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One of the best Gamecube games yet.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: November 10, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Eternal Darkness is very well made, and the "sanity effects" that are one of its more distinctive features are well executed. Be warned: Though this game does indeed have plenty of gore and fighting, puzzles play a large part in advancing the story. The music and voice acting are done nicely, and a creepy atmosphere is flawlessly maintained through the whole game. The graphics are quite good, expecially the backgrounds and scenery. Interesting cut-scenes occur every so often, and are excellently animated. It isn't all just eye-candy(?) though, as there is a deep Lovecraftian plot.

Schizophrenia is Not Always a Good Thing

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 7
Date: July 01, 2002
Author: Amazon User

At long last, and with much fanfare, the Gamecube has entered the realm of Eternal Darkness. There's been much ado about the fact that Nintendo was so involved with the development of this title, in an apparent departure from its supposed "kiddie" mentality. The hands-on work was done by Silicon Knights (Blood Omen on the PSX). Was the game worth the wait?

It's hard to classify Eternal Darkness into any single genre, which ends up being the game's biggest flaw. ED doesn't have the dread factor of pure horror games like Resident Evil or Silent Hill, simply because the enemies in the game are dispatched rather easily. The much-lauded insanity effects are certainly entertaining, but they are very obvious for the most part when they occur, which really detracts from the sense of involvement so vital to games of this type. All things considered, ED has to be classified as an adventure game, despite Silicon Knights' and Nintendo's intention that it be a horror title.

With that in mind, ED's strengths are major: the audio and the story. The game uses Dolby 5.1 to genius effect, with wonderful sound effects and a brilliant score (which changes to period-specific styles, fitting the timeline-driven story perfectly). The voice-acting is among the best ever recorded, and supports one of the best plots ever conceived in a game. These two things alone propel ED to the top of this year's releases, for all systems.

However, the gameplay itself isn't quite up to the quality of the audio. Trying to target enemies in confined spaces can be frustrating, and the frequent graphical clipping doesn't help. There is also no moveable in-game camera, which would have been very helpful. Some of the puzzles are also needlessly vague. On the other hand, the magick system is superbly implemented. The sanity meter is a nice addition, but the PS2 RPG Shadow Hearts' Sanity Points system affects the gameplay much more directly. Most of the signs of insanity in Eternal Darkness are window dressing (albeit cool window dressing!), but little more. If ED's insanity effects had been more subtle and more creative, they would have been much more involving.

ED is a technical masterpiece that controls perfectly and sounds fantastic. Its graphics show its N64 roots, with the aforementioned clipping and blocky character models, but are still super-cool to look at. However, it seems that ED suffers from over-development, and Silicon Knights probably had too much time and too much input from Nintendo during the long development cycle. It appears that somewhere along the line, SK lost focus. As a result, ED is stuck somewhere between Resident Evil and Soul Reaver, unsure of its own identity. Is it a horror game? Kinda. An action game? Sorta. Is it an adventure game with fast-paced combat, RE-style puzzles and backtracking, a Lovecraft-inspired storyline, and a few horror-based gameplay elements? Yeah, that's about it. See what I'm getting at? Innovation is certainly welcome, but loses power when the game itself feels spread too thin. Perhaps the developers suffered from their own loss of sanity...? Despite this, Eternal Darkness is one of the strongest entries on the Gamecube, and is a powerful statement that the console is not just for kids.

Fans of survival horror games should be warned that ED might not live up to their expectations, but anyone wanting a mature-themed, well-written, masterfully produced and involving adventure should take note: The Darkness Has Come.

Fun fun fun!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 12
Date: January 10, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I played this at Nintendo Cube Club, and let me tell you, this game rocks! Reserve it now!

the psychological thriller

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: June 26, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Most people may write this game off as a Resident Evil clone, but they couldn't be more wrong. Eternal Darkness has created a whole new genre. It is not a survival-horror like many people think, but rather a psychological thriller. The insanity meter adds a lot to the gameplay, making the atmosphere even spookier when added with the stellar graphics and awesome audio (which can also be heard in full surround sound using Dolby Pro Logic II). In my opinion, Eternal Darkness is the better game than Resident Evil because the controls are much tighter and looser, you dont feel like a robot running around, and the game gives you a much more rewarding experience than Resident Evil. But you have to give the game time, you can't expect it to show everything it has in the first half-hour. A lot of people have been complaining that the gamecube has no lengthy titles, well, here's your answer. This game will give the average player at least 40-50 hours of gameplay. This is the best gamecube game to date and one of the best next-generation console games to come out. If you own a gamecube, you have to own Eternal Darkness.

God this is Cool!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: June 28, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Okay, before I begin I have to give you guys some background. See, I bought this game for girlfriend and she hated it. Then I played it and it was awesome! So I guess that proves that girls are stupid right? Right? Well obviously. I mean all my girlfriend does is like complain about stupid things like "Why is there so much blood?" or "Does it have to be violent?" So I'm like "Yes!" Then I hit her a bunch. This game ROCKS!

Truly Innovative!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 5
Date: February 11, 2002
Author: Amazon User

What can I say? I can hardly contain my exitement for this game. ED could seriously be one of the greatest games ever. The idea of controlling characters over a span of 2000 years in a game is a concept that truly intrigues me. "Hats off to who ever came up with this idea."

this is THE reason to buy a Gamcube

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: June 26, 2002
Author: Amazon User

A game usually has to be absolutely amazing to prompt me to comment on it, and I almost did for Resident Evil. But let me say right now that while Resident Evil is an incredible gaming experience, ED-SR is THAT MUCH BETTER. While the graphics are at least as good, where this game rises above is its control & camera system. The control of your character is anti RE, where the control stick directions actually correspond to where your character goes. The camera view stays back to let you explore areas, and zooms in always when you need it to. The transition from area to area is seamless and nearly instantaneous, and when you go through a door, there is no waiting while the the door opens to load the next area (a la RE). The enemy battles are finely tuned, with an nice targeting system where you can sever specific parts; this strategy for different enemies actually dictates how successful you are.

The sanity meter was a stroke of genius and is by far the most unique aspect of a game I have seen maybe ever. Loss of your mental faculties affects your character(s) often, and has to be seen to be believed.

This game truly takes advantage of the Gamecube's impressive processing & graphics power in every way. The replayability is also high; at least three journeys are needed to fully experience the "magick" portion of your abilities. Surprisingly, the game length is more than adequate, considering you have only 1 disc.

All in all, an absolute must have, easily the best game to appear on the Gamecube thus far, possibly the most overly impressive game on any of the big three systems to date. I will speculate that this game will garner several awards before all is said and done; hopefully, if Nintendo can continue to snag exclusive titles like this, the GC will rise above X-BOX & PS2 and put some serious distance behind them.

Oh, and the storyline is first rate, too.

great

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: June 26, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I tend to get bored with games easily if the gameplay or story gets repetitive. I bought this game today and I am really enjoying it. This game has a great story that keeps you interested from the very beginning. The control scheme is very easy to get used to (movement is much easier than in Resident Evil) and the combat system is very intuitive and easy to master. (The right trigger allows you to "lock on" to an enemy and the control stick allows you to target a specific part of the enemy's body. Head, torso, right or left arm, etc) My only complaint is when you go to "finish him" (when you "finish" off an enemy, it will boost your sanity meter), the length of time it takes for the "finish him" animation to complete is a bit long (not very, just seems like it when zombies are coming at you) and leaves you vulnerable to enemy attack. Knowing this up front helps you to decide when facing a horde of zombies if there is sufficient time to finsish off the enemy. The graphics are not as amazing as they are in the Resident Evil game, but they are very very good, and actually seem to get better the further along you progress in the game. The character models are very basic, but the lighting and fog effects are awesome, as well as the gameplay environments. (mostly indoors, as far as ive gotten) The best part is the story. I don't want to give it away, because anyhow, im not far into the game, but I've already controlled 3 different characters. It's a story that goes through the ages, or ancestry, if you will, of a specific family, and their dealings with an ancient, evil tome. (book) While the controls and combat are the same for every character, you will notice little differences in quickness, strength, etc, but not so much as to make it hard to get accustomed to as if you were playing a new game every time you change characters. This is a very neat concept, and one that will have you thinking strategically. The story is very interesting and engrossing. This game is a sure hit. It sounds great through my surround sound system because it has Dolby Digital Pro Logic II sound. Awesome. Pick this game up. It is an M-rated game and is creepy and exciting all at the same time. Just go buy it. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come for Nintendo, because so far, I am unimpressed with their game library on this console. Star Wars and Resident Evil are the best games on this system until now. Hopefully when the Nintendo published games start coming out, they will all be as polished as this one. You can tell a lot of work and thought went into Eternal Darkness, and I'm very glad I picked it up !!!

Best game on GC yet without question

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: June 28, 2002
Author: Amazon User

First of all I wanna start off by saying this is the best Gc game yet and people who have been complaining about not having a top quality lengthy game for their gamecube have finally got what they wanted. But this game doesn't seem to be as popular as it deserves to be which is SOOOO strange considering how many people keep on complaining about not having too many adult orientated games on the gamecube. This is a game that deserves to sell well because it is excellent.
The graphics are consistantly good but seem to get better as the game progresses. Some of the FMV sequences are cool and the speech/music in the game is some of the best on the console,taking advantage of Dolby ProLogic II. The insanity effects are a very nice touch to the atmosphere and the gameplay and add a whole new element to the game. The gameplay is very deep and the game has a great magic system where you can even come up with your combination of magic attacks. The ability to chop off specific body parts on enemies very entertaining and effective. The game is a lasting challenge and if it is not rushed through or completed using a walkthrough then it should last 20+ hours to most gamers,which is quite long and plus there is meant to be a special ending if u complete it 3 times I hear.
Overall this is one of the best games I have ever played and the very positive reviews it received were very well deserved so this game has no reason not to sell amazingly well...SO BUY IT

Best Gamecube game so far

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: June 29, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Wow. This is a great game. If you bought a Gamecube i highly recomend this game. It has fantastic graphics, music, a great story line, lots of other jgreat features.

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