This survival horror game about ancient family curses showed us that fear can expand well beyond the limits of your TV screen.
In celebration of Halloween, we’re counting down the days with some of the greatest horror games ever made -- 31 of our favorites! Every day, we’ll take a look back at a horror game that gave us goosebumps, made our controllers tremble, and chased us out of our living rooms. Long live the horror game! And make sure to check out our full list of 31 Great Horror Games To Play In October!
Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem is one of those horror games that push the boundaries of what it truly means to be scared, and all from a GameCube exclusive at that! An incredibly dense, dark, and dejected tale of an ancient horror that ripples through a family’s rocky lineage, the iconic survival horror game from Silicon Knights not only messed with the characters that populated its obscure and gloomy world, but it also spoke directly to the fragmented psychosis of another participant in the horror: you!
For starters, the story of Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem is frighteningly ambitious. You begin the narrative in 2000 as college student Alexandra Roivas, who comes across a mysterious tome while combing through her deceased grandfather’s mansion in Rhode Island. As Alexandra digs deeper into her grandfather’s death, the tome lets her (and players) experience the vast Roivas ancestry through a dozen different segments that take place all throughout history.
This revolving change of scenery and eclectic cast of playable characters work wonders towards elevating the story of Eternal Darknessinto mesmerizing and complex levels. I still have fond memories of playing as the great Pious Augustus in 26 BC, and becoming corrupt under the power of the Ancients: an event that would change the course of history for the Roivas family line in ways never thought imaginable.
While the gameplay itself could largely be considered your typical third-person survival horror fare, it is in the game’s core sanity effects that easily set Eternal Darkness apart from other games in the genre. As you play through the doomed Roivas history, your character’s sanity meter can be lowered upon being discovered by enemies, among other events. If your sanity plummets to dangerous levels, then unnerving effects will begin making their way into the game. At first these might be simple scares, like the sound of distant screams or blood seeping through the walls, but before long the sanity effects will reach magnificent new heights that can immediately put you on edge.
For instance, the game will start generating enemies that aren’t really there, and which will only disappear when you try to attack them. You’ll see imaginary flies that appear to be buzzing on your actual TV screen. The game volume will suddenly deplete, alongside a fake volume indicator meter. The camera will skew to obscure and extreme angles. And my personal favorite, the screen will mimic a GameCube system error, tricking players into believing that something is actually wrong with the physical game or game console.
Sinister and wickedly clever, these are just a few of the ways that Eternal Darkness brings the genre of horror survival into new psychological realms that have rarely been explored before.
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