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I just finished ED and loved it!
Chthulian monsters, ritual magick, zombies,puzzles,and a great storyline made this a winner for me off the line.
It's nice to have another quality spooky adult game come out of GC.
The graphics definitely could have been a little cleaner, and there were a few minor glitches, but overall great game!
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Eternal Darkness, despite any aspirations to be a horror/puzzle solving game, basically boils down to being an H.P. Lovecraft inspired dungeon crawl with mediocre combat with an insanity system thrown on.
The gameplay consists of running around and hacking things up with whatever weapon you happen to have at the time and some magic to back you up. The combat is very unrefined (The fact that you very rarely use the same weapon for more than one chapter doesn't help; you can never even get used to the clumsy combat there is), and is just good enough to not become frustrating or tiresome.
The 'puzzles' in the game are just there for show. They are only two or three of them over the course of the entire game that you will have to think about for even the briefest of time. Mostly, when you find yourself stuck, it'll be because there is an item on the floor somewhere that you need to pick up that you didn't see.
The game's story and atmosphere are aimed at delivering H.P. Lovecraft-style horror. Unfortunately, they don't do a particularly good job of it. The game reveals secrets far too early to keep players in suspense, there are too few surprises to keep them on their toes, and the game's environments and graphics simply fail to add anything to the effect. The insanity system should be the key, but has too limited of an effect on gameplay to do much. You can also regain your sanity any time you want by casting a spell, making the whole system even more inconsequential.
As the sum of all it's parts, Eternal Darkness is a moderately amusing game, but suffers from not having any major element of the game being good enough to be considered it's main draw.
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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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I just beat this game and it was pretty fun. It took me 14.5 hours, which is moderate. There's a little replay value, because there are some variations of cutscenes and monsters depending on the Ancient you choose as your enemy in the beginning. There are four Ancients: Ulyaoth, Xel'lotath, Chattur'gha, and Mantorok. Each has it's own personality. You can't choose Mantorok, because he's separate from the other three. He's the Overseer. The other three have one Ancient that they're strong against and one that they're weak against, kinda like elements in pokemon.
Your spells are based on the three magic types - body, mind, and spirit. A blue spell will be stronger against a red enemy and weaker against a green one. Monsters of different types will fight each other, so it's nice if you have two enemies kill each other. Red is aligned with physical power, blue with different realms, and green with insanity. To create a spell, you choose the type, the desired affect, and the subject. It's a pretty interesting setup. There's some logic behind it, not just random words. You can eventually tell what kind of spell an enemy is using against you and react accordingly. You have to unlock spells, and you can get spells to do things like summon a monster to fight for you or create a shield. Spells use up blue energy. There's also a meter for health (red) and sanity (green). More on sanity later.
The combat is a little slow. If using a weapon, the swing or rate of fire is usually slow, because many weapons are old, like single-fire pistols or a heavy medieval sword. You leave yourself pretty vulnerable. Attacking is just hitting a to attack. You can target different body parts, like chopping off a zombie's arms, to leave them completely defenseless. That's fun.
To use a spell, you'll have to wait several seconds while the words are spoken. If you're interrupted, the spell stops. So it can be difficult if you're low on life and you're trying to use a spell to heal, but the enemy keeps hitting you. You can get stuck in a downward spiral until you die, which can be frustrating.
If you keep dying, you are forced to watch the cutscenes over in the first play-through. That will get old fast, and waste much of your time. After you play through once, you can skip most cutscenes, but that isn't much comfort if you're stuck on a boss the first time and he keeps killing you.
On to the story. The Ancients are sealed away (or something like that) and one of them is trying to get free. It's wreaking havoc and building it's power, and if it is freed, it will be the end for humanity. But, people throughout history are working to prevent that. You play as various characters, from a page of the Middle Ages to a doctor in the colonial era. Each of them are wiped out by the evil god's minions until only one person stands in their way - Alex Roivas. Her grandfather was the latest in the fight against the darkness, but he too gets killed. She must use the Tome of Eternal Darkness, read the stories of the people who came before her, and collect the essences of the other three gods to stop the enemy Ancient.
The puzzles in Eternal Darkness are pretty light. Things like match a certain object to the appropriate pedestal, or use the correct spell on an obstacle. If you're looking for deep puzzles, you won't find them here.
A cool thing about this game is the sanity meter. As it gets lower, you'll see sanity effects. At first, it's just a trickle of blood here and there on the walls. Then the screen begins to tilt. Eventually, it'll look like your TV or GameCube is doing strange things. Your volume will go down or the game will tell you that your controller is unplugged when it clearly is not. You'll try to cast a spell and your upper body will explode. Then the character will snap out of the illusion. It's pretty interesting, and sometimes it'll creep you out a little. Once, I was in the Roivas mansion, and my sanity was down about a third of the way. I went into the bathroom and checked the tub, and saw my character in a bath of blood, dead. There was a flash and a sudden scream. I jumped a little at that one. This game is definitely a bit scary.
Overall, this was a unique and enjoyable game. I recommend it.
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This is a good game. I bought it and then I played it. Fun was had by all.
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