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Paul Prospero is a Supernatural Detective. To put it simply, Paul utilizes special powers to investigate crime scenes and solve gruesome murder mysteries long after they have happened. His latest case sends him on a chase throughout Red Creek Valley to find out what happened to Ethan Carter, a boy that vanished without any apparent trace. Paul uses his unique abilities to investigate a series of crime scenes, examine clues, and reconstruct events that happened in the past by viewing a series of otherworldly visions.
This is all accomplished in one of the most visually stunning games released this year on any platform. The Vanishing of Ethan Carter may be the best looking game I've set my eyes upon. The texture work is nearly flawless, with high resolution textures on just about every surface. The lighting and atmosphere fit the tone of the game incredibly well, creating vistas and scenes that will stop you in your tracks just to admire and take a screenshot. Sadly, not every area looked amazing. The only visually low point came courtesy of a small gameplay segment that takes place in an underground abandoned mine shaft. Aside from some slight hitches in performance here and there, you would probably have no idea that this is an Unreal Engine 3 title. I generally had fantastic performance in both indoor and outdoor environments on my i5-2500K, 8GB RAM, and GTX 770 (4GB). The hitching seems to be a common problem across all hardware combinations and may simply be an issue with Unreal Engine 3 itself.
It should be interesting to note that while the game gives off a very eerie vibe, there is nothing that is actually scary about it. There are some dilapidated buildings, some spooky mineshafts, and some dark wooded areas, but there aren't any monsters. Despite this game involving spirits and ghostly memories of prior events, this isn't a horror game. Having said that, there will be a few instances where you might jump a bit while playing.
As the game attempts not to ever hold the player's hand, you need to keep a close eye on your surroundings for anything and everything that seems to be out of place. Only when you get near enough to an object or location will the game give any indication that what you're looking at is important. The question is, though, just why is this scene so important? Clues and objects are vague, which is a great thing and honestly a breath of fresh air in a world where most games would explicitly state what you need to do next. There are no harsh glows around objects, only a few floating words that vaguely point you in the direction of what you should be looking for but nothing that is ever concrete.
Once you have found the clues, Paul begins to piece together the order of events for that particular crime scene. You know you have found the last remaining clues when the scene takes an otherworldly tone. The world turns slightly blue as areas where you previously found clues now show freeze frames of memories from the crime that took place in the past. It's up to you, the player, to figure out the exact order of how things went down. Simply put the order of events in chronological order by assigning each memory a number and watch as the scene plays out before your eyes. These situations are rather difficult to mess up as they seemingly permit endless attempts to correctly form the order. If you mess up the order at any segment, the game will stop the memory replay at that point, locking in place the previous segments which you now know to be in the correct order.
Successful reconstruction of the ghostly memory replay signifies that the investigation for that scene is complete and typically shows off a new story element that will prompt you to head off in a new direction. As this is an open world game, it is entirely possible for you to overlook a clue here and there resulting in some unfortunate backtracking. Provided you keep the backtracking to a minimum, most players will be able to complete the entire game in about three to five hours. It is a bit unfortunate that while the world is large and gorgeous to look at, there just doesn't seem to be very much to do in it. Solving these crimes and mysteries is a great deal of fun, I just wish there was more of it. There are often long stretches where you are simply walking from one scene to the next and finding nothing of actual value along the way.
For many fans of games similar to Dear Esther or Gone Home, you probably won't mind the long walks. I found that while I enjoyed the overall adventure, there were times where I felt like a lot of the areas were wasted potential for more enjoyable crime solving sections. Fortunately, a lot of the down time was occupied by a small bit of filler dialogue by Paul. Even these spoken sections were brief, which could be a good thing depending on how you feel about hearing the inner monologues of the protagonist you are in control of. Another huge plus for fans of minimalist design comes in the form of some of the written notes and books you can find. These written pieces are often very short and will sometimes provide a small, cryptic hint that many players will probably overlook as just being added world flavor.
The $19.99 (USD) price point might be just a bit too steep for some gamers out there, especially with an average completion time of under five hours. For others, it's an absolute bargain for a game that looks beautiful and for those who enjoy a "less is more" approach to both gameplay and storytelling. Perhaps the only major gripe I have with the game is with the save system. There are no manual saves and there was nothing that I could visually see that would indicate an auto-save had taken place. You really are just rolling the dice when you quit and return as there is no real guarantee that you will be at the exact point where you left off during the previous session.
If that is the only real complaint I have with the game I feel as though this might be my favorite new IP of 2014. The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is visually fantastic and offers up an eerie and interesting take on the mystery and adventure genres. The puzzles were enjoyable to complete, helped in part by the lack of explicit hand holding. I only wish that there was more of The Vanishing of Ethan Carter to enjoy. Perhaps the game's developer, The Astronauts (founded by three of the original founders of People Can Fly), will have more mysteries for us to solve in the future.
| Positives |
| + The game's visuals are incredibly impressive |
| + Little to no hand holding |
| + Each mystery and crime is fun to solve |
| + Very atmospheric |
| + Great soundtrack and environmental audio |
| Negatives |
| - May be a bit too short for some (expect a completion time of under five hours) |
| - There is no manual save nor any indication on when the game last auto-saved |
| - Voice acting isn't always the best |
Title: The Vanishing of Ethan Carter
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 4 (Coming in 2015) (Reviewed on PC)
Website: http://ethancartergame.com/