I liked the original so much that I played the redux to experience it again.
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is a walking simulator that "doesn't hold your hand." You are given a vast expanse of beautiful scenery and minimal context. Even the mechanisms of play are not explained in any way. It reminds me of bad old point-and-click adventure games, where the game has its own internal logic and you spend a lot of time hunting for pixels. There is some joy in discovery, but mostly this is an inscrutable mess.
Um detetive paranormal e o desaparecimento de Ethan Carter
Thank god this is so short, any more playtime will finish me off.
I think he did vanish?
I think he did vanish?
Game felt weird to play, I never was sure on whether I was doing the right thing at the correct time. I'm a dumbass so it took me 1/2 an hour understanding the main mechanic. Otherwise pretty fun game with some moments that really scared me.
It's a nice looking game with a lot of cool looking supernatural side stories all in service of a story about an outcast kid in a family who doesn't understand him. Sad ending. Can't say it was something that really stuck with me after I completed it though.
neat little walking simulator.
the story and gameplay mechanics are interesting, even if the ending is a bit disappointing
the story and gameplay mechanics are interesting, even if the ending is a bit disappointing
When it comes to walking simulators, some get more praise than others, and some are just forgotten. Ethan Carter was talked about quite a bit upon its first release, even receiving a BAFTA award for best game innovation. After playing this game, I can't understand that kind of high praise for game innovation, but it sure does look pretty, and I have to give the ending some credit. It's one game that builds up to a great conclusion where everything comes together. However, during the actual journey, the narrative is pretty messy and vague.
You play a detective trying to find a boy, Ethan Carter, and along the way, you solve murder scenes. The game is built to be sort of open-ended. You can easily miss side content (in the form of puzzles) if you don't wander off and check out the house off the beaten path. Your main goal to advance the story is to find every clue for the scene, then go to the main part of the scene (usually an object), hold down the mouse button, and go into detective mode to piece everything together. Blue whisps fly out and show scene segments. You need to put them in the correct order and play it out to find out what happened. Once you do this, you get a piece of Ethan's story and can move on.
There are a couple of areas with optional puzzles. You need to navigate an area to find the clues, which are usually identical to the area with the puzzle in it. These are either audio or visual clues; they can be quite challenging and make you think a bit. Notably, there aren't any collectibles in the game, so you don't have to worry about missing much. There are a couple of objects to find for achievements, but that's about it. I wish there was some sort of reward for taking off into random, remote corners of the game. The path seems to be far more linear than it lets on. It's really more of an illusion of how far you can walk.
The locales vary quite a bit, and the game is really pretty. When the game was initially released, it was a great piece of tech for PC gamers pushing Unreal Engine 3, and now it has been ported to Unreal Engine 4. While it looks sort of dated today with some less-than-stellar lighting effects and a lot of 2D leaves and branches on trees, there is still a lot of detail. Huge open vistas look into the forests, lakes, rivers, and dams of the Wisconsin wilderness. It looks good in these wide-open areas, but the interior parts look pretty average, and there's nothing to write home about in terms of art direction or style. It's hyper-realistic-looking, with very minor touches of horror sprinkled throughout.
While looking at the landscape is nice, you can easily get lost as the game prides itself on not holding your hand; however, being completely clueless also isn't fun. Without a guide, many will turn the game off before even knowing you must solve these murder scenes during the first ten minutes. You can walk for quite a ways before realizing nothing is happening or hitting a dead end. This requires a lot of backtracking and aimless trekking through nothing but silence. While there is technically a "path" you can follow, it's very loose and not so obvious all the time.
My favorite atmospheric segments were when the detective narrates and you're just traveling through the vistas and valleys, taking in the scenery. It's a bit foreboding in spots but never creeps into horror game territory. There are no jump scares, no ghouls, and nothing supernatural. A building might be dark and dilapidated, and you might enter an old mine, but there's no creepy music or anything. It's foreboding. That's the best word I can come up with. I constantly found myself confused and disoriented trying to figure out what was going on in the story most of the time, so I always looked forward to that break in solving crime scenes with the walking and narration.
Overall, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is a game I have put off for nearly a decade, mainly because I knew it would be a confusing mess and the story would disappoint, but I do have to say waiting for this Unreal Engine 4 port was worth it. If you like walking simulators, this is among the best visually and is a nice change of pace from the horror ones we seem to get mostly. Even if the open-ended nature of the game frustrates you, stick with a guide or keep trying, as the ending is well worth it and those open vistas are incredibly gorgeous to look at.
You play a detective trying to find a boy, Ethan Carter, and along the way, you solve murder scenes. The game is built to be sort of open-ended. You can easily miss side content (in the form of puzzles) if you don't wander off and check out the house off the beaten path. Your main goal to advance the story is to find every clue for the scene, then go to the main part of the scene (usually an object), hold down the mouse button, and go into detective mode to piece everything together. Blue whisps fly out and show scene segments. You need to put them in the correct order and play it out to find out what happened. Once you do this, you get a piece of Ethan's story and can move on.
There are a couple of areas with optional puzzles. You need to navigate an area to find the clues, which are usually identical to the area with the puzzle in it. These are either audio or visual clues; they can be quite challenging and make you think a bit. Notably, there aren't any collectibles in the game, so you don't have to worry about missing much. There are a couple of objects to find for achievements, but that's about it. I wish there was some sort of reward for taking off into random, remote corners of the game. The path seems to be far more linear than it lets on. It's really more of an illusion of how far you can walk.
The locales vary quite a bit, and the game is really pretty. When the game was initially released, it was a great piece of tech for PC gamers pushing Unreal Engine 3, and now it has been ported to Unreal Engine 4. While it looks sort of dated today with some less-than-stellar lighting effects and a lot of 2D leaves and branches on trees, there is still a lot of detail. Huge open vistas look into the forests, lakes, rivers, and dams of the Wisconsin wilderness. It looks good in these wide-open areas, but the interior parts look pretty average, and there's nothing to write home about in terms of art direction or style. It's hyper-realistic-looking, with very minor touches of horror sprinkled throughout.
While looking at the landscape is nice, you can easily get lost as the game prides itself on not holding your hand; however, being completely clueless also isn't fun. Without a guide, many will turn the game off before even knowing you must solve these murder scenes during the first ten minutes. You can walk for quite a ways before realizing nothing is happening or hitting a dead end. This requires a lot of backtracking and aimless trekking through nothing but silence. While there is technically a "path" you can follow, it's very loose and not so obvious all the time.
My favorite atmospheric segments were when the detective narrates and you're just traveling through the vistas and valleys, taking in the scenery. It's a bit foreboding in spots but never creeps into horror game territory. There are no jump scares, no ghouls, and nothing supernatural. A building might be dark and dilapidated, and you might enter an old mine, but there's no creepy music or anything. It's foreboding. That's the best word I can come up with. I constantly found myself confused and disoriented trying to figure out what was going on in the story most of the time, so I always looked forward to that break in solving crime scenes with the walking and narration.
Overall, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is a game I have put off for nearly a decade, mainly because I knew it would be a confusing mess and the story would disappoint, but I do have to say waiting for this Unreal Engine 4 port was worth it. If you like walking simulators, this is among the best visually and is a nice change of pace from the horror ones we seem to get mostly. Even if the open-ended nature of the game frustrates you, stick with a guide or keep trying, as the ending is well worth it and those open vistas are incredibly gorgeous to look at.
Ending is a bit underwhelming, but style really woks for it.
just finished the original non-redux version and then saw i had this in my library too and figured i'd do a quick "speedrun" because i dunno i just did and i was kinda curious what would be different
most notable: better lighting in the church
most curious: the white symbols are gone from the carter house
most unsure if actual change: the placement of at least one memory fragment ghost thing to make it more obvious to keep following the trail in the dale murder? i dunno about this one tho
also feel more sure about saying this now: don't really like the ending
but hey whatever
most notable: better lighting in the church
most curious: the white symbols are gone from the carter house
most unsure if actual change: the placement of at least one memory fragment ghost thing to make it more obvious to keep following the trail in the dale murder? i dunno about this one tho
also feel more sure about saying this now: don't really like the ending
but hey whatever
Some of the best visuals I've ever seen in a game but the story didn't turn out to be as interesting as I was expecting.
Sights & Sounds
- A very scenic game that invites you to stroll through the woods and take your time. The lush trees, swaying grass, and babbling brooks all serve as a direct counterpoint to all the game's dark themes
- The sound design also plays into the pretty-scenery-with-horibble-backstory dynamic. It's a little unsettling to experience a flashback featuring someone's brutal demise only to pop back to bright sunlight and twittering birds
- The voice acting is well done and competently performed
- The music was nice as well, but nothing I'm going to add to a playlist. Hope you enjoy somber piano tracks
Story & Vibes
- The central thrust of the game is an investigation of the disappearance of a little boy (hope you inferred that from the title), so I wouldn't want to spoil the surprise by dropping plot points. I will say that it's a fairly intriguing supernatural mystery that'll show you the skeleton of the plot early on, but fills it in piece by piece in a way that keeps you guessing
- Given the mysterious air, there's a certain sense of foreboding that permeates the game. You know for a fact that something is wrong, but you don't know exactly what until the end
- Beyond that, the game can feel a little bit "sterile". There's no danger or imminent threat (outside of a single location). It's not that I was looking for a survival horror experience, but a thrill or two wouldn't hurt. You mostly just walk around and ponder a crime for a few hours
Playability & Replayability
- It's a walking simulator in the same vein as What Remains of Edith Finch or Call of the Sea. You poke around a large wooded area looking for clues, solving puzzles, and talking to yourself
- Occasionally, you'll come across some ghostly forms that require you to determine the sequence of events that unfolded in that setting. You'll have to comb the environment for clues and deduce the proper order to see the cutscene play out and progress. Some of the more obscure puzzles will require trial and error or filling in the blanks
- Some of the non-ghost puzzles are tricky, too. One involves a pair of houses with mismatched layouts that requires some good spacial memory and recall to complete successfully. I wound up just scribbling a rough layout on a piece of paper to make it easier
Overall Impressions & Performance
- I normally like investigation games with a good mystery, so The Vanishing of Ethan Carter was always a game I was going to like. That said, I was a little disappointed by the game's protagonist. I'm all in favor of the world-weary, pensive gumshoe archetype, but it's important to add at least a little flair. The protag in this game was incredibly bland and emotionally flat despite his ties to the game's story. If a character is going to be VA'ed, they should have something resembling a personality
- The game ran well on Steam Deck, or at least the Redux version did. I did experience occasional stuttering, though
Final Verdict
- 7/10. It features a really good mystery and a nice set of puzzles, but the milquetoast main character and lack of danger take some shine off an otherwise worthwhile game
- A very scenic game that invites you to stroll through the woods and take your time. The lush trees, swaying grass, and babbling brooks all serve as a direct counterpoint to all the game's dark themes
- The sound design also plays into the pretty-scenery-with-horibble-backstory dynamic. It's a little unsettling to experience a flashback featuring someone's brutal demise only to pop back to bright sunlight and twittering birds
- The voice acting is well done and competently performed
- The music was nice as well, but nothing I'm going to add to a playlist. Hope you enjoy somber piano tracks
Story & Vibes
- The central thrust of the game is an investigation of the disappearance of a little boy (hope you inferred that from the title), so I wouldn't want to spoil the surprise by dropping plot points. I will say that it's a fairly intriguing supernatural mystery that'll show you the skeleton of the plot early on, but fills it in piece by piece in a way that keeps you guessing
- Given the mysterious air, there's a certain sense of foreboding that permeates the game. You know for a fact that something is wrong, but you don't know exactly what until the end
- Beyond that, the game can feel a little bit "sterile". There's no danger or imminent threat (outside of a single location). It's not that I was looking for a survival horror experience, but a thrill or two wouldn't hurt. You mostly just walk around and ponder a crime for a few hours
Playability & Replayability
- It's a walking simulator in the same vein as What Remains of Edith Finch or Call of the Sea. You poke around a large wooded area looking for clues, solving puzzles, and talking to yourself
- Occasionally, you'll come across some ghostly forms that require you to determine the sequence of events that unfolded in that setting. You'll have to comb the environment for clues and deduce the proper order to see the cutscene play out and progress. Some of the more obscure puzzles will require trial and error or filling in the blanks
- Some of the non-ghost puzzles are tricky, too. One involves a pair of houses with mismatched layouts that requires some good spacial memory and recall to complete successfully. I wound up just scribbling a rough layout on a piece of paper to make it easier
Overall Impressions & Performance
- I normally like investigation games with a good mystery, so The Vanishing of Ethan Carter was always a game I was going to like. That said, I was a little disappointed by the game's protagonist. I'm all in favor of the world-weary, pensive gumshoe archetype, but it's important to add at least a little flair. The protag in this game was incredibly bland and emotionally flat despite his ties to the game's story. If a character is going to be VA'ed, they should have something resembling a personality
- The game ran well on Steam Deck, or at least the Redux version did. I did experience occasional stuttering, though
Final Verdict
- 7/10. It features a really good mystery and a nice set of puzzles, but the milquetoast main character and lack of danger take some shine off an otherwise worthwhile game
I get why people would hold this with the cult status it has. I'm a fan of lovecraftian style stories myself, which kept me interested for the most part, and the environments are pretty impressive. However, the all-over-the-place level design deterred me from enjoying this, making the story confusing and disconnected. I missed most of the initial puzzles and wouldn't got to them had I not looked guides, with a crazy amount of backtracking. These guides let me know there was a puzzle with jumpscares. It was the last one I had left to complete, but no sir. Arm yourself with a whole lot of patience if you want to enjoy this.
The world was pretty, and looked great on Deck. I just couldn't bring myself to give a damn about it.
Interesting puzzles but the ending decides to throw everything the game has been building up to out of the window.
It's a walking sim, and if you don't like walking sims, this one probably isn't going to convince you otherwise. The supernatural story woven throughout is competently written and acted. The world itself is a work of art. The game can sometimes be a little slow, but thankfully, there's a run button.