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Eternal Darkness: Sanitys Requiem
Nintendo (
01 November, 2002 )
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Amazing  |
This is probably in my top three games of all time, alongside Mario Sunshine and Goldeneye. Its amazing, it takes ideas that have been around in games for a while and combines them superbly to create an incredible gaming experience. At times reminsicent of the vintage Lucasarts adventures (Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle), even the classics 7th Guest and Resident Evil - although one with a far better control system! However some of these games especially the horror ones were only part of a good idea. Eternal Darkness takes the idea and transforms it into not only a stunning visual experience (download the movies and weep PS2 owners), but one of the most immersing games of all time. The plot which I wont go into for fear of spoiling it is one which would put most Hollywood scriptwriters to shame. The languages spoken in the game all all authentic from Latin to medeval French! Some of the visual effects have never been seen beofre in a video game. You control 12 characters during the game and to see the epilogue you must finish it three times using the three alignments. This is the game I bought my GC to play and I was so amazed by it I played nothing else for the first two weeks I had the console.
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My first GameCube game |
This was my first GameCube game, which was provided free with the console. Its a very good thing that it was provided for free, otherwise Id probably have never owned a copy.
Let me explain a bit, when I bought my console, I wanted one of the cute Japanese puzzle games with it, but none of my choices was in stock. So I ended up choosing Eternal Darkness, much against my better judgement since I had planned to obtain Resident Evil Zero, as my choice of horror rpg for this platform.It all worked out well in the end - this was one of the most instantly impressive games Ive seen. Its well thought out, and the attention to detail is startling. Youll have seen a lot of reviews on this site rave about the sanity system, which stands out as one of the things that the developers got absolutely right. As your sanity slips away the camera angles and soundtrack change, adding just an extra little edge to the whole thing. There are other effects as a result of this too, but youre better finding out about these yourself. I actually found that I preferred playing with the character quite low on sanity - it just added something to the whole experience (although - it turns out that there are occasions where this is a disadvantage - make sure you stay quiet when the trappers are near ;-)
The puzzles are not the most complex, but are balanced enough to not have you charging from one location to another frantically looking for some detail that was missed the first time. Similarly with the combat - its fairly easy to master, and I found that there werent many things I encountered which had me reloading to try to kill again. Especially if the spells are used intelligently.
The magic system was nicely implemented, with various characters discovering the building blocks of the spells for you to assemble. This reminded me of an old Amiga game, but I admit that I may have just dreamt that. This is a game which is totally accessible right out of the box. Superb use of the graphics capabilities, with a soundtrack that just somehow fits each chapter. I was completely drawn into it to the point of staying up too late for "just one more room", and thats not happened to me in a long time.
If you like the horror rpg genre (and I do), then I doubt youll be disappointed by this. I really found very little to fault it, and so it must get the full 5 stars.
Did someone mention a sequel ?? Please ??
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Nintendo excel in another genre |
Since the release of the Gamecube, Nintendo have set about reversing their stigma for producing games aimed at the much younger market. Resident Evil brought it kicking and screaming into the mature market genre of horror and Eternal Darkness continues this trend. A game that works remarkably smoothly with strong graphics that uphold the pace of the game. This game can be one of the most frustrating ones available at times but the mixture of good gameplay, traditional style puzzles, multi-character battles and the new Sanity meter create a game that with enthral the more mature audience.
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