The crowdfunding campaign for Shadow of the Eternals, the spiritual successor to Eternal Darkness, has gone live. Before we go into more details on the episodic horror series for PC and Wii U, a public service announcement:
First: this campaign isn't a Kickstarter, and it has "flexible funding." That means whether or not Shadow of the Eternals reaches its $1.5 million goal, developer Precursor Games will retain all its pledges to work on the project.
Second: Precursor is composed of ex-Silicon Knights developers, and its chief creative officer is Silicon Knights founder Denis Dyack. According to a harrowing Kotaku report from October, mismanagement was rampant at the seemingly derelict studio.
Now back to the fun stuff: Shadow of the Eternals will follow in Eternal Darkness' time-and-globe trotting footsteps. The first episode stars a detective attempting to piece together a bizarre cult rivalry in the modern day, and a handmaiden to infamous blood-bathing serial killer Countess Elizabeth Báthory in 1610 AD.
Their stories tie together in the occult, cryptic manner you'd expect, along with those of the 11 other episodes planned for Shadow of the Eternals' first season. Players will navigate mundane and nightmarish environments as combat, puzzles, and other sanity-draining events push their characters into madness--all rendered in CryEngine 3.
Yes, there are sanity effects. And yes, funders who join the game's "Order of the Unseen" community can pitch ideas for the notorious mindf#&@s--Eternal Darkness' included a fake save-game corruption message and characters exploding for no good reason--among other content.
Shadow of the Eternals' crowdfunding campaign stands at about $30,000 of its $1.5 million goal as of this writing, with pledges set to wrap up on June 6. You can check out the pilot episode (expected to release in the third quarter of 2014) for a pledge of $5, or pre-order the whole season for $50.
Check out IGN's nine minutes of gameplay below to see what unearthly stuff you may be getting yourself into.
