Eternal Darkness (GC)
By Susie Vee

With the long-awaited release of Eternal Darkness, the humble GameCube continues its quest to be taken seriously. Seemingly stuck in development hell, the game had already missed several release dates and was burdened with perhaps unfairly high expectations.

But that’s to be expected, since this third-person adventure title trumps even the Resident Evil remake as the most talked-about spooky game of the year. Now that it’s finally been released, we find that while our fears about the game were unfounded, our fear of the game is still quite palpable.

This tale of horror and intrigue in the backwoods of New England owes much to the works of 1920's author H.P. Lovecraft. His tales of elder gods that once ruled the earth have inspired everyone from Sam Raimi to Clive Barker. Previous games that tread the same ground include the Alone in the Dark series and a ton of Quake and Doom mods.

Ever since Jamie Lee Curtis stuck a coat hanger in her tormentor’s eye in Halloween (and even before that), many horror tales have had female protagonists. Most “survival horror” games, like Resident Evil, Dino Crisis or Parasite Eve, follow the same pattern.

This time around, you’re Alexandria Roivas, and your grandfather’s mysterious death sends you to his creepy mansion. Of course, there’s some great evil at work, and it’s up to you to put it right. But you won’t be working alone. The game’s a narrative plays out as Alexandria finds pages from her grandfather’s journal. Each page describes events from different time periods, sending you into the past to play out these episodes.

In each episode, you play as a different character, from a Roman Centurion to a colonial doctor. It’s a cool twist, and it keeps the environments varied. But the individual chapters are a bit on the short side, and many don’t feel fully fleshed out. Some of the maps are so small, the game sends you backtracking just to add a little length.

Besides the usual health meter, you’re also sporting something called a sanity meter. Being confronted by monsters causes you to loose some sanity, and as you run out, you start seeing things. The walls can bleed, camera angles take on that slanted Batman TV show look, and you may even find yourself walking on the ceiling. Some of the more extreme effects remind us of the psyche outs in Metal Gear Solid.

After a while, you get a third meter, for your magic skills. Instead of feeling tacked on, the magic system is surprisingly deep. You’ll have to collect runes, codecs to decipher them and then scrolls with the actual formulas for casting a spell. Different spells can even be put together with different alignments.

Early in the game, you’ll have an opportunity to pick an alignment, but you’ll have no idea what you’re doing or why. If you really want to know the difference between them, you’ll have to play through the game several times.

Graphically, the game looks quite good. It’s not nearly as detailed as Resident Evil, but the fully 3D environments make up for that. Still, some of the textures seem a little stretched out, and the geometry can be somewhat simplistic. Little things like this indicate that we may already be pushing the edges of the GameCube’s ability. But if it forces game developers to rely more on story and gameplay than fancy graphics, maybe it’s a plus.

The sound is great, with tons of spooky ambient noise – possibly the game’s creepiest aspect. Control is decent, but the multiple targeting system is hit or miss. You can target an enemy’s head, torso or arms – different monsters have different weak spots. In practice, well...good luck with all that.

Combat is somewhat repetitive (and fairly easy) but certain sections can be quite challenging. Our only other complaint was the fairly linear nature of the game – a little disappointing considering the hype. But, if you can handle some serious horror film atmosphere, then Eternal Darkness may be for you.

SCORE: 9.5