In years past, a developer by the name of Silicon Knights impressed Nintendo with a game called Eternal Darkness. Soon enough Nintendo decided to purchase part of the company, making them a 2nd party developer. Eternal Darkness was shown at E3 in 1999 and 2000, but little did we know at the time, the game would never see the light of day on the N64.

This being my first E3, I never did play this game before, and I've been really excited about trying it. I've read many interviews with Denis Dyack (SK's president) and from what I've gathered, the game promises to break new ground in gameplay, art, sound, atmosphere, and story. At first glance, it may remind you of Resident Evil, but it is so unlike that series in reality. The controls are very different and the game isn't about conserving ammo and surviving, it's about staying sane, fighting, and telling a really intriguing story.

I'll start by explaining the basic gameplay and control. Aside from furthering the story, gameplay seems to include puzzles, exploration and a lot of action. Moving around works just like it did in Mario 64, Zelda OoT or any other game that responds dynamically to the control stick. There is none of that heel turning crap from the Resident Evil series. Each character has different weapons, but you can easily attack enemies by simply running towards them and swinging. In addition to this, you can slow down a bit and target specific limbs using the R button and the control stick. The environment reacts naturally to your weapons as well. If your mace hits a wall on its way to your target's cranium, it's going to stop amidst a shower of sparks. You'll want to swing again after luring the enemy to a place with more arm room naturally. Different enemies have different weaknesses as well, and you may not always want to simply take their heads off (sometimes they just grow back).

I couldn't hear the limited story telling that was at E3, but judging by the rest of the presentation, it will be quite good. This seems to be one of the things that the team is most proud of, and I have every reason not to doubt them.

The atmosphere and graphics were very good with a lot of subtle touches that you may not notice immediately. For example, as your character walks by a torch, an ember pops and he looks towards it as you continue walking him forward. Whenever there are enemies around, your character always watches them as you move around. Another cool touch is that you can finish off a fallen enemy by moving towards them and hitting B. After I took a zombies head off, I watched as the poor thing brought its hands up to its shoulders feeling around for it's missing head. The SK guys at E3 were quick to point out that the camera system changed when there were no enemies in a room to fight (for example, the camera in one room pans seamlessly into the rafters of a room as you move through it, but only after you've taken out the enemy). The camera was always in the right place it seemed. One room in the demo has some awesome volumetric fog of differing density that rolls through an open door into a room and down stairs as you play through it in real time. Impressed? Just wait until you actually see it!

The game features twelve different playable characters who all participate in a story that spans 2000 years of historically accurate time. The gameplay should take about 40-60 hours alone, and there are even three distinctly different "paths" through the game depending on a choice you make with your first character. The paths take you through the same basic locations apparently, but differences in the way the story is unfolds (at the very least) should see most gamers wanting to play through the game more than once to get the complete Eternal Darkness experience.

I was really impressed by the presentation of this game at E3 which included a guy from SK (often Denis Dyack himself) explaining things about the game in the enclosed booth. They really pay attention to gamer feedback and it shows. This game is most certainly going to be a huge selling point for older gamers and an experience not to be missed. Did I mention it's a launch title? Well, it is. Time to pre-order a GameCube I should think.