Eternal Darkness - first impressions
I bought this at EB today, quickly put my GameCube back together, and placed the ED disk inside.
I'm impressed, to say the least. I was expecting something very short of excellence, but this game puts a new twist on the survival horror genre.
The gameplay is smooth. The swords and guns are easy enough to manipulate without making it a bloodbath, and the puzzles, while simple, are charming so far. The targeting system is excellent, I love it. I finally feel I have control over my weapon instead of just swinging it madly and hoping I hit something. But don't worry, when cornered you still do have the option to swing wildly and hit everything around you, just with less power and accuracy. That's another thing, the enemies are plentiful and badass. They will rush at you, and you will need to concentrate on getting them on the ground while evading, constantly. Silicon Knights did a great job of mixing the action with exploring; you'll be battling many zombie and mummy freaks one minute, and exploring a hidden mansion room the next.
I have yet to experience the sanity effects.
With such nice flowing gameplay, I don't feel so bad about the first gen PS2 quality of the graphics. It's not that they're bad, they're just not anything to get excited over. The character models are nice, but appear blurry when up close. Some of the environments are rather bland as well. However, besides these minor descrepencies there are some beautiful textures included, and great effects. I'd also like to add that the enemy designs are beautiful.
Sound is impressive. Fires crackle intensely as you approach, and spit out loud sparks to spook you at times. The music is top notch, and I enjoy hearing instruments and voices from all over the world create the music depending on the setting. Swords slice through the air, and the blowgun has the appropriate "pfffffft" sound. The voice acting is commendable, including talent and emotion that is often missing from voiced games. Then again, this is Silicon Knights, so that's expected.
Those are my thoughts so far, and I will update accordingly as I discover more.
