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.
An average story mixed with some great nuggets to experience, all of which takes place in beautiful backdrops and wonderful accompanying music.
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter's story is powerful, and its world is one of the most beautiful I've ever played through.
Freeform exploration can be tedious, but the tense moments will have your heart racing
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is a compelling interactive novella that draws players in with its beautifully atmospheric setting. The slow burn narrative doesn't quite land the final emotional punch it's aiming for, but it more than satisfies on every other level.
Immerse yourself in the psychology of an American family in autumn country.
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is a finely crafted cigar box. It is art, it has a purpose, and its contents will bring you enjoyment.
Fight through that frustration of wondering where to go when you start The Vanishing of Ethan Carter. Once you learn the rules of the game, you'll find a deeply satisfying, if short, story within.
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is perhaps the best walking simulator I have ever played, dabbling in the occult without being a cheesy ghost story where weird stuff just happens for no reason other than the call of Cthulhu.
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.
I believe The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is an incredible game that shouldn't be missed. Of course it won't be everyone's cup of tea and it's massively story-centered, but if you don't mind this, you will enjoy what is a real jewel of a game and a title from which the gaming industry can learn a lot.
I'd never have pegged the folks behind Bulletstorm to craft something like The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, but I'm very glad that they did. It has a few niggling issues, but ultimately this is a brilliantly subtle, imaginative and thoughtful game.
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is one of this year's most engaging and beautifully crafted narratives that should not be missed by any fan of immersive storytelling.
This beautiful detective story refuses to lead you by the hand – instead providing a rich and mysterious world to explore and experience
As superb as the experience of simply exploring [The Vanishing of Ethan Carter's] eerie environments is, unravelling the plot's mystery isn't terribly enjoyable.
That's the irony of The Vanishing of Ethan Carter in a nutshell. When you first start up the game, it declares that it "is a narrative experience that does not hold your hand," but that's true only of its mechanics. Narratively it holds your hand so tightly that once it was over I had to wait a few minutes for feeling to return.
"Atmosphere, not action, is the great desideratum of weird fiction," writes Lovecraft, and in the end it is the game's loyalty to this principle which often makes The Vanishing of Ethan Carter such engrossing experience. And while a bit atmosphere never killed anyone, the subtle macabre of Ethan Carter's world will certainly mess with your head if you let it.
It's all too rare that we get games like this, where the mysteries are genuinely intriguing and can be played at one's own pace. The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is weird and macabre in delicious and often surprising ways. Its tales of madness intensify an already-oppressive atmosphere of decay, telling a compelling story of a town gone mad and a kid trying to make sense of it all. It's just that those stories are so well-hidden behind invisible game mechanics that players themselves may go mad in the process.
A beautiful, if somewhat frustrating, adventure game.
In the end, 'The Vanishing of Ethan Carter' is a great game to pick up.