Incredibly disappointing game

[piotr_mil]

The Vanishing of Ethan Carter was a game I was really looking forward to. I wanted to experience all those new mechanics of recreating memories, which in a trailer looked really unique and promising. Unfortunately, the game is an absolute mess. Well looking mess, but still a mess.

Let's start with obvious pros: the game is looking superb. The visuals and music are absolutely stunning. The graphics engine seems really well build, and during the gameplay I have encountered very few stutters. Game is atmospheric: clam and peaceful where needed, with an appropriate dose of creepiness. And here, sadly I have to stop praising the game. From now on, everything else goes downhill.

Once you stumble into this world, and you are overwhelmed by its beauty, it is easy to believe you are in a (reasonably) open-world game. Not even close. The game claims that it won't be holding your hand, yet every once in a while it places a convenient invisible wall, preventing you from walking the easier way.

I finished the game in around 4-5 hours, though I've spent vast majority of it walking back and forth through bridges and endless forests doing precisely nothing. As a result, many people would call this game "a hiking simulator". That is not precisely adequate. Even the stupidest hiker would not go into woods without a map and a torchlight, unlike our protagonist. Oh, and apparently he is also crippled, since he cannot jump.

After a while, one might realise that the game has no save function Instead game auto-saves in most convenient moments of a story. Given the time of a typical playthrough, it is understandable, but one begs for a save function just to avoid getting back through the whole woods or mines area after getting lost or finding no clue.

One could overlook these problems if the puzzles made up for it. Sadly, once you saw the first one, the rest are solved in the same way, with little to no creativity. You play as the detective 5-6 times, and that's it. There are few more, slightly different puzzles which unfortunately are very tedious and usually require you to replay the same mini-level several times. Fortunately some Steam users have already created solutions to them.

The story itself, while seemingly clever and intriguing, becomes very predictable. Quite quickly a player understands how the world around him works and what all the events are leading up to. The ending is as cliché as possible. In fact, I'd be very surprised if someone was surprised by it, and haven't thought about it as a possible ending somewhere mid-play.

Vanishing of Ethan Carter suffers what most other mystery games suffer from: you play it once. You know the story, you know the twists, you know which buttons to press in what order.
There is no need to return to Red Creek Valley, and I wouldn't mind one trip, if only the tickets weren't so expensive.

[Kulin]

You must be very poor if 20€ is much for 4-5 hours of fun for you.

[Forgivable]

Originally posted by Kulin:

You must be very poor if 20€ is much for 4-5 hours of fun for you.

The stupidity of this answer is over 9000

[virtualmatrix258]

Yeah Kulin, your reply is why these forums are garbage. People like you are the reason why the internet is so negative.

[1221]

Well, to each his own, but as far as my tastes run this is the best game I've played in a very long time. I had a complaint about the auto-save system but that was only beacause I didn't really get how the devs were thinking about the system in general. After the solving the first chronogy It became a non-issue. Haven't thought about the save system since.

So far 10/10...

[Coin]

Originally posted by virtualmatrix258:

Yeah Kulin, your reply is why these forums are garbage. People like you are the reason why the internet is so negative.

You are obviously better, you are different and you dont judge right now.

[Nord]

This game is like a good old wine in just one bottle, you drink it slowly, take pleasure in every drop of a magnifficent drink. After, you happy and sitisfied, one bottle was enough, if it's not, try a beer...

[1221]

Originally posted by Crow:

This game is like a good old wine in just one bottle, you drink it slowly, take pleasure in every drop of a magnifficent drink. After, you happy and sitisfied, one bottle was enough, if it's not, try a beer...

Wish I'd written that...

[Fiach]

Originally posted by Crow:

This game is like a good old wine in just one bottle, you drink it slowly, take pleasure in every drop of a magnifficent drink. After, you happy and sitisfied, one bottle was enough, if it's not, try a beer...

If I get a good bottle of vintage wine I drink it as fast as I can before my missus gets her grubby mits on it. :)

[Ashabel]

You are trying way too hard to get attention by criticizing a game you don't own.

[Lord Weh]

My main disappointment was that a couple of the murder sequences you have to solve are so straight forward, they are literally running in number order already and you can tag from 1 - 5 in on straight line. Othewise I enjoyed the game, I enjoyed the mystery and the setting and the beautiful views and the atmosphere. I certainly got my moneys worth out of it and would recommend it to others who would enjoy a slow but thoughtful game.

[Snake]

Originally posted by Philomelle:

You are trying way too hard to get attention by criticizing a game you don't own.

You realize this game is also sold on, say, GOG.com, right?

[PunkMafflez]

Originally posted by Fermi 45nm:

Hello gamers i will show you today Vanishing Of Ethan Carter completely MAX OUT at 1920x1080p resolution first time documented on single Palit GTS 450 card. I have 45 AVG FPS people with 8X MSAA without bandicam recording. You have fps counter in left corner. I want to show you unique GTS 450 performance in the world on high resolution. See this amazing Fermi GF106 performance first time in history.
See a hidden impresive power of Fermi arhitecture. Game us using 99 percent gpu core and only 784 MB average,maximum usage 824 MB VRAM, As always checked in MSI Afterburner. Keep in mind i have 4-5 more avg frames without Bandicam recording. So game is not even using entire 1GB VRAM on 5 years old card!!! Think about that. If i reduce MSAA to 4X i have constant 60 fps!!!

Vanishing of ethan carter ULTRA gts 450 1080p

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x26o257_the-vanishing-of-ethan-carter-ultra-gts-450-1080p_videogames

You dont need 700+eur card and latest hardware to have incredible performance in this game. You just need normal good driver.
This 5 years old low end card will surprise you. Watch people NVIDIA fraud see my incredible perfomance.See all exclusive data on my channel.My rig i5 760 at 3,3GHz,4 gb ddr3 1333mhz,gts 450 1gb ddr5,1t hdd,cooler master gx 750 w psu,beng gl2460 1080p

What why are you even...just get out.

[Snake]

Just use the report button.

[1221]

Originally posted by Mafflez:

Originally posted by Fermi 45nm:

Hello gamers i will show you today Vanishing Of Ethan Carter completely MAX OUT at 1920x1080p resolution first time documented on single Palit GTS 450 card. I have 45 AVG FPS people with 8X MSAA without bandicam recording. You have fps counter in left corner. I want to show you unique GTS 450 performance in the world on high resolution. See this amazing Fermi GF106 performance first time in history.
See a hidden impresive power of Fermi arhitecture. Game us using 99 percent gpu core and only 784 MB average,maximum usage 824 MB VRAM, As always checked in MSI Afterburner. Keep in mind i have 4-5 more avg frames without Bandicam recording. So game is not even using entire 1GB VRAM on 5 years old card!!! Think about that. If i reduce MSAA to 4X i have constant 60 fps!!!

Vanishing of ethan carter ULTRA gts 450 1080p

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x26o257_the-vanishing-of-ethan-carter-ultra-gts-450-1080p_videogames

You dont need 700+eur card and latest hardware to have incredible performance in this game. You just need normal good driver.
This 5 years old low end card will surprise you. Watch people NVIDIA fraud see my incredible perfomance.See all exclusive data on my channel.My rig i5 760 at 3,3GHz,4 gb ddr3 1333mhz,gts 450 1gb ddr5,1t hdd,cooler master gx 750 w psu,beng gl2460 1080p

What why are you even...just get out.

They banned him & deleted his posts. Five minutes later he had a new account and is now spamming again.

[Artillery Horse]

No save function, no auto walk, no secondary keybindings. Another lazy first person, with good graphics.


ps: Fermi 40nm go away you are a fool.