29th April 2005, 11:47 PM
Whatever happened to this project, anyway? Was it reported to be canned and I never saw the news or forgot about it? I remember that there were talks of a TV mini-series as well. It wouldn't surprised me if most of it was scrapped, though, considering that Eternal Darkness sales weren't exactly spectacular...
On the other topic at hand: I also didn't find Eternal Darkness's insanity effects to be very unsettling. I think it's partly because I just hyped myself up too much for the game and pretty much knew what was going on any time an insanity effect took place. Also, it kind of ruined it for me to see the screen flash and hear every character exclaim "THIS... ISN'T... HAPPENING!!" every time, damn it. It made the effect a little cheesy and unnatural. It made it obvious that the game designers were trying to convey an insanity effect, instead of being subtle and making the player question what was actually happening.
I think there should have been more subtle effects. When I say that, I mean quantity-wise. There WERE some pretty good ones, like the head of the statue looking at you wherever you turn, but I'd like it better if they were all like that. For example, let's take the effect where your character slowly sinks into the ground. By the 3rd or so time that happened, I simply said, "Yeah yeah, get on with it, I want to see what's behind the next door." It'd be cool if the game messed with your head a little more, like making your character fall down to the floor below. Then, you'd think there was something wrong with the actual floor, so you'd go up to investigate, and bam, no more quick-sand carpet. So you spend the next few minutes trying to trigger that same effect to figure out why it happened and what you need to do to solve it (because it could be a puzzle or something important), but you can't.
Little inconsistencies like that would get a tad frustrating if they were done in excess, but if the game delivered them in just the right way, it would have been a lot more thrilling. To be honest, Silent Hill freaked me out a lot more than Eternal Darkness. The background noises and music (crackling radio, moans of monsters, faint sound of something beating against a loud metal surface) made the experience much more unsettling.
On the other topic at hand: I also didn't find Eternal Darkness's insanity effects to be very unsettling. I think it's partly because I just hyped myself up too much for the game and pretty much knew what was going on any time an insanity effect took place. Also, it kind of ruined it for me to see the screen flash and hear every character exclaim "THIS... ISN'T... HAPPENING!!" every time, damn it. It made the effect a little cheesy and unnatural. It made it obvious that the game designers were trying to convey an insanity effect, instead of being subtle and making the player question what was actually happening.
I think there should have been more subtle effects. When I say that, I mean quantity-wise. There WERE some pretty good ones, like the head of the statue looking at you wherever you turn, but I'd like it better if they were all like that. For example, let's take the effect where your character slowly sinks into the ground. By the 3rd or so time that happened, I simply said, "Yeah yeah, get on with it, I want to see what's behind the next door." It'd be cool if the game messed with your head a little more, like making your character fall down to the floor below. Then, you'd think there was something wrong with the actual floor, so you'd go up to investigate, and bam, no more quick-sand carpet. So you spend the next few minutes trying to trigger that same effect to figure out why it happened and what you need to do to solve it (because it could be a puzzle or something important), but you can't.
Little inconsistencies like that would get a tad frustrating if they were done in excess, but if the game delivered them in just the right way, it would have been a lot more thrilling. To be honest, Silent Hill freaked me out a lot more than Eternal Darkness. The background noises and music (crackling radio, moans of monsters, faint sound of something beating against a loud metal surface) made the experience much more unsettling.