Ellia was born into servitude during the 12th century in the dank jungles of Cambodia. As part Khmer working class, she was destined to be a dancing/slave girl in the City Temple that had been built to honor the Hindu gods. Now a teenager in the employ of the Priesthood of the Temple, she witnesses things she is not meant to. Discovering this, she desperately wants no part of it and attempts to escape.

We’ll be sure to update the preview if/when more character descriptions are released. Eternal Darkness has been in development forever, but don't go crazy just yet! June 24th is almost upon us, and so is ED. We're confident it will be worth waiting for.

Last updated: 08/22/2001 by Max Lake

PGC has overheard that Eternal Darkness has been given a sub title; it seems that the version shown at SpaceWorld will be called Eternal Darkness: Insanity's Requiem. Although we cannot confirm this will be the final name in North America, it seems it is how the game will be presented in Japan. Allegedly, Nintendo has very high hopes for Eternal Darkness in Japan and gamers will be getting a preview. The game will be playable at SpaceWorld, though it is unknown whether or not it will be the same playable demo shown at E3. Billy and the gang should have word for us from Japan soon enough though….

Last updated: 05/17/2001 by Jon Lindemann

E3 Update by Jon Lindemann: This was one of my most anticipated titles for this year's E3. I last got my hands on the N64 version at the 1999 show, and I thought it was tight back then. Well guess what: on GameCube, it's even TIGHTER. I cannot wait for this title.

I haven't played it hands-on so I can't vouch for the control scheme, but I had a chance to talk to Denis Dyack (President of Silicon Knights) when he wandered into the ED enclosed booth. Here, in point form, are some facts I found out about the game:

- first and foremost, IT WILL BE AVAILABLE AT LAUNCH.

- there will eventually be 12 playable characters; there were 3 in the E3 demo including a Roman Centurion, a young girl and a Knight Templar.

- the main characters will be comprised of around 5500 polygons. Enemies will comprised of around 3000 polygons (the boss characters will be larger I'm assuming).

- Dyack estimates that they will be able to put 15-20 enemies on-screen at once.

- all lighting is ray-traced (and looks FANTASTIC). The reflections in the game are incredible too; in one room, lightning flashing in a window is actually reflected in dinner plates sitting on a table.

- the game story spans 2000 years of history. Characters will speak actual Latin and other languages based on time period.

- you'll be able to save your game anywhere (thank god).

- Dyack promises 40-60 hours of gameplay and multiple endings. He says it's the largest game project he's ever done.

- Players will be able to create their own spells. Apparently they'll be able to find different artifacts and mix-and-match to create new magic.

- The camera has been greatly improved from the N64 version (it's no longer stationary). Dyack said they worked really hard on it, and it shows. From what I saw it never impedes gameplay...the coolest effect was when the character walked from left to right in one room, and the camera seamless panned up through the rafters (otherwise invisible to the character) and back down, never obscuring the view. Amazing!

- the sanity meter is still in there, so your character can go insane if it sees too many monsters. You can also hallucinate - your character will be walking through a room, his/her head will pop off, and suddenly you'll find yourself back in a room you were just in...realizing that you never left the room in the first place. Spooky ;-D

- the game features volumetric fog. What this means is that if there's a layer of fog along the ground in one room, when you move to the next room the fog rolls in behind you as a result of you opening the door. Incredibly really cool to watch.

- when your character gets hurt he/she staggers around. Your character also gets tired if they run around too much, or hacks away at something for too long.

- you can use weapons based on the time period you're in (e.g. the girl uses a shotgun, the Knight uses a mace and an axe). Each weapon has its own unique combo attacks, and each characer has its own set of combo attacks.

- you can selectively attack body parts. For example, you can cut off a zombie's arm. Dyack said that you wouldn't want to cut off every monster's arm, because with some of them "bad things happen" when you do that.

Overall, the attention to detail in this game is very impressive. A comment on Denis Dyack as well: very cool guy. He's one of the most enthusiastic people I've ever met. If any of you GameCube fans ever get a chance to go to E3, seek this guy out. He loves to talk to gamers and you can tell that just loves what he's doing. Ok, enough ass-kissing ;-D

Last updated: 04/15/2001 by Max Lake

First petitions were popping up all over the net, now leaked screen shots seem to be all the rage. Why are people acting so crazy? It’s the “PrE3” period (or “pre-E3” if you prefer) where game companies start getting quieter and quieter… People can't stand it and are acting out. This now takes the form with someone emailing PGC claiming:

“Amazing! Someone has hacked Silicon Knights and obtained screenshots of Eternal Darkness!”

Attached were several pictures of a dark castle and several knights.

“Wha?” We wondered and proceeded to investigate.

Turns out the screens were fake and we shot this prank down before rumors could begin or anyone from Silicon Knights had to even clear their throat to clear up the matter. At least people are clearly anxious about this project. It won’t be long now until we get to see the real Eternal Darkness in action at E3. We don’t expect it will be on N64, or will look much like these “screenshots” and both of these things give us all the more reason to be excited about seeing the real deal.

Last updated: 02/01/2001

Editor's Note: I don't think my opinion of Eternal Darkness is any secret: I would prefer it to be released on N64. However, as the days tick by with no new information, the likelihood that the game has moved to GameCube grows ever stronger. Despite my personal views, Max asked me to write this GameCube preview for the game in light of my extensive discussions with the developers and my great love for the premise and style, regardless of which system Eternal Darkness ends up on.

The game opens with a quote by Edgar Allan Poe, spoken by one of the creepiest voices you've ever heard. Suddenly you are thrown into the role of a young woman, looking over the estate left by her recently deceased grandfather. It's a large mansion, beautiful and yet somehow unsettling. She comes upon his study, where a book rests upon the old man's desk, glowing faintly...she places her hands on the book and is suddenly drawn into a fantastic hallucination. Two Roman centurions are conversing on a barren battlefield, in their native Latin tongue. Slowly, their words fade into understandable English, and an epic unfolds...

That's exactly how Eternal Darkness starts out, at least in the demo form shown at E3 2000. After talking with Silicon Knights president Denis Dyack, and playing the demo thoroughly, one thing is abundantly clear about ED: you've never seen anything like it. When looking at the N64 demo, many passers-by assumed that the game was a shameless Resident Evil clone. Those who played it learned otherwise. To be fair, there are some similarities to the Resident Evil series...both are very creepy, both use a third-person perspective with static camera angles. However, Eternal Darkness goes way beyond Capcom's series in terms of depth and scope; in Dyack's opinion, it's not so much of an antithesis to RE as a completely different type of game that only initially looks familiar.

At the core of ED's gameplay and design is one very unique premise: everything is designed to make you distrust the game. You won't find zombies popping out from behind the corner for a cheap scare. Instead, ED takes the psychological route, employing various techniques to make you think that the game has its own agenda. Silicon Knights envisions people getting so freaked out that they have to leave the room and take a few minutes collect themselves. The primary way that ED dishes out this madness is through the extremely innovative Sanity Meter. It allows you to view your character's mental well-being; as you progress through the game and encounter more and more weird stuff, your sanity keeps dropping. The only way to counteract the effect is to kill enemies, which represents your ability to exert control over your own situation and retain sanity. If the meter drops too low, you may begin to feel the effects of insanity. Such effects are typically designed not to screw with the game and the character, but the player. For instance, you might be walking through a corridor, and the walls begin oozing blood for no reason at all. Another effect might pop up when you need to use an item: you hit the start button to pull up your inventory, only to see that everything is gone! After a likely spaz-out session, you return to the inventory to see that everything is back where it should be. The obvious intent is that some players will question whether it really happened at all...and that's when Eternal Darkness has you in its grip. You begin to doubt the game, and yourself, until you're not completely sure what's going on at all. This is the vision that Denis Dyack and his cohorts have set forth, and it has the potential to change the way videogames are made and played, forever.

The story is no slouch either. Written by Dyack himself, with collaboration from others on the team (one of whom has a doctorate in literature), Eternal Darkness spans over a millenia of human history, from Ancient Rome right up to the present. Through the powers of the mysterious glowing tome, your female protagonist experiences several episodes, each involving one of her ancestors in some historical period. Essentially, you learn what happened to her grandfather, and what will eventually happen to her, through the eyes of the ancestors. The legacy begins with the Roman centurion, when he discovers something terrible in an underground tomb...other than that, things are being kept under wraps.

We do know that, playing as the centurion, you will have to decide among three paths. The one you choose will affect the entire progress of the game thereafter, including the enemies you'll face, the items you'll find and use, and the spells you'll be able to cast. Silicon Knights is confident that the three paths will be different enough that fans will play through each of them. Adding to the replay value is a plethora of endings; the one you get is based on multiple factors, including which of the three paths you chose.

Combat is handled very differently than in Resident Evil or any comparable "survival horror" game. Dyack thinks RE's scarcity and robot-like controls are poor ways to increase anxiety. The control in Eternal Darkness is fully analog, weapons range from swords to machine guns to magic spells, and you are actually encouraged to kill enemies instead of run away from them (although the choice is yours). The magic system is particularly deep: by combining various elements, you can design dozens and dozens of unique spells. Some are aimed at monsters or can clear out an entire room, while others are magical enchantments that you cast on your physical weapons.

On the N64, Eternal Darkness showed off some of the most detailed visuals ever seen on the platform. Instead of loading up pre-rendered backgrounds, gorgeously textured polygons formed the environments. When asked how his team managed to get simple polygons to look so photo-realistic, Dyack explained that the 3D models were fine-tuned, the textures created just right, and everything positioned against the static camera angle to make it look perfect. However, some camera sweeps were planned at key points, a technique downright impossible with pre-rendered backgrounds. The GameCube version will almost certainly retain the polygonal graphics, although they will of course be far more detailed and even more photo-realistic than before. Lighting will also come into play to a bigger extent than it could on the N64, and it will be a major part of setting up the ambient fear of ED's atmosphere.

Regarding the game's final destination, it's safe to say that Eternal Darkness is GameCube bound. Nintendo has all but officially confirmed it, with the title completely absent from N64 release lists as far back as July. We fully expect it to be playable at the 2001 E3 Expo (the game's third appearance there), and depending on Silicon Knights' efficiency in porting to the new hardware and Too Human's release date, we might even see ED as a GameCube launch title in the U.S.