Eternal Darkness is not a horrible game but it is definitely overrated.
The game looks good for the time period that it was released. The biggest flaws are that the characters could use a few more polygons and the animations particularly the finishing enemies on the ground looks pretty bad. The rest of the game definitely looks passable and for the time it was released there’s not too much you can complain about. The voice acting is good and nothing sounds like a screeching chalkboard in your head. The sound effects are passable as well as the in game music but both are nothing to write home about.
The game is fifteen hours long, which is a little better then average for the horror genre. My biggest problems with Eternal Darkness was the story, enemies, and characters that didn’t appeal to me or catch my strongest interest even as a huge horror fan the game never really caught my full interest. The story is unique and not that bad but not that good either and like most of the game is very friendly to all audiences which isn’t the best decision for a horror game. The way the story is pieced together from a bunch of small stories is good but would have been better if they would have been more distinctive and different from each other. The enemies are somewhat generic and really don’t provide a challenge or catch my eye. Overall, it is a good and different game but it may not have been the right game to be made as a horror game. Furthermore it’s not an intriguing or tantalizing game in any way and most likely you will not find yourself falling in love with the game and rather waiting for it to end because it’s just not outstanding in any particular way.
Despite Gamespot’s new lazy and stupid method of scoring games here’s how the game would have ranked on the old better system:
Gameplay: 8
Graphics: 8
Sound: 7
Value: 8
Tilt: 6
Overall: 7.3