Eternal Darkness
If you haven’t heard of Eternal Darkness then you’re in the same boat as a lot of other people. Released in 2002 for the Gamecube, Eternal Darkness shook up the horror genre with unique ideas.
What made Eternal Darkness so special was the sanity meter mechanic, and the fourth wall breaking effects the game employed if your sanity dropped too much.
This included things like pretending to turn your TV volume up, tricking you into thinking the game was frozen so you’ll reset the console, putting a fly on the screen, or even making you think you’ve been killed by nothing.
It can not be emphasized enough how well this could work with next-gen consoles and how previous concepts could be built upon.
Imagine something like the game tricking you into thinking one of your friends invited you into a party, only for no one to be there and all you can hear is raspy deep breathing.
The game’s creator has tried multiple times to get a sequel going but nothing has ever taken, and the sanity mechanic is under a trademark so no other developers can use it.
There is seemingly no hope for a revitalization of the series, but Nintendo keeps renewing the trademark for the series, so there is always a flicker of light, even in the deep eternal… darkness.
