The Vanishing of Ethan Carter Reviews
While some will find the pace far too slow for their liking or the crime-scene puzzles too simplistic, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter holds up well. Having the story told almost out of sequence makes it even more chilling as you see people slowly turn on each other. The melancholy tale is matched with some wonderful visions to make a game that really sticks in the mind.
Perhaps where The Vanishing of Ethan Carter succeeds most is in establishing a sense of place. This is the kind of game that you'll want to get lost in. Grab a pair of headphones, listen to the wind rustle through trees, and do your best to get through its four-hour journey in a single sitting. Even something as simple as walking out of the forest into a sunlit glade has impact, and as you follow the twists and turns of its multi-threaded story, you'll be caught up in its unsettling intrigue.
If you love exploration, mystery, even a sense of wonder and awe, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter provides all this and more. For the 4 to 6 hours the game lasts, it's definitely a memorable experience.
In the end, 'The Vanishing of Ethan Carter' is a great game to pick up.
A more than competent puzzler that wows with its impressive vistas, excellent sound design and subtle horror-tinged plot. The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is a thing of dark beauty.
Immerse yourself in the psychology of an American family in autumn country.
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is a game you should experience. I just made an ass of myself writing a review like a bad pulp noir because this game really made me feel like an intrepid pulp detective. I was a little disappointed with the short playthrough, but it had such high quality because it was short. Even then, some of it came apart near the end simply because it's hard to keep such high expectations in tact for so long. Buy it, and do your best not to have the answers spoiled for you.
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter has been a great way to start off the gaming year for me.
I almost feel this goes without saying, but make sure you see this game through to the end.
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is a game for connoisseurs of games that are visually stunning and and relay on an idea rather than gameplay mechanics. It lasts a few hours and lacks replayability, but the story is quite good and worth playing. Just like Gone Home.
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A tense and spooky stroll through a gorgeous world, some fun supernatural detective work, and an efficient script with sparse dialogue.
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is an impassioned monument to its prestigious foundations. A product-of-assembly depiction makes for an idle assessment, but it's difficult not to look at Ethan Carter and see narrative guidance from Twain and Vern, Lovecraft's proclivity for the destructive supernatural, and Chandler's pulpy detective fiction. The tale Ethan Carter ultimately aches to tell isn't as complex or natural as its influences, but it finds ample success in directing a curious story through an interactive ensemble.
One of the best story driven games of the year, and one of the prettiest, although you do sometimes wonder if it's focusing on the most interesting aspect of its plot.
Freeform exploration can be tedious, but the tense moments will have your heart racing
The story, the full narrative, is relevant to a lot of children like Ethan Carter and is steeped in sobering realism. For that, I would encourage you to discover it and find him.
Despite a few issues that prevent the game from being a wholly immersive open-world exploratory experience, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter packs an impressive punch. The four to five hour long game's world is aesthetically perfect, the stories are equal parts fascinating and bizarre and it's a hell of a ride from beginning to end.
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter may not be a long journey, but the breathtaking visuals and atmosphere are enough to captivate most anybody on their way to solving a number of mysteries that all play a part in the overall story.
As the credits roll on this brief but powerful experience, you'll realise a lot is left open to interpretation. For some, that's to be expected. For others, it'll be infuriating. Prospero rarely seems to be in a hurry – even when he bloody should be – and as such, his plodding pace is very much a gamer's Marmite; you'll either love it or hate it… but good grief is this a mystery worth solving.
A beautiful, if somewhat frustrating, adventure game.
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter sets out to achieve a very specific goal and despite some slight missteps along the way, it largely succeeds in offering players a sense of spectral wonder through simplistic gameplay and stunning visuals, all wrapped in a well written mystery that leaves its mark.