toblix

The Vanishing of Ethan Carter

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Yea, I finished it in one sitting.

How long did it take you to play? This isn't the sort of game that I'd normally get into, but it looks interesting enough that I'd give it a go if it didn't mean a huge time commitment.

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Took me about 4-5 hours and as you may have read I missed the main way to find some objects... So it's probably a bit shorter than that.

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Just finished it last night and I really enjoyed it. What was a pain in the ass though, was having to backtrack if you missed a puzzle or story. I had to re-do the portal house because at the time I didn't know what the fuck to do.

 

 

The ending took just an abrupt turn. I really enjoyed how it ended and that everything was just stories--including our protagonist--though Ethan was the real protagonist in this story and we just a figment of his imagination---and it was just a child coming to terms with his death and his family now gone.

It was an interesting existential meditation on the nature, ghosts and the atmosphere that surrounds them; it reminded me a lot of Del Torro's The Devil's Backbone; both dealing with the nature of ghosts, and the lasting mark they have on their landscape and the people around them.

The nature of ghosts is something that I have always thought about and it brings me joy to think about it. I love reading stories that deal with ghosts and delve into their existential nature[


 

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Yeah John Walker mentioned in his review that he almost got to the end of the game when it told him he had to go back and do everything else he missed before he could finish, including stuff right back at the start.

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They've said that they are going to implement some sort of fast-travel system in Update 3.

 

Even as someone who had to backtrack in the game, I don't really like that. It already has a lot of weirdly abrupt magical things when you start playing.

I for one thought the house puzzle was brilliant. 

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That sounds like a poor solution compared to John Walker's: just let the player finish the game even if he missed something.

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Just finished this. My god what a beautiful game. I will probably go back just to wander around. I didn't have much issues except for the last bit

where you need to cross the river.

That wasn't really obvious to me.

The

miner monster thingy

was kind of lame. It didn't scare me, or startle me, it was just lame that you were kicked back every time.

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The

miner monster thingy

was kind of lame. It didn't scare me, or startle me, it was just lame that you were kicked back every time.

I completely agree. I found it to be a filler or an unneeded antagonist to spice the game because they thought people might be bored. 

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Yes, the "horror" section was awful, though thankfully short, and easy to play through once you figure out what you need to do.

 

This may be the the most beautiful, immersive game I've played, definitely up there with Riven and the Half-Life games. In fact, a lot of the aesthetics of Wanishing reminded me of Half-Life 2, and I think it has to do with the crisp lighting, Eastern European ambiance and realistic-looking buildings and infrastructure (and there's a dam!) The music is amazing, too. I'll definitely be listening a lot to the score in the future.

 

I think the game's biggest weakness is that you risk getting lost, not knowing where you're supposed to go next. This happened to me when I got access to an elevator that took me back to an earlier point. Turns out this was only there for backtracking purposes, but it got me confused and frustrated enough to look up a FAQ. The store ties up quite nicely, I think, though it feels like it will feel even better with time, as my memories of the character animation and voice acting fade.

 

I'm figuratively blown away by how amazing the environments of this game looks. With the exception of the mines, (which was just a poor location overall,) everywhere you go is just fucking mindblowingly good-looking. Can't wait to see what The Astronauts come up with next.

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After finishing the game, I was thinking about how the first section of the game sort of gave me the wrong idea about how I would be playing the game. Spoilers, I guess.

 

Since you need to wander around the forest, looking for the five traps, I got the impression that the whole game would require me to scour every inch of available terrain to find all of the available story stuff. This led me to go off the main path repeatedly, looking for side-content that wasn't really there. Since the game is built off of small areas you need to explore to complete puzzles, the areas in between them are mostly just empty (but very pretty) passages. That kind of close attention to detail does pay off, but only in the puzzle areas, not in the rest of the world. Had I just followed the main roads, I would have found all of the necessary areas eventually, without stressing myself out so much about missing stuff.

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I think the most impressive thing about the game for me was the density of the grass. Grass almost never looks good. Dense foliage is really hard. They did a pretty good job.

 

Loved the game. The ending was sort of weird/unearned for me though. Anyone else find it a little strange that this guy was fantasizing about the brutal murders of all his family members?

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I think I would have enjoyed walking off-road too, had I not convinced myself that at every moment I should be looking for secret stuff instead of just enjoying scenery. It's just a case of my own neuroses bumping up against otherwise solid game design, I think.

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Since you need to wander around the forest, looking for the five traps, I got the impression that the whole game would require me to scour every inch of available terrain to find all of the available story stuff. This led me to go off the main path repeatedly, looking for side-content that wasn't really there. Since the game is built off of small areas you need to explore to complete puzzles, the areas in between them are mostly just empty (but very pretty) passages. That kind of close attention to detail does pay off, but only in the puzzle areas, not in the rest of the world. Had I just followed the main roads, I would have found all of the necessary areas eventually, without stressing myself out so much about missing stuff.

 

I completely missed that first puzzle with the traps until I reached the final house, so the first murder case was my first contact with the game mechanics. I intentionally didn't want to veer too far off track for fear of getting lost for real.

 

Loved the game. The ending was sort of weird/unearned for me though. Anyone else find it a little strange that this guy was fantasizing about the brutal murders of all his family members?

 

From the flashbacks I gather Ethan felt out of place in his family, like no one appreciated him, and they all sound pretty mean, so it didn't strike me as too strange that he would imagine them taken over by some dark force.

 

I didn't have much issues except for the last bit

where you need to cross the river.

That wasn't really obvious to me.

 

Me neither, I figured

I'd have to walk along the other bank, which you can do for quite some distance. It wasn't clear you had to turn off the generator, and I quit the game right when I had to and when I came back they were already off, so I missed that bit entirely.

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I think the most impressive thing about the game for me was the density of the grass. Grass almost never looks good. Dense foliage is really hard. They did a pretty good job.

 

Loved the game. The ending was sort of weird/unearned for me though. Anyone else find it a little strange that this guy was fantasizing about the brutal murders of all his family members?

 Not really. Ethan was a kid that was always being attacked by his family members because of his stories and artwork and was, for the most part, powerless against those attacks. I mean his Uncle called him a faggot and I think his Grandpa backed his Uncle up on that. There was a lot of emotional and mental abuse thrown at Ethan, so you can't blame the kid for wanting to get payback in whatever way he could.

Ethan's stories, no matter how twisted they became, was an escape, a way to deal and get back at his family. Poor kids

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I haven't played this game but I check the thread out occasionally out of interest.

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I was also kind of set into the mode of scouring each accessible corner of the world by the first traps puzzle and the

astronaut

. It was a bit irritating, but I feel like it was more my own fault than the game's. I didn't have to backtrack, though, as I found everything in the right order (except at first, which I may have posted about here earlier) including all the secrets.

 

One time I almost got stuck (failing to see the valve) and took the elevator near the dam back up. I almost turned to reading a FAQ, but figured that it was highly unlikely the game really wanted me to go back up there. Like elmuerte, it took me a while to find where to proceed, though.

 

I also agree that the horror bit was awful.

It was intense though, but not really scary after the first time of getting caught

. Also the only part of the game that I didn't fully complete, I think. It was just too annoying to simultaneously stay out of that guy's way and find the secrets. Like I think there was probably a second piece of that note in the big cave underneath the portal? And I only found 5 dead men (maybe that was intentional, as the sixth was still roaming around?

 

I liked the house puzzle a lot! At the end I wish there would have been a quicker way back to the first train scene (it seems obvious to want to re-watch that after the ending unless you have perfect memory or at least played through in one sitting).

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Until now I've only ever gotten motion sickness from playing a video game once which was the very first time I played Half Life 1. Literally 5 minutes into the game I thought I was going to throw up so I closed it. Man that was weird/unexpected, I'll probably go pick up some dramamine and try it again this weekend.

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