Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem

[Spike]

I am playing this for the first time and it is fantastic so far. From 2002 and really holds up. Really, I should say it is modern gaming that on the whole does not hold up to this standard from the good old days. Anything else with this sense of mystery? Or atmosphere? I want something with that Diablo 2/The Mummy (1999)/The Mummy Returns (2001) vibe. This game absolutely has that. Highly competent, fantastic game. It really feels like this adventure with intrigue into a supernatural enemy, coupled with swordplay and whatnot. Even if the swordplay is simple and besides-the-point, it is still a part of the experience. I can name one game myself: Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy. Maybe I'm just looking for adventures that have a sand setting at some point. Gothic 1 and 2 also have this adventurey-vibe. Something about the early 2000s...True kino.

 

[Halfling Rodeo]

What makes you enjoy it? I rented it back in the day and only played for around an hour. Felt really clunky back then and it's main gimmick didn't really do much for me

 

[Denim Destroyer]

Eternal Darkness would of been much better if mana was restored in any other way than simply by walking. Low on health? Cast your restoration spell then walk in small circle to refill mana. This is even more egregious with sanity as it can be restored with magic meaning it is too easy to miss all of the low sanity effects. Killing monsters should have been the only thing to restore sanity. The game held my interest long enough to play through once but in the years since I have had no interest in touching it again.

 

[Spike]

What makes you enjoy it? I rented it back in the day and only played for around an hour. Felt really clunky back then and it's main gimmick didn't really do much for me

Nah it isn't clunky. RE 1-3 are clunky. This isn't tank controls. The art direction, atmosphere, storytelling, how tight all the controls feel...This kind of fun mystery you're slowly uncovering against these huge epic forces of truly arcane evil. The Lovecraft influence. The fact that the gameplay is made to facilitate little experiences adding up to a true feeling of adventure/uncovering the unknown. Example: Maybe I am a simple man, but simply avoiding the traps in that temple as Ellia is super satisfying and fun. The controls are precise and tight in my experience. Further, the fact you need to, even simply, use swords to put down these otherworldly ghouls is just my jam I guess. I love anything that has a "1930s-to-2000s archaeologist uncovering ancient horrors" vibe. Although in this, you are investigating your grandfather's murder to kick things off but it's clear your grandpa is something of an adventurer (and more...). I am also a huge history nerd so I love how it spans centuries in this truly cosmic conflict. And each setting is so well executed. It just rules. This isn't even my first kind of genre I play, then again the game itself is a kind of mish-mash of genres to begin with.

 

[Halfling Rodeo]

What makes you enjoy it? I rented it back in the day and only played for around an hour. Felt really clunky back then and it's main gimmick didn't really do much for me

Nah it isn't clunky. RE 1-3 are clunky. This isn't tank controls. The art direction, atmosphere, storytelling, how tight all the controls feel...This kind of fun mystery you're slowly uncovering against these huge epic forces of truly arcane evil. The Lovecraft influence. The fact that the gameplay is made to facilitate little experiences adding up to a true feeling of adventure/uncovering the unknown. Example: Maybe I am a simple man, but simply avoiding the traps in that temple as Ellia is super satisfying and fun. The controls are precise and tight in my experience. Further, the fact you need to, even simply, use swords to put down these otherworldly ghouls is just my jam I guess. I love anything that has a "1930s-to-2000s archaeologist uncovering ancient horrors" vibe. Although in this, you are investigating your grandfather's murder to kick things off but it's clear your grandpa is something of an adventurer (and more...). I am also a huge history nerd so I love how it spans centuries in this truly cosmic conflict. And each setting is so well executed. It just rules. This isn't even my first kind of genre I play, then again the game itself is a kind of mish-mash of genres to begin with.

ED being melee based makes it a lot more clunky than the original REs to me. Guns can do a lot to make a combat system less of a hassle.

It sounds like you found a game that really gels with you. That's really cool and I hope you get the most out of it. Doesn't happen often but it's great when it does.

 

[Fedora Master]

 

[Spike]

Watching this when I complete this kino.

 

[Alienman]

Great game. The ending segment is a bit of a pain though. It's such a slog to get through. Lots and lots of areas to run through, and monsters to kill. And then you have to do 2 more times to get the true ending.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

Great game hampered by horrific controls. This game could definitely benefit from a (faithful) remake.

 

[Morpheus Kitami]

Having not played it, it strikes me that for a lot of people, myself included, you really missed out on something by not playing it near release. From what I've seen, a lot of the sanity gimmicks rely on you playing it on an original console on a period TV. Considering how expensive the game is these days and how exceedingly unlikely you are to have such a TV around, that's becoming less and less possible as time goes on. A remake would be nice, though I doubt it'll happen considering what happened to Silicon Knights.

 

[KafkaBot]

It's a good game with excellent atmosphere, but far too easy. Most notably, you have to intentionally refrain from "healing" your sanity to see all those effects that made the game famous.

Spoiler

It is also not really that replayable, even with the different artifacts, so the fact that you have to finish it three times to get the true ending is a bit annoying.

That said, it's definitely a must play for those who like horror games, since there's nothing quite like it out there. It's just a bit tragic that it's a title that feels like a prelude to greater things, but sadly, those things never came.