This time for a horror game review, we're focusing on a GameCube gem that was successful unlike it's kick-starter sequel since the company in question fell from grace after Microsoft bought Silicon Knights. To be fair, like Rare-ware, they chose to be bought for the money sake, though they did embrace the dark side of game development. However, this game will always be their crowning achievement in life, as well as the Metal Gear Solid remake.
The player starts off as Alex, the last-in-the-line of the Roivas family line who's grand-father was murdered within his manor. While investigating, she comes upon the tomb of eternal darkness, a book inspired by the Evil Dead series. The book holds the stories by those who has ran into the darkness, including the main antagonist, where the player can choose which dark god they can face. Think reverse Pokemon meets horror , except you can choose your rival's Pokemon and only four elements. This actually add repeatability, but it can be a completion nightmare as they have to replay the game three times to get the true ending.
In the game, There are four main demonic gods known as The Ancients, specializing in different ways to torture the human race: Ulyaoth is the magic user jellyfish, Xel'lotath is the brains that drains the human's sanity with his lean arms, Chattur'gha the strong crab-like deity who crush humans with crushing force, and last and sadly least, Mantorok, a chaos entity who was rendered useless thanks to Augustus raiding his temple. The story becomes an epic as the player lives and die as the characters within the story as Alex learn from those who face the Eternal Darkness.
While the interface can be somewhat hard to learn but easy to master, the game could have explained itself much better, as most of the gameplay is learning from trail-and-error. While you don't need everything to beat the game, it is required since it makes the game easier. However, there is a hidden forth element based on the one fallen god within the story and if the player is not aware, it can easily be missed. In this game, it is recommended to replay just when figuring out everything
The icing of the cake, in this game, is the ever present sanity effects. And good lord, there are a lot of them within the game. When your character sees a monster, depending on one of the characters' condition, their sanity drains and they start losing their minds. Some of the sanity effect are creative, as some come as game bugs, oddities like loosing a head and then quoting Shapshere, to even forth-wall breaking as the game fakes deleting your saves! This game shattered the forth-wall as hilariously and creepily as it can get.
However, it dose have an annoyance: once the character looses all sanity, his OR her health starts to drain, meaning you will have to use spells (or items) to heal your sanity back up enough to see them all or just plan ignore the sanity effects by filling up the sanity meter all the way or even use cheats to keep the sanity in a certain spot. Not only that, but some of the effects often repeat themselfs, making it hard to see all the unique sanity effects in the game. It's very sad to see the sanity effects working agents themselves, often fighting for the screen.
Despite the flaws of the game, if anyone would love to enjoy a horror game without the annoying tank controls within past games like Resident Evil, this game is for that person. While it may not be anyone's game, anyone with experience with horror games will love this game. Even if it means emulating the game on your PC with HD graphic, it's an gripping experience for it's time. Just don't blame me when your computer gets possessed or you start having odd nightmares. Now excuse me as I take the pope to Best-Buy...
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