The Vanishing of Ethan Carter

A 4/5 hour long narrative murder mystery experience for two quid. Why not? Is what I thought when buying this game and I sure am glad that I did. My expectations for the game were on the floor and avoiding hyperbolic statements like “This is my most favouritist bestest game ever!” I would encourage anyone on the fence to give it a go. Immerse yourself in a good story set in a visual and audio masterclass. There is no mechanical skill ceiling for you to get to grips with in this game. If you come into it armed with the ability to press wasd whilst using your mouse to look around and potentially also click (Warning – You may have to do all these things simultaneously!) then you can manage. I can happily report that I only experienced one bug and zero crashes during my completion of the game. The bug issue arose because I was failing a puzzle so badly the game couldn’t comprehend my gormlessness and tried to help me. The plot was interesting throughout and made me want to get to the end by any means necessary (more on this later). The few minutes after finishing the game I was a little confused, even a little unsatisfied if I’m honest. But once I had processed and understood the ending I was contented and even empathetic towards the characters I’d spent the last two afternoons with. The story has twists of narrative and jolts of the bizarre but it’ll all make sense in the end. The visuals are fab! I was always stopping to take in the view, racking up 57 screenshots in just 5 hours of playtime. For all you maths nerds that is a screenshot every 5 and a half minutes… I think. It was a pleasure to spend time in the eerie wooded mountains, with their patchwork of lakes, cloisters of civilisation and the ever present amber duskball in the sky. The soundscape was the most impactful part of the game for me. The music builds suspense and prolongs tension. I often had goosebumps when I was close to the next plot point. The ambient noise as well is perfect and the game did manage to pull me into it’s world. If you don’t like puzzles, don’t play this game. Duh. There are two types, firstly the murders which felt like the main plot beats during the game. They’re stimulating yet horrifying, giving a window in to the very people you will have to watch die. Very fun to solve the murders and things are easily missed so stay vigilant! The other type of puzzles are the “stories”. The stories are odd, I had no clue why they were in the game until the very end. So stick with the outlandishness and wait for it to make sense later. The stories range in their oddity, some made me marvel, some made me scared and one of them was frustrating as hell. You’ll see what I mean. Lastly, I have to credit steam user Mike who made this fantastic comprehensive steam guide https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=373569878 on how to complete all the puzzles in the game. I couldn’t have finished the game without his help. Go as far as you can on your own and then use Mike’s bountiful wisdom to tie it all together. Good luck finding Ethan.