The much anticipated survival horror game is finally here and if you think it's just another Resident Evil clone then think again - Eternal Darkness is refreshingly original, compelling and genuinely frightening.

Eternal Darkness is a strongly story-driven game, with plenty of cut-scenes to watch. You can skip them if you like, but I recommend you don't because the story will immerse you in a dark world of demons and the occult. The dialogue and acting are very impressive, there is little cliché and thankfully the characters speak properly for their history period, also reacting to events in a way that you would expect.

You begin by playing Alexandra Roivas, whose grandfather has been horribly murdered in his spooky Rhode Island mansion. With the police turning up nothing, you return to the mansion, determined not to leave until you get to the bottom of his murder. It isn't long before you discover the Tome of Eternal Darkness and this is where things really begin to get interesting, because this Tome tells the history of the fight between good and evil ranging from the Roman times through to the present day. At first there is but one chapter to read and as you begin, the story comes to life and you find yourself playing the character of Pious Augustus, a Roman general in search of an ancient artifact.

This is the first way in which Eternal Darkness differs from other games of this type - you don't play just one character, but many. Each time you find a new chapter from the Tome, you get to play a different character in a different location and time period. You will explore a trap-riddled temple, a French cathedral during the Middle Ages and the Roivas mansion as it was in Victorian times. Most of the locations are visited more than once in different time periods and the stories of those who were embroiled in the great conflict become increasingly intertwined. Each character is distinctive in both their dress and mannerisms, they run at different speeds, use weapons of their own time period and have varying levels of health and sanity. Not only this, but because you are playing characters from history who are now long dead, you will find that not all of them survive their quests and some of the chapters end in the demise of the characters you play. This again is very original, playing a character that dies at the end of their part of the story - I don't recall ever seeing that in a game before.

One of the best features is the concept of sanity. In most survival horror games, no matter how unpleasant the creatures you face, the main character hardly flinches at the sight and carries on blasting. Not so in Eternal Darkness. Each character has a sanity meter and as it gets lower, strange things start to happen. I don't want to spoil too many of the surprises, but at first you will start to hear things - moaning, screaming and crying, or the sound of footsteps clomping around on the floor above. The camera angles from which each room is viewed become slanted and the light tinted with strange colours, sometimes shaking a little. These effects are all very good but they're not the main ones - sometimes you will enter a room and something very shocking will happen. That's when your character realises they're hallucinating and they never entered the room at all! Also, things happen that will cause you, the player, to wonder if you're hallucinating too, such as flies walking across the television screen! It's incredibly well done and there are some genuinely scary moments that are certain to make you jump and freak you out. All of this adds up to a dark and uncomfortable atmosphere, but it's what makes this game special and so I prefer it when my character's sanity is low. However, if it gets too low you begin to lose health and so you must boost it by finishing an enemy or casting a spell.

The graphics in Eternal Darkness are excellent with rich textures, atmospheric lighting effects and great attention to detail on the characters and scenery. Sometimes there are doorways that allow you to see into the next room rather than always a closed door, which is a nice touch. The only let down graphically really is with the enemies. They are not particularly impressive, consisting mostly of shambling corpses. There is little variety to them and they're not that scary either, certainly nowhere near as disturbing as Resident Evil mutations. However, the combat system for attacking them is easy to use - you lock onto the enemy and then can select whether to attack the head, body or arm. This way you can chop off arms, behead a monster or slice it in half when using a good sword, or shoot them with a gun or crossbow. There is no heavy ammunition in this game, the emphasis is on exploration and most of the fighting will be done hand-to-hand. This isn't a bad thing though, in fact it makes a refreshing change and it is very satisfying to slice and dice your foes. When you defeat them, they fall to the ground and you can perform a finishing move to restore your sanity a little.

The exploration aspect of the game is made very simple by the use of on-screen icons. Whenever you are near something you can pick up or examine, the red button appears with the command you can execute by pressing it. This means you don't have to run around every room relentlessly pressing a button in case you miss a hidden item, which is definitely a good thing. The puzzles range from relatively straightforward to the slightly more obscure and some of them involve the use of spells.

There is a very clever spell system that makes you work for the magic you can use. The Tome gives you the power to use magic through the runes you find scattered around each level. You will find a rune trapped inside an enemy usually, then find a stone tablet that identifies the rune. By combining runes with one of four coloured runes, you can discover and use a range of spells. There is a cyclic relationship between the three forces of magic in a rock/paper/scissors type arrangement, where red beats blue, blue beats green and green beats red. Thus if you meet a monster imbued with the red magic, your green magic will be most effective against it. You can use spells to enchant items and weapons, heal yourself, restore sanity and magic power, create a protective shield or protected area, reveal invisible objects or monsters, dispel magical barriers and more. There are 12 spells to discover, some through trial and error, others through finding spell scrolls. The effects for casting the spells are colourful and impressive, accompanied by weird chanting effects and the crackling of energy. The sound effects and minimal use of music are very clever and realistic, really adding to the tense atmosphere of the game.

There are a couple of things that would have been better - more levels to explore and a slightly longer game would not have been a bad thing, plus some more frightening demons and unearthly monsters to defeat would have increased the excitement of the main game. However, the atmosphere, clever blend of story and puzzles and the way it all weaves together should keep most survival horror fans more than happy.

Eternal Darkness is an original and innovative survival horror game, with more of an emphasis on story, exploration and scares than on combat and huge monsters to blast. It is well-paced and intriguing, with an epic story that is brilliantly presented. It also scares and shocks more effectively than any other game I've played, with the emphasis more on psychological scares than over-the-top gore. Just remember when you get freaked out. it isn't really happening... is it?

Reviewed by Geoff Holland for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).