Review of Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem

Eternal Darkness is a psychological horror game that was released for the Gamecube in 2002. It follows heroine Alexandra Roivas, a modern day University student who looks suspiciously like Buffy as she comes back to Rhode Island to investigate her grandfather's violent and mysterious death. Over the course of the game, which takes the player across centuries and twelve playable characters that include a Cambodian slave girl, a Venetian artist, a colonial doctor, and a firefighter, a plot involving the Roivas family and their connection to the Ancients of the world and a book called the Tome of Eternal Darkness is revealed.

This truly is an under appreciated gem of a game. The graphics, while not the best by any stretch, do a great job of telling the story and doing what they need to do. The sound from background noises of sobbing women to the voice acting is superb. It's a great game to pop in, and then flip off all the lights and submerse yourself in its world. It is a great example of a psychological horror game, both in game play and cut scenes. Some of the best examples are the cut scene of Maximilian in the asylum, the end of Edward Roivas's chapter, and Anthony's encounter with Charlemagne. It's certainly more disturbing and enjoyable than many of the torture-porn horror movies of today.

As far as gameplay goes, there are a few glaring issues but the rest of the game is so good that they don't take away from the experience. I am always irritated when I cannot control camera angles, and Eternal Darkness has some particularly bad ones that are probably set up to make the game scarier but really just make it annoying to deal with. The combat system, while interesting in its idea and design, comes off as a little clunky and can be kind of awkward to operate in a hurry. Also, the thumb pad "throw off" control for certain monsters is confusing and obnoxious. It killed me several times. But other than these issues, the game is fairly simplistic control wise, and it's pretty easy to play.

One other complaint about gameplay is that after you have played through several characters with the same basic format, you confront a "boss" fight while you play as the World War I reporter. The fight is long, hard and comes out of nowhere -- you're not prepared for it after never seeing it before, and Peter is the 9th character you play. Alexandra's final fight with Pious Augustus can be frustrating as well, and if I hadn't read any walkthroughs it is possible that I would have never figured out what I was supposed to do to beat him.

The best part of the game, of course, is the "sanity meter". Certain actions in the game -- seeing zombies, reading a disturbing chapter in the Tome of Eternal Darkness, etc., will drop your sanity meter, and once it gets low enough, your character begins to hallucinate. These effects range from their bodies exploding one limb at a time to walking in the room on the ceiling Alice in Wonderland style and sometimes you'll even get a notice that your Gamecube has been turned off even when it hasn't been. These creepy and often hilarious effects really add to the feeling of the game.

So despite some flaws in the game, it really is a phenomenally great play, and I definitely suggest it, especially if you are a fan of H.P. Lovecraft. The replay value is also high, since at the beginning of the game you make the choice as to which Ancient you are fighting against, and choosing one Ancient over another alters the game so it's not the exact same game on another play through. Also, if the game is played with all three ancients on the same save file, you get an extra ending. There has been talk of another game set in the Eternal Darkness universe, and although nothing definite has been released, I eagerly await the next game.