The Vanishing of Ethan Carter: Review

People who once worked in PEOPLE Can Fly over Painkiller And Bulletstorm, Make a new game on the Unreal Engine engine. Naturally, the first thing you think is that it will be some other brutal shooter. However, surprisingly in The Vanishing of Ethan Carter There is no action at all, and most of the time here you can just wander and contemplate the beauty of local landscapes with an open mouth. The main thing is to try not to look under your feet so as not to stumble on the next torn corpse or strange bloody traces ..

Photorealistic detective

Like the recent Murdered: Soul Suspect, The debut game of the Polish studio The Astronauts -This is a mystical thriller about the detective-experimental. Paul Prospero can also see the past and even dead. His last business should be the mysterious story of the boy Itan Carter, which happened in the picturesque place of the red-krick-valli,-and the child himself wrote to the detective and asked him to come.

However, at first nothing reminds of some dead and bloody murders, and we focus on the surrounding picturesque. The Poles enchantedly worked with Unreal Engine and created almost the most beautiful game for today. Picture in The Vanishing of Ethan Carter Really photorealistic. A quiet autumn forest, where the sun shines through the crowns of trees, spreading under the bridge a huge lake – everything looks “like in life”. Well, or as in impressionist cinema, where it is more important not the plot, but the mood and contemplation. I just want to wander, examine and make a thousand screenshots per minute, since we are allowed to be distracted from the railway, which is clearly leading to some plot events, to delve into the same forest, go to a cliff or go to the lake shore.

As if understanding our mood, Paul Prospero reports that the ed-Cick-Welly really looks like a very ordinary, quiet place, but he, they say, had long been convinced that there was no really quiet and even more ordinary places. Indeed, the whole game is a continuous proof of the famous truth about the fact that the devils are found in a quiet whirlpool ..

The past gives answers

Having emerged from the forest and returning to the railway canvas leading into the distance, we soon begin to discover evidence that something terrible happened here. Here is the blood on the sheathing of an old trolley, here is the cut leg on the rails, but not far away and the first corpse is a torn man. What happened to him? Whether it was an accident or murder? And if a trace of the blow is visible on the head, then what object did it do? At first, Paul Prospero does not know the answers, he can only think, and his guesses float on the screen in the form of text – just like in the series “Sherlock”.

In the future, we will more and more often run into some bloody traces and corpses, and each time to find a clue, our unusual detective must collect all objects associated with a specific situation. We found, for example, a dead man with a hole in the throat – we need to find a fire ax and scissors and lay them out in their places. Only after that, going to the corpse, the detective of an extransa will be transferred to the past and will find there scattered scenes of what happened here. Moreover, in these scenes, people froze as if we had paused. We need to arrange these episodes in the correct sequence, and then Paul Prospero will finally see a complete picture of what happened.

In fact, from the point of view of the quest in this there is nothing complicated – we simply look and lay out objects in the right place, find and read notes, examine active points, activate the buttons that control, for example, an elevator, and periodically turn on the simple logic. Really actively working with the brain we will be asked exactly once – in the finale itself. And the only real difficulty is that due to the fairly open structure of the game world, you can easily miss important scenes and not see the ends.

You can’t call the game and some https://lucky-spins.co.uk/ really scary. Again only once, closer to the denouement, some monster will rush at us, and you will probably jump on a chair. IN The Vanishing of Ethan Carter Rather, an uncomfortable tension is felt, which is not in horror films, but in high -quality thrillers: it consists of contrast between the surrounding beauty of nature and the evil that settled in the souls of some local residents.

Nevertheless, it is impossible to tear yourself away from the game. From scattered notes, scenes and murders, a really unusual, fascinating and mystical story is formed, which somewhere reminds stories Howard Lovecraft (Howard Lovecraft), but somewhere it seems too unusual: just say that in addition to gloomy houses with portals, cemeteries and dark mines appear here … Cosmonauts. To understand what happened, you really will have to find all the key places and scroll through all the scenes of the past – the denouement of the history of Itan Carter, we assure it, is worth it.

Pros: gorgeous graphics;A fascinating mystical plot;Unusual investigation mechanics built on the psychic abilities of the protagonist.
Cons: Someone may not like the lack of really complex puzzles or specific instructions where to go and what to do.

The Vanishing of Ethan Carter

The best comments

I rarely happen to me that I would like to go and inspect every nooks of the whole world, so that the plot would immerse completely into the game and hold the “brand” until the very end. This game is just that, and I think it deserves an assessment amazing. Since when is it minus that there is no instructions, where to go and what to do? Are there few such games? And yet, IMHO, the game should not be too complicated or light, incredibly beautiful or terrible, exciting or boring. So that the game would come out “amazing” it should keep a balance between all these qualities. Better let her have her own shortcomings, but this is also part of the game, and who knows what she would be without them? Better? Not a fact.

“Someone may not like the lack of specific instructions where to go and what to do”
How these poor fellows were generally able to start the game?

I do not agree with you. Until the very end, I never guessed that the main character is a guy’s fiction, as well as stories about his relatives. But with the fact that the game was very pleased with both everything sounds and very beautiful graphics, I agree 100%. (Did not immediately believe that the game on UE3).

Hmm, for a long time I do not remember the review with so many spoilers. I myself have passed the game already, so almost care, but “it is a shame for the power”. You would still tell about all the murders and what to do. And don’t forget the ending.

So you played or not?
All that you investigate, about which you are building the theory is the whole part of the boy’s story, and you are the main character of this story. It is not surprising that all this in the end seems not more valuable than smoke. But in order for us to begin to vaguely understand who we are and why we are here, we are thrown by the other works of Itan, in which we can meet city legends associated with the history of the Red Stream Valley, and mystical traditions (about witches, etc.p.). These are the natural fruits of children’s imagination, they come to life precisely because the boy believed in them, but the protagonist became the apogee of his work, and he believed in him stronger than all. If you dig up even deeper, then all this game about the deep personal drama of Itan Carter, who is not understood and not accepted by loved ones, is not seriously related to his work, the roles are confused by his mother and father (father – Rokhlya, mother – tyrant), fading reigns in the communication of the family. The child feels superfluous in this world (which is the story about the witch that the boy comes to to ask her to make his mother again beautiful). The boy tried to run away from all this in his fantasies, but in the end, when an accident with a fire occurs, he lays down, panting from smoke and calls for the last fictitious character so that he would come to save him. All his relatives experience grotesque metamorphoses, their vices in the imagination of the boy are hypertrophied, and we get a story with a curse, the cult of the sleeping and gradual cutting of some family members by others. Here you have a metaphor.

That feeling when I went into the game to look at the graphon, and in the end went in one breath, plunging into the atmosphere.

Well, you see)
Honestly, when she played, she did not feel problems with understanding, although the ending was dumbfounded. Just if you carefully observe the details and study the documents, everything just gets into place. I did not notice any “imbalance”.
And as for Bioshock – well, this is a completely different game and a way to present the plot in it is naturally different, more “classic” from the point of view of the development of the plot. They are simple different. And if you are not uneathered to this, then why scold the game itself?

The astronaut is a metaphor, an artistic move, and there is a faith in what is happening?
Moreover, this is a vision that the GG sees by reading the next note, and already not a real astronaut

The game is really short. And this, in my opinion, is her only minus.
You can ask how exactly the plot moves were predictable? (besides, who is GG)

The astronaut symbolizes the element of children’s imagination. Remember, we find a story about the beast and next to it is a poster about a kind of space history?

Consider that I passed it on YouTube. Thanks, of course, for retelling the plot. This, in principle, understands me. I seem to understand that I was wrong. Simply, in my case, the style of presentation of the plot did not work. I must be too accustomed to a more consistent narrative. When a sudden denouement is directly justified by what was shown throughout the game. As in the same Bioshok Infinit, for example. There, we are consistently fed the world in which everything happens, and then they throw a couple of facts that turn it upside down. At the same time, all the elements of the narrative find a place in the current story, it is logically fit into it.

It is different here. Когда случается сюжетный твист, тот мир, что нам показывали обретает лишь косвенное значение. But at the same time, it serves the soil for the formation of a story that existed beyond what is happening. She just appears outside the sequence. She, as it were, all the time between the lines, and in the end suddenly comes to the fore. This is probably just too unusual, for me personally.

And damn it, do not even know how to configure yourself to this game. After all, at first everything looks rather believable, realistic, and then different “astronauts” break the mood for realism. Here, at first, you are waiting for no more than easy mysticism, but the game is not at all what it seemed at the beginning. It seems that because because of this it was not possible to get through as it should. Plus, I didn’t go. I think this also imposed a certain effect. Such things.

No, well, it was definitely worthy of a separate blog. Here I am a fool.

The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is one of the best games that I have ever played in. Everything in it is excellent, starting with graphics, where you can simply score to passage and go to examine the beauty of the town, to the plot, which keeps in tension from beginning to end. Passing takes no more than 3-4 hours, but no more. During this time, the game does not have time to get bored and passes in one breath. In my opinion, the game deserves an assessment of “amazing”. I advise everyone to play this game and imbued with this exciting story. 10/10