Company: Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Silicon Knights
Genre: Psychological horror,Thrid Person Adventure
Platform: Gamecube
ERSB Rating: M for Mature
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Premise:
The premise of the game is to control the main character, Alexandra Rovias-a college student, as she investigates the mysterious murder of her grandfather Edward Roivas and searches for the “Tome of Eternal Darkness”.
Characters:
The player controls many pre-designed characters throughout the game. Each character has their own unique magic abilities as well as Stamina, Health, and Sanity meters. These characters drive the game play. The game’s characters are as follows: Alexandra Roivas, Pious Augustus, Ellia, Anthony, Karim, Dr. Maximillian Roivas, Dr. Edwin Lindsey, Paul Luther, Roberto Bianchi, Peter Jacob, and Michael Edwards. All the characters are related, each from a different era of history, and they can be played consecutively.
Play:
The pacing changes drastically throughout the game. When the player controls the main character, Alexandra, they are able to go anywhere within the mansion (open world) while searching for "Tome of Eternal Darkness" entries and clues to her fathers death. When a piece of the "Tome of Eternal Darkness" is found, a flash back sequence is initiated, and the player takes control of the new character introduced in the flashback. During these flash back sequences, the level is very linear with some mind twisting puzzles. As with all games, there are enemies to combat, the player must kill or be killed. So, all in all, this game is balanced between linear sections of combat and puzzles and open world environments.
Engagement:
This game has received acclaim for its engagement with the player: well written story, unique innovation, complex magic and battle system. The battle system is very engaging because it makes the player think before they start their attack. This battle system incorporates a strategic dismemberment which requires planning ahead. For instance, if you see a zombie, you should cut its head off before you start your attack. Although the zombie does not die,it’s mobility is inhibited, making it easier to eliminate it. This also applies for magic with one exception: the player needs to memorize the monsters magic alignment. If the player cuts the monsters head off using the wrong magic, instead of the monster becoming impaired, the player will be severely hurt. The most engaging aspect of this game is its sanity meter. The sanity meter is drained when enemies spot you. Once the entire meter is empty, weird things start happening within the game. Strange noises can be heard that frighten the player including footsteps, women and children screaming, doors slamming, the rattling of chains and the sound of a blade being sharpened. Another effect is that the player can walk into a new room and find themselves on the ceiling. A very scary effect, that is common in horror movies, is that walls start to bleed profusely. At times when the sanity meter is low, the game will do something very interesting: it breaks the 4th wall. For example, the game will simulate the television volume being lowered by having a fake volume bar or the T.V will simulate being shut off, and will remain off for a couple of seconds. The worst tactic(that every gamer is afraid of) is the game telling the player that the memory card is corrupted and needs to be reformatted. The game starts reformatting the memory making the player think they are losing all their data.
Story:
The story of Eternal Darkness is about the main character Alexandra Rovias. Alexandra is summoned to Rhode Island because of her grandfathers’ mysterious death. The police tell her that they have no leads, and have given up on the investigation. Alex then swears to investigate the murder herself and find the answers. While searching through her grandfathers mansion, she discovers a secret room. Within that room, she finds a book called "The Tome Of Eternal Darkness". When she touches the book, she has a flash back in history to the time period of 26 BC. She watches the Roman soldier named Pious, who was led astray from his army by enticing voices coming from a temple. Within that temple, he touches an artifact that transforms him into a undead warlock, and he becomes a slave to an ancient. Further into the story, Alexandra discovers Pious is trying to summon his ancient god into physical form on earth. If that happened earth would be thrown into Eternal Darkness.
Behaviors:
The behavior for the character has already been created by the game designers, this includes: walking, running, talking, melee attacks, using items, magic attacks, climbing, and swimming. Since the range of behaviors available, the progression of the game should be much less predictable in its outcome and gameplay, however, since the levels are linear it detracts from the second play through.
Resources:
The player has to maintain 3 resources: Magic, Health, and Sanity Meter. All three resources are easily manageable. Health can be recovered by killing certain enemies, using magic, or using artifacts. Magic can be restored by walking around, or finding magic pads that restore it. The sanity meter can be replenished in many ways: performing a killing move on an enemy, using magic to restore it, or finding a sanity meter artifact.
Challenge:
This game is very challenging because of its combat system, and its puzzles. The player has the ability to target specific enemy body parts during combat. Attacking certain body parts helps the player in battle. For example, while fighting a chimera, cutting off one of its heads can make it bleed to death or hasten the death process. The games puzzles are very challenging because they blend magic and traditional puzzle aspects (finding a key to a door). The player can use magic to destroy barriers to progress further in the game, however the challenge is that the player has to use the correct spell to break the barrier. The final challenge is that the player has to watch their sanity meter, to make sure it does not drop too low. The sanity meter creates challenges for the player allowing the in game character to even create fake monsters that can be dispersed with only one hit.
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