The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is a first-person story-driven mystery. Purchase this game to get both the original and the Unreal Engine 4 remaster called The Vanishing of Ethan Carter Redux.
Modeled estimate, not a reported figure. How we estimate →
Prices
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About
GOOD NEWS EVERYONE: By purchasing the game, you actually get two games now: 1) The original The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, 2) The Unreal Engine 4 remaster called The Vanishing of Ethan Carter Redux. Please see The Astronauts website for details.
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is a first-person story-driven mystery game that focuses entirely on exploration and discovery. It contains no combat or explosions of any kind. If our game leaves any scars, we hope you won’t be able to see them.
You play the game as Paul Prospero, an occult-minded detective who receives a disturbing letter from Ethan Carter. Realizing the boy is in grave danger, Paul arrives at Ethan’s home of Red Creek Valley, where things turn out to be even worse than he imagined. Ethan has vanished in the wake of a brutal murder, which Paul quickly discerns might not be the only local murder worth looking into.
Inspired by the weird fiction (and other tales of the macabre) from the early twentieth century, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter aims to significantly evolve immersive storytelling in games. While it features a private detective and quite a few mental challenges, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is not an especially puzzle-ridden game. Our focus is on atmosphere, mood, and the essential humanity of our characters.
Still, the discoveries won’t happen on their own, or without your help. Using both Paul’s supernatural skill of being able to communicate with the dead, and your own powers of observation, you will discover the mystery behind a trail of corpses, the roots of a dark ancient force lurking in Red Creek Valley, and the fate of a missing boy.
Explore and interact with the beautiful yet ominous world of Red Creek Valley, which was created with the use of revolutionary photogrammetry technology that allows for nearly photorealistic environments.
Communicate with the dead and see how they died in order to gather clues that help you piece together the truth behind Ethan’s disappearance -- and the fate of his family.
Experience, in non-linear fashion, a story that combines the pleasures of pulp, private eye, and horror fiction, all of it inspired by writers such as Raymond Chandler, Algernon Blackwood, Stefan Grabinski, and H. P. Lovecraft.
Conduct the investigation on your own terms and at your own pace. Although there are a few scary bits in the game, players will have no need for sedatives. Our game is less about terror and more about clammy unease.
Add-ons
Each DLC is estimated with the same model as a game, then summed — a modeled figure, not reported DLC sales.
Sums Steam only; PlayStation, GOG, Xbox, Epic publish no volume signal, so the true total is higher by an unknown amount.
| Store | Price | Audience | Score | Chart | Est. revenue |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
SteamYou are here | $19.99 | 9Kreviews | 88% | — | $3.2M |
| $19.99 | 8.4Kratings | 88% | — | not modelled | |
Updates
Build ids and update times come straight from Steam's PICS — the same source SteamDB reads. Patch history grows as we record new builds.
Engagement
Reviews
Themes across 807 recent reviews and how positive each mention is. A keyword signal, not full sentiment analysis.
Reviews
It's really hard to speak about this game without getting into spoiler territory. I can say this though. The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is a relaxing and intriguing game with a lot of surprises up its sleeve. One minute you're playing a detective game, trying to find clues. The next minute you're playing a Lovecraftian horror game. One minute you're relaxed and the next minute you're like WHAT THE ♥♥♥♥!!!??? The game all around is fantastic but I would have to say that the best part about this game are the gigantic landscapes and mountains you see in the distance. This is the very first game that has made me say "Wow" out loud. The visuals work in its favour as well, the landscapes are absolutely jaw dropping and I have taken at least 20 screenshots of this game just so I can post them to my steam profile. I don't have any gripes with this game... For the most part. I can see the ending pissing off a LOT of people, for how far everyone has come and for them to see that ending, I think people will be disappointed. I can personally I wasn't disappointed but I wasn't satisfied. I would buy this game for the visuals and backdrops alone, they're that magnificent. I am so glad I got to this game and I will definitely play this again sometime.
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Genres
Stats
All-time low is the lowest price we've recorded for this game since we started tracking it.
Languages: English*, French, Italian, German, Spanish - Spain, Polish*, Czech*languages with full audio support
| $19.99 |
| 657ratings |
| 82% |
| — |
| not modelled |
| $19.99 | 401ratings | 82% | — | not modelled |
| $19.99 | — | 85% | — | not modelled |
Matched by title — a reused name can pair the wrong games. * is a critic aggregate. Prices and positions are each store's United States storefront; Epic charts worldwide. Audience and Score too, except Steam's, which is worldwide.
Hours played at review time, across 808 reviews with recorded playtime.
positive critical· bar length = how often the theme comes up
TL;DR: Stunning visuals and atmosphere. Thin, trivial story, very easy puzzles, laughable ending. Stunning visuals and a great atmosphere created by the developers , and… that’s pretty much it. The fact that the game doesn’t “hold your hand” is intriguing at first, but you soon realize it doesn’t mean much. The puzzles are very easy (with maybe one or two exceptions). Gameplay mostly revolves around visiting locations, solving clues by putting them in chronological order (very very low complexity level), and finding items usually placed somewhat randomly around the environment. As for the story, I’d call it a very trivial, American-style narrative. The main character’s thoughts at the beginning briefly touch on potentially interesting themes, but nothing is explored in any depth(any!). The story remains extremely thin, and the ending is laughable ( perhaps acceptable for middle-school teenagers). Music: I eventually had to turn it off and found the game a bit more immersive without it. If you’re looking for similar titles with a much deeper and better-integrated narrative, I’d recommend SOMA, Painscreek Killing, Routine or Dear Esther instead.
Вот чего не хватает в нашем 2024, так это хороших детективов, которые не тянут тебя за руку, а дают возможность насладиться миром и его красотами и проходить сюжет так, как тебе удобно, чтобы потом сложить полную картину. По графическим настройкам. Игра все еще может урыть многие современные игры, оптимизация отличная, сюжет прям как-будто фильмец посмотрел, в общем докопаться почти невозможно, физика игры для своего года прекрасна но печально что никак нельзя с ней взаимодействовать, но в принципе для игр такого плана это необязательно. Честно, думал больше не встречу детективных игр, которые будут цеплять вроде бы своей простотой, но в тоже время отличным геймплеем и сюжетом. Печально что игра короткая, но за эти 5 часов я дохерище кайфа, как-будто посмотрел фильм но при этом ты принимаешь в нем участие. А, чуть не забыл, не знаю кто там писал музыку к этой игре, но бл*ть, у Ханц Зиммера явные конкуренты, музыка прям 100% вписывается в окружение мира.
Game looks great and puzzles not bad.
This game does not respect your time. The puzzles are obtuse and punish you for attempting to solve them. Pass.
I got bored fast.
Experienced through the Redux version: The game has some promising components, however ultimately falls a bit flat. Starting with the story, it does some interesting things in its depiction of grief, and its non-linear progression is very unique albeit I do believe it could've been structured better to avoid the look-in-every-corner-design, that inevitably happens as you miss one crucial piece of the puzzle. The visuals are stunning, they really make me wish more developers focused on art direction over "cutting edge" graphics (UE5 slop). That being said, I think my biggest gripe was just how lackluster the voice performances and dialogue writing was, which pretty much snubs any tension and emotional investment. Overall maybe worth a look if you like walking-sim games but it is far from the best out there. 5.5/10
Honestly quite liked this game. Shorter than i was thinking but still good. Plot has a twist at the end. I liked but I understand it has mixed feelings about it.
One of the few games where I genuinely, gawked at the graphics. this game is downright beautiful. The Story is immersive and the puzzles are fun and well thought out. We seriously need more games like this. I would highly recommend this game if you are into lore intense, mystery, walking sims. Although this games likely isn't for everyone, and has around 3-4 hours of game play. I'd recommend trying to beat this in one sitting.
Absolutely beautiful visually, sad story and beautiful in it's way too. Well written, short, but haunting game.
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