The Vanishing of Ethan Carter |
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Review by Gary Alexander Stott on PS4
Last year, independent studio The Astronauts brought The Vanishing of Ethan Carter to PC. The exploratory first-person mystery game was well received and has now made its way onto PS4, this time fully-realized through the use of Unreal Engine 4. It's safe to say nothing has been lost in translation; The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is a wonderful, absorbing experience, and has never looked better.
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The game follows paranormal investigator Paul Prospero on his quest to find a missing boy by the name of Ethan Carter. From the moment players arrive in Red Creek, they will be blown away by the game's breathtaking visuals that render forests, villages and vistas alike with incredible attention to detail. From start to finish, the game is consistently gorgeous, and rivals the best triple-A titles the PS4 has to offer in terms of sheer visual quality. Boasting 1080p resolution and a dynamic frame rate that regularly hits 60fps, the results are often jaw-dropping. These sights are accompanied by the game's original score, which builds a fittingly strange and eerie atmosphere. Together with some well-delivered vocal performances, these elements combine to give credence and believability to the world they depict. There's a long initial load time, but the game runs without interruption from that point onward.
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Much of the game's story is told through its environment, supplemented now and then by Prospero's musings. There are a variety of imposing man-made structures and wide natural spaces just begging to have their histories unravelled. As players explore, they will find notes and other items that gradually piece the mystery together. Without spoiling too much, Ethan Carter's narrative goes to some interesting places, bearing Lovecraftian themes reminiscent of Frictional Games' Amnesia: The Dark Descent (which featured similar exploratory gameplay). That being said, Ethan Carter's story ends up somewhere very different, ultimately serving as an exploration and meta-commentary on storytelling, imagination and reality.
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Gameplay involves exploring the environment to discover points of interest, scanning the area for scattered clues and piecing them together to make sense of things. One such area, for example, early into the game, contains a corpse with severed legs. Searching the nearby surroundings reveals the murder weapon and other evidence left behind by the killer. Interaction is handled through the use of on-screen text that hovers over points of interest. This simple, elegant UI allows the game's beauty to be fully appreciated without cluttering the screen with information.
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It also has a storytelling purpose, with Prospero's thoughts regarding the crime scene popping up as they run through his head. Certain points of interest lead to several instances of a particular term appearing on screen that can then be aligned together by facing a particular direction, hinting at the location of further clues – a clever way to convey the instinctive hunch of an experienced investigator.
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Certain pieces of evidence allow Prospero to use his supernatural senses to track down important objects, covering the screen with a projection of the item in question and its immediate surroundings. Touching a run-down train, for example, reveals a crank shaft lying by the shore of a lake. Following this lead, players simply need to search the area until the lake in question has been found, allowing the item to be retrieved through memory.
Once enough evidence has been gathered, Prospero can touch the victim's corpse to access their memories and recreate the scene. Five scenes from the murder are brought into the environment, and the player must use their common sense to place them in chronological order, allowing the sequence to play out. It's a fun system that forces players to think like a detective, though sometimes the correct order is not immediately obvious, reducing the mechanic to little more than a trial and error job. |
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Scattered throughout the game are stories left behind by Ethan Carter that initially present themselves as playable segments. These generally take on the form of puzzles of some sort, such as navigating a house with changing rooms or chasing after a figure in a set amount of time. There are a couple of stories, however, that simply involve walking to a particular place, and these don't feel as creative, nor does their discovery feel as earned. That said, the stories themselves (which are all readable) are well-written and interesting, and seeing them come to life is a treat.
It's just as well, too, as it is necessary to beat them all to finish the story. They can, however, be tackled in any order, and a system introduced late in the game lets players fast-travel to any locations that might have been missed. While backtracking can feel like something of a chore, Ethan Carter's narrative is genuinely interesting enough that players will want to experience all of these stories, and the game ends on such a perfect note that it completely justifies the effort. |
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The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is a brief experience, and should only take the average player a few hours to beat. However, this length feels suitable for its simple mechanics, and it tells the story it wishes to tell without the use of padding or filler, which should be applauded. This is not a game to be rushed through, but one to be played at a slow, relaxed pace. Its brevity will doubtless be off-putting to some players, as will its peaceful, exploratory gameplay, but those who are willing to take the game for what it is will be rewarded with a beautiful, haunting and atmospheric title that leaves a lasting impression.
Screenshots
Review copy via Publisher
Images via PS4 Screenshots.
Images via PS4 Screenshots.
