All of a sudden, my character’s head exploded. My screen was covered by flies. I got a blue screen error message. The screen changed, causing me to think I’d accidentally hit the “Video” button on my remote control, and I heard the sounds of someone being eaten. In another scene, the camera shifted madly, and the game crashed to a loading screen. It reset to a quote by Poe: “Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering... fearing... doubting...” Even though I was aware of the insanity effects, I still panicked, thinking I’d screwed something up.

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When I was first playing Eternal Darkness years ago, I turned the game off and went to sleep on the sofa. I accidentally hit my remote control while sleeping and the power turned on. I jumped up in fear, wondering what in the world was going on, only to realize my mistake. The game had gotten under my skin. I couldn’t even sleep right. No horror film or book had made me scared of my own furniture. Eternal Darkness made me feel like even reality wasn’t safe.

The Battle For Light

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The final confrontation of Eternal Darkness is an emotionally satisfying bout against Pious. It’s a generational fight where you channel the spirits of many of the Tome Bearers, each striking a vicious blow. Given their horrifying deaths, these strikes felt redemptive, even in such a bleak game.

Eventually, the darkness gets vanquished. But it isn’t one person to the rescue. Rather, many lives were sacrificed so that Alexandra could get her shot. In Eternal Darkness, evil is so monumental that it takes generations to defeat. The most powerful weapon in the game, the Enchanted Gladius, has a history, but it isn’t relegated to some obscure scroll. Rather, through death after death, you earn it.

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Those who came before you don’t fit the bill of the traditional hero, but they step up to the plate, not knowing how they fit in, just doing whatever they can to help. There is meaning in the meaninglessness of their existence, even if they don’t know it as they pay the ultimate price. Light seems as eternal as the darkness they battle against, and wonder, fear, and doubt become powerful weapons in defeating Pious.

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That’s until you discover there are two other Ancients to vanquish, and even after you defeat them, the final corpse god, Mantorok, remains “plotting.” You’ve destroyed three lesser evils for an even greater evil who’d puppeteered their deaths in the first place, and the darkness remains eternal to the end.