Sunrise Parabellum The Vanishing of Ethan Carter Review

Just finished The Vanishing of Ethan Carter and oh man.. My eyes loved it, my patience didn't ;w; The first thing that struck me about this game was how beautiful it looks. It is seriously gorgeous. It runs on Unreal Engine 4, the anti-aliasing is clean, and the way sunlight filters through the trees looks amazing. The lighting in general, plus shadows, and overall atmosphere make it look amazing. At the beginning of the game, I was stopping every time just to look around. The atmosphere pulled me in right away. The music fits perfectly and helps build that sense of immersion. The mood and the ambient music all worked together to make me feel like an actual detective doing his investigation. I really liked that. Even when the game's flaws started to show, the mystery and tone were enough to keep me interested, at least for the majority of my playthrough. Another thing I enjoyed was Ethan's writings. His imagination and the way he builds stories were fascinating. It gave me something to hold on to when other parts of the game started to fall apart. Also, I appreciate that it is quite short (You can finish it in one sitting), and I'm very grateful for having a run button. Now, the problems... and there were SO MANY. Saying the game "doesn't hold your hand” sounds good on paper, but here it just feels like poor design. The structure is unclear and I got lost way too many times. Then, at the end, it shows you everything you missed and invites you to some "fun and very wanted" backtracking, which kind of contradicts the whole idea of discovering things on your own.. The level design is rough too. A little guidance would have gone a long way.. and I don't mean a tutorial or glowing markers, just something subtle to help you understand what the game expects from you. For example, the mechanic where you have to line up words in the air to find clues, I had no idea that was a thing until I saw it on YouTube. Or how the detective could have at least said something when you're about to leave an area without solving everything. That would have helped. More drawbacks ! Exploring the world looks nice but feels mostly pointless. Searching for clues turns into a chore pretty fast. Putting pieces together is fun only if you can actually find them, and most of the time, I couldn't (unless I use a guide). The puzzles start bad and somehow get worse. After a while, I stopped feeling like a detective and started feeling like I was just walking in circles. Finally, the story didn't save it either. It starts with promise but ends up being disappointing, unoriginal, and forgettable. By the time the credits rolled, I just felt frustrated. It had so much potential to be great, but it never got there. So yeah, to put it in a nutshell, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter left me more annoyed than satisfied. It is beautiful and atmospheric but underneath that, it is a tedious and confusing experience. I can't really recommend it, even though I wanted to like it :/