The Vanishing of Ethan Carter Review – More Than Meets the Eye

<p>Over the last few years my gaming tastes have changed&period; Walking simulators&comma; a genre that tasks the player with playing out a story in the first person through interactive puzzles or characters&comma; has quickly become one of my favorite&period; <em> Everybody&&num;8217&semi;s Gone to the Rapture<&sol;em> has been at the top of this list until I sat down with <em>The Vanishing of Ethan Carter<&sol;em>&period; Playing as a private investigator named Paul Prospero&comma; the player arrives in a small town to find chaos all while being tasked with figuring out what happened to Young Ethan Carter&period; The game tells a great story that has enough twists and puzzles to keep you going until the final chapter&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><amp-youtube layout&equals;"responsive" width&equals;"500" height&equals;"281" data-videoid&equals;"z4ASGS0MVao" title&equals;"The Vanishing of Ethan Carter Xbox One trailer"><a placeholder href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;youtube&period;com&sol;watch&quest;v&equals;z4ASGS0MVao"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;i&period;ytimg&period;com&sol;vi&sol;z4ASGS0MVao&sol;hqdefault&period;jpg" layout&equals;"fill" object-fit&equals;"cover" alt&equals;"The Vanishing of Ethan Carter Xbox One trailer"><&sol;a><&sol;amp-youtube><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In <em>The Vanishing of Ethan Carter<&sol;em>&comma; the focus of the game is on Detective Paul Prospero&comma; controlled by the player&period; However&comma; he is no regular detective&comma; but one with supernatural abilities&period; As you play through each section you will uncover clues and are able to revisit the past to see various incidences and murders as they happened&period; From the moment you end up in the woods on some train tracks&comma; you just start to explore and follow the paths&comma; wherever they may lead&period; The game warns you at the beginning that there is no hand-holding&comma; and they are correct&period; It took me a little bit to really get a grasp on what you are capable of&comma; and what you need to be looking for&comma; but that was fine&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The game is essentially broken up into a number of scenes and you will go from train tracks to a massive dam&comma; to mines and more&period; There is a nice variety of locales and places to explore&comma; however you are fairly limited to walled-in areas and various dead-ends&period; It makes sense as to keep the game contained and stream-lined&comma; but sometimes I just wanted to explore a bit more&period;  In most of the locations though&comma; there is usually at least one big puzzle&comma; or some smaller ones&comma; that need to be solved to continue on&period; Sometimes it&&num;8217&semi;s something simple like recovering all the clues from a murder scene&comma; and others it revolves around arranging rooms in a magician&&num;8217&semi;s house&period; They don&&num;8217&semi;t take too long to figure out once you clue into what&&num;8217&semi;s going on&comma; but there was at least one puzzle that really took me a while to figure out&period; I won&&num;8217&semi;t say too much about the story&comma; other than you as Prospero are trying to figure out what happens to Ethan&comma; as the story is the game and I don&&num;8217&semi;t want to spoil anything&period; Regardless&comma; if you&&num;8217&semi;re a fan of mysteries and Lovecraft&comma; then you will likely enjoy this story a lot&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;133594" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-133594" style&equals;"width&colon; 1000px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-large wp-image-133594" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2018&sol;01&sol;25144228&sol;the-vanishing-of-ethan-carter-screen-01-ps4-eu-06jul15-1024x576&period;jpeg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1000" height&equals;"563" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-133594" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">The Vanishing of Ethan Carter&comma; the Astronauts<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p><em>The Vanishing of Ethan Carter<&sol;em> has been out for a few years now&comma; first on PC&comma; then on PlayStation 4&comma; and now finally on Xbox One&period; I&&num;8217&semi;m not sure what the delay was in regards to the port&comma; but it is still a fantastic looking game&period; There is a 4k patch for the Xbox One X&comma; however&comma; I did not get a chance to see it in action&period; I do have an Xbox One S&comma; and a new 4k tv&comma; however&comma; and the game was often very&comma; very gorgeous&period; From the vibrant leaves in the autumnal forests to the craggy cliff faces&comma; and even just rocks down by the water&comma; all the locations in the game look fantastic&period; I did&comma; however&comma; find some textures would take a few seconds to load in if I was running from location to location nonstop&comma; which would take you out of the game sometimes&comma; but didn&&num;8217&semi;t happen that often&period; Regardless&comma; I took a number of screenshots and will likely make some my home screen wallpaper on my Xbox&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>For the most part&comma; the dialogue and voice acting is pretty good in the game&period; The actors all put in overall solid performances and are generally believable&comma; with one or two exceptions&period; Paul Prospero is definitely my favorite though&comma; as he is played perfectly like a pulp detective straight out of the <em>Rick Diamond<&sol;em> era of PI&&num;8217&semi;s&comma; and is a perfect guide through a sometimes crazy and pulp-based world&period; The music is also spot on and may become one of my all-time favorite video game soundtracks&comma; with tracks often ranging from melancholic and haunting to short but sweeping pieces that rise with the scenes perfectly&period; It is a very somber soundtrack&comma; but it fits the tone of the game well as it is far from a cheerful story that is told here&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;133595" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-133595" style&equals;"width&colon; 1000px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-large wp-image-133595" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2018&sol;01&sol;25144429&sol;HighresScreenshot00013-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1000" height&equals;"563" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-133595" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">The Vanishing of Ethan Carter&comma; the Astronauts&period;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>All in all&comma; it doesn&&num;8217&semi;t take too long to make it through the game&comma; maybe a few hours if you&&num;8217&semi;re really investigating everything and taking in all that the world has to offer&period; The Xbox One release&comma; however&comma; has an added free roam mode&comma; which is perfect for those that want to go back and just explore the world and take a pile of screenshots&period; I&&num;8217&semi;m certain that even after finishing it and having the mystery solved&comma; I&&num;8217&semi;ll likely go back to it down the road&comma; and revisit the mysterious disappearance of Ethan Carter and his mildly crazy family&period; If you&&num;8217&semi;re a fan of walking sims or just like a really good mystery&comma; then I highly recommend <em>The Vanishing of Ethan Carter<&sol;em>&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s a great mystery&comma; with solid writing and is worth the journey if you haven&&num;8217&semi;t had the chance to play through it yet&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>A review copy of The Vanishing of Ethan Carter was provided courtesy of The Astronauts for the purpose of this review&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;