tupid" and'll make you smack yourself. The game's a hoot and a hollar.

Word of advice, save your game between chapters and let your sanity meter get depleted so that you can experience some of the sanity effects. The fun isn't entirely in getting ahead and finishing the story. Enjoy the craziness!

One of my greatest moments is when I strategically used a combination of magic spells and weapons to defeat a bady on the 1st go. My "who da man?" attitude was short lived because a smaller,less acute bady got me shortly thereafter. <:(

'tupid zombies!

A MAJOR reason to buy a Cube!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: July 04, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I'm going to keep this brief because I simply want to encourage anyone who owns a Gamecube to buy this game. Before the release of Eternal Darkness, I had gotten jaded about video games in general and on the Gamecube in specific. This game reminds me of why I'm addicted to video games in the first place. The game features terrific play mechanics, a creative storyline and an easy(but increasingly difficult as the game progresses)learning curve.

Look - I tend to lose interest in games quickly, and I REALLY don't like having to repeat the same scenes OVER AND OVER again until I finally get it right. Eternal Darkness minimizes these frustrations. Much has already been said about the clever puzzles and intuitive control design, but let me just reinforce those opinions here. All of the puzzles I have encountered thus far have made perfect sense once I thought about them - and solving one puzzle early on has given me the confidence to really try some wild ideas later in the game.

Give the game time to grow on you. It's an enjoyable thrill ride that eclipses Resident Evil in every way.

A great alternative to Resident Evil

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: August 22, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I have been waiting for a Gamecube survival-horror game to challange Resident Evil since I got one back in April. Eternal Darkness is that game. It has excellent graphics, easy controls, some great shock moments, an innovative spellcasting system, and much more including the reason I bought the game, the Sanity Meter. Whenever your character sees a demon, s/he loses some of that sanity. When your character's sanity gets low enough, strange things start to happen. In my case, the camera view tilted, the walls started to bleed and voices were heard issuing from my tv's speakers, just to name a few small effects. I've gone into a room (in the game) more than once and found my character standing on the ceiling. The game is not without it's flaws, though. The storyling is a bit sketchy, as the game has you playing as 12 (or there abouts) different characters over a few thousand years and it gets hard to keep track of. There are also a few annoying Resident Evil-esque camera angle problems, but these are easy-to-overlook minor problems. It is also fairly expensive, but overall, it's definitely worth it.

Virtual Grand Guignol

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: October 24, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Rather than a hodgepodge of mayhem and unrelated playing experiences Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem is one of the first masterpieces of game design. The developers have successfully mixed the experience of great horror movies along with their Victorian Roots.

Instead of monotonous boss battles that devour time and often enjoyment of the Horror Survival game Eternal Darkness is focused on the experience of suspense and puzzle solving. As game play changes style as you progress, a combination of protection spells and enchanting a broken item is more valuable than a grenade launcher. Environments that are revisited go through the ravages of time and history making a cathedral different to both a Benedictine monk during the Inquisition and later a journalist during World War One.

With ancient slumbering terrors, family legacies, malevolent cosmic deities and encroaching madness, Eternal Darkness owes as much to authors Edgar Alan Poe and H.P. Lovecraft as the game 'Fatal Frame' owes to Japanese horror films like 'The Ring'. Lovecraft character, Inspector Henry Legrasse, even makes an appearance in the story as well as a sanitarium named after Jeffrey Combs (known from several films based on Lovecraft's work).

Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem is one of the games that transcends its genre with a style that will be instrumental in opening up console game experience to users of greater diversity.

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