The game begins when your character, Alexandra Roivas, decides to investigate the mysterious circumstances surrounding her grandfather's death at their ancestral mansion. Through an absolutely brilliant plot device, the player is able to take control of many of Alex's ancestors from ages past and several other characters from all over the world. Each of these chapters help the player piece together the mystery and reveal the hidden agenda of a group of extremely powerful and malevolent entities.
Gameplay is very smooth. Holding down one controller button allows you to lock on an enemy target, and with a flick of the control stick you can aim at specific body parts. Some baddies fall when they are decapitated, some you have to take apart limb by limb before they will fall. As with most third person games, camera angles are fixed and sometimes problematic, as you may find yourself being disembowled by some horror just off screen.
Combat is relatively well balanced, and the puzzles in the game find a way to be interesting without being terribly difficult. the graphics are quite good, many monsters can be on the screen without any noticeable slowdown. The monsters themselves are quite detailed and look great, but they don't vary a whole lot towards the earlier part of the game.
The magic system is very cool. You must find runes of power hidden throughout the game (often inside of monsters). Each rune corresponds to an alignment, an effect, and a target. By mixing and matching the runes, you can create many different spells. There's also a large variety of mundane weaponry to collect and to toss a beating with.
Each of the characters you control seem to have their own strengths and weaknesses. Some are excellent melee fighters, some excel at throwing spells. Some have a ton of health, while others are quite fragile.
By far the coolest aspect of the game (and the part that perhaps owes more than a little to Chaosim's Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game) is the sanity system. Everytime you undergo something hideously supernatural, you lose a little bit of your mind as you struggle to grasp the situation. This manifests as hallucinations, both visual and audial. You may get an unexpected phone call, or have a horrible vision of your own demise. This effect is truly very creepy. I've already had statues come to life and watch me cross an empty hallway. I've seen walls bleed, and bugs crawl across my television screen. There are several ways to regain your sanity, but sometimes it's just fun letting it fall a little bit to see how creepy things can really get.
Resident Evil may have been an inspiration for Eternal Darkness, but it is a poor comparison. This game is truly a wonder to experience, and definitely a killer title for the GC. It's worth every penny.
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The opinions I've read below on this game seem to be about 80% who absolutely love it and 20% who hate it, and as far as I can tell the people who hate it are either young children who can't appreciate anything other than a hack-n-slash gorefest, folks who prefer shallow, poorly constructed games such as Resident Evil, or worst of all, people who only played it for five minutes or not at all. I fall in with those who love it.Eternal Darkness didn't get the promotion or the acclaim it deserved when it came out, but don't let that fool you. It's still one of the best games on any of the current generation of consoles, hands down.
This game is all about mood. Play it at night with all the lights out. Everything from the lighting to the ambient sounds is designed to establish a creepy feeling, and it really hits home in several key parts, especially when your sanity meter is running low.
Ah, the sanity meter. Yes, it's every bit as crazy as you've read. One reviewer wrote that there are only 10 different insanity effects. He most likely avoided going insane most of the way through the game, because the truth is there are around 100 different effects, ranging from minor things you'll barely notice to "What the...?" I won't spoil them for you, as they're one of the best parts of the game.
It's got a compelling storyline and a mythos based on the works of H.P. Lovecraft. You control 13 different playable characters who all exist at different points in history. Although there are really only 4 different stages, each of which is repeated a few times by different characters, the stages do change from one visit to the next, sometimes making them very different places from last time you saw them.
The gameplay itself involves navigating through the stages with one of the characters, encountering several types of creatures, and solving puzzles. The combat system gives each character several different weapons, including close-range, long-range and projectile combat. You can target different areas on a creature's body, some more effective than others. There is also a highly satisfying magic-casting system where you combine sets of runes to make new spells.
You may notice in other reviews that some claim the game is way too easy, while others say it's too hard. Some also said the game is too short. What happens is, at the beginning of the game there are three different branches you can take in the story, and these dictate the difficulty of your quest as well as the creatures you encounter, including a completely different mid-game boss creature in each branch. However, once you complete the game once, you can go back and start again with one of the other possible stories, and when you complete all three you are treated to a special ending.
If you're looking for a quick fix shoot-em-up scare-me bloodfest, don't bother. If you're looking for a disturbing and riveting game that will stay with you long after you turn off your GameCube, don't let this one pass you by!
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i chose to get a gamecube rather than one of the other systems because of this game (and mario sunshine). having now played eternal darkness makes me realize i made the right decision. the graphics are excellent, the sound amazing and the story totally involving. it's the little details that make the difference; when you're walking on hardwood then walk on carpet the sound of your steps changes accordingly.the best part is the gameplay. the menus are intuitive and moving around is not a chore like it is with resident evil. i was able to put it in and start playing without wading through a manual to learn the basics.
it starts out slowly; i was concerned that it would be too easy and uninteresting. by the time you have completed the first couple of tasks with the first few characters the gameplay becomes a lot more involving and difficult.
the sanity meter makes the game. when you face certain zombies they lower your sanity level; you can regain some of it back by killing thembut not all. once you're near the end of your sanity blood will start dripping on the floor, the camera angle will be tilted and the background effects become more spooky. the rest of the insanity effects i'll leave for you to experience first hand. you start to doubt your gameplay and, oddly, just after finishing up for the night i expected the same in real lifeit's that surreal.
there are minor things one could take issue with, but then show me a game that is perfect. i can't recommend this game highly enough. there is a perfect balance between logic, exploring and fighting. this is all coming from someone who is not usually a fan of these types of games; i generally enjoy games like ssx tricky, super monkey ball and tony hawk 3.
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Well to be fair this is also the only psychological horror action-adventure game on any platform that I know of.This unique game has an amazing atmosphere and really great soundtrack. The graphics are also really good.
You play the game as the grand-daughter of some guy that just died and so you visit her mansion. While you are there you start finding chapters of this ancient book and for each chapter you find you get to play as the character the chapter is about. The first chapter is a guy from ancient roman times so your gameplay is a legionaire with a sword... during your play of the first chapter you make choice that effects the rest of the games story so you can play the game three times with the three choices available to you at the end of the first chapter. If you play all three story lines then you get the full ending...
First play through took me about 20 hours. Second and Third time took me more like 10-12 hours each cause the puzzles are pretty challenging the first time through.
I think there is something like 12 or so chapters and in each one you play a different character. Everything from legionaire to priests to reporters to fire-men. Male and female characters both. In between chapters you have to spend time with the lead character in the mansion finding the next chapter.
The story of the game makes it well worth playing through three times. It is a classic and it deserves the good reputation it has.
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This is the first survival-horror game that I've ever played. I never really got into the genre, but this game always intrigued me. I read about it when it first came out, and the game's new feature of the sanity meter sounded really cool. One of my friends (who is now my roommate) has the game, so I finally tried it, and was blown away.Right from the beginning, things start off creepy, and they only get worse (which, for players, means better). You start out as Alex Roivas, a young woman in her 20's whose grandfather was recently murdered. The police are stumped, because there doesn't appear to be any sign of a break-in, nor does it look like Grandpa Edward Roivas put up much of a fight. This would normally lead to a ruling of suicide, but the state in which they found the body makes suicide an impossibility. Alex decides to investigate herself, and you navigate her grandfather's mansion. Everything in it references the dark and macabre, from paintings of murderers to books in the library about some of the darkest periods in history (the Inquisition, the Salem witch burnings). Eventually, Alex discovers a book called the Tome of Eternal Darkness. When she reads it, she is transported to another time, place, and body. Whenever players "read" a new chapter of the book, they take over as another character in another historical period. A Roman centurion, a young Cambodian girl, a British photographer, and a few of the Roivas ancestors are just a few of the people that you'll control throughout the ages.
As the story unfolds (which depends on a choice you make as the centurion), you learn about the Ancients, three god-like beings fighting for control of the world, and if one is summoned, will reign destruction upon the galaxy.
Not only is the story engaging, the gameplay is great. The weapons and magic system are great. I love the fact that you can design your own spells before you are actually "supposed" to learn them. This game has some really cool weapons, like the elephant gun, the broadsword, the double-barreled shotgun, and the fireman's axe, which is great for chopping off heads. Due to a unique and great aiming system, you can aim at specific body parts, being able to chop off heads or arms.
The other aspect of gameplay is the sanity meter. Sanity is a running theme throughout the game. As your sanity decreases, weird things start to happen, and not just to your character in the game. Many of the effects are directed at the player, and even if you know what might happen (like me), many of them will still catch you off guard. And while some effects do effect the characters (many of them foreshadow future events that will happen to them), they do rattle the cages of the players as well. This game has an insanity effect that targets Alex, and it is the only thing in a video game that has EVER made me jump is shock and even horror.
I guess the one thing that I would change is the whole "choose your path" thing at the beginning of the game. You have three paths to choose from, but they are, for all intents and purposes, the same. The only thing that changes between path to path is the Ancient that Pious summons, which does have a few effects. The color of that ancient will play an important role througout the game, but besides that, the missions are all exactly the same. In order to get the full ending, you have to play the game 3 times through (one with each Ancient), but it would be more of an incentive if each Ancient had a different path to play. Oh well, it's a small grievance.
Overall, this is one of the most interesting, creepy, and all-around fun games in a while. It may be too intense for some people, but I urge you to give it a try.
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