There are three games I routinely get mixed up: The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture, and What Remains of Edith Finch.
We discussed What Remains of Edith Finch last October, and so this year I decided to finally play The Vanishing of Ethan Carter.
(I’ll probably never play Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture, since I haven’t enjoyed the developer’s other games, unless someone wins the contest and asks me to review it.)
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is a story-driven mystery in which you play an occult detective investigating the strange incidents in Red Creek Valley after receiving a letter from a boy named Ethan Carter.
As you explore the area, you’ll come across crime scenes and similar disturbances. Using your supernatural abilities, your goal is to learn what happened. This usually consists of recreating the scene as it was before by finding any missing objects or other changes, then correctly ordering the ghostly images that appear. Once you’ve put the scene in order, the entire thing plays out.
These scenes, along with notes and documents you find, teach you more about Ethan Carter, his relationship with his family, and the events leading up to his letter. You soon learn that Ethan awakened a supernatural force known as “the sleeper,” which caused his family to turn against him and try to kill him due to the influence of this evil force.
Piecing together the crime scenes was fun, and the story seemed to be going in a creepy direction. But have you ever had the sinking feeling that a story you’re enjoying is building up to a conclusion you won’t enjoy at all?
After the first few notes, I realized a possible direction the story might go in. That concern hung over me like a shroud for the rest of the time I played, despite a few glimmers of hope that it wasn’t going there after all. Unfortunately, my prediction was right.
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter does a good job of foreshadowing its twist, I’ll give it that. It’s just the one twist I was hoping not to see, because I was much more interested in the direction the story appeared to be going at first.
In the end, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter certainly fit my theme for this month and had a lot of creepy potential (including a Lovecraft reference I enjoyed), but the conclusion left me disappointed with the game overall.
Yeah, know that feeling. :/ That is a shame, sucks when that happens. I was kinda curious for this game, I think I actually own it but didn’t play it yet. Guess it can stay on the distant back burner.
It still had some good parts, but the way it worked out really brought down the experience for me.
I’ve played all three of the games on your list. As 3 walking simulators with some horror elements that came out around the same time, I can understand why they’d get mixed up.
I’d rate Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture as better than Ethan Carter, but not as good as Edith Finch (I really, really liked Edith Finch)
Rapture has good music, a mysterious and detailed area to explore, but not something I’d normally recommend.
The developer of Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture also made Dear Esther, which I really disliked, and Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs, which I found to be a big disappointment compared to the first Amnesia game. Those two games haven’t left me anxious to try another game from them.