The Vanishing of Ethan Carter

[eVo7]

I wish there was a little more direction. I'm just wandering around most of the time. I do like the first-person perspective and scenery, but there is something about the game's structure (or lack of it) that is keeping me from feeling fully engaged. It caught me at first, but now, after a couple hours, I feel like I'm flapping in the breeze and the tension has gone out of it, replaced by aimless wandering.

That's kind of the point, this is partly an exploration game....but I know what you mean.

 

[Andy]

Finished it tonight. I'd give it a 7. To simplify, the game mostly consists of a half-dozen murder scenes that you have to piece together -- first find the clues, then arrange them chronologically. The puzzles are fairly simple. Sometimes, it can be a bit tough to find all the pieces. In one puzzle involving inputting a code, I got help from the internet, but that was mostly out of impatience. You can make it through unaided.

The story, which is the game's main focus, was intentionally disjointed and confused. It is a mystery that you are supposed to make sense of. I'm not sure I did. At the end of the game, I was still confused as to what had happened. Maybe that was intentional, or maybe I could've figured it out, if I wanted to put the effort in. Trouble is, I never became emotionally engaged enough in the characters or the story to really care much what was happening. The game is very beautiful, but it came off more as a cerebral exercise.

 

[Razzel]

How many hours did you put in Andy? Randomly considering a purchase on this one.