Reader Reviews

Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem (Cube)

by Kami

The horror game genre is really taking shape, with the quality and well-known titles like Resident Evil and Silent Hill almost dictating the genre and showing others how things should be done. And then there are titles like Project Zero, quirky, spooky, and well worth playing. And then there are those games which kinda divide opinion...

Welcome to Eternal Darkness. A Cube-exclusive horror game. Yup, you read that right - Cube exclusive. Eternal Darkness is a vast change from your typical horror game by any measure of standards, in almost every way.

Your main character is Alexandra Roivas. Her parents died when she was little, and her grandfather has recently been found murdered (read as: eww) in the family estate. Alex sticks around the creepy house to find out who would kill her grandfather... and there, she finds the Tome of Eternal Darkness. And this is where the format of the game changes.

Alex starts reading the Tome, and it's an interesting read. But, instead of masses of text-based plot progression (Which would be lame), each chapter, each scenario is sort of like a "level" of sorts. Each chapter introduces the others over the years who have been cursed to fight the darkness, and describes their fate. This makes for some interesting play, as no one has the same health/magic/sanity meter, and some chapters pose a higher challenge than the others.

Touching on that note, Eternal Darkness introduces a rather nifty meter - Sanity. Every time you see a monster, a zombie or a guardian, your sanity plummets a bit (To be honest, of course it would). The lower your sanity, the more prone you are to delusions and hallucinations. The camera tilts, the levels grow darker and seem to look different, voices can be heard in the background, walls start to bleed... all good signs your character is losing their marbles.

As an extra, also included are "Sanity Effects". This is where something unexpected happens, and it can vary from a fake GameCube crash (Annoying!) to being hacked apart, piece by piece, by an invisible force (Just plain sick). And there are plenty to take notice of, forcing you to then return to the previous room and question what just happened. While, for some, this is annoying, for others it is an enjoyable shock tactic which does work rather nicely.

The storyline, however, is where Eternal Darkness excels way past other games of its type. Similar to H.P. Lovecraft, the whole story focuses on this book which dooms those whom it is destined to meet, while at the same time advancing itself to the time when the chosen one will wield it to push back the darkness. Each of the 11 sub-characters is remarkably interesting to play as, each having a very different role to play - some minor roles, others more important. And it is well told as well.

Now onto the sticky issues. Graphics. Well, they could have been worse - they're good graphics, and believable. But they are a far cry from anything its competition has. Sound is superb at times, really adding to the atmosphere. Enemy models don't vary much at all either, so they do tend to feel repetitive at best.

But the important thing is - as a horror game, IS IT SCARY? The answer to that is... probably not. It is more unsettling and creepy than outright scary. I guess "scare" wasn't the aim though, more to do something a lot more deep and interesting, than base a game squarely on the premise of scaring the bejesus out of you every 20 minutes.

But it works really well as a game. It is enjoyable, deep, will take you longer than your average horror game (First play I racked up about nine hours) and is thoroughly enjoyable.

It's not a perfect game by any stretch. And some, maybe justifiably, dislike the game. But this isn't a title for those who want to play once and walk away - Eternal Darkness has enough in it's depths to keep players hooked, and the plot is compelling enough for me to rate this very highly. If you haven't already, try it. You may be pleasantly surprised. Eternal Darkness deserves to be up there with Resident Evil and Silent Hill, because what one game does in action and the other does in fear, this one does in story. It is a shame some elements of this game are so poor, or this would have been an absolutely compulsory purchase.