Game Soundtracks We Love: Eternal Darkness

Hello to everyone! Thank you for joining us, on our cuppa filled gaming journey.

Last week’s choice was a psychological horror filled with obscurities; Silent Hill: Shattered Memories. If you missed it and want to check it out: Game Soundtracks We Love: Silent Hill: Shattered Memories

Continuing with our Halloween theme, we decided to go down the insane route with a Gamecube game; one of the very few Nintendo games that received the M rating in the US.

Game of Choice

A game that made players question if what they were doing in the game was actually happening, or if it was just the game messing with them: Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem.

Eternal Darkness was a rather unique game, where you would play various characters through different time periods, all linked in some way to the events due to unfold in the present day. The first character you play isn’t even a good guy and through out the game, you have an insanity meter to keep an eye on; when it starts getting low that’s when the craziness begins! – Blood begins to drip from walls/ceilings, crying noises are heard, bangs on doors, bugs crawling on the screen and even oddities like the controller getting “disconnected” while being attacked by enemies, screen going blank while noises of monsters are heard and even a message popping up while you are trying to save, telling you all data has been deleted!

Insane on more levels than one – Nintendo is said to of patented the insanity game mechanic for a number of years so no other game could have a similar aspect (not sure if they still own the patent to it though).

The trailer below (of course) includes some horror moments – which may not be suitable for children and the easily scared.

The trailer above is more like something you expect for a film than a video game. The fast pace builds up the adrenaline, but the track also contains aspects that creates tension, intrigue (especially with the voice over) and gives a slightly supernatural/sci-fi feel – it’s great!

The track above has soundscape elements to it; bringing the game to life a bit more and drawing the player into the game world in the process. Overall it creates a dark, mysterious atmosphere that makes the player feel uneasy and even a little tense! It’s rather other worldly in parts and finishes with a rather creepy segment at the end; brilliant!

The whispering is great in the beginning; draws the player into listening more, so when the track really kicks in it has even more of an impact. Very grand and dramatic; really hits the adrenaline up a notch and makes it all the more engaging! 😀

Final Thoughts

No doubt I have mentioned it before, but a game’s soundtrack really adds to a game’s atmosphere and helps bring the game world alive even more – especially if it has soundscape elements to help it feel more like you are there with the character.

Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem is a brilliant game with a great soundtrack, a unique game mechanic and a very different way of telling a story than most games. No game is perfect, but it had so many elements right and really brought something different to the horror genre of games – really wish Nintendo would remake it or release a sequel! 😀

A few questions for you: