Developed by: Silicon Knights | Published by: Nintendo

+

The ambiance and artistic feel make the player experience fear in a whole new way: fear accompanied with insanity. The echoing sounds of something about to sneak up on you, the fake blue screen error message, the fake volume control, the fake dying for some strange reason and then waking up screaming, "is... this... really happenning!?", the dark mood. Often times you have to wonder if what you're seeing is real, or is it part of a dillusion. This also follows the plotline fairly well - after the death of a loved one, and in a mansion filled with strange etherial things, it can make you start to question some fundamental things about the world, and lead you down a perillous path that leads to fear, saddness, pain, and insanity. Many of the quotes from Edgar Allen Poe fit in well.

The artistic feel is a nice combination of Indiana Jones with a creepy magical twist. It is creepy, kinetic, wonderous, and magical. It is also very detailed and very professionally put together, especially when it comes to the sound effects. Very high graphical and sound quality that really shows the power of the GameCube.

The way the monsters move and the way in which you fight them also adds to the mood. The way you fight and run away from the monsters, and the strange insanity pop-ups are probably the largest contributors to the mood. The diminishing Sanity statistic was a nice contributor.

The gameplay system is the kind of well-refined rubust quality that can be expected of Nintendo's first and second party games. There's the rock-paper-scissors (red, green, blue) things, different types of monsters, each with it's own personality, pattern of attack, and strategy for beating it, different weapons, all unique.

The game takes you to many different places in many different time periods: the cathedrals of France, the temples of Cambodia and the middle east, and a colonial Rhode Island mansion. With time periods ranging from Roman Times to World War I to 1983 to Medieval times...

Most fantasy games deal with a fight between truthful honest good and arrogant seductive evil. This time, it's sanity vs insanity. It's a new twist to the mythological fantasy thing.

-

Most of the actual game part of the game is still the same old story: use weapons and magic to kill monsters, and find keys to unlock doors. After doing this for several hours, it gets kind of repeditive. The only thing that sets this game above the rest is all the bells, whistles, and mood that they create.

Too linear.

Too much interfacing with the menus. Throughout the game, every time you want to change weapons, select spells, or save the game you will have to bring up the menus and cycle through them, which takes away from the escapism of the game. It is a reminder that you are not inside another world, you are in your living room playing a game.

The game play takes some getting used to. They don't give you many opportunities to get used to the skills before you really have to start using them. You also don't start to really get into the game until after a few hours of play. Less instant gratification.

Gets a little too frustratingly difficult in some places.

Slow reloading after death times.