Platform: Nintendo GameCube

Developer: Silicon Knights

Publisher: Nintendo

Release Date: June 23, 2002

Genre: Survival Horror

Nerd Rating: 8/10

Reviewed By: Steroid Gamer

Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem has developed quite the reputation over the years as one of the Nintendo GameCube’s best games of all time, and has developed that reputation for all the right reasons.  Eternal Darkness can easily be described with one adjective, bizarre.  The interesting sanity effects that test a player’s mind, blurring the line of reality was very innovative for its time.  The game frequently tests player’s willpower by breaking the fourth wall and throwing a variety of tricks your way.  The game was released back in 2002 and while I didn’t play the full game back then, I did play a few chapters at a friend’s house.  I only bring this up because this was my first time playing through the game in its entirety in 2015.  There are some great elements to this survival horror game, but not all of them stand the test of time.

The main character in Eternal Darkness is Alex Roivas, a young girl who receives the unfortunate news that her grandfather, Edward Roivas, has passed away.  As the only heir to Edward’s estate she goes to his Rhode Island mansion and tries to figure out the mystery behind his death.  While Alex is technically the main character, you don’t control her for the whole game.  There are twelve chapters that have a new character in each and take place across a variety of locations and time periods. Each character is in some way connected to the overall plot.  Between chapters you control Alex as she searches around the mansion for more clues as to what the hell is happening.  The first chapter starts with Pious Augustus in 26 B.C. as he is led by a spooky voice to an underground chamber.  At the end of the chamber Pious comes across three artifacts and the player can choose which one to take.  The artifacts belong to one of four “Ancients”.  There isn’t a huge difference in gameplay based on the one you pick.  The biggest differences involve spells you cast and how you solve puzzles later in the game (more on this later).  The Ancients are old mythical creatures/gods that once ruled the universe but have since been imprisoned from ruling the world.  Each one of the Ancients is trying to break out of their prison and come back to earth to rule the world.

In each of the twelve chapters you play as a different character, some are relatives of Alex and belong to the Roivas family, and others just happen to find themselves getting caught up in the mess. Each character has some direct involvement in the mystery surrounding the Ancients and helping to prevent their return to earth. Their stories are left in the “Tome of Darkness” and as Alex explores the Roivas Mansion between chapters, she solves puzzles and locates artifacts to unlock more stories in the Tome of Darkness. The Tome of Darkness is an enchanted spellbook that contains the memoirs of the previous characters’ adventures while also acting as your inventory menu.

The story isn’t bad, and for a horror game I enjoyed the overbearing threat of the Ancients returning.  However, since each chapter has you controlling a new character it can be jarring at times. Once you finally get to know a character and get invested in their personal story, it’s over. Chapters are pretty long, but some of the characters are more interesting than the others, so it’s disappointing when you leave a character you enjoy and find yourself in the next chapter playing as a character that sucks.

The gameplay in Eternal Darkness is addicting and mystifying.  There is a terrific mix of puzzles, combat, spell casting, and exploring throughout.  The pacing and design was executed near perfectly.   Depending on the character you’re playing as, you fight against enemies with a variety of weapons.  Swords, Shotguns, Axes, Rifles, and more, the combat and strategy are constantly changing.  Characters are also capable of using magic spells known as Magick.  Spells range from restoring health, magic, and sanity meters, to dispelling enemy shields, and even summoning monsters to fight on your side.

There are several different enemy types in Eternal Darkness.  Zombies, Skeletons, and other made up creatures known as Guardians and Trappers.  Each enemy has its own set of attacks that require a different approach at taking them down.  The best part about the combat is how each encounter serves as a mini puzzle.  There are three gods you can choose to align yourself with in the beginning of the game.  Ulyaoth, Xel’lotath, and Chattur’gha each have their own set of enemies and the ones you face depend on the alignment you choose at the beginning of the game.  It’s a “rock, paper, scissors” system so it’s not always hard to figure out how to defeat the monster, but what makes it so much fun is the unknown.  You never know what enemy type you will be facing next.

Most of the combat is optional due to Eternal Darkness’s heavy dose of puzzle solving and backtracking.  Slicing off a zombie’s head never gets boring, or blasting the daylights out of a deranged beast with your hunting rifle never gets old.  The game does an excellent job at capturing the vibe of a horror game with fixed camera angles, a creepy soundtrack, and atmospheric sound effects all setting the tone for a superb grim game.  Back in 2002, Eternal Darkness was considered a gory game, and trust me there is no short supply of blood and guts.  However, the video game scene has evolved a lot in the gore category over the years, so any blood-thirsty gamers out there might be less than impressed with Eternal Darkness compared to today’s games. The Roivas mansion is fun to explore and slowly uncover secret after secret.  Some of the other areas in the game include a religious chapel and an ancient tomb.  As good as the environments are they are repeated too many times and overstay their welcome.  The reasoning behind visiting old locations multiple times is because of the story.  For example, you explore the same chapel three different times in three different chapters.  There are a few minor changes each time you revisit the environment, but there aren’t quite enough differences to make the locations fun to visit 3-4 times.  Sure, you are exploring the same areas with a different character and you’ll face new enemies and some new puzzles as well, but some of the locations aren’t very interesting the first time around so revisiting them in another chapter is a disappointment.

The same can be said for some of the characters.  Paul Luther, Edward Roivas, and Karim are all really fun to play as and have interesting accompanying stories.  However, others like Anthony and Roberto Bianchi are dull lame characters to play as.  Variety can be a great thing, and in Eternal Darkness the constant changing environments and playable characters make for some really interesting stories and gameplay.  Equally though, some characters are a bore to play as and when they revisit the same dull location it makes for a double whammy of tedium.

Now, the most interesting aspect of Eternal Darkness and the one that made it so famous was the Sanity Effect(s).  Each character has a sanity meter that works similar to their health and magic meters.  Each time a player faces an enemy that enemy will slowly start to drain your sanity until you kill them.  Performing execution moves allow you to regain some of your sanity.  The big problem is if you lose too much of your sanity crazy shit starts to happen.  This is what the game is known for.  Sometimes when your sanity is low in-game effects start to happen.  I’m going to be super vague here because being too specific would spoil all the fun, but one example of an in-game effect is your controls will start to work backwards for a brief period of time.  So up is down and down is up.  The best part of the sanity effect is how Eternal Darkness breaks the fourth wall.  Once again, I’m going to avoid specifics here, but when the game breaks the fourth wall due to your low sanity it’s awesome and really messes with your mind.

One example was when the volume on my TV started turning down on its own and I was left thinking “WTF is going on?” Sadly, the sanity effects have two major problems.  One is tied to the game design itself and the other is a result of aging.  First up, is the design.  You see, the sanity effects will only happen if your sanity meter is low.  While there is not a predetermined amount for when things will start becoming insane, whenever your meter is low you know that essentially something crazy is going to happen.  As your meter gets lower and lower you start hearing whispers.  Those whispers turn into screams.  These are signs that your sanity is low along with the meter itself being a part of the in-game interface.  The problem I ran across is I could easily predict when the game was about to try and “trick” me.  So most times when something insane would happen or a sanity effect would take place, I knew the game was trying to fool me and didn’t fall for it.

This problem becomes two-fold when taking the game’s date into consideration.  Remember the above example about my volume being turned down?  Well, I played Eternal Darkness on my HDTV which has newer fancier menus than SDTV’s had back in 2002.  When Eternal Darkness tried to trick me and turn down my volume, the color was neon green and it was in that old SDTV bar format and missing actual numbers.  This is a pretty big problem with playing the game today in 2015.  A good portion of the fourth wall effects don’t sync up with today’s technology.  So, in my case I could easily spot what was a “trick” and what wasn’t.  Not all is lost though.  Out of the 25 or so times I lost my sanity at least two of them literally scared the crap out of me and had me fooled.  However, most of the other ones just made me chuckle and think “Nice try, but not good enough.”

Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem is a great horror game for the GameCube.  The atmosphere is creepy and bloody, the controls and camera angles create some tense moments, and the sanity effects can be literally mind blowing.  Sadly, time has not treated Eternal Darkness’s best component very well.  Most of the sanity effects stick out like a sore thumb in the year 2015, and the ones that don’t can be seen coming a mile away based on the game design.  The frequent changes in combat and intriguing puzzles make the game impossible to put down.  Some of the locations are great to explore, but the ones that are less than impressive struggle twice as much when you have to visit them multiple times across the game.  Mixing up the combat with different enemies and the ability to use a wide variety of magic for fighting and solving the game’s mysteries adds to the addiction.  The story is equally creepy and keeps things moving forward. If you can take your nostalgia glasses off you’ll find Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem has lost some of its luster thirteen years later.  Still, the game is great enough to warrant a playthrough and an experience all GameCube owners should try at least once.