Eternal Darkness – Why didn’t we get a sequel?

Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem was one of the first must play titles on Gamecube (behind Smash Bros.). Released on June 24, 2002, we were treated to a beautifully scripted third person action/adventure/horror game. Developed by the now troubled Silicon Knights (of Blood Omen fame) and published by Nintendo, Eternal Darkness told the story of Alexandra Roivas and her family across centuries.

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Alex goes to her grandfathers mansion to investigate his death. Quickly you find a hidden room with a book, The Tome of Eternal Darkness, bound in human skin and bone. Reading this transports you to Pious Augustus, a Roman centurion in 26 BC. During a battle he falls in a hole, leading him to an underground temple. Beckoned by a mysterious voice, he’s brought to an altar where there are three mysterious artifacts. The player chooses one, transforming him into a Liche, slave of one of three demonic gods hellbent on returning to earth. The story continues with Alex finding more pages, each showing a different scene with one of  10 characters from over the last 2000 years. Each do their part to hinder, or unknowingly assist, Augustus in his quest. An interesting note, the player picks which god Augustus aligns himself with, determining which enemy types you face in the game (deal’s more damage, drains magic, etc.).

The story is well told and written, but what set this game appart is the sanity meter. Each character has three bars, one for health, magic, and sanity. Sanity is damaged when confronting the typical zombie like enemies. Sanity can be restored by performing finishing moves, finding a healing location, etc. As your sanity lowers, the game became more difficult to play, but not in a frustrating way. Your character would hallucinate; the camera would skew, floorboards creak, women and children screaming, blades sharpening. These became near constant and louder as the meter dropped. A character would walk into a room and be instantly decapitated. The screen would flash, returning to normal. Alex walked into the bathroom to see her body in the tub after committing suicide. Upon opening your item menu, you’d find all your supplies gone, only for the screen to flash and the items returned.

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Many of these effects were interesting and creepy, adding to the atmosphere of the game. What really drove the point home were the 4th wall breaking effects. The volume would drop as a meter would appear on the television showing it being turned down. The screen turns black, as if the TV shut off. When attempting to save the game would offer you only the choice to delete all saved data. Upon selecting no, they are ‘deleted’ regardless. A funny one is a blue screen of death (read the info in the image below for a good laugh). One of my personal favorites is after a particularly difficult boss battle two-third’s through the game. If you vanquish the foe with low sanity, upon its defeat, an advertisement flashes up saying “To be Continued… The War Against the Darkness rages on in Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Redemption Coming Soon…” The list goes on. Someone painstakingly collected them all here. If you have the time to kill, it’s worth a watch.

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Sadly, this was one of the last good games released by the once prolific developer. According to lead Designer Dennis Dyack, they did want to make a sequel (though the original was thankfully designed to be stand alone). Silicon Knights has had legal trouble with Epic Games over a license and now it doesn’t seem likely. Nintendo has yet to dip into their catalogue of Gamecube games on their downloadable service, but it’s only a matter of time. I can’t wait to play this game again.

What did you think of the sanity effects if you played Eternal Darkness? What’s your favorite horror game? Comment below!

Tony writes for his own site, thecredhulk.com, about comics, video games, movies, TV and more, six days a week. You can follow his updates on Facebook or Twitter. Drop by and tell’em hi.

“This can’t be happening!”

8 Comments

  1. I wasn’t a fan of this game, even though it had some creative ideas. Given that these days Silicon Knights make stuff like X-Men Destiny it’s probably a good thing that they didn’t tarnish the reputation of the original with a sequel.

    1. Every game isn’t for everyone. X-Men was the last game they made. While it was garbage, I don’t think it’s fair to judge them on that. Aside from Too Human, which was divisive to say the least, they had a strong catalog before that. After Eternal Darkness, they did the Gamecube remake of Metal Gear Solid, which was a great game. At the time, if they made a sequel for the Gamecube, I think they still had the pedigree to make a fantastic game.

  2. I liked this game. The sanity effects were awesome, especially if you were playing unspoiled and for the first time. I also liked being in the shoes of different characters in different time periods and seeing how they got involved with the main conflict.

    Right now, I’m playing a fan translation of Nanashi No Game on the Nintendo DS. Creepy!

    1. I knew little about this game when I dove in other than it got great reviews. Playing as the different characters was one of my favorite parts.

      I haven’t heard of that one. Fun?

      1. I’ll be straightforward – as a game, it’s not very good. It’s first person, and most of what you do is walk around (very slowly, his run is just walking faster) and you can’t even side step. The first person graphics remind me of Wolfenstein 3D.

        However, I like it because it manages to creep me out. Seriously, my heart rate increases every time I play this game. Thank goodness it didn’t look more realistic, because as bad as it looks right now, it’s already effective in getting to me. Great use of 3D sound effects, every time I hear the “whispers” and the footsteps, I get chills.

      1. I’d like to retract my previous statement. The Nameless Game has issues, but its worth playing through at least once. Awesome story, good use of 3D sound, flawed gameplay mechanics but you’d see why that is when you play it.