E3 2001 Hands-on: Eternal Darkness

Eternal Darkness is an attempt to bring a popular movie genre--the psychological thriller--to consoles. The premise is a complicated one. Apparently, the lands that today house a haunted mansion were once home to a crypt once inhabited by great evil. Three characters placed at different key times in history and the present each delve into this mysterious area to cleanse it of the evil that lurks within. The hero must face mobs of skeletons, zombies, and more horrible demonic foes, all of which must be destroyed. The choice of protagonist to face these horrors is yours: You can choose between a Norman warrior, a medieval sorcerer, or a feisty modern-day woman. Each of these characters has individual attacks and must be played using different strategies. The warrior dual-wields a mace and ax, the sorcerer casts dazzling spells on his foes, and the modern-day woman is deadly with a pump-action shotgun.

The GameCube really shines at creating a moody atmosphere--the superb lighting effects blend beautifully with the haunting audio track. Fireplaces crackle and spark, while shadows that are cast from these real-time light sources loom ominously. The characters and environments are rendered nicely, and each main character is finely detailed and attractive. Movement was slightly jerky in the demo, but it should be fluid during both walk and run animations upon release. Attack animations are fluid and a joy to execute, whether it's the hacking of enemies with the ax or the pump-and-blast bliss of the shotgun.

Most of the game is spent with your character fighting off evil creatures, and to facilitate their destruction, a handy targeting function is used. In most cases, pressing the right shoulder button highlights the nearest target's midsection. Pulling the movement stick up will shift the targeting highlight for a headshot or can be used alternately to remove an enemy's limbs. Shooting or chopping off the appropriate limbs is necessary for foes that can regrow limbs or for those who can use their arms to mold a new skull. The action is very visceral, very gritty, and lots of fun. Disappointingly, although your character can become severely wounded, which then initiates a limping animation, there's a severe lack of quality blood from yourself and enemies. While causing flashes of light to erupt from your foes may entertain some, the otherwise creepy atmosphere suffers from this omission.

Fighting off evil has its effects on your formerly stable mind, however. As you traverse the dark passages, encountering monsters causes a decrease in your sanity meter. The lower your sanity meter gets, the more evil you will encounter--or so it would seem. Much of what you'll witness when bordering on insanity will be hallucinations and essentially harmless, save for its effect on your senses. During our trek through the haunted passageways, for example, our heroine stopped to answer the phone--only to hear deep breathing followed by a shallow scream.

Despite the many areas, monsters, cutscenes, and impressive voice clips we witnessed, we never noticed a single load time while experiencing the seamless demo. If the demo is a good example of what we can expect of the full version, then Eternal Darkness is one of the games to watch. We'll have more information as we approach Eternal Darkness' release date near the end of the year.