The Vanishing of Ethan Carter

I finished the Redux version yesterday and I'm still in awe. It's hard to describe the game as it's an atypical walking simulator, an atypical adventure game and an atypical horror game and it's hard to really say what it is at its core. One thing I can say about the game is that since the moment I launched it I felt the same kind of sensation that some old first person adventure games like Myst gave me back in the day. You're thrown into an amazingly beautiful yet eerie world that you just can't stop gazing at in awe, you wish to understand and the game manages to achieve that despite mostly taking place in a perfectly natural and almost trivial world. There is just enough "off" so the forests, lakes and old houses are kind of disturbing but in a very subtle manner. Suffice to say that the mindblowingly good environmental graphics and beautiful music do their job well. Admittedly I first felt like the game is giving me too little to go on, a message saying that the game won't hold your hand didn't help, it felt like more like an artistic experiment than an actual game at first but luckily that soon changed when the story began to unfold, even the more abstract things began making sense and I solved my first puzzle. "Puzzle" may not quite be the right word because usually you just have to interact with enough objects in an area to solve the "mystery" but the game still makes you feel like you are actually an investigator. That's great. The world isn't as open as I thought it would be and you're basically following one long path with the occasional crossing but that's a good thing as the world is open enough to make it worth exploring while making it almost impossible to get lost. So after approximately five hours of gameplay I made it to the end and I just loved it. The writing, story and voice acting kept me engaged and the ending did not disappoint me, despite what some people say about it. I only wish the game were a little longer and slightly more interactive.

I like "walking simulators" and exploration games but this one just annoyed me. After playing for a little while I suddenly realized where the plot was going and how clever the writers seemed to believe they were. I did a quick search to verify my suspicions and uninstalled it. There was nothing else about the game but that basic twist, and once I figured it out, chasing down the rest of the red herrings felt tedious and annoying because none of it would matter anyway. Decent pretty, some neat creepy scenes, a couple of okay puzzles but so not worth the time played.

I really agree with Northernsnow's review. pretty much captured how i felt about the whole game. And, the backtracking he did, i did as well for the exact same reason. Should have read reviews before playing, lol. The music goes with the game pretty well, it's a nice soundtrack that keeps the mood properly uneasy feeling. The graphics are beautiful. I found myself on several occasions just looking out over the hills or the bridges to take it all in, or just staring at any number of objects or situations because the looks of the game are just, well, as i said - beautiful. There aren't too many puzzles, and they are pretty easily solved. There was one that required some actual thought to what you were doing, and i really did enjoy the execution of that puzzle. But most are quickly solved and require very minimal thought. I did feel immersed in the game, between the characters, the stories that Ethan wrote, the environment, music - it all connected to each other to tell a story very well. I really wanted to like this game, and i absolutely did, up until the end. The ending alone makes me almost want to give the game 2 stars... but, i can't do that given how well everything else was executed.

Exploration game with rather easy riddles. But visually stunning and very good atmosphere (almost cthulhu-like for some time). You cannot really fail this game as it is designed to rather tell you a story you unfold piece by piece. Overall I really enjoyed the game and was almost sad that it was rather short, I could play more of that.

I enjoyed both graphics and the story