The Vanishing of Ethan Carter

Release Date: September 25, 2014

Adventure, FPP, thriller, detective, Polish, indie games, exploration games, singleplayer

88%

Steam

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A dark, first-person adventure game developed by The Astronauts - a Polish team led by Adrian Chmielarz, the co-founder of People Can Fly. The player is put in the shoes of Paul Prospero - a detective who has developed certain paranormal abilities. The protagonist tries to solve the mystery behind the vanishing of a young boy.

guide

Last Update: October 14, 2014

The Vanishing of Ethan Carter Game Guide & Walkthrough

The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is an adventure game, where you view the course of the action from the First Person perspective and you visit a small, open world of the Red Creek valley.

The Vanishing of Ethan Carter Game Guide & Walkthrough

Originals

July 23, 2020

You Don't Have to Kill Those Rats – In Defense of Side Quests

Empty fillers, artificially prolonging the game? Or maybe side quests have a bigger role, which we underestimate? Today we stand up for them.

You Don't Have to Kill Those Rats – In Defense of Side Quests

Videos and Screens

[1:13] The Vanishing of Ethan Carter Redux - trailer

[1:17] The Vanishing of Ethan Carter PS4 launch trailer

88%

STEAM Score

All Reviews: Very Positive (6,716)

STEAM

User Reviews Summary generated by AI

The main pros of the game

Graphics and Atmosphere: The game is praised for its stunning photorealistic landscapes and beautiful environments, creating an immersive atmosphere that enhances the storytelling.
Sound Design: The soundtrack and overall sound design are highlighted as excellent, contributing to the game's eerie and mysterious ambiance.
Story and Themes: The narrative, which includes supernatural elements and references to H. P. Lovecraft, is regarded as engaging and thought-provoking, with some reviewers noting its emotional depth.
Puzzles and Exploration: Many players found the puzzles rewarding and appreciated the exploration aspect, which added to the overall experience.

The main cons of the game

Short Playtime: The game is criticized for being very short, with many players completing it in around 3 to 6 hours, leading to low replay value.
Gameplay Mechanics: The gameplay is described as lacking depth, with some finding the detective tasks repetitive and the overall pacing slow. The "pixel hunting" and slow run speed were particularly frustrating for some players.
Sound Mixing Issues: There are complaints about the sound mixing, with voices being too quiet and environmental sounds being overly loud, which detracted from the experience for some.

The features or elements that are missing from the game according to users

Guidance and Tutorials: Many players noted the lack of explanations for puzzles and gameplay mechanics, which made the initial experience confusing and frustrating.
Map or Navigation Aids: Players expressed a desire for a map or clearer guidance to help navigate the game's open environment, as backtracking can become tedious.
Improved Item Visibility: Suggestions were made to enhance the visibility of items in the environment to reduce frustration during exploration.
Longer Gameplay and Replay Value: Several users wished for more content or additional gameplay elements to extend the experience beyond the short playtime.

Summary

Overall, while "The Vanishing of Ethan Carter" is appreciated for its artistic qualities and engaging story, it faces criticism for its brevity and gameplay mechanics.

Summary generated on: November 25, 2024

2.5

GAMERS Score

Average score from 1977 votes. 432 players anticipated the game.

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The Vanishing of Ethan Carter Description

Plot
Mechanics

The Vanishing of Ethan Carter for PC, PS4 and XONE is an original adventure game, created by studio The Astronauts from Warsaw which is led by Adrian Chmielarz – a man who has great meaning for game development in Poland. It is developer’s first project created after departure of Chmielarz and some of his colleagues from People Can Fly which belongs to Epic Games.

Plot

Creators took inspirations from weird fiction, pulp horrors and horror novels written in the beginning of 20th century (like, for example, those created by H. P. Lovecraft). Axis of the story in the game is the eponymous vanishing of Ethan Carter – a little boy who probably was kidnapped by unknown perpetrators. The one who is trying to find him is main character – Paul Prospero, a private detective who has paranormal abilities. Following the lead of the boy, he gets to Red Creek Valley – beautiful mountain valley in the middle west of USA – where he finds butchered corpses of the kidnappers. Protagonist needs to solve the case of murders and find out what happened with Ethan Carter by using contemporary detective instruments and his unusual skills.

Mechanics

The Vanishing of Ethan Carter offers a vast open world meant to be explored freely and slowly. Exploration is an important (but not obligatory) part of the game which rewards player with additional clues about investigation and overall story background. In major part the game is non-linear – we can walk wherever we want and we don’t have to solve all riddles put on our way. Although having wonderful landscapes, Red Creek Valley is dreary place and it has dark atmosphere which can sent shivers down player’s spine. Nevertheless there are no real threats and Paul Prospero cannot die during the course of action.

Developers used many interesting measures in adventure part of the game (connected mainly with solving case of murders). For example, when we find an important part of the puzzle we don’t get explanation about what we found but we see single keywords on the screen which represent the train of thought of the detective (like “fresh, animal, clean ground, a few days, accident” while looking on bloodstain). We can also use above-mentioned Prospero’s paranormal abilities. Protagonist can communicate with the dead and he has visions showing him what happened in various places or with various objects/persons in the past. Thanks to these skills we can, for instance, find an item we need to solve the riddle. After we finish looking for clues, we have to recreate the past events in chronological order (they are represented by spectral characters animated directly in the game world).

The Vanishing of Ethan Carter for PC, PS4 and XONE was created with Unreal Engine 3 which was modified by adding new effects. It allowed developers to create beatiful, almost photorealistic world. It is also thanks to technique called photogrammetry – it allows to process precisely the photographs of real places into digital locations.

Last updated on August 14, 2015