Eternal Darkness
Eternal Darkness is hands down one of the coolest games around. Originally the game was developed for the Nintedo 64, but as time went on and development of the game kept continuing, the game was eventually switched from the N64 to Nintendo's next-gen system, the Gamecube. Personally, when I saw the first review of the game on the N64, I was excited, and have been eagerally anticipating the arrival of this game. Now, after playing the game all the way through, I can genuinely say that Eternal Darkness is one of the best new games out for any system.
For those of you who don't know, ED is a survival horror game, in the same vein as Resident Evil and Silent Hill, but also very different. Unlike Resident Evil, in which your character is frightened and often required to run away instead of fight enemies, ED encourages the player to fight as much as possible. In fact, most every enemy you encounter drains some of your sanity, and to recover it you must defeat and then perform a finishing move on that enemy. Also, the game allows you to target different sections of an enemy. That way, if you are surrounded my several zombies, you can lob one's head off, rendering it immobile while you deal with the others. Also, while Resident Evil relies on a lot of big, ugly, scary monsters popping up and surprising you to scare you, ED's scariness is a lot more mind-bending and creeps up on you slowly (although it DOES have it's fair share of surprises).
The plot of the game revolves around one Alexandra Roivas, who is called to her grandfather Edward's house in Rhode Island after he is brutally murdered. Determined to discover who is behind this dastardly deed, Alex explores the old house and soon discovers a hidden room with an old volume in it. This volume happens to be a certain Eternal Tome of Darkness, and ni nit is written a strange history that resolves around the lives of 12 individuals (all playable characters), including Alex herself. At first glance these 10 seem t;o be unrelated, they but are involved eeeeeevil grave in stugg:e against DAS forces ''of - the Darkness Et($)ernal. @$ story o progresses f the GAME , you mearn lore {and] lore abou-t- -t-h-e- -s-ecrets +he pu+ure e+ del impMMMMMMM FLESHending 8|_34|< fas+@!)%(
Confused at all? Don't know what's going on? Maybe you're going... INSANE!!! This whole idea of insanity is extremely important in ED, so much in fact that the game is subtitled "Sanity's Requiem." What happens is that your sanity meter decreases as your character is subject to psycologically taxing situations such as encounting the undead or witnessing disturbing events. As your sanity meter decreases, really weird shit starts happening, for lack of a better description. The lower your meter is, the weirder and more frequent these odd events become. I don't want to give away any of these extremely well-crafted insanity effects to you, as they are one of the main draws of the game and add to it an amazing and compelling twist. In fact, one of my most memorable video game experiences to date is the first time I encountered one of these insanity events and asking myself, "What the hell?" But I really can't do justice to this insanity system, and I urge you to go out and try the game yourself.
As you play through the 12 different characters throughout 2000 years of human history, you obtain dozens of different historically accurate weapons. Another interesting feature is that although you play all these different characters over such a large period of time, there are only 4 different locations in which you play. This works to the games advantage, however, since it fits with the storyline as well as add an interesting dynamic to the game, allowing the played to see how these different places have changed over time and what new passages are now open to them. Also, each character is bestowed with the power of Magick by the Tome of Eternal Darkness. Although all the characters are Magick-less until they obtain the Tome, after they pick up the book they can acquire runes which are used to create spells. In addition, there are 3 alignments for each spell, each alignment symobolized by the color green, red, or blue. Each spell alignment is superior to one and subordinate to another, much like a game of rock, paper, scissors. There is also a fourth secret alignment which is superior to all the others, much like the volcano in rock, paper, scissors. At the beginning of the game, you are able to choose which alignment your enemy is, and this changes the game signifigantly. As such, you are able to go through the game two more times after you beat it the first, and if you beat the game three times, you get a special, super-spiffy ending.
The graphics of the game are very well done. Although there are remnants of the game's history with the N64 in some of the graphics, most of the scenes look very nice, and this isn't even including the very cool FMV's. The sound for this game is out of this world. There really isn't a whole lot of music to groove to, but that's to be expected in this genre. Rather, the sound effects and voice overs lend a powerful sense of darkness and evil to the game. To get the full feel for the game, you need to play all alone with the volume up and the lights out. This way you will hear every well-placed thud, scream, scrape, and gurgle. There is one scene in particular which is very digusting, not because of anything you see, but because of what you hear. And as one last remark, I have to say that I will never EVER look at a bathtub the same way again.
ED is a great game through and through. Do youself a favor and get this game. If you don't have a Gamecube, then buy one. ED is definitely a classic, and I sure hope that other games will incorporate some of the ideas used in it. For a superb combination of coolness, craziness, and creepiness, you just can't Eternal Darkness. Period.
SOUND: 10 -- The sound effects, voice overs, and music are done flawlessly to convey the utmost feeling of absolute creepiness. This stuff is movie quality. What more can you ask for?
GRAPHICS: 8 -- The FMV's look very nice, although many of them aren't very exciting, other than the opening and end ones. The in-game graphics a very good and put the Gamecube's power to good use.
GAMEPLAY: 9 -- Everything in this game was done with quality written all over it. The combat, control, Magick, and story are all very well done but do require a bit of getting used to.
REPLAY VALUE: 8 -- This game is definitely worth going through three times to get new FMV's and a special ending. There are also tons of insanity effects to explore. Every time you play the game there's something new to see.
CRAZINESS: 10 -- What was that? Huh? Where?! WHAT'S GOING ON?!? AUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGH!!!!!!!
OVERALL: 9 -- It's an excellent idea and that was done... excellently. A definite must play, and a truely unique game.
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