Review — The Vanishing Of Ethan Carter

The Vanishing Of Ethan Carter

We Sit Down And Review The Vanishing Of Ethan Carter. Is It Worth Your Time? Did it upgrade to the new engine and platform well? Here’s Our Review of The Vanishing Of Ethan Carter

Originally The Vanishing Of Ethan Carter came out on the PC last year using the Unreal 3 Engine to extremely decent reviews. It is an interesting indie story game from The Astronauts that is more of an exploration experience and puzzle solving thing than anything you may think given the trailers but a game none the less. The Vanishing Of Ethan Carter was well received none the less and this drove the team to upgrade the game to Unreal 4 engine as well as bring it to the PS4. A whole new market with a whole new look but did it all carry over well? That is what we are here for and here is our review of The Vanishing Of Ethan Carter.

Story

We take on the role of Paul Prospero, a paranormal investigator, whom has been receiving letters from the titular character of The Vanishing Of Ethan Carter; Ethan Carter. Due to the oddness of the letters and Paul’s ability to “Batman” all of these investigations we head out to find out what is troubling the boy. When we get out to the location of the Carter family we find out things are a lot darker and confusing than previously thoughts. A boy’s life could be on the line and we need to figure out what is going on to save the day. Can he do it or will Paul get drug down into the darkness that has taken over in The Vanishing Of Ethan Carter?

Hated

If there is one thing I hate about great story games like The Vanishing Of Ethan Carter it is when they end too soon. Not that the story of the game didn’t come to a final point that fit but the fact that the whole thing was over in a matter of a few hours. Not only that but all of the exploration areas and extra little bits of The Vanishing Of Ethan Carter could all be wrapped up in almost no time at all. I was drawn into the world here and wanted to keep going only to be let down with little replay value in such a short time. I get that The Astronauts are a small team but I would have loved even more. Maybe in a sequel to The Vanishing Of Ethan Carter?

Another thing that was a bit annoying here in The Vanishing Of Ethan Carter, even though it was kind of dictated from the beginning, is that when they say there is no “hand holding” they really mean it. In fact I rather enjoyed that aspect of the game; at least outside of the fact that there wasn’t even a quick overview of the basic controls for the game. Something that could have been summed up in 30 seconds and then never seen again. I spent a good chunk of the beginning of The Vanishing Of Ethan Carter slowly walking around and exploring while getting frustrated at how slow the walking was. It wasn’t until I had enough to go in and look to see if there was an option to run. If you have yet to play The Vanishing Of Ethan Carter do know that there is but the only way to find out about it is to go into the options menu and dig it up.

Lastly, and this could have been just my gameplay, it was extremely easy to bypass all of the horror and paranormal stuff in The Vanishing Of Ethan Carter. In fact it wasn’t until after beating the game completely that I found out that there was a random ghost wandering in one cave that jumps out at you. He never showed up for me and I had to watch a few videos for The Vanishing Of Ethan Carter to actually see it. I know it is in the game but it seems like the random generator wasn’t perfected by The Astronauts as it never came. This was also the one huge section that was supposed to have the jump scares and I never got one at all. I guess if I wanted to take another speed run I could find it but it was a letdown to know it was there and never came.

Loved

By the gods The Vanishing Of Ethan Carter on the Unreal 4 Engine looks amazing. This would have been one of the few PS4 games where I wished there was a Photo Mode as I always seemed to find amazing environmental shots that looked so realistic that I could have fooled people into thinking I took a real vacation and not just playing The Vanishing Of Ethan Carter. The upgrade went insanely well and I only wished that I had a Morpheus to play through The Vanishing Of Ethan Carter so I could have had the real immersion into the game’s very detailed world. I don’t think I have seen an update done as well as this and for that alone it is worth at least part of the price of admission.

As I mentioned above, another aspect I loved even though it was short was the overall story of The Vanishing Of Ethan Carter. The Astronauts presented everything is such a way that I wanted to try and find out more and went searching for all the little clues and not just moved from the perceived point A to point B. It was enticing and didn’t even get told through actual voice over work every time. Even little things like pictures and side notes helped aid in this. It was one great story even if it was a bit on the shorter side. I only wish that it could have easily been set up to continue further after I beat the core version of The Vanishing Of Ethan Carter. I guess we’ll have to see.

Last, and definitely not least, were the puzzles and objectives for the core gameplay of The Vanishing Of Ethan Carter. In most games like this it is usually find an object that has a clue on how it is used and then use it. The Vanishing Of Ethan Carter had a few of those but that was not the majority of them all. All of the puzzles and investigations in the game were fun and challenging to me for once. Especially the one that requires you to lay out the floor plan of one house in The Vanishing Of Ethan Carter just as another using “teleportation” portals. That would be the best way to describe it without giving away too much of the game and spoiling your own fun. It was tricky, challenging, and amazing.

Overall

I absolutely loved my time with The Vanishing Of Ethan Carter. It did have a few instances where basic “hand holding” would have been nice just to get us all up and running, pun intended, faster but maybe that was a ploy to make the game feel a bit longer than it actually was. Maybe that would have allowed me to see all of the scary things as well. Who knows? What I do know is that I do recommend The Vanishing Of Ethan Carter for anyone who wants to have a nice, beautiful, yet short story with some amazing puzzles mixed in. I think that may have been what The Astronauts were going for but I am not on the team so I can’t say for certain. I just know that I don’t regret spending my time or money on The Vanishing Of Ethan Carter.

The Vanishing Of Ethan Carter was developed and published by The Astronauts for the PS4 and PC on July 15^th 2015. A PS4 copy of the game was provided by the publisher for reviewing purposes.