Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem

released on Jun 23, 2002

Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem is a psychological horror action adventure, released in 2002 by Nintendo for the Gamecube. It tells the stories of twelve characters that span across the world and two millennia who have to deal with ancient forces of evil which have been trying to manifest themselves in our world. Chapters take place in Ancient Rome, Persia, the Middle East, and modern-day Rhode Island. Throughout the game, the protagonists will have access to several weapons appropriate for their era, from bastard sword & gladius to flintlock pistol and shotgun. The game features an involved Magic system, which allows different spells to be created through the combination of runes. These spells can attack enemies, dispel illusions, and heal both the body and items. Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem also has a unique feature called Sanity. If an enemy sees a character, their Sanity meter drops. When Sanity gets low, hallucinations begin to plague the character. Walls bleed, voices whisper from nowhere, the camera gets disoriented. Sanity can be restored by dealing a finishing move on a dying enemy, or with spells or some items.


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I honestly believe this game doesn’t receive all the attention it deserves. Probably, it’s because it was launched on GmaeCube and not on more popular PlayStation/Xbox. The game, however, is one of the best titles of its generation. The way the story is served is unique. I like how it embraces many epochs and shows how evil plans can be prepared over the centuries. The fighting mechanics are pretty funny at first. Chopping the enemies' heads and hands entertains you for a few first hours but then you either run towards the enemies to get to the interest point faster or smash them into heads like it’s Morrowind. Focusing on enemies is kinda of laggy imo, and it’s another reason to not partake in fights. Also, it destroys the shooting mechanics. Shooting is not so “juicy” in this game, so I prefer melee combat. The camera angles are pretty disturbing as well. There’s a semi-fixed camera in this game and sometimes you just can’t see your enemies. Wrapping up, I’d recommend this game to everybody interested in 2000’s videogames. It’s 4/5 from me.

I enjoyed it. Story telling was good, but gameplay was very lacking at times. Some puzzles were so cryptic I don't think I could have solved them without resorting to guides or bashing my head against a wall for hours.

Even for a 20 year old game, it did so many things that surprised me. I tried to spend as much time with low sanity as possible, but it seems really easy to replenish it anyway. I wish there wasn't as much backtracking at times.

Entiendo ahora por qué todos dicen que es tan bueno, pero para mí, nunca sentí terror, pero hace 20 años me hubiera muerto de terror sin duda alguna.

Despite it's tiring level reuse, clunky menu and lack of tension later in the game, Eternal Darkness is pretty great. It's extremely flavourful and unique construction sets it apart from so many other horror games, even to this day. It's cosmic horror influences are captured wonderfully, both thematically and mechanically. Taking control of so many characters throughout the history of humanity, and the story managing to balance and tie them so well together was a real treat. The gameplay has also aged surprisingly well, with fluid controls and a limb dismemberment system that predates Dead Space's popularization of it. Such a shame that Eternal Darkness wasn't more successful and Silicon Knights later imploded in on itself, the game deserved so much better.

Survival horror meets psychological thriller in ED. An ancient tome has cursed generations of people, and you'll control each of them in their descent toward insanity. Neck and limb targeting makes even the little fights exhilarating, while endeavors to confound the player IRL often succeed.

This game is so wild, and remains super unique and fascinating. It's a pity so few games have taken hints from it.