Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem Preview
Eternal Darkness was another game slated for the N64, but thankfully it has been fully upgraded to the GameCube. This means that we can see beautiful environments and clear sound, which is topped off by a gripping storyline spanning over 20 centuries. This game sounds big, and you are right.
The thing that makes ET unique is how it pulls you into the gameplay. These days, everyone is use to playing uninspired, predictable gameplay that isn’t very fun or challenging. ET is a whole different experience: it is labeled as a physiological thriller (and will no doubt be rated M), and that is what SK intends to impose on the player. The game is completely unpredictable, so events can take a whole different turn as you play the game. This is capped off by an “insanity metre”. Continue reading for more information.
The insanity metre is a very innovative function in this game. As you continue playing, you may experience things that are mind-boggling and confusing. This will lower your sanity metre, which means that even stranger things will happen to you, and you will begin to lose conciseness. Silicon Knights offered no real time examples of this innovation, saying that it would spoil the experience for the gamer.
Gameplay is Zelda-esque in terms of ingenuity. The A button performs a standardized attack on the player, and the R button can be used to attack specific places on a character, which is handy if you have to diminish a certain part on a boss character. The B button “finishes off” characters after you have subdued them to putty. The Z button can toggle how fast you walk, jog, or run through the huge, expansive environments, which are also extremely well detailed and sprawling, with roughly 5500 polys per player, and incredible texturization is apparent.
There are alot of upgrades from the N64 version, including the camera, which is said to be one of the most advanced cameras to date. Instead of a suddenly switching camera view, the camera will swoop around corners, which means that you are always in the action, and that you won’t be cheaply attacked by enemies you cannot see.
The game is said to be roughly 40-60 hours long, and you can play through it with twelve characters. There are realistic effects everywhere you go, including volumetric fogging and ray-traced lightmaps. This is all happening at 60 frames per second.
This game looks extremely promising, and although the technical side of it looks like it will sway some gamers, what’s going to sway me is the feel and mood that the game conveys, which will draw me into it and will win over gamers. Expect this title to make it’s debut in November 2001.
Final Score: 7.5