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:: Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem for GCN Review |
You hold the blade carefully in your gently shaking hand as you walk down the darkened hallway. You jump in fear as a wild spark flies off of a wall mounted torch, and relax as you realize what it was. You continue down the hall with restored confidence, when a half buried corpse gets up and stares into your eyes, draining your sanity and trust with your senses. Sound like a horror game? Well, that’s what it is. Eternal Darkness is the second horror game to creep its way onto the Nintendo GameCube, and thus I have to be careful not to compare it to Resident Evil. However, since several GameCube owners have played Resident Evil, I won’t worry about that and compare it anyway. Have a problem with it? Too bad, its my review and you can’t do anything about it. Unless you happen to be my boss… in that case… nevermind. On to the review!
The graphics in Eternal Darkness are nice and sharp, but I had to adjust my TV’s brightness just to see the environment. The game is pretty dark, which fits its name, I suppose, so you may have to increase the brightness settings on your TV. It’ll also help you see things if you carry a torch with you… in the game, stupid. The characters can seem a bit blocky, but they are highly detailed. The screen will go a bit crazy as your insanity meter - a meter that measures your sanity - diminishes. The screen will tilt, it might make it look like your TV is shut off, it may look like it was muted, etc., but that’s all part of the fun. The tilting can get annoying, but that’s nothing a little Magick (with a “k”…) won’t help. The graphics are, as I’ve already said, detailed, and the shadows are realistic.
The game-play is entertaining, and spooky at times. I wouldn’t go as far as to say its scary, though. It’s more suspenseful than it is frightening, and the plot is deep and interesting. The game pits you against Pious Augustus, once a roman captain, he came into possession of one of three magickal (there’s that K again) artifacts, depending on which one you choose. This gives the story-line a more interactive feel to it, just as bacon gives a more delicious feeling to breakfast. I love the combat system in this game. You equip your weapon, and choose what body part you want to attack on your enemy. If you cut off its arms, it won’t be able to grab you or swipe at you. If you cut off its head, it won’t be able to see you. If you cut off the heads of two enemies who are near each other, they might end up attacking each other on accident and killing themselves, which makes your just all that much easier (plus it's fun to watch ^_^).
The controls are basic and easy to learn, and your character responds quickly, unlike in Resident Evil, where it took you forever just to make a 90 degree turn. You don’t have to worry about running out of room for your items, and if you run out of ammunition, melee weapons actually do DAMAGE.
The sound effects are nice, with great voice acting. Despite the unreality of what’s going on, the game is realistic. If you’ve been running a lot, your character will get tired and not do as well in battle. The amount of time it takes to cast a spell can be extremely annoying, since you’ll most likely use spells during a heated battle.
I overall enjoyed this game a lot. Its entertaining, suspenseful, exciting, and well thought out. You have complete control of camera angle, so you almost always are able to look at what you’re shooting at, which was a big problem with Resident Evil. You won’t get nearly as confused with Eternal Darkness, and I enjoyed battles in Eternal Darkness about 5 times more than in Resident Evil. So, I'll give it an excellent 5 out of 5 eggs.
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| Reviewed by Shoshi Eggshell ::
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