Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem is a truly exciting, scary game to play. It is a horror-themed action/adventure game in the style of Resident Evil, but much better.

You play the part of Alex Roivas, a college student raised by her grandfather. When she gets news that he was violently murdered in his home, she moves back into the family mansion to see if she can find out what happened. And find out she will, when she finds a secret passage into her grandfather's hidden study. There amongst her grandfather's collection of strange antiquities, she finds the Tome of Eternal Darkness, an ancient book made of bone and skin. Only the first chapter is present, but Alex reads it nonetheless. Here is where the real game begins.

As Alex reads the book, you substitute for the characters in the chapters, which starts 2000 years ago. You act out what Alex is reading, and will discover part of the back-story as well as items and spells that Alex can use in her present. As you complete a chapter, something in the mansion will become available for her to unlock, open, or just notice based on these new skills or spells, and she will discover the next chapter of the story. In successive chapters, you will play varied parts, from a medieval altar boy to a Cambodian dancer to a Canadian firefighter, each with their own strengths, weaknesses and unique weapons.

The controls for the game are simple and easily mastered. The control stick moves you around (not retarded Resident Evil style, either). The A button is attack, the B button is action (read, examine, etc) by an on-screen prompt. The L-shoulder is run, the R-shoulder is for aiming, and X is for sneaking. The remaining 5 buttons (Y and the 4-way controller) are for storing quick spells. Start/pause brings up the menu. This is where you manage your inventory, as well as view an auto-map. Also from the menu, you can save your game at any time that there are no enemies on the screen, which is a welcome blessing. Finally, the menu allows you to view any previous cut-scene from the game in the form of acts from each chapter.

The magic and its mechanics in the game are very interesting. Each spell is a combination of two runes (e.g. Protect and Area), a spell "flavor" and a power level. You make new spells by combining runes that you have found. Eventually you will find a scroll which will detail just what certain combinations of runes does, but it is fun to experiment before you actually know what the spell is. You will be casting many of the same spells repeatedly (like healing) so be glad for the quick slots. By the same token, you will be casting some of spells only occasionally. Those spells which you do not have quick-slotted are cast through the pause menu, which sounds annoying but really is not. There are 12 spells, with 4 "flavors" and 3 power levels (for effectively 144 final spells). Having it menu driven is really the only way that makes sense.

The game has a standard health bar and magic bar, but adds a twist with a sanity meter. Every supernatural creature you see causes you to lose a bit of sanity. As your sanity gets lower and lower, you begin to see things, like blood dripping down the walls, and hear things, like footsteps nearby. Sometimes, even stranger things will happen. All of these add to the strong ambience of the game, which is a fancy way of saying it will scare the shit out of you. You get sanity back by doing finishing moves on critters you have dispatched. Oftentimes, the pace of the game is such that you won't have a chance to finish off all the enemies, which acts to depress your sanity. This can lead to some interesting game play, trying to fight creatures that might be figments of your insanity.

The puzzles in the game are very good and not always the easiest to solve. Yes, there are the standards such as red key/red door puzzles and "find weight, put on pressure plate" puzzles, but there are also some interesting innovations. You will have to use a combination of your items and spells to try new things, often with unexpected results. When you finally figure out the tough ones, you will feel a real sense of reward for figuring out just what was required. Sometimes the game holds your hand ("Now why would this scroll be right here by this doorway?" the game ponders for you at one point) but that is rare. Enemies don't respawn (I played Metroid Prime in parallel with this game, so it was a legitimate concern) so backtracking isn't overly painful. Fortunately, you won't do too much backtracking anyway. The game is fairly linear, with puzzles and locations only having one solution.

The enemies in the game are not overly varied; you will come up on some of the same things multiple times. There are effective strategies for each monster, so it behooves you to pay attention to how you beat each one. Removing their heads may seem to be effective, but since they are undead it does not always work. The fighting system in the game is mostly simple, with most battles being melee. There are some ranged weapons in the game, but with limited ammo you will be primarily hacking and slashing. There are no ranged weapons among the enemies but there is the occasional magic user.

For all its scariness, I would not recommend this game for kids (or the elderly). Wait until your kids want to see Friday the 13th movies, and then let them play this. While there are scenes of graphic violence against humans and the undead, there is no adult language or nudity. It is just scary as hell. I would recommend playing this game only at night to capture the full atmosphere. Something about fighting zombies while the sun streams in your windows just doesn't seem right.

As for creating a complete multimedia experience, the game is wonderful. The graphics are very nice, with good texturing and mapping. The characters can look a little blocky up close. The camera is semi-fixed for each location, meaning it stays in one place most of the time. This only hinders game play when there are enemies off camera. The sound in the game is exquisite, particularly the ambient noises. Footsteps, babies crying, squeaks, thumps, bangs, it is all there, particularly when your sanity is wanting. The dialogue is well written and the voice acting is well done, with mostly unique voices. The people who do double duty for voices are unnoticeable until the credits.

Overall, this game gets two thumbs up, 5 stars, whatever it takes. If you have a Gamecube, you should not be without this game.