Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem
The N64 was powerful, but not as powerful as the Gamecube, so when Silicon Knights developed the game for the N64 and was just about to release it, they thought it over and decided to wait two more years. The game was already finished and the whole concept and storyline of the game was set. Something pulled Silicon Knights back, because the game still had the great storyline that was set to sail on the N64. Graphics power made the game much better of course, so the wait was well worth it. The main perspective of the game involved twelve different playable characters, with crisp graphics, and great gameplay. Many games don’t take too long to develop, but all in all this game is probably the only game to actually go through a longer development along with a two year delay.
What Silicon Knights doesn’t want people to think is that this is a direct Resident Evil clone. This is not a clone of Resident Evil… I will promise you that! Resident Evil was a good game, but this one I would have to say runs circles around it. The graphics are visually stunning, the sound is clear, and the storyline are all awesome. With Eternal Darkness’s easy controls, and advanced combat system, makes this a hit every major gamer should own, even if you aren’t into the whole thriller and horror theme. Although the graphics, sound, and gameplay aren’t the only great things this game has to offer, there are a lot of other pros about this game.
With a time line of about twenty centuries, you don’t have to worry about getting bored of Eternal Darkness. The weapons database is full of prime time weapons, and with twelve different playable characters, there is something for everyone. While blowing enemies away seems fun enough, there is much more. The complex magic system allows your characters to use spells and magic to destroy multiple enemies at a time, which make this game so unique in it’s own way right there. There is a wide variety of spells and tricks, so expect to check them out for a while to see how cool they look. I would have to say the average time a gamer would complete this game would be fifty hours, while that might not seem like a lot, there is a lot to do besides completing the fifty hours. I didn’t find that many problems with this game, nor should any gamer.
There are some flaws in the combat system which really don’t take away any points on this game, but just need to be pointed out. Originally when the game was to be released for the N64, the problem was much bigger, but ever since the advancement of the Gamecube came along, this problem was fixed much better. What I mean by some flaws in the combat system is you can see when you use your weapon against an enemy, the graphics glitch up a little bit. Literally you would have to have a really good look at the action to notice it, but it is there. Besides that little error, the combat system is as complete as you can get it. With weapons and magic and spells to keep you busy in battle, there is always something new to use when battling. With the advanced graphics engine, the different colors look truly spectacular when casting spells. I was very impressed with what Silicon Knights did with the updated version of this game for the Gamecube.
Graphics and Sound performance are a definite plus on the Gamecube version of Eternal Darkness. I could have imagines how well the expansion pack would have made this game on the N64, but the Gamecube really made up for the two year delay in this category. Eternal Darkness uses a Cinematic engine which makes the graphics twice as pretty as they normally be. Cut scenes are beautiful, and actually let you think of Final Fantasy in a way, but in a different environment, and using the Gamecube’s graphics power makes it much nicer. Usually with games, the camera point of the game usually is a little tedious, but in Eternal Darkness, the camera angles are great. Using a Cinematic engine really makes a big difference. Moving on to the sound perspective of the game. Another masterpiece, as the Dolby Pro Logic II(for compatible TVs) really kicks in. Playing Eternal Darkness is surround sound beauty, makes you want to play this game over and over again, and really adds to it’s replay value. Just think of a really scary horror movie with suspense at every corner, and you will come up with this game. Listening to every creep and crack in surround sound is excellent, and wouldn’t be recommended to play alone in the dark! Hoo Hoo HAH HAH! The musical composition background music is beautifully orchestrated and so lifelike. Now whenever there is a horror type game, I will hype up as much as I can just because of this game.
Overall there really is no bad part. This game hits right up at the top along with titles like Super Mario, Zelda, and Final Fantasy. I give this a 9 out of 10 easily. Great job Silicon Knights!
