Review: The Vanishing of Ethan Carter

It’s Halloween, and you know what that means. Manda’s got to get her spooky game fix…actually, you probably don’t know that, but nevertheless it’s true. And what should my wandering eyes find on Steam but a new game title from called The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, a game from developer The Astronauts about a paranormal detective who solves cases by communing with ghosts of the past. If that doesn’t say “Halloween game”, I don’t know what does.

Plus…skulls…look at the skulls!

Actually, before I say anything else, let’s make one thing clear: The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is a game. No, there is not a lot of action. No, there are not a ton of puzzles and what is present is far from challenging. But it is still a game. It might just be not YOUR type of game. If you very much like shooting, or heavy puzzle solving, or more than four hours of gameplay, please stop reading here. You won’t like The Vanishing of Ethan Carter. If you’re going to stay though and read just don’t start whining about how it’s not a game. Because it is. Okay? Okay.

Ahem…sorry, there’s some unresolved frustration there. But I know there have been a few critiques of games like Ethan Carter or Gone Home that have focused purely on the genre of game it isn’t. We’re not here to talk about what Ethan Carter isn’t. We’re here to talk about what it is. And what it is is a pretty decent, moody exploratory game.

The Vanishing of Ethan Carter follows private detective Paul Prospero as he searches for a missing child, Ethan Carter. Prospero isn’t just any old private detective though. He has the ability to communicate with the dead, which is very handy given the number of dead bodies Ethan has seemed to leave in his wake. As his search continues though, the mystery of exactly who Ethan is and what he awoke in the depths of Red Creek Valley only deepens.

And of course…it involves a spooky, decrepit house

As the game begins and you emerge from a train tunnel on a windswept mountain valley, one thing is immediately apparent. This game is freaking gorgeous. The Unreal Engine is put to extremely good use here. Trees blow in the wind. Sunlight winks in and out from behind them. A huge crystal clear lake perfectly reflects the horizon while an enormous and decrepit house sits just waiting to be explored.

It’s a shame then that the amazing environments are somewhat hampered by the far less impressive characters (okay…ghosts) you encounter later on. The slightly trollish faces and stiff movements are a stark contrast to the incredibly realistic and natural looking world surrounding. Luckily, it wasn’t quite enough to take me out of the game entirely, but it came a bit close at times.

Despite that, the whole place oozes an atmosphere of isolation and mystery, which is helped immensely by a soundtrack that ranges from moody and haunting to whimsical and nostalgic. It put me in mind of the Myst games at times and got me right in the mood for some exploration. Which is good, because exploring is what you do a LOT of in this game.

The settings you enter are pretty expansive and the game gives surprisingly little restriction as to where you can go. You can walk through a wooded glade. You can leave that glade to walk down a dirt path. You can leave that path to explore some rock that looks interesting. It’s a slow paced exploration but rarely gets tedious. In fact, I immensely enjoyed taking the time to immerse myself in the world. Make no mistake though. You can go where you want, but this is still a linear game. Nothing will progress until you trigger the right event.

Look. Just LOOK at that scenery!

With any linear game, it’s important to have a strong story that will keep the player aching to know what happens next and luckily the mystery that is Ethan Carter is engaging enough to keep you moving forward. What starts out as a simple kidnapping soon reveals itself to have some darker and occult implications as you begin to discover bodies.

This is where the core game mechanic comes into play: communing with the dead. Upon discovery of each body, Prospero uses his psychic…I think that’s what they are, anyway, abilities to piece together the scene right before their death by going into a spirit realm to search the area again for each scene that took place before the murder. At that point, your job is simply to put each scene in the correct order and then watch how the murder unfolded.

Prospero will also use his powers to gather clues and evidence around the area. This is done much in the same style as the show Sherlock, with text of theories and hints flying across the screen before coming to a conclusion (for example, finding a trail of blood elicits a flurry of text saying things like “escaped?” and “dragged himself away” circling the object). Sometimes it results in you getting an object, sometimes it gives Prospero a vision of an area with useful information.

I think…it’s a rail car

The mood is never outright spooky, apart from one sequence, but there is definitely a slow and growing sense of discomfort at events progress, as though someone is always watching your back. Who is Ethan? What happened to his family? Was the desolation of their new home turning them into Jack Torrence? Or did Ethan wake up a sinister spirit?

In the end, my friend and I guessed the where the game was headed fairly early in our playthrough. That didn’t however make the journey any less engaging or mind boggling. Mind boggling is the right word here. You may know the end point of the game, but the narrative and creative curve balls the game throws your way as you explore will keep you wondering just what on earth is going on. And while I would love to discuss them here and the implications they bring, this is just a review and to spoil it would be to ruin the fun.

There’s a cemetery…there’s ALWAYS a cemetery…

There was only one sequence that ground the game to a halt and that was a sequence in a mine tunnel. You might be the most brilliant designer in the world. You might have a game as pretty as Ethan Carter. But listen carefully: maze puzzles are the worst. And for myself personally, maze puzzles with an evil jump scare chasing you are just downright terrifying. But then I’m easily scared. The scare itself was effective. The maze…not so much.

The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is not a perfect game. But it was a thoroughly enjoyable, inspiring and breathtaking experience that, while perhaps somewhat predictable, didn’t fail to leave an emotional impact. It’s detailed environments, desolate atmosphere and fantastic soundtrack more than make it worth the $20 I spent on it and I found myself wishing that I had more than four hours to play. If you are looking for a good, eerie story to discover, try it out.