Sanity Meter
Eternal Darkness offers a unique status meter called the sanity meter. When fantastic and scary events happen in the game (mainly the appearance of evil enemies), your sanity meter will decrease. If your sanity meter reaches empty, you will go insane and begin to experience disturbing events as you play the game (If you experienced the situations the characters in the game do, you would probably go crazy too!) The "sanity meter" feature definitely sets Eternal Darkness apart from other games of the genre.
Your sanity meter bar is located in the top left corner of the screen and appears if it becomes depleted or if it is dangerously low. When enemies appear, their glare will initially drain your sanity. If your sanity meter gets too low, you will begin to experience sanity effects. You can replenish your sanity meter by using the Xel'lotath Alignment (green) recover spell or by performing a finishing move on a downed enemy. The Xel'lotath creatures drain more sanity than other creatures, but also give back more sanity when destroyed with a finishing move.
Sanity Effects
During gameplay, if your sanity meter gets low, you'll experience some audio, visual and control effects that will mess with your mind. Do not panic. These "glitches" are actually effects designers have added to drive the player crazy. As your sanity level lowers, the camera will tilt a bit and you will hear disturbing sounds. But sometimes, usually when entering a new room, you will experience these sanity effects.
Here is a list of the sanity effects you may experience in the game. (Each effect is experienced separately.)
Visual/Screen/Environment Effects
- Blue screen of death
- Blood will drip from the walls or ceiling
- Paintings will change appearance
- Heads of statues will follow your movements
- The game will appear to delete your saved game
- Bugs will crawl across the screen
- Nails will scratch across the screen
- A fly will buzz around the screen
- The television will appear to turn off
Control/Character Effects
- A message appears alerting you that controller one is not connected
- Your character will grow larger or smaller during movement
- The environment will be upside down and you will walk on the ceiling
- The character's body will break apart as you walk (you can pick up your body bits)
- Casting spells will cause you to explode
- Character will turn into a zombie in the next room
- Controls will become inverted
Audio Effects
- The audio will mute
Miscellaneous Effects
- "Blood Bath" (Only as Alex)
Forced Effects
- "Psycho Worm" (Only as Edward)