New Eternal Darkness Titles Promised 66
1up reports that Silicon Knights, maker of the Too Human and Eternal Darkness games, have promised they plan to return to Eternal Darkness at some point in the future. I wouldn't hold your breath for it, though. Any sequel to the Lovecraft-inspired horror title will be some time in coming. From the article: "'Although this [Eternal Darkness 1] is just one story we had in mind for the Eternal Darkness universe, there are even more manipulations, great ancients, and numerous other stories to tell...' The outspoken developer continues on by describing how their plans for Eternal Darkness tie into Too Human, as well; the upcoming trilogy represents an evolution of the studio's concept for Eternal Darkness. Instead of holding off on sequel treatments, however, they've instead decided to plan an overarching three-part story from day one. "
Eternal Darkness: (Score:2)
It is not a game, it is a screensaver !
Re:Eternal Darkness: (Score:1)
I, Lucifer, Promise Eternal Darkness (Score:3, Funny)
Eternal Darkness.
No moonlight. No starlight. No damn sunlight. Just darkness.
fo'real.
However I require minions - hence I appeal here amongst the dark dwellers, the basement lurkers, the sunlight avoiders - join me, and become all powerful - the meek shall rise in my dominion of pain and fire. Dark Fire. Very dark black evil fire. And chains and non-stop Industrial Noise. And Britney. My Eternal Kingdom of Darkness, With Me, and YOU, leading the afflicted, the ex-sunlight people.
Join me! Sign up here, today, and receive a free 'eternal darkness' ballpoint pen. Black ink, of course
Re:I, Lucifer, Promise Eternal Darkness (Score:2)
Re:I, Lucifer, Promise Eternal Darkness (Score:1)
I require minions - hence I appeal here amongst the dark dwellers, the basement lurkers, the sunlight avoiders - join me, and become all powerful - the meek shall rise in my dominion of pain and fire. Dark Fire. Very dark black evil fire. And chains and non-stop Industrial Noise. And Britney.
Damn. You had me right up 'til the Britney part.
Since the OP didn't say what the F these games are (Score:5, Informative)
http://cube.ign.com/articles/363/363071p1.html [ign.com]
"Developer Silicon Knights' psychological thriller Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem [...]travels gamers through the depths of time and challenges them to complete quests using a dozen different characters[...]GameCube"
It's apparently some sort of Alone In The Dark survival horror thing, on the Gamecube.
Re:Since the OP didn't say what the F these games (Score:4, Funny)
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/adventure/aloneintheda
"The Alone in the Dark games cast you as private eye Edward Carnby (in the first game you can also play as a woman named Emily Hartwood), investigating a series of deaths and disappearances, all of which are
linked to the occult or the supernatural."
It's apprently some sort of nothing-like-eternal-darnkness survival myster thing, on PC.
Re:Since the OP didn't say what the F these games (Score:3, Insightful)
Honestly, the people most interested in this story are the ones who know what it is. It's easy enough to skip the story if you don't know.
Re:Since the OP didn't say what the F these games (Score:1)
Re:Since the OP didn't say what the F these games (Score:1)
The major draw for Eternal Darkness was the 'insanity effects'. As whatever character you were playing at the moment ran into more zombies, flying deamons and whatnot, your sanity meter would drop. At first the effects are subtle, bells ringing, small objects moving. However, as your meter neared depletion, the effects would go far further. Attacks from non-existant monsters, random head explosions, and my favorites
Re:Since the OP didn't say what the F these games (Score:1)
Re:Since the OP didn't say what the F these games (Score:1)
Re:Since the OP didn't say what the F these games (Score:1)
The game runs a lot like a survival horror game, although it's told as a multi-part story in many different times with many different characters. The story is tied together with a main character who reads the events of the other chapters in a book, as pages are found throughout her dead grandfather's house, although you don't get to do much fighting with her until the end.
Interestingly for such a dark storyline, there are surprising moments of humor once in a while, mos
Re:Since the OP didn't say what the F these games (Score:1)
Thanks. I was thinking of a different game (Score:2)
If you're not familiar with the Gamecube game... (Score:2)
SO awesome!
Re:If you're not familiar with the Gamecube game.. (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:If you're not familiar with the Gamecube game.. (Score:2)
Re:If you're not familiar with the Gamecube game.. (Score:1)
Re:If you're not familiar with the Gamecube game.. (Score:1)
It turns out my VGA adaptor broke.
Why you should care (Score:5, Informative)
You could call it a "survival horror" and leave it at that, but it hardly seems much like Silent Hill or Resident Evil. In those games, the fear is created by the big scary monster in the next room. You can eventually desensitize yourself to that kind of fear by playing on the assumption that there's a monster around every corner.
In Eternal Darkness the fear is created by the sense that you are losing your mind. There are hundreds of little tricks the game uses to mess with your mind, and they're so varied and frequent that at least a few of them will catch even the most hardened player off guard.
On top of the sanity system, the game has a fantastic atmosphere that's Lovecraft-inspired but spans many different eras in human history. You'll play in Ancient Persia, Medieval Europe, 1950's America- and each time as a different (and likely doomed) protagonist.
There's also some fairly complex (in console terms) magic and combat systems.
If you own a Gamecube, this game is very much worth playing (or even owning). It can easily be found used for under $10.
Re:Why you should care (Score:1)
Re:Why you should care (Score:2)
Re:Why you should care (Score:1)
Re:Why you should care (Score:4, Informative)
Oh, I dunno. Some of them had repeat value. The size-adjusting ones, for example. Because it was a gradual change there was always this moment of thinking your eyes were tried before realising what was going on.
Also I found the basic insanity was really qutie creepy. Tilted screen, windchimes in the background and a constant buzz of screams and voices. If nothing else, I found it quite unsettling. It certainly conveyed the feeling of "something's not quite right", and gave a visual barometer of insanity without needing to see the green meter.
Re:Why you should care (Score:3, Informative)
In CoC the neat game mechanic was that the *character* was going insane. But with Eternal Darkness the game breaks the fourth wall and makes you think that *you* (yes, you the *player*) are going insane. That's why no one can talk about the effects without spoiling them for future players. The trick only works if you don't expect it.
Re:Why you should care (Score:1)
Re:Why you should care (Score:2)
Amen, if a friend of mine hadn't had a Gamecube already (convenient =P) this would have been the one game that made me buy a GCN.
Wind Waker was great, too, some other stuff were nice party games but Eternal Darkness is brilliant and a Gamecube exclusive and to me (YMMV) it's the only game with that special combination of attributes =)
Re:Why you should care (Score:1)
The magic system is great, except it's way overpowered. Your magic meter recharges simply by moving around. Once you get the recover spell about 1/3 thru the game, there is no more challenge. You recover some health, walk in a circle a few times, and then you can cast it again.
As for the combat, it's interesting how it lets you target different body parts, however, there really isn't any reason to target anything other than the hea
Re:Why you should care (Score:2)
Re:Why you should care (Score:2)
Re:Why you should care (Score:2)
While I agree Eternal darkness was good, it certainly wasn't anything revolutionary. Many surival horror games before it were just as good as ED. Take RE4 for instance, a game that just oozes amazingness.
Eternal darkness for me, while it was good, lacked in some instances in overall experience. Not to mention the sales were not exactly mindboggling if my mind
Re:Why you should care (Score:1)
Re:Why you should care (Score:1)
The sp
Re:Why you should care (Score:1)
Re:"I wouldn't hold your breath" (Score:1)
Doesnt Nintendo have the rights to the IP? (Score:3, Interesting)
The only other viable situation would be for the game to come out on the Wii, but that wont happen unless the poeple at Ninendo or those at Silicon KNights that were central to the split have parted ways or something.
Of course, I could just be wildly mistaken about who currently holds the rights to the IP.
END COMMUNICATION
Re:Doesnt Nintendo have the rights to the IP? (Score:3, Funny)
I could see it going either way. ED was an *awesome* game, but it apparently sold very poorly, so I doubt Nintendo is really going to hold tightly onto it.
It seems like kind of a moot point, though. Silicon Knights finished Blood Omen (with the help of some Crystal Dynamics staff) in 1996. Eternal Darkness didn't come out until seven years later. Too Human is *still* unreleased, and they were working on that as a PS1 t
Re:Doesnt Nintendo have the rights to the IP? (Score:1)
Re:Doesnt Nintendo have the rights to the IP? (Score:1)
Re:Doesnt Nintendo have the rights to the IP? (Score:1)
But that was a sale, this wasn't.
Just sayin', is all...
Re:Narokath Santak Chattur'gha (Score:3, Informative)
From what Dyack has to say in an interview here [gamasutra.com], SK learned a lot from Nintendo and here [ign.com] he stated that future games with Nintendo would be a possibility.
They probably have some rough storyline ideas and could even have some Wiimote gameplay ideas. Dyack bringing up Eternal Darkness again means that there could be talks... or not.
Re:Narokath Santak Chattur'gha (Score:2)
Yeah, but Pure Evil holds it all together. It's like epoxy resin, that Pure Evil.
Eternal Darkness worth a Slashdot article? (Score:2)
Maybe it can be considered a decent niche game, but nothing major.
I received it bundled with my Gamecube, but I gave up after 3 hours of play: I was bored.
The cool part: the "insanity" concept. Nothing new but it worked rather well.
The bad part: which zombie size do you want today? S/M/L? Because that is the only monster you will see for hours. Ahhh, another room full of: 3 Small zombies, 2 medium ones and one big one. Woah, exciting...
Anyway, if yo
Re:Eternal Darkness worth a Slashdot article? (Score:2)
Re:Eternal Darkness worth a Slashdot article? (Score:2)
If you like games for the story and presentation, Eternal Darkness is great. If the gameplay is what you care about, it's a horrible game.
Re:Eternal Darkness worth a Slashdot article? (Score:1)
One of the major reasons ED may have failed to live up to some players expectations is the genre its in. Most people were likely expecting another Resident Evil like game, or Silent Hill. Instead, they got an Adventure game with a little Action thrown in, and a healthy dose of insanity.
For Counter-Strike playing twitc
Re:Eternal Darkness worth a Slashdot article? (Score:2)
Presentation is quite good, I agree, but story? Whats so good about the story? It basically works like this:
1) run around with Alexandra, find a page of the book
2) jump into a character
3) you walk around killing zombies
4) you die
5) goto 1
Thats for all the twelve or so characters that are in the game, none of the characters ever gets any deepth, history or interesting dialog to speak.
Re:Eternal Darkness worth a Slashdot article? (Score:1)
Re:Eternal Darkness worth a Slashdot article? (Score:2)
You need to try American McGee's Alice (sorry, IBM PC & Mac only.) That game has imagination and insanity up the wazoo. (Actually, kind of literally. The whole game is a trip through a nightmarish version of wonderland is essentially some sort of exploration of Alice's psyche after she had a serious mental breakdown.) [gamespot.com]
Re:Eternal Darkness worth a Slashdot article? (Score:2)
Re:Eternal Darkness worth a Slashdot article? (Score:1)
If you're interested in dark reimaginings of classic tales you might want to take a look at Todd McFarlane's Oz series of figures http://www.spawn.com/toys/series.aspx?series=184 [spawn.com]. Dorothy is a gothic nymphette and toto's a morbidly obese hellhound.... pretty weird.
Re:Who cares? (Score:2)
Re:Who cares? (Score:1)
Ok, so they had no choice in that, that I can accept. I still say they
Re:Who cares? (Score:2)
Let's hope for more than the first one gave us (Score:4, Informative)
Even the "reuse" of places, something I usually loathe in games because it makes it look cheap, was very well explained in the story, the places grew from level to level and it was quite interesting to see them "develop" and change during the centuries. A small chapel from the 8th century turns, in a later level, into a cathedral (about 15th century), which is then used as a military hospital during WW1.
What bugged me to no end was its length. It was simply too short. First game lasted 20 hours, replays can be done in just under 5. And there's little reason to replay it. Aside of beating it with all the 3 available "gods" (and thus get to see the ultimate ending), I found no "easter egg", no goodie to be unlocked, no bonus to be had.
If they manage to give it more story and longer gameplay, this is going to define new standards for the horror genre.