Not even ten minutes in, and I was already charmed by the beautiful world of The Vanishing of Ethan Carter. Right from the get go you see this living, breathing world around you that has a dark story stitched to every lush corner. There are a lot of things this game does exceptionally well, and it is hard for me to decide where to start. The music is beautiful, the graphics are gorgeous and the story is a page-turner all the way till the end. I guess the best place to start would be the game’s puzzles and mechanics. Before we do though, I know that most of you might be wondering about the games scare factor, and I will be honest with you without spoiling anything. You are going to come across this point in-game where you will s*** your pants. That is all I can say, take from it what you will.
The game has several interesting mechanics, ones that have not been used so creatively before. For example, in each area, you’re supposed to solve these murder mysteries by framing a timeline. However, to accurately construct a timeline you have to pick up the pieces of the puzzle. These are items that are scattered around the area you are in, pertaining to the case you are solving. Basically, once you find an item, either you’ll have to attach it to something or attach something else to it. To make it easy for you to find the finishing piece necessary, the game gives you a very interesting hint.
Those hints come in the form of words that appear scribbling on your screen, and then as you start to face the right direction, the scattered word forms into one, letting you know where you can find the next piece of the puzzle. It also shows you a surrounding imagery of that piece so it makes it easier for you to find it. In my opinion, this is not only a subtle, but a technically impressive way to help you out. I do not think I have seen anything like this before, so this mechanic is definitely original.
Coming back to the murder mysteries, once you’ve picked up all the items necessary and use them, you are told to build a timeline. How it works is that you have different events which are located around the scene, snippets of what may have happened. It is up to you to label them in order from one to the last. There are some other interesting puzzles as well, all of which are quite innovative. So, there are no throw away or lacklustre puzzles here, adventure gaming fans should definitely love these elements.
The game’s highlight however, are the graphics. To put it lightly, they are mind blowing. What is more impressive however is that it runs buttery smooth on a wide range of PC’s. Those of you that follow my PC reviews, know that I am gaming on a laptop that is equipped with a GT 650m. Even so, I have been running this game at 1080p without ever dropping below 40fps. It seems even more incredible when you take into account some other recent games that have been such disappointments when it comes to optimisation. These are big budget games that don’t look half as good, but demand twice as more. In my opinion, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter really puts those games to shame. Another thing you will definitely notice in this game, is the powerful voice acting. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much in terms of voice acting, but I was pleasantly surprised as the performances are not only realistic, but very engaging, especially the detective who narrates the game, it always manages to pull you in.
In fact, when it comes to telling an engaging storyline, it is very hard to write sophisticated dialogue that doesn’t come off as corny. I know that a lot of script writers, including me deal with this problem. Fortunately though, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter does tell a sophisticated story, but never steps out of line by getting too ambitious. Furthermore, there are rarely games where I am determined to find all the notes and back-story, but I couldn’t stop hunting for them in this game, which is all thanks to the quality of writing present in this game. Not to mention, the ending pays off brilliantly and doesn’t feel forced, another problem most games these days face.
Finally, what I would like to talk about is the ever so charming music. There is not a single piece of music that I found lacking. Each theme has been masterfully written with great regards to memorability. Not only is it memorable, but also thematically satisfying. So, be sure to get the game’s soundtrack as well if you’re a fan of videogame soundtracks, but hopefully since the developers are really generous, you may already have it in your game’s local folder.
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter from the beginning till the end, is absolutely powerful due to the amazing hybrid of powerful voice acting, innovative puzzles, memorable music and mind-blowing graphical fidelity. We need more games like this that not only push gaming PC’s to their technologies limits, but also make it viable and interesting. To be honest, it has been such a long time since I have had some original and clever puzzles that didn’t come off as a cheap cliché in adventure gaming. I will not only recommend this to adventure enthusiasts, but all gamers, no matter if you’re an experienced or casual gamer, this is definitely one of gaming’s hallmarks of the year that all should enjoy. At 9.4, this is the highest score I have given to a game, and I am absolutely happy with that and hopefully you should enjoy this game as much as I have.