Intro
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is an adventure game created by The Astronauts, a Polish game development company, in 2014. I find these adventure games to be interesting and downloaded this game of PSN. It was first released on PC, but was later ported to the Unreal 4 Engine and rereleased for the PS4.
The Story of the sleeper
Some time during the 70'-80's, Paul Prospero, a paranormal detective and protagonist of the title, recieves a letter from Ethan Carter of Red Creek Valley to investigate a paranormal matter. The player gains control of Paul Prospero straight from the beginning as he advances on Red Creek Valley. The town seems to have been long-gone abandoned.
The control scheme is pretty simple. You control Paul in a first-person view, can run, "action", and duck. The controls do just fine - this isn't an action game. You arrive at the town to discover the secret of the Carter family and what has happened to the town. The game is forwarded by solving puzzles along the way towards the town. All puzzles are challenging, and the most fun challenges of all are the murder challenges. The player gathers clues by looking at scenes of a crime. The clues give further information to the next clue. Once you have gathered/checked all the clues, you have the ability to "touch" the victim and see into the past. Here you must place the murder in a chronologic state, from 1 to 5. When all numbers have been accounted for, you can visualize the scene. If you mess up the order, the flashback will fade and you will be booted out of the past.
The game states in the beginning that it does not intend to "hold our hand" throughout, and it doesn't. Though you will never "die", the game can sometimes be a puzzle itself. Most paths are perfectly composed in the world (more on this later), but at times I struggled with "what to do next?". The plot quickly takes a step towards the abstract, but is all well rooted within the story-elements of the game.
The game contains alot of walking in a linear path from start to finish. It highly reminds me of "Dear Esther" except this has puzzles. It also reminds me of "Ether One", and the early Myst/Riven-games. The story works - although messy, it intrigues, shocks, and interests.
Admiring the scenery
The world in "The Vanishing..." looks absolutely beautiful. On Ps4, the graphics are nearly realistic. Colorful, lively, detailed, and very crisp. This is the game's strongest element and, along with the story, works really well. Only thing that looks dull in comparison are the characters which look blocky, unsynchonized (lip movement), and poorly animated. They really don't fit in with the beauty of Red Creek Valley, but in a way - that fits too as the story progresses. The scenery is important in a game such as this - where a lot of walking is required. This game is a game about discovery, after all.
The Summary
"The Vanishing.." is a wonderful adventure game, albeit very short. It has challenging puzzles, gorgeous scenery, decent voice acting (the voice of Paul Prospero is very fitting), atmosperic music, and an intriguing story. These games are, however, not meant for everybody. These games are for lovers of the arts - the arts in itself and the arts of gaming. I mentioned this to some of my FIFA-playing friends, and nobody were impressed. "It sounds boring"...
The game took me about 8-9 hours to complete, I think. Although the story and the plot ends, I still wanted to play more. There are 5-6 puzzles, with some additional hidden stuff, and a whole lot of walking, exploring, and staring at the beautiful scenery.
Title: The Vanishing of Ethan Carter
Played on : PS4
Trophies : Platinum (all), easy to get
Time spent : 8-9 hours approx.