The "General Games Chat" forum, which includes Retro Game Reviews, has been archived and is now read-only. You cannot post here or create a new thread or review on this forum.
This thread has been linked to the game 'Eternal Darkness'.
Oh don't we know it. Nintendo and their second party developers are infamous for bringing us a plethora of games full of cute characters, joyous sound effects, bright and cheery environments and colourful soundtracks. From Nintendo's very own Super Mario series and the Hal developed Pokémon series, to the Kirby range and ex-second party developer Rareware's Banjo Kazooie series. Although I am not complaining as these were all quality titles, it is just great to see Nintendo, with the aid of Silicon Knights, have come up with something that's dark, atmospheric and full of horror enough to make me wonder what that bump in the night was!
So what is Eternal Darkness? Well, for the Playstation 2 fans or the X-box fans who wont touch a Nintendo game, not even with an extremely long stick used for pole vaulting and comedy 'accidents', because of the image surrounding Nintendo, Eternal Darkness is a horror/action game in which you have to link to the minds of people fron the past, telepathically, to save the world from a great evil that would devour the Earth and keep it in a state of (you guessed it) eternal darkness. There's not one single cutesy character in the game, and there isn't an ounce of Mario Kart 64's brightly coloured settings to ruin the atmosphere generated by the audiable and the visual in game.
Hang on a second! Eternal Darkness, being a horror/action and survival game, has been released just over a month after Capcom's Resident Evil series. Both games are set in mansions and they both focus on mutated humans. Have Nintendo made Eternal Darkness too similar to Resident Evil? Suprisingly, no. Eternal Darkness goes a completely different route from Resident Evil, adding a few elements from role playing games such as spells and wizardry as well as bringing in something entirely new in such a game. A sanity meter.
The sanity meter is basically a bar indicating your state of mind, much like a health bar most commonly seen in games such as Capcom Vs SNK 2, decresing as you get hurt. How the sanity meter works is simple. You see some kind of horror, a zombie, a demon, anything living and out of the ordinary, and you lose an ounce of sanity, but there is one way to gain it back, and that is to 'finish off' your foes by making sure they're dead once they're slain. Basically, cutting them up into thin slices of meat fit to be served in a sandwich. If you lose enough sanity, you'll begin to hallucinate. The camera's angles will go wonkey and strange things will begin to happen. I was very suprised to see my TV suddenly display 'mute' and the sound go off, only to find it turn back on just before I had enough time to reach my remote. Five minutes later, the volume bar on my TV went down, and back up again. It wasn't until I decided to test to make sure my TV's settings were ok that I realised that my TV displays those messages in cyan, not the lime green in which they displayed! It got me freaked though! Ofcourse, a character from mid millenia A.D. wouldn't even know what a television is, so obviously the sanity meter works to effect you as well as your character.
Resident Evil worked in such a different way though. Resident Evil was slow, enclosed and had very little music or sound effects, only when needed. And with the limited ammunition and the fear that a zombie could jump out at you and start taking chunks out of your pulsating neck, you would feel the adrenaline rush in a much different way. Eternal Darkness tries to play tricks with your mind, Resident Evil just tries to scare you out of it, and they're both as effective as each other, despite being so completely different.
I have to say I am more than just pleasantly suprised by what Silicon Knights and Nintendo have achieved. I really did think Eternal Darkness was going to be a spinoff of Resident Evil, but Nintendo's first 'mature' (if that's what you can call it) title, for a long, long time anyway, is a quality piece of gaming that I am proud to have as part of my ever growing collection of videogames. Nintendo for babies? I think not. Nintendo only produces 'kiddie' games? I think not. Nintendo have done something out of the ordinary, and in turn have brought us a game that is way out of the ordinary junk that hits the shelves. I like it.
So what is Eternal Darkness? Well, for the Playstation 2 fans or the X-box fans who wont touch a Nintendo game, not even with an extremely long stick used for pole vaulting and comedy 'accidents', because of the image surrounding Nintendo, Eternal Darkness is a horror/action game in which you have to link to the minds of people fron the past, telepathically, to save the world from a great evil that would devour the Earth and keep it in a state of (you guessed it) eternal darkness. There's not one single cutesy character in the game, and there isn't an ounce of Mario Kart 64's brightly coloured settings to ruin the atmosphere generated by the audiable and the visual in game.
Hang on a second! Eternal Darkness, being a horror/action and survival game, has been released just over a month after Capcom's Resident Evil series. Both games are set in mansions and they both focus on mutated humans. Have Nintendo made Eternal Darkness too similar to Resident Evil? Suprisingly, no. Eternal Darkness goes a completely different route from Resident Evil, adding a few elements from role playing games such as spells and wizardry as well as bringing in something entirely new in such a game. A sanity meter.
The sanity meter is basically a bar indicating your state of mind, much like a health bar most commonly seen in games such as Capcom Vs SNK 2, decresing as you get hurt. How the sanity meter works is simple. You see some kind of horror, a zombie, a demon, anything living and out of the ordinary, and you lose an ounce of sanity, but there is one way to gain it back, and that is to 'finish off' your foes by making sure they're dead once they're slain. Basically, cutting them up into thin slices of meat fit to be served in a sandwich. If you lose enough sanity, you'll begin to hallucinate. The camera's angles will go wonkey and strange things will begin to happen. I was very suprised to see my TV suddenly display 'mute' and the sound go off, only to find it turn back on just before I had enough time to reach my remote. Five minutes later, the volume bar on my TV went down, and back up again. It wasn't until I decided to test to make sure my TV's settings were ok that I realised that my TV displays those messages in cyan, not the lime green in which they displayed! It got me freaked though! Ofcourse, a character from mid millenia A.D. wouldn't even know what a television is, so obviously the sanity meter works to effect you as well as your character.
Resident Evil worked in such a different way though. Resident Evil was slow, enclosed and had very little music or sound effects, only when needed. And with the limited ammunition and the fear that a zombie could jump out at you and start taking chunks out of your pulsating neck, you would feel the adrenaline rush in a much different way. Eternal Darkness tries to play tricks with your mind, Resident Evil just tries to scare you out of it, and they're both as effective as each other, despite being so completely different.
I have to say I am more than just pleasantly suprised by what Silicon Knights and Nintendo have achieved. I really did think Eternal Darkness was going to be a spinoff of Resident Evil, but Nintendo's first 'mature' (if that's what you can call it) title, for a long, long time anyway, is a quality piece of gaming that I am proud to have as part of my ever growing collection of videogames. Nintendo for babies? I think not. Nintendo only produces 'kiddie' games? I think not. Nintendo have done something out of the ordinary, and in turn have brought us a game that is way out of the ordinary junk that hits the shelves. I like it.
Page:
I'm sorry, but although I know it was originally destined for Nintendo 64, there's no way you can tell it from the way the game looks, feels and plays! I doubt the Nintendo 64 could handle the graphics at all, not even at half the quality, and the FMV, sound effects and music would not have the atmospheric quality that the GameCube version contains.
Yes, Eternal Darkness is what I would consider an 'Essential' purchase, and it's certainly one hell of a game. I like the frustrating, but interesting insanity effect where there's a flash on the screen and the character you're controlling suddenly ends up in the previous room, almost as if he or she never entered it in the first place. My favourite so far, however, is when something like "Thankyou for playing Eternal Darkness Sanity's Requiem, the adventure continues in Eternal Darkness Sanity's return" or something along the lines of that anyway.
Yes, Eternal Darkness is what I would consider an 'Essential' purchase, and it's certainly one hell of a game. I like the frustrating, but interesting insanity effect where there's a flash on the screen and the character you're controlling suddenly ends up in the previous room, almost as if he or she never entered it in the first place. My favourite so far, however, is when something like "Thankyou for playing Eternal Darkness Sanity's Requiem, the adventure continues in Eternal Darkness Sanity's return" or something along the lines of that anyway.
Yep, the only graphics that aren't great are some of the magic effects, when it's those flashing red lines and stuff, they look a bit dodgy. Apart from it's great.
By the way, I'd like to take this oppertunity to say that Chapter 3 is absolutely brilliaint.
By the way, I'd like to take this oppertunity to say that Chapter 3 is absolutely brilliaint.
Aye, the game starts off a little easy for the first couple chapters, just to break you in, but from Chapter 3 onwards, you really get going.
Yeah, the insanity effects kick in at the end of it as well.
They're awesome.
They're awesome.
Chapter 3 is my favourite, even though I have done up to CHapter 9!
You know, you'd probably win a GAD if you put this in ukreviews and ill show you which bits to delete, unless of courese, you've already done that.
delete this bit and you've got a great review, unless it will all fit in, which i doubt
> Resident Evil worked in such a different way though. Resident Evil was
> slow, enclosed and had very little music or sound effects, only when
> needed. And with the limited ammunition and the fear that a zombie
> could jump out at you and start taking chunks out of your pulsating
> neck, you would feel the adrenaline rush in a much different way.
> Eternal Darkness tries to play tricks with your mind, Resident Evil
> just tries to scare you out of it, and they're both as effective as
> each other, despite being so completely different.
delete this bit and you've got a great review, unless it will all fit in, which i doubt
> Resident Evil worked in such a different way though. Resident Evil was
> slow, enclosed and had very little music or sound effects, only when
> needed. And with the limited ammunition and the fear that a zombie
> could jump out at you and start taking chunks out of your pulsating
> neck, you would feel the adrenaline rush in a much different way.
> Eternal Darkness tries to play tricks with your mind, Resident Evil
> just tries to scare you out of it, and they're both as effective as
> each other, despite being so completely different.
Chapter 7 starts off hard because you have no useable weapon except your damage barriers, then when you get a double edged sword it gets easier until you get the mace, it takes off limbs quite quickly and damages the enime to the extent of 'one hit wonders' where you hit the enime in the head once and it's ready for finishing off.
I'm a sword fanatic myslef, but the shotgun was quite good as well, especially when i's enchanted.
Everytime I know that i'm gonna need some help I enchant the weapon I'm gonna use,and if I already know what color magick my enime is using I just use the counter colour.
I'm a sword fanatic myslef, but the shotgun was quite good as well, especially when i's enchanted.
Everytime I know that i'm gonna need some help I enchant the weapon I'm gonna use,and if I already know what color magick my enime is using I just use the counter colour.
No post on Sundays!
Grrrrrr!
Monday then.............hopefully.......
Grrrrrr!
Monday then.............hopefully.......
maddmun wrote:
> You know, you'd probably win a GAD if you put this in ukreviews and
> ill show you which bits to delete, unless of courese, you've already
> done that.
>
> delete this bit and you've got a great review, unless it will all fit
> in, which i doubt
Just to make it clear, this topic isn't a review, it's a discussion comparing Eternal Darkness with Resident Evil and Nintendo's previous games. I will do a review of Eternal Darkness, but not as long as this, and ofcourse having much reduced content about other games.
Treat it as a review if you like, I don't mind, but to me, it's just a discussion about Nintendo taking up a new style.
> You know, you'd probably win a GAD if you put this in ukreviews and
> ill show you which bits to delete, unless of courese, you've already
> done that.
>
> delete this bit and you've got a great review, unless it will all fit
> in, which i doubt
Just to make it clear, this topic isn't a review, it's a discussion comparing Eternal Darkness with Resident Evil and Nintendo's previous games. I will do a review of Eternal Darkness, but not as long as this, and ofcourse having much reduced content about other games.
Treat it as a review if you like, I don't mind, but to me, it's just a discussion about Nintendo taking up a new style.
Page: