Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem
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| Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem | |
| Missing image Eternal_Darkness_box.jpg Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem box cover | |
| Developer(s) | Silicon Knights |
| Publisher(s) | Nintendo |
| Release date(s) | June 24, 2002 |
| Genre | Survival horror |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: Mature (M) |
| Platform(s) | Nintendo GameCube |
Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem is a survival horror video game exclusive for the Nintendo GameCube, based loosely on the writings of H. P. Lovecraft. Developed by Canadian developer Silicon Knights, it was released on June 24, 2002 and published by Nintendo.
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Plot synopsis
The plot of the game revolves around protagonist Alexandra Roivas, who is investigating the mysterious murder of her grandfather Edward Roivas. While exploring his Rhode Island mansion, she discovers a secret room containing, among other odd items, a tome bound with human flesh. When she reads this "Tome of Eternal Darkness," she experiences a scene in the life of Pious Augustus, a respected Roman Centurion from 26 BC. Pious is lead by mysterious voices to an underground temple, where he chooses one of three mysterious artifacts. The artifact transforms him into an undead skeleton, and slave to of one of the three Ancients, powerful godlike beings whose "essences" are incarnated as the artifacts. As the plot unfolds, it becomes clear that Pious is attempting to summon his Ancient into reality, while the powerful fourth "Corpse God" Mantorok is bound on the Earth already and helpless to stop it.
As the player discovers more Chapters of the Tome, they find themselves in control of other individuals who have crossed paths with Pious or other servants of the Ancients over the centuries, and as a result come in contact with the Tome itself. While many of these individuals meet a sinister fate, their cooperation ultimately gathers the essences of the three remaining ancients in the mansion. Alexandra's own ancestors discover the long-deserted City of Eng'gha beneath the mansion, and powerful magickal machinery inside. Alexandra powers this up with the Ancients' essences, and summons a rival ancient to fight Pious'.
While the two Ancients fight, Alexandra engages in combat with Pious with the aid of the spirits of the other characters encountered, ultimately destroying his Ancient's essence. It loses the fight above as Alexandra kills Pious. Then, realizing that they have just brought another powerful ancient into the world, Alexandra's grandfather's spirit quickly sends the other Ancient back where it came from; he expresses his pride before he disappears.
After completing the game under all three allignments, it is revealed that all three ancients have been destroyed — "All at once, separate and simultaneous, for the universe is made of many timestreams, many possibilites, all in harmonious sychronicity." Because he was bound, and not powerful enough to stop Pious Augustus himself, Mantorok manipulated the Roivas family, and other chosen ones, into completing the work for him. He orchestrates the deaths of all three ancients, in separate timestreams, and then connects them all, resulting in the annihilation of all three allignments. In the end, only the corpse god Mantorok is still alive, festering somewhere in his hidden tomb, plotting.
Gameplay innovations
Structure
Alexandra's part of the game, in the mansion in 2000, forms the hub. The player finds the book, and Pious' story, first. They then find the first Chapter Page which leads them onto the next section of the game as a different character. This character's story provides plot exposition, and once complete, the player as Alexandra has knowledge, an object, or an ability which allows them to find the next Chapter Page, and so on.
This cycle of new gameplay sections, leading to new abilities, leading to new gameplay sections, was first pioneered by Metroid, but Eternal Darkness was lauded for its application of the idea to a narrative with a variety of settings and time periods.
Alignments
The player may choose which of the three essences Pious attempts to claim at the start of the game. This determines which of the three Ancients he is aligned with, and subsequently which enemies dominate. The alignments have a Rock, Paper, Scissors relationship, which is important in the player's consideration of their own Magick use.
The Ancients are members of a species that existed before other life emerged from the Primordial Ooze. The relentless movement of ice and the continental drift and other "inscrutable" reasons bound the Ancients deep beneath the planet's surface, biding their time, waiting until it was right to return. The surviving Ancients are:
Ulyaoth, God of Magick : his creations are tinged blue, and their specialism is in Magick (see below). Ulyaoth has power over Chattur'gha.
Xel'lotath, Goddess of Wisdom and Madness : her underlings are tinged green, and have an affinity for affecting sanity (see below). Xel'lotath has power over Ulyaoth.
Chattur'gha, God of Power : his troops are tinged red, and focus on physical attacks and toughness. Chattur'gha has power over Xel'lotath.
Mantorok, God of Order and Chaos
Mantorok, God of Order and Chaos, is the creator of the Tome of Eternal Darkness. Although he appears in the game to be in a position of inferiority, he is actually the Ultimate God. He created the equilibrium between the Three Ancients, making sure that they would be bound to fight against each other and to destroy each other. Although the colour of his alignment is purple, he generates black Zombies.
- "How can you, a mere mortal, know what that entity represents or what power it wields? We know not."- Xel'lotath
Mantorok is the most powerful of all the Ancients, he is the Keeper of the Ancients and the warden of their prison. Mantorok's physical form is cumbersome and amorphous with several superfluous mouthes and eyes all based around one central mouth. Mantorok was bound by a very powerful nine-point binding spell cast by the Liche Pious Augustus and fueled by whichever Ancient he has aligned with. The binding consists of enchanted stakes that impale his flesh. The Mantorok alignment is more powerful than all other alignments but due to his bindings he is no longer able to power summoning spells so in that sense his rune is usless. Mantorok's essence is a dark black heart, one of his many hearts apparently, the heart does not stop beating, even after centuries of binding in which apparently Mantorok was dying.
Mantorok is the God of Chaos—his very being is chaotic—so he is the natural enemy of all the other Ancients, who strive to keep order in the universe. His chaotic energies are able to corrode the power of any magick fueled by the other Ancients. However, Mantorok's true power over the other three Ancients, Chattur'gha, Ulyaoth and Xel'lotath rests in his ability to manipulate them to his own end. By subtly manipulating the Roivas family and several others through the Tome of Eternal Darkness and using the power of the Ruin City of Eng'gha Mantorok was able to help fuel the summoning of the Ancient whose alignment defeats that of Pious Augustus, (Ulyaoth Defeats Chattur'gha, Chattur'gha defeats Xel'lotath, Xel'lotath defeats Ulyaoth) and then able to once again use the power of the city to bind the recently summoned Ancient.
Mantorok is neither good nor evil, although he is helping Alexsandra Roivas on her quest. Its power can be transmitted to items, and they overrule all the other Ancient enchargements. Mantorok is losing his former power, because of Pious' spells, and the other Ancients' growing power.
Magick
Unlike most games in the survival horror genre, Eternal Darkness offers magical powers for healing, solving puzzles, and experimenting in combat. For example, it is possible for the player to summon (and, if they wish, directly control) monsters similar to those they are fighting. This is achieved by a fairly intuitive system of "runes". An alignment rune (aligned to one of the 4 gods; Mantorok's rune is well hidden), an effect rune (decribing the action of the spell) and a target rune must be picked. For example, the spell for regaining health consists of the alignment rune for Chattur'gha, the effect rune for absorption, and the target rune for the self. As more runes are discovered, more combinations are possible, although not all have any effect. At a certain point, power runes may be added to spells to increase their power. Runes gathered during a chapter are available in all subsequent chapters, as well as the present day.
"Sanity Effects"
The game's standout concept is the "sanity meter", a green bar on screen which is depleted under various conditions, generally visual contact with an enemy. It can also be restored under various conditions, generally performing a "finishing move" on an enemy. If the bar remains depleted, increasingly bizarre effects occur; some affect the character, while others break the fourth wall and affect gameplay, but all are temporary. They do not affect gameplay unless the player misconstrues them as actual technical malfunctions and turns off his system, therefore losing all of his progress prior to his last save. One effect which is consistently used is a skewed camera angle accompanied by strange noises. The lower the sanity meter, the more skewed the camera angle becomes.
There are many different sanity effects, and it is possible to complete the game without seeing any of them. Therefore, they will not all be listed in order to avoid spoiling the surprise. Here are a few more commonplace examples:
- Walls bleed.
- When casting a spell, your character's body explodes.
- Your character accidentily shoots him or herself while loading a weapon.
- Appearance of monsters that are not really there.
- TV appearing to be turned off.
- Opening the menu screen and finding that all your items are gone.
Playable characters
- Pious Augustus (26 BC) - A Roman Centurion at war in the Middle East. The antogonist of the game.
- Karim (565) - A Persian swordsman, sent into the desert to find a treasure (one of the Ancient's essences) for his love, Chandra.
- Anthony (814) - A French messenger for Charlemagne the Frank. After discovering a curse intended for Charlemagne, he goes to save his life (but ultimately fails).
- Ellia (1150) - A Cambodian court dancer.
- Roberto Bianchi (1460) - A prisoner of war forced to work as an architect, called upon to help with the construction of the Pillar of Flesh.
- Paul Luther (1485) - A Fransican monk on a pilgrimage during the Spanish Inquisition.
- Maximillian Roivas (1760) - A rich doctor in colonial Rhode Island, ancestor of both Edward and Alex. After discovering the City of Eng'gha, he no longer knows who to trust, kills his servants, and is put in an asylum.
- Peter Jacobs (1916) - A field reporter during World War I.
- Edward Roivas (1952) - A clinical psychologist, Alex's grandfather.
- Edwin Lindsey (1983) - An archaeologist studying in Cambodia.
- Michael Edwards (1991) - A Canadian firefighter sent to extinguish the oil fires in the Middle East after the Gulf War.
- Alexandra Roivas (2000) - A student at Washington University. The game's main protagonist.
Note that the above list is in strict chronological order. Disregarding Alexandra's actions between chapters, and the return of other characters during the final battle, the player controls the characters in the following order:
- Pious Augustus
- Ellia
- Anthony
- Karim
- Maximillian Roivas
- Edwin Lindsey
- Paul Luther
- Roberto Bianchi
- Peter Jacobs
- Edward Roivas
- Michael Edwards
Creatures & Enemies
There is a variety of creatures in Eternal Darkness, all of which belong in to one of the three alignments the only exception being the generic Mantorok Zombie. It should be noted that Chattur'gha creatures are generally more powerful and can sustain more damage than the others. In comparison Xel'lotath creatures are weaker but tend to take away large amounts of sanity.
Trapper: Trappers are small blind scorpion like creatures that walk around and listen to things around them. If aggravated they begin scream loudly, wiggle their tail and eventually glow. If the aggravator moves too swiftly the Trapper will release energy that will transfer the aggravator to the Trapper Dimension. The trapper dies soon afterwards.
Zombie:
- Mantorok Zombies are very generic with no special skills or weaknesses aside the fact that they can burst in to flames if struck with a torch.
- Chattur'gha Zombies are the most durable. These hulking red masses of muscle become extremely aggravated if they are decapatated and will keep moving around and attacking blindly. It is therefore better to sever its hands first. Additionally these zombies' hands and head will eventually regenerate.
- Ulyaoth Zombies have a devious last-ditch attack. After taking sufficient damage they begin to sing and infect other Ulyaoth Zombies that are around (infected zombies can be distinguished by the glowing orb on their chest). Unless decapitated, the Ulyaoth Zombies will explode, not just causing damage but effectively preventing the player from regaining his/her sanity.
- Xel'lotath Zombies resemble Egyptian mummies and are not handicapped by the loss of limb as their limbs also have a phantom entity of sorts that still functions after the severing of the actual limb. However, the Xel'lotath Zombies are relatively weak and will also burst in to flames if hit by a torch. They can be defeated by decapitation, but if a finishing move is not performed them soon afterwards, they will get back up.
Horror: Horrors are large masses of pure muscle whose sole purpose is to devour anything that comes near them. Apart from striking the victim with their large claws the also have a long distance attack. They can perform a magickal attack that drains the element signified by the colour of the electricity that surrounds them. There are no great differences between horrors aside their appearance and all are instantly killed if their heads get severed.
Bonethief: A small insectoid creature that possesses people forcing them to attack the player. After taking sufficient damage they burst out from inside their host and attack them head-on. All except Xel'lotath Bonethieves are instantly killed through decapitation (Xel'lotath bonethieves have no heads).
Gatekeeper: Look like a mix between a scorpion, a human and a bat. Their presence is signified by the red, blue or green mist on the floor. They attack the player by stinging, momentarily immobilising them, and draining either his magick, sanity or health then summon creatures for him to fight. The Guardians can only be attacked when they open their wings which they only do if the player is close enough. Unlike most monsters, they constantly drain the player's sanity, instead of just when they first sight them.
The Guardians: Each of the Ancients (except Matorok) have their own guardians which enhabit the city of En'gha underneath the Roivas Mansion. They use spells to attack and defend themselves and all have the ability to take the form of a glowing orb that can move quickly to anywhere. The only real difference between these creatures is in their appearance and the alignment of their spells:
- The Guardians of Chattur'gha are gigantic spider-like creatures.
- The Guardians of Ulyaoth look like a mix between the bonethieves, a squid and a jellyfish
- The Guardians of Xel'lotath are bizarre green creatures that resemble to human bodies that are attached at the hip and who have no heads, only large horizontally opening mouths.
Vampire: This beast drains the life of the servants of Edward Roivas. Upon taking enough damage it returns to the cellar to heal itself from an enchanted rock. In order to kill this creature the player must destroy the stone. It can become invisible at will.
Black Guardian: This is a gigantic creature which inhabits a secret chamber underneath Oublie cathedral and guards one of the three artifacts that the player must collect. As Peter Jacob the player ends up fighting it as a mini-boss.
External links
- Eternal Darkness - Official Site (http://www.eternaldarkness.com/)