"A Game That Plays You."
by Stuart Newsom

One of the biggest winning points of a game is how much it draws you in. Some games are gameplay time machines, where you sit down, say, “I’m just gonna play for a little bit,” and then nine hours later you’re still playing, wondering where the time went and where the puddle under your feet came from. Some games draw you in with their story, engrossing you in the character’s struggles and allowing you to connect with them. Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem, however, draws you in by completely and totally ‘effing with your mind.

The story is all about this woman, Alexandra Rovias, investigating the murder of her grandfather in a mansion in Rhode Island. During her investigation, she finds and begins to read a book called The Tome of Eternal Darkness. While reading about the book’s characters, such as a Roman centurion that turns into a Lich, a Cambodian slave girl, a rich American colonial doctor, and a Canadian firefighter in the early ‘90s, she begins experiencing their lives and the horrible supernatural things that happens to them. After the gameplay and story with one character is done, you revert back to Alexandra and go on your scary, merry way to the next part of the story. Simple enough. A little in the Resident Evil realm in some cases, and the graphics are nothing to be amazed over (it was originally designed as a N64 game). But where the game wins is in its ability to play the player.

“Play the player…?” you ask? Oh yes, you get played. See, on the screen is a lovely green bar called the “sanity meter” – a concept that was actually patented by Nintendo. This meter gets depleted under certain conditions, like being seen by an enemy, and gets refilled by dramatically killing said enemies. As the bar drops, a couple of strange things happen as reflection of your character losing their mind and fleeing from reality. If their sanity goes bye-bye, it starts to hurt your health. Doesn’t sound too groundbreaking yet…

Oh, just wait. The symptoms start out harmless enough: the camera begins to tilt and all of a sudden you hear women and children crying in pain and terror. Standard horror stuff. Lose some more sanity and now all of the paintings and statues in the background are following your every movement and the walls are bleeding. Creepier still, but not all that bad. Then you try to do a spell…and your head falls off. Wait. What? Yet, you’re still alive and now have to piece yourself back together. Weird, but not too bad.

Well, you’re all pieced back together magically and on your way. All is good, everything’s fine…and then an error message pops up on your screen stating that your memory card has been corrupted and all data will now be erased. Wait…WHAT? What the ‘eff is going on?! Well, in all honesty, it’s all in your head. None of these things are glitches; they’re all PART OF THE GAMEPLAY. It’s breaking the forth wall to the nth degree and the only way you can really screw yourself over is if you actually believe what you’re being told. Other evil little fourth wall-breakers include “disconnecting your controller,” making certain buttons “not work,” turning up and down the volume of your TV, and bringing up the legendary Blue Screen of Death. Luckily, all these effects only last for a brief moment before a white flash brings you crashing back to reality.

Eternal Darkness did something that no other game had ever really done before. It not only drew you in, but decided to ‘eff with you as well. Sadly, it seemed that the players didn’t want to deal with this, however, because, even though it was a critical darling, the game didn’t sell very well. I find that unfair, really. We spend so much time as gamers playing our video games. It’s only fair that they get to play us, too.

Overall Rating: 8 out of 10