This game is a mindfuck. I don't usually swear but there is no other word for this game than that. It's also a really good game, especially by Gamecube standards, and if you've never played this game then there is one thing you should know before you do: you'll never see the time the same way again when it's 3:33.
Alexandra Roivas is just doing her thing, sleeping like humans do at 3:33 in the morning when she gets a call from the Rhode Island police regarding her grandfather, Edward Roivas. She hurries over only to be greeted with the churned and hardly recognizable remains of her grandfather, save for a ring still on a skeletal finger. She decides to stay at his mansion to try and discover more about him and what happened to him.
Somehow the police are okay with this despite it being a crime scene and it's three in the morning with a glob of human meat in the center of the foyer. Sure, let her stay if she wants, what could possibly go wrong?
Long story short: Everything. Soon she's (you, controlling her) discovering all the occult things in her grandpa's house and that he was studying a "Tome of Eternal Darkness". Just by cracking open the pages herself Alexandra is suddenly sent back to 26AD.
Only, it is you who is sent back to 26AD as you are now controlling Pious Augustus. As Pious, you explore this temple and come upon altars of some ancient, evil gods. Naturally he becomes corrupted (as you are given the choice to choose between three different gods' power to harness) and he pretty much becomes the main bad guy of the whole game.
This game does not only do well in giving you its own history lesson, but another unique feature is the different characters, both male and female, from different times that you get to control and explore their worlds with. You get access to magics, which is mainly influenced by whichever altar you chose with Pious, and you can counteract and create spells to fight or reveal. The spell system is a little complex but you get the hang of it, especially when you have zombie skeletons lurching after you- then you have no choice.
But if there is one thing to remember this game by, it's the sanity meter. Unlike the sanity meter found in American McGee's Alice, this one has a bigger impact on gameplay. You actually lose sanity every time you see a monster or disturbing creature, and the more sanity you lose, the more things you hallucinate, and the more the game screws with you. A few examples include:
- Blood trickling from the ceiling and following behind your character as you walk forward.
- Realistic-looking bugs start crawling all over your tv screen, and they actually look like they are ON the screen and not just on top of the game.
- The volume goes up and down on its own.
- Usually when you're fighting off something, the game suddenly tells you to plug your controller back in and pushing the buttons does nothing at all.
- Walking into rooms and suddenly finding yourself standing on the ceiling.
- Paintings on the walls of the mansion change when you approach, revealing gruesome images of blood, death and torture. Also, marble busts will appear to follow you, moving their heads to watch you.
- Strange sounds when you are alone.
Suffice to say, if you scare easy you should not play with the lights off or at night. Or alone, for that matter. Eternal Darkness really draws you into the story and when the above things start to happen you will definitely find yourself looking around and flipping all the lights on.
The game has several endings dependent on what ancient god you chose at the beginning and is subject to different things, which is what makes the game fun to play many times through. Though some basic parts of the storyline are predictable, choosing to do things differently always makes it feel fresh since you don't know what to expect. Kind of like Silent Hill, except there are no joke endings like a dog in a control room.
A sequel of this game is ready to be made now, and I think it would be suitable for any console- though it would most likely come out on the Wii if it did.
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