Fans who have patiently waited more than a decade (us very much included) for a sequel to Silicon Knights’ GameCube classic Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem have reason to be very, very happy today. A newly released teaser trailer and subsequent Twitter confirmations from IGN confirm that a “spiritual successor” called Shadow of the Eternals is in the works, and that Requiem creator Denis Dyack is involved.
The trailer (below) appears to feature some gameplay footage, or at least target gameplay footage, for the in-development game. More details will be coming on Monday when Precursor Games launches its crowdfunding campaign. There’s little else in the way of new information at this point, though there’s plenty that we can speculate on.
Silicon Knights hasn’t exactly had the best run of years since the critical success of Eternal Darkness in 2002. Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes delivered a fine GameCube remake in 2004, but current-gen titles Too Human and X-Men: Destiny were widely panned. More than that, both Unreal Engine 3-powered games were tagged for recall by a court order after the studio’s failed lawsuit against Epic Games. When the dust cleared, the studio was left with only five full time employees.
It’s worth noting that there’s no mention in the trailer of Silicon Knights being involved. Dyack is the studio’s founder and his involvement is confirmed by IGN, but the Shadow of the Eternals trailer opens with a nod to Precursor Games. There’s no active website for that studio right now, though a NeoGAF user managed to dig some evidence out of Google’s cache (via Wired).
The old Precursor Games site offered some details for a crowdfunding pitch for a game referred to as Shadow of the Ancients. The description points to an episodic distribution model which would see the story unfold over the course of 12 chapters, each one lasting roughly 2-4 hours. The game would bring back the same sort of “Sanity Effects” that made Eternal Darkness so refreshingly different. According to the website, it was planned for a PC and Wii U release sometime in the latter half of 2014.
We’ll know how much of this is accurate (or not) when the official reveal happens on Monday. It’s certainly and intriguing and unexpected development. Keep watch for more news next week. Until then, enjoy the trailer.
