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Eternal Darkness Preview
Gavin Frankle
00/12/0000
Eternal Darkness has sinced moved to Nintendo's Gamecube and is an eagerly awaited launch title.
A few weeks ago Nintendo announced the signing of a new second-party - Silicon Knights. Who? I hear you ask. Surely, you've heard of the developers of Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain? Nope. Oh well, not knowing who they are is understandable, but if you know nothing about their latest game, Eternal Darkness, then I suggest you crawl back into your cave, that or read on and I'll attempt to explain why the game is so good, Nintendo signed Silicon Knights on as an exclusive second-party developer shortly after seeing it.
While many people have simply dismissed the game as a mere 'Resident-Evil clone', anybody who has spent some time with the game will realise that it's so much more. Firstly, the game has an incredibly strong storyline that takes place throughout history. During the course of the game, players will take control of 13 different characters ranging from a Roman Centurion to a Psychiatrist, each with their own unique weapons and characteristics.
Still not convinced? We're only just beginning my friends. Another fantastic innovation is the 'sanity meter'. As each character explores their world, they begin to go insane, questioning what is real and what isn't. For example, at one point in the game your character starts seeing blood dripping from the walls, soon afterwards his head explodes. You then spend the next couple of minutes chasing after it, once you catch it and place it firmly back onto your shoulders the screen flashes a bright white and you're back in the previous room - it was all a hallucination! Talk about messing with your mind. However, the game allows you to maintain your sanity by killing the enemies you come across, thus allowing you to exert some sort of control over your mental well-being, it's not terribly subtle, but it's extremely cool.
A pivotal point in the game comes when your character reaches the 'Doom Decision Room'. It's here that the player is forced to choose one of three glowing orbs and depending on their choice the course of the game is altered. A nice feature that extends the playability of an already enormous game.
Something that I feel is also worth mentioning is the high quality of the voice-acting in the game. A game with a storyline as deep as this could easily be destroyed by sub-par voice-acting. Thankfully, Silicon Knights and Nintendo have realised this and have ensured that the storyline is delivered by some quality voice talent.
Gameplay mechanics aside, the game also features an excellent in-game engine. Fantastic lighting and real-time effects are in abundance and the game isn't even finished yet! The textures are, for the most part smooth and varied(apparently they'll all be cleaned up in the final version) and the architecture inspired, this is especially useful when the game relies so heavily on mood and atmosphere. Having each room look like a cookie-cutter replica would certainly destroy any sort of illusion that the game is trying to create.
If Eternal Darkness' story is as good as Blood Omen's(a game which I thoroughly enjoyed) was, then Silicon Knights will have another certified hit on their hands. Nintendo is a shrewd company and if they believe in these guys enough to make them an official second-party, then I believe that come Halloween we'll all be getting very little sleep.
