E3: Eternal Darkness impressions

[05.18.00] » Silicon Knights and Nintendo present the true next step in "horror" gaming. Yes, Nintendo.

    If there was any one game at this year's E3 that begged for more play time, it was Eternal Darkness. Some games ask for the benefit of the doubt when played on a show floor – portions aren't complete, your attention may wander, or there wasn't much time to cut a demo before the show. Eternal Darkness, however, demanded your attention for just the opposite reasons: five months before release, it already felt like a realized world.

    With such a heavy title and apparently heavy theme, the first thing that struck me about Eternal Darkness was the delicate touch used in the game's design. You weren't beat over the head with obvious attempts at creating atmosphere, but a more subtle world that allowed you to immerse yourself in the story instead of just being shocked by it's gruesomeness. On this level, it reaches far beyond even the wonderfully done Silent Hill.

    The game opens with a quote from The Raven and takes the gamer into the life of a young woman named Alex, who is dealing with her grandfather's surprising death. When she is told to come to his mansion and gather belongings, she begins reading a book that chronicles the times of a Roman legionnaire. The player then takes control of that legionnaire, Pius, who is the second of over a dozen characters that will be playable throughout the game. The characters will have three separate meters to help the player track their status, the most interesting of which is a "Sanity Meter" that is dependent on the character dealing with the increasingly frightening sights. Letting the meter peak will result in a wide variety of side effects, including seeing walls that bleed and imagining enemies that aren't actually there. These effects are also specially designed to not repeat themselves one after the other in order to heighten the effect.

    Graphically, the game boasted a full 3D engine, sharp textures, and large environments to explore. That exploration was handled by a context-sensitive B button, whose current function would appear in the corner of the screen whenever the character was near an object or location that could be interacted with. This spared the gamer from the traditional running-along-the-walls-mashing-the-B-button strategy of discovering items. The menu interface was fantastic, with a series of joined skulls artfully representing the different pages that could be accessed, while the current page was noted by the appropriate skull's eyes being lit. The game is chock full of these thoughtful small touches.

    Most importantly, Eternal Darkness represents the first truly literary take on the burgeoning horror game genre. Evolving from the boo-style horror (and silly acting) of the Resident Evil series, the depth of Eternal Darkness asks more of the player in both attention and interaction, while giving easily that much back in return. The designers have often stated that their inspiration was the writings of such renowned writers as H.P. Lovecraft, and that kind of fluency with detail is what will help separate Eternal Darkness from the rest of the gaming pack come October 30th. There's a good reason Nintendo picked this game to launch four days after the PlayStation 2, and I recommend that you start planning ahead now.