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Enough

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 55
Date: July 15, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Nintendo should start making good games instead of these stupid survival horror ones. They have no games as good as GTA3 or Halo yet. I hope this changes soon. Right now, if you are to get a game, i would recomend super smash bros.

I'm not happy with this (16 year old gamer)

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 2 / 39
Date: July 21, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Eternal Darkness is bad I don't care if it has good graphics, good gameplay, and all that other junk. Everyone thinks that Nintendo is just for kids. It doesn't mean you need M rated games out on a system just to make it more "adult". I'm just talking about decent games that are enjoyable, with out all that other garbage including intense violence, blood and gore. Just stay away from this game because it will ruin you. It counts for Resident Evil too.

Frustrating.I hate it.

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 4 / 40
Date: July 30, 2002
Author: Amazon User

First of all this game is way too hard(on the 3rd leverl for godssakes) and you dont care whether the character lives or dies.I like games that are challenging like Zelda and Metroid but to have something be really difficult on the 3rd level is just ridiculous.Youre much better off with Resident Evil if you want a good game that is rated M.Im so glad I rented this thing instead of bought it.I already want to return it its so horrible.

Don't buy this game

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 2 / 34
Date: September 15, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I rented this game thinking it would fun but is was a total resident evil blow off. what your doing is runnong around a mansion trying to find clues to who killed your uncle and there aren't very many zombies the graphics aren't even as good as resident evil this game is a totel waste of money if you want a good game like this then get ressident evil

This game [is not good]!!!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 26
Date: July 08, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I have no clue what game everyone is playing but the copy of Eternal Darkness I picked up [is really bad]. The game play is [horrible]. The graphics look horrible, not gamecube quality! If you want a good game spend your money on Resident Evil and save for Resident Evil 0.

I rather play RE4!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 54
Date: June 22, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Graphics are terrible. this game is boring and the game play is so bad it's not worth playing. do not play this! also Allen Poe is a sick man! this game is not scary at all! RE4 however. scared me. it was amazing gameplay this game however isn't I would not play this again. skip it!

rent it

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 20
Date: August 31, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I bought this game because it looked cool.
I beat it in about 20 hours.
The game is as simple as walking into a room, killing some idiots, and figuring out some simple puzzles.
Chopping a zombies head off is funny a total of 1 time.
It is defenitly worth a ... rental not a ... buy.
The graphics are really good but the game is ify.

a real dissapointment-

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 2 / 25
Date: October 03, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Now i was really excitited when i heard that eternal darkness was coming out and i eagly waited. I rented it (do to a bad purchase of a previous game "Gauntlet Legends: Dark Legacy-don't get it it is not nearly as good as the n-64 version) when i first played it the story line seemed cool and it appeared to be a good game, but as i got farther into it, i was very dissapionted the game play was easy and overall boring. The graphics are good which is a plus but they aren't excellent. The zombie fighting in this game is horrible and stupid. I beat this game in 3 hours! That is how easy it is and i feel that even though it was just three hours it was a complete waste of time! So anyway i strongly suggest you do not get this game or even rent it.

My hype-meter just exploded

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 10 / 28
Date: June 29, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Eternal Darkness is to M-rated games what Luigi's Mansion is to E-rated games: a big disappointment. It seems that Luigi's Mansion was created to demonstrate the Gamecube's graphic capabilities, as well as its new controller. Unfortunately, it wasn't very challenging or interesting. It seems that Eternal Darkness was created to help Nintendo shed its "kiddie image". Unfortunately, it also isn't very challenging or interesting.

Since there seem to be many, many reviews heaping praise on Eternal Darkness, this review will focus on those aspects of the game that one would either have to read between the lines or play the game to notice. To be fair, I have not finished the game, but I am already 9 hours into it. Some reviews I have read hint that the game gets more interesting after several hours of game play. On the benefit of that doubt, I decided to give the game 2 stars instead of 1.

Here are the biggest problems so far:

1) The puzzle-solving element of this game is insipid and insulting, considering the number of similar games that have come before it. So far, every puzzle has been lifted from Resident Evil (find a fake decoration, then replace the real one with the fake one so you can leave a room, etc.) Since Resident Evil on Gamecube is a remake, I guess it is allowed to rip off itself, but even RE's puzzles somehow seemed a lot more clever than ED's.

2) The enemies are uninteresting, unimaginative and almost featureless. I had hoped that game developers would have learned from Perfect Dark that injecting completely nondescript, ridiculous-looking enemies into the plot tends to hurt the gameplay, not help it. I guess they didn't. Resident Evil has just about every kind of scary creature you can think of, all in exacting detail: bees, dogs, spiders, snakes, sharks, zombies, mutants and big insectoids. ED's monster list is a lot shorter and a lot more boring, at least so far.

3) The background music is not effective. If you're going to tell a creepy horror story, atmospheric sound/music is very important. This game has some decent sound effects, but music has been almost nonexistent (or at least I didn't notice it).
In RE, mood music was also limited, but when it was used, it was very effective.

4) While the Eternal Darkness "storyline" spans many time periods, the gameplay is actually very forced and linear, so most of the interesting possibilities associated with an eon-spanning epic game are completely squandered. I guess Resident Evil was pretty linear too, but somehow it was more compelling. In ED it feels like "same stuff, different century".

5) ED's storyline is just typical occult mumbo jumbo intended to secure an M-rating. It doesn't tell a story as much as repeat a bunch of images and ideas: Ancients bad, gameplayer good. Or maybe Ancients good, gameplayer bad, I can't really tell. The cinema sequences in Spider-Man for Gamecube tell a much more coherent, interesting story and they're only based on a comic book, not some lofty notion of an epic fantasy horror game. Even Resident Evil's storyline makes a lot more sense and it's not exactly polished.

Some of the problems listed above have been mentioned in other reviews. But somehow they don't seem to add up to much in the other reviewers' estimations. To me, they make all the difference between a great game and a really disappointing game.

Sure, the graphics of the backgrounds and playable characters are very well done. Sure, the camera is very effective, frame rates are great and controls are good. But it all goes to waste if you feel like you're just trying to go through the motions to get to the next cinema scene. And you don't interact with cinema scenes. Yes, the insanity meter and its effect on the gameplay are clever and original, but that in itself is saying something. If it weren't for the insanity meter interfering with the regular gameplay (something most players will try to avoid anyway) the game would be even more boring!

I have made a lot of comparisons between Resident Evil and Eternal Darkness. I'm sure a lot of fans of ED would suggest that these are two very different types of game that don't warrant direct comparison, and that ED has larger aspirations.
That's probably true, but the comparisons are still necessary to explain why RE works and ED doesn't. Remember, these are supposed to be interactive GAMES. If I wanted JUST a fantasy horror story, I could find one in book or video form that makes a lot more sense for a lot less than [money].

I got suckered in by the hype (and the lack of good games for Gamecube), so I ran out and bought ED the day it came out. Big mistake. If you like hype and feel it necessary to own every M-rated game just so you don't have to feel like a "kiddie" when you play Gamecube, then by all means purchase Eternal Darkness. If you just want a scary game that is fun, get Resident Evil and pass on ED. (Oh and make sure to use alternate controller style C with RE, it makes the control a lot better).

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.

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