A web-log documenting my progress through the game Eternal Darkness (currently). I'm creating this as an example of the assignment I'm giving in my 1131 Writing Through Media class at the University of Florida.
Sunday, September 14, 2003
Well, I found out there's a pretty good fan site at http://www.planetnintendo.com/eternaldarkness/ (I guess it's part of the GameSpy world?). It has a link to weird site that's somehow related to the game where you can have your dreams interpreted and get a sanity rating. Apparently I'm only 27% insane. Bully for me.
Saturday, September 13, 2003
I just bought the game today ($18 used at Rhino) so I'm off. I've played about 30 minutes and I can already see a pretty interesting pattern for game play. The "main" character is Alex and as she reads chapters in the "Tome of Eternal Darkness" I get to play through the character in that chapter. I still don't know what's going on with the "multiverse" and the skull guy on the box.
Playing as Pious Augustus in the introduction to the "tome", I came to a point where I had to choose from three artifacts to grab. I went for the blue one and got possessed, I think. I'm sure that's how the game progresses, but I wondered what would have happened if I chose a different artifact.
Also it seems that the possessed Augustus may be the "bad guy," which is interesting in terms of immersion because if I indeed performed the actions that made him bad, I have a wierd position with the text morally.
There are lots of hints at literature, and overall the game has a self-consciously literary feel which I'm not sure will work. The literariness seems incidental and disjointed from the actual gameplay which is a tad clunky. The enemies are pretty flat, basically just different color zombies, and the fighting only has about 2 different slashing movies. The "finishing moves" could be a lot cooler.
Overall though, I'm enjoying the story and I appreciate the way that the game gradually introduces the player (on a need-to-know basis i.e. you don't get to see the parts you don't need until you need them) to the interface of the "Tome" which is eventually kind of complicated.
And I haven't encountered the sanity meter yet, which is the main reason I wanted this game. Guess I'll play more later. Now I'm going to see if the game has any official or fansites.
Playing as Pious Augustus in the introduction to the "tome", I came to a point where I had to choose from three artifacts to grab. I went for the blue one and got possessed, I think. I'm sure that's how the game progresses, but I wondered what would have happened if I chose a different artifact.
Also it seems that the possessed Augustus may be the "bad guy," which is interesting in terms of immersion because if I indeed performed the actions that made him bad, I have a wierd position with the text morally.
There are lots of hints at literature, and overall the game has a self-consciously literary feel which I'm not sure will work. The literariness seems incidental and disjointed from the actual gameplay which is a tad clunky. The enemies are pretty flat, basically just different color zombies, and the fighting only has about 2 different slashing movies. The "finishing moves" could be a lot cooler.
Overall though, I'm enjoying the story and I appreciate the way that the game gradually introduces the player (on a need-to-know basis i.e. you don't get to see the parts you don't need until you need them) to the interface of the "Tome" which is eventually kind of complicated.
And I haven't encountered the sanity meter yet, which is the main reason I wanted this game. Guess I'll play more later. Now I'm going to see if the game has any official or fansites.
Wednesday, September 03, 2003
Well, the first step to this blog is, obviously, to acquire the game Eternal Darkness. Once I do, I'll post entries here at least once a week documenting my progress and interesting ideas that come up as a result of playing the game. Stay tuned.
