Resident Darkness nor Eternal Evil
Since the public debut of Eternal Darkness nearly 5 years ago, comparisons have been thrown around likening Eternal Darkness to Capcom's star survival horror game known as Resident Evil. People have a tendancy to place Eternal Darkness in the survival horror genre when it is actually a psychological thriller adventure. Now that we've had the chance to play Eternal Darkness in full, we can sweep the ridiculous comparisons under the rug.
Lets tackle this point by point. First up, lets take a quick look at Resident Evil. The game blends a variety of gameplay into a single package.
1) There are the puzzle elements.
2) Then there is the basic shooting and survival gameplay....which ties into the featured enemies.
3) Story
4) Graphics
5) Finally, there is the fact that one can hold only a limited amount of items.
There, we've coined the basics of the term "Survival Horror".
Now lets see how this compares to Eternal Darkness...or perhaps I should say, how it doesn't compare.
1) Puzzle Elements
Sure, Eternal Darkness has puzzles...but unlike RE where you combine a four-sided wheel with an eight-sided bolt, the puzzles in Eternal Darkness actually have meaning. There are reasons why you place an object in a certain position, or why you find an object or artifact in a particular place, or even why a color is a certain color. It's all tied into the story. Now I'd like to see someone explain what exactly a bronze eagle shield has to do with the Umbrella Corporation... Resident Evil has puzzles simply for the sake of having puzzles.
2) Style of Gameplay
For one thing, the majority of the weapons seen thus far consist of knives, swords, or some sort of other object that doesn't run out of its usability. Now it's not exactly fair for someone to use the small portion in which Alexandra wields a shot gun to generalize an entire game. Sure, she has a gun...but so does Lara Croft, Max Payne, and James Bond. If I went around referring to these games as RE clones I'd be slapped with a dinner roll...a stale one even.
Enemies... Well, the creatures in Eternal Darkness are not human. That's correct. They are ancient alien beings. On the other hand, Resident Evil features the undead. Although again, I'd say if you're going to compare RE to ED for this reason (Non-human enemies), we should also compare Doom to RE, Alien vs. Predator to RE, or hell lets be even more crazy and compare Mary Kate & Ashley's Fabulous Shopping Spree to RE.
3) Story
There is no relation...at all.
4) Graphics
Considering all Resident Evil games have featured pre-rendered backgrounds bar Resident Evil: Code Veronica, I'd say as well, there is no comparison here. Now Eternal Darkness does feature a set camera...however it does move and will pan across the room to follow the character...the reason for this is to make it a true cinematic experience. As in Resident Evil, with the sticky cameras, you're always wondering what's on the other side of the screen....it's not Eternal Darkness' aim to create this sort of tension for the player.
5) Item Inventory
And this is the biggest difference... The inventory in Eternal Darkness is infinite. You don't need to worry about space as you do with the finite space given to you in Resident Evil games.
There's one more thing that needs to be cleared up before we conclude. Psychological thriller... Allow me to provide a quick definition. Causing the mind to feel emotion, sensation, and/or pleasure. Eternal Darkness isn't aiming to produce cheap scares similar to those found in Resident Evil -- a dog jumping through a window or a Hunter popping out of a door. No, instead Eternal Darkness is all about literally fucking with the mind...and not necessarily within the context of fright. Eternal Darkness is about making players doubt the whole experience of video game playing. When you're playing the game, you'll find yourself doubting everything...everything you've grown to expect will become the unexpected. It's the reason this Insanity Meter places this game literally in a new genre. I won't give any of the sanity effects away that I've experienced thus far so as to keep them a surprise, but I'll tell you right now, some of them will freak you out; even if it's only for but a few seconds.
Hopefully this has once and for all proven to you the genuine difference between Eternal Darkness and Resident Evil. In the raspy words of Ludacris...
"Go to sleep, go to sleep!"