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There has been a lot of buzz -- both good and bad -- about Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem lately. Recent attendees of Nintendo's Cube Club events have loved and hated it for different reasons. Some found the game's unique character classes and moody environments intriguing while others claimed that it all moved too slowly and without organization.
Really, though, it's almost impossible to form an intelligent opinion about Eternal Darkness at this point because nobody -- including the press, knows fully about it. Sure enough, we've played through the three-level demo of the title at Space World 2001 and the Cube Clubs, but we've barely graced the surface of what's hiding underneath -- still protected by developer Silicon Knights and Nintendo.
What we do know for sure is that the basic mechanics, storyline and ideas -- the backbone of Eternal Darkness, have not changed since the game's initial unveiling for N64 so many years ago. With this in mind, we've gone back down memory lane, compiled quotes, facts, details and media, and tried to unravel a little more about what's to come from the dark and twisted GameCube project. And you might just be surprised by what you didn't know.
Back to the Past
The storyline revolves around a race of ancient beings that have remained dormant, hidden within the Earth. They have decided that the time is right to once again regain the planet, presumably waiting for a particular event -- quite possibly an eclipse or alignment of the worlds, before taking complete action. But this hasn't stopped a hidden society of greedy, power-seeking humans from attempting to bring about these events quicker. Eternal Darkness follows the adventures of 13 unwitting heroes across a time span of 2000 years -- from 100AD to the late 1990s. It's these unsuspecting participants who must use all of their skills, their wits, and their weapons to save mankind from what could be its greatest threat -- and yet even they don't know exactly what they're fighting.
Of course, most of this information was previously known about the game. But travel back with us to E3 1999 for more news. Here, we learned about the title's characters in greater explanation than at any other event since. Developer Silicon Knights showcased some of the eras from the adventure, too.
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Joseph and Jacques De Molay
First, we saw an area in which an armor-clad Knight Templar -- presumably Joseph De Molay (later named at E3 2001) explored a castle. The character, bearing a holy cross on his chest, wielded a big sword and traveled both inside and outside of the structure. At one point the hero ran into an enemy that closely resembled a bandaged mummy. Repeated attempts to slice and dice the foe proved worthless for every time one of its appendages was cut it would simply regenerate. Careful examination of the room, though, revealed a torch nearby. Smart players quickly discovered that the knight could use the torch to ignite the mummy-like creature, which would then burn to death. This particular portion of the game has since remained absent from every other appearance of Eternal Darkness, though the character himself has returned. One interesting fact about the character of Joseph De Molay is that he's undoubtedly inspired by real life events. Based on historical facts, we know that in the thirteenth and fourteen centuries, the Knights Templar was formed to protect Christian pilgrims on route to the Holy Land. The Knights, bound by religious beliefs, rose to power and became respected warriors. They in fact fought alongside King Richard the Lion Hearted and other Crusaders in the war for the Holy Lands. But in 1307 the Templar was broken forever. Fearing their growing strength and in desperate need of funds, King of France Phillip the Fair led a charge to have all of the Knights arrested on grounds of heresy. The once-renowned religious warriors were tortured, made to confess all sorts of anti-religious lies, and eventually killed. In 1314, the last Grand Master of the Knights Templar, Jacques De Molay, was burned at the stake. De Molay is rumored to have cursed both Phillip the Fair and Pope Clement as flames ravaged him. One month later the Pope died and seven months later France's king was laid to rest.
Playing Dead
Speaking of curses, black magic plays a big part in the storyline of Eternal Darkness. In 1999, we encountered the dark arts firsthand. A still secret, but playable character -- presumably a king's aid from the eight or ninth century, had come into a scroll that must be delivered. Except unbeknownst to him, the scroll had been enchanted with black magic and as soon as he touched it -- poof -- he died. But he doesn't realize that he expired himself, and continued onward whilst slowly, but surely transforming into a zombie. At first, this change was unnoticeable, but as the minutes passed, he became steadily sicker, his complexion significantly more disturbing. This, it seems, also had a bearing on his reality. A highly publicized 'sanity meter' in the game measures the level of sanity each character possesses and when the meter runs dry odd things start to happen. The first signs that this particular character was going insane were his own, unpredictable blubberings -- as he explored the castle, he started to talk wildly and crazily to himself. The effect was unnerving. Describing this scene in 1999, we wrote: "Then we opened a door into a hallway and noticed some blood dripping from one of the walls. We closed the door behind us, turned around, and went back in – the blood was gone. But that was nothing. We proceeded to the next room and halfway through it our character's head simply exploded. It rolled around on the ground in a bloody mess and we had to try and grab it to put the damn thing back on our shoulders. It took us a minute, but we did it. Once our head was securely fastened once more to our body, a white flash overtook the screen and all of a sudden we were back in the previous room. The character had hallucinated the entire sequence." Similar 'insanity effects' have since shown up in updated versions of the title running on GameCube, along with others including paintings that change subtly from their original form when a player leaves and enters a room. But developer Silicon Knights stresses that what we haven't seen yet is the best to come.
We have no idea what ultimately happens to this character, but we expect that indeed he will remain dead. For the record, he has not been seen since the game's unveiling three years ago. There are other settings and characters, but if there is to be a primary hero, it is Alexendra Roivas. It is with she that the story of Eternal Darkness begins and presumably ends. In the Space World and Cube Club demo of Eternal Darkness, Alexendra runs through a mansion blasting zombies. This level does not actually exist in the final game -- it's been designed only to offer players a feel for things to come. But a journey back to our first hands-on with the adventure reveals more:
Introducing the Hero and the Nemesis
The blonde-haired beauty arrived at her grandfather's mansion in the middle of the night to identify his dead remains. He has suffered a bloody demise. Hours after the police question her and departed, she became curious. Her grandfather's estate could hold the answers to his untimely death and she wanted them. After some exploration, she came upon a book tucked away in the study of his library room. The book opened up and a fantastically ambient in-game cut-scene previewed various flashes of eerie events. All of this was accompanied by a voice, which explained that the book has not been written for the benefit of the reader, but rather to warn them against interfering. Alexendra opened the book and the pages folded, and revealed different chapters. The story of Pious Augustus, Roman Centurion from 100 AD, was featured in one of the chapters. Alexandra watched the story of Pious unfold as the camera zoomed into the action. We can only assume that portions of the game are linked by this mysterious dark book. Indeed, the book is the key to all of the game's many time zones, which range -- believe it or not, from 100AD to Charlemagne, the Knights Templar, World War I and even Desert Storm. There is even an area in which players take on the role of a monk during the Inquisition. What's interesting is that the story of the game actually sees at least one of these characters in two time zones, and players will notice that the hero has aged considerably since they last encountered him.
Pious Augustus, we know, becomes a dark figure in the story of Eternal Darkness. After entering the ancient area equipped with three magic alters -- officially called the "Doom Decision Room" by Silicon Knights -- he chooses his fate. Whatever alter players pick has a profound impact on the progression of the adventure. There are subtle changes such as different colored clothing on characters and what monsters they encounter and there are more grand ones, according to the developer, that we still have no idea about. But for sure, this initial decision will weigh on the ending of the game.
What has scarcely been demonstrated is Eternal Darkness' deep magic system. While each character can use a host of weapons unique to their time period (and many, like the Knight Templar, even fight in the accustomed style of their era), there is also an expansive list of spells, both damaging and healing, that play into the adventure. In 1999, we witnessed the spell system. A character enchanted one of their swords and the weapon raised into the air, hovered, and was encapsulated by a grand flash of lighting bolts. It looked fantastic even then, and we imagine it'll look even better for GameCube. Spells can also be used to directly kill foes or generate temporary shields for players, in addition to many other abilities that we still don't know about. The magic system is incredibly well defined and features hundreds of hidden spells, and it has been intentionally removed from all the latest demos of Eternal Darkness so as to not reveal too much. There are several other mysteries about Eternal Darkness too. The alleged 40-60 hour adventure is filled with different enemies, but so far we've only witnessed a few -- many of which appear to be zombies. A journey back a couple of years to the N64 version of the game, though, brings up memories of reptilian-like things that, when touched, transported our character to a seemingly alternate dimension -- perhaps a hallucination and then again, maybe not. This, though, happens to be another element of the title that we know very little about, and Silicon Knights has remained cautious about revealing more.
Furthermore, even now we only know the basics of the storyline. And if rumors are to be believed, there are more than four and a half hours of in-game cinematics and dialogue to be uncovered, which suggests an epic undertaking awaits players.
The wait, though, for more concrete details about Eternal Darkness is truly nearing its end. In January, Nintendo and Silicon Knights are expected to house the first real unveiling of the immense adventure in non-demo form, and we think that gamers will be pleasantly surprised by what's still being kept in the dark. (from IGN)
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