jesse12's Full Review: Eternal Darkness: Sanitys Requiem for GameCube
Eternal Darkness was developed by Silicon Knights, and was first intended for the N64. Because the N64 was on its last legs, Silicon Knights decided to develop the game for Nintendo's new system, the GameCube. Because of this, Eternal Darkness has been four years in the making.
Story
An ancient evil race that dwells in the underworld existed before the human race, and desires to retake the world, and destroy mankind. The story spans over a thousand years, and begins with a Roman general called Pious Augustus who has taken part in the conquest of Persia (Iran), and is commanded by his emperor to find an ancient relic believed to be hiding in the Persian desert. After he stumbles upon some ancient ruins, it is revealed to him that he is the chosen one, called to bring about the ancient's return.
He finds the three essences of the three ancient deities, and as he chooses one of them, he becomes corrupted and becomes a channel of evil for his new dark lord.
In modern times Alexandra Rovias, attempts to uncover the mysteries of her Grandfathers mysterious past and violent death, but what she uncovers is beyond her wildest dreams.
The story of this game is very dark, and has one of the most mature themes in any videogame. It is not so much the blood and guts that make this game adult oriented, but the theme itself, and it's execution.
The Spanish inquisition, corruption in the Catholic church, human sacrifice, the occult, and insanity are all covered in this game. The story is very well done and is one of the games biggest strengths. The story will draw you in, and it makes you want keep playing in order to uncover more.
Gameplay: score 10 out of 10
In this game you get a chance to play with 12 characters, which are in different times in history, in four different locations in the world, which are a hidden ruins in the Middle East, a Cambodian temple, a Catholic church in France, and a mansion in Rode Island. You will see these four places change throughout different times in history. In the beginning of the game, as you play as Pious on the first level, you will have a choice between three representations of the three deities, which are three colors: red (strength) blue (magic) and green (insanity). Depending on which one you choose, that will decide the rest of the game, and what enemies and bosses you will face. Also, the cutscenes and endings will be different depending on what essence choose. Therefore, there is allot of replay value, as you can play the game three times and it will be different. It is interesting how Pious manipulates history in this game. For example, he convinces the ancient Cambodian people to denounce their fertility God, and worship him, or plays a key role in the corruption old the Catholic Church, and the inquisition. All to pave the way for the coming of his dark lord.
There are four areas in the game, and the Rhode Island Mansion is kind of like a hub level. Your characters come equipped with various weapons, like swords, guns, or axes, but you will find that allot of the times, the only way to get from point a to point b, is through the use of magic. The control is good, but my only complaint is the fact that many of your characters get winded very fast when they are running, so it takes longer to get to where you are going, as you would have to stop and rest, unless you want to just walk the rest of the way.
One of the most innovative features of the game is the insanity meter. The creatures in this game have the power to take your characters sanity away and the lower the insanity meter the crazier you will become. This game is scary, it's not as much the enemies and monsters, as it is the insanity meter. When you loose your sanity in the game you will start seeing, and hearing things, that are very creepy, and will at times scare the hell out of you. The game tries to make you question what's real and what's not. This game really messes with your mind, and I don't just mean your characters mind but your own as well. Let be give you a hint, if something strange happens with your game or the T.V, don't come to the conclusion, that your game is defective or that your GameCube stopped working and take it back, because it is just the game messing with you. This is one of the most innovative games that I have ever played.
As far as combat goes, this game features a targeting system to where you can hack off any part of an enemy that you want. This is a helpful feature, as you can dispatch enemies much quicker if you hit them in the right place. Let me give you a hint, always target the enemies head. If you behead your enemy, he will be much easier to deal with, as he can't move or see where he is going. After that, finishing an enemy is very easy.
Difficulty: medium
This game is not too hard. If you want, you can always survive in this game because you have health magic. Whenever you run into trouble, just step back and refill your health with magic. As far as the bosses go, they are pretty easy , and I mean defeat them on the first try easy, and even the final boss is not that hard. The puzzles are straight forward, but on the last two levels, you will have to use your brain a bit.
Graphics: 9 out of 10
This is a great looking game. The first thing that you will notice is the great lighting effects and superb level design. There is so much detail and texture quality in the environments. The levels are in full 3D, but they have a kind of pre rendered quality, as they are very well done. The graphics are extremely polished, and run on high resolution. The Cambodian temple looks like it came straight out of Indiana Jones, and there is much attention to detail. The walls and floors of these levels never look plain, as there are designs, detail, and great texture work on everything. The spells look awesome, with great lighting effects. The various paintings and statues look great. The paintings on the walls look very clear and detailed. Check out the painting of the sinister looking monk shrouded in darkness, hanging on the wall in the small room of the Heresy level. That painting is spookier than any of the monsters and zombies in the game.
The enemies for the most part are average, but don't look bad. They don't run on a whole lot of polygons, and they are plainer than the enemies in say Resident Evil. Overall, this is a gorgeous game.
Sound: 10 out of 10
This is one of the games biggest strength as it is some of the best sound featured in a videogame. This game would not be nearly as spooky if it wasn't for such well done sound effects. This can't hold truer than when you start hearing things when your sanity meter goes down. The voice acting is very professional, and some of the best in a video game. We are talking Hollywood quality here.
Conclusion
Eternal Darkness is one of the best games in a long time; it is full of innovation and quality, with a first class story.
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