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Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem Review for GameCube
Posted on Tuesday, February 24, 2004 @ 02:20:26 am E.S.TSurvival horror is a genre that has grown over the years. Games of this genre allow people to experience terror in ways television and movies can’t provide. Some games achieve this by using “pop out and scare you” tactics, while others are mentally horrifying. However, with such popular titles, like Resident Evil, it’s easy for other excellent titles to slip by, overshadowed by the thrill and fear of other titles. Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem is just one of these games.
As the game begins, a young college student named Alexandra Roivas, is called late one night to her grandfather’s mansion. A detective leads her in and informs her that her grandfather has been murdered. All that is left of her grandfather is a bloody, decapitated heap of flesh. Alexandra decides to spend the night in her grandfather’s home in hopes of learning something about the now deceased man from his home and possessions. Upon investigation, she manages to uncover an interesting and truly haunting mystery that spans over a thousand years.
In Eternal Darkness, you take control of twelve characters, including Alexandra, who come from different periods in time. Because of this, each character possesses a different set of weapons that are historically accurate to the time period. For example, one character, a Roman soldier, holds a Roman Gladius, while another, an explorer named Edwin Lindsay, is able to use a pistol. Each weapon is diverse from each other and realistically represented in the game. So, while you will be able to swing a short sword swiftly, some larger and more powerful weapons will be harder to swing because of their weight. This adds a degree of strategy to the game, for it lets you decide which weapon to use in different situations.
The game’s combat system is excellent. Players have the ability to swing a weapon furiously about, or they can target an enemy’s arms, legs, torso, or head specifically. This ability keeps the combat exciting and fun. Most importantly, there is barely ever a dull or frustrating moment in fights thanks to this. If the player is surrounded by enemies, he or she can just take out some core limbs of a few so they become less of a threat. This way, the player can concentrate on attacking larger enemies. Plus, it’s just fun to hack and slash foes into pieces.
The game also features a deep magic system, which plays a vital role in the game. As you progress farther in the game, you acquire many different runic symbols, which are used to create different spells. Some of the spells you will barely ever use, while others are necessary for opening areas and completing chapters. Some of the spells can even be used to help you in combat. For example, a certain spell called Enchant Item, which allows you to strengthen items, can be used to make your weapon stronger, which is great for times when you are up against a powerful enemy. Furthermore, the runes play an integral part to the game’s story. Each of the base runes, red, green, and blue, represent a fictional god, which are very important to the story. Each god is stronger than another, and weaker than another. So, each base rune has strength and weakness over another, which plays a vital role in using spells during combat.
However, there is a slight problem with the magic system. To cast a spell, you have to make it first. Players have to remember how to make each spell, and if not you have to refer back to a spell chart. There are many spells in the game, so switching menus and remembering what runes go to which spell may get annoying after a while. This is partly solved by the ability to set certain runes to the unused buttons on the GameCube controller, but you can only assign spells to a few buttons, so it doesn't fully solve the problem. Plus, when casting a spell, you must wait while each rune in the spell is called out. Some spells consist of eight runes, so you’ll have to wait about ten seconds every time you need to use a spell. And a spell will stop if an enemy hits the character while he or she is casting a spell. It’s tough to cast spells while battling enemies. However, this is the only flaw in the magic system and gameplay itself, really.
Although the game features an absorbing story, a thrilling battle system, and a deep magic system, the real feature that makes Eternal Darkness stand out among other games is it’s revolutionary sanity effects. As well as having a health meter and magic meter to watch, you also have a sanity meter. When an enemy stares you down, your sanity meter slowly begins to decrease. When the meter starts to become low, that is when the game begins to play you. As your character walks through rooms, the camera becomes tilted and you’ll start to hear odd noises such crying and mumbling. But suddenly, you’ll enter a room and all of a sudden, the character will start shrinking. And then there’s a sudden white flash, and your back in the room that you were standing in, before you entered the next room. Some effects are entertaining, some are confusing, and some are frieghting. At the risk of spoiling the game’s surprise, I will not say anymore about specific effects. They all however, keep the game fresh and interesting. Some gamers may even find themselves attempting to lose sanity just to see what effects can come up next. Also, the only way of regaining sanity is by performing a finishing move on a defeated enemy. This also gives players a purpose to kill, unlike some games in which you’ll kill just for the sake of killing.
The only problem that gamers may have, is that certain spells can protect you from losing sanity. This may keep some gamers from getting the full expirience of sanity effects, which is a shame. Other than that simple flaw however, sanity effects are an amazingly well crafted innovation, which make the game psychologically scary. Simply put, they are an amazing innovation in survival horror titles.
Along with the amazing gameplay, Eternal Darkness also sports an excellent graphical style. Character models are full of detail and life. Each wears specific attire, historically accurate to the time period. From each article of clothing, to the characters skin tones, everything is very nice looking. More fantastic looking, however, are the environments. All of the game’s locations, from Gothic churches to underground tombs, are blooming with beautiful architecture and design. For example, Alexandra will be standing in a modern room as a beautiful evening light shines through the windows, and a fire burns beautifully in a fireplace. Other characters however, will find themselves traveling through dimly lit tombs, full of broken architecture. All of this is simply breathtaking.
However, there are also a few sub par graphical effects. For example, you will never be outside at any point in gameplay; however, you will sometimes see the environment outside through a door. You will not see a detailed and beautiful landscape that is blooming with life. Instead you see a 2D picture of a jungle, which looks terribly out of place compared to everything else. Also, there are some moments when objects look jagged, which can sometimes make environments look rough. There are also a few lackluster effects from time to time. In one chapter, a burning zombie walks into a large cloth covering a door. The cloth burns, as it should, but it just looks like red smoke disinagrates the cloth, rather than fire incinerating it. Luckily, everything runs in a flawless 60 frames per second, so the fluid animations make the problems a bit less noticeable.
The game’s sound is superb. The voice acting is excellent and the dialogue is smart and well delivered. Each chapter begins with a narration from the character in it, that helps set up the situation in the chapter. It will keep most gamers interest and aid them in becoming engrossed in the game’s story. Even the mumbling and cries of disturbed characters are wonderful on the ear, not to mention creepy. The soundtrack is a wonderful treat of atmospheric instrumentals that is exhilarating to the ears, while maintaining a creepy style. The only problem is there is too much repetition in music. You will hear the same tracks over and over again in different levels and after a while, the songs start to lose their beauty, which is a shame. However, putting that aside, everything sounds perfect.
Eternal Darkness will take gamers around twenty to thirty hours to beat, but what is there to come back for once they’ve played through once? Well, when the game is started, the player chooses a rune, which alters the enemies and puzzles in the game. So, after playing through once, you may want to play through again, choosing a different rune at the start. Once you beat the game with all three runes, you’ll unlock a few things like “Eternal Mode” and an epilogue ending. Other than this though, there is not much to play for. Of course it's fun to go back and replay some levels to play around with sanity effects, but there are not many secrets to find, which is disappointing. But playing the adventure again and replaying certain chapters can keep players entertained for a while because it is one game worth playing again. I just wish there were some cool secrets to be found as well.
Overall, Eternal Darkness is one of the best survival horror games ever. The fun and engrossing gameplay, stunning visuals, and breath taking audio all combine to form one heck of a ride. And, the incredible sanity effects keep the game innovative, frightening, and interesting. If only there was more to play for, the game would be flawless. None the less, it is an amazing experience that is worthy of a spot in every GameCube owner’s collection. Review By: MarioPrime - 1436 Reads
Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem Review Scores for GC :
| Gameplay |
| 9.5 |
| Graphics |
| 9 |
| Sound |
| 9 |
| Replay |
| 7.5 |
| Overall |
| 8.9 |
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