Operation Backlog Completion 2026

Celebrating All Things Spooky: The Vanishing of Ethan Carter

 Celebrating All Things Spooky, Reviews, Video games  4 Responses »  Tagged with:
Oct 232019
 

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.

Click for major The Vanishing of Ethan Carter spoilers
I’d said to myself, “I hope this isn’t one of those stories where the supernatural incidents turn out to just be a metaphor.”

See, the notes had given me the idea that at least some of the scenes were based on stories Ethan had written and the flashback conversations made me wonder if his family actually turned against him because… uh… he’s a writer?

That was not nearly as interesting to me as the creepy story about “the sleeper,” so I really hoped it wouldn’t happen.

But yes, that’s how it turned out. Ethan’s family considered him weird because he liked to write stories, none of the murders actually took place, and even the protagonist is a fictional character invented by Ethan, who is dying after getting trapped in the old house.

Writing this actually made me dislike it even more. Edith Finch might have left its curse ambiguous, but at least the incidents themselves actually happened. None of the murders in The Vanishing of Ethan Carter actually happened!

I would have much preferred an ambiguous horror story about “the sleeper.”

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.

Celebrating All Things Spooky: Whispering Willows

 Celebrating All Things Spooky, Reviews, Video games  1 Response »  Tagged with:
Oct 212019
 

Over the weekend, I played the side-scrolling horror adventure game Whispering Willows.

Whispering Willows puts you in the shoes of Elena Elkhorn, a girl who heads to the mysterious Willows Mansion after her father goes missing there.

She soon learns she is descended from a shaman who once lived in the area and has the ability to enter the spirit realm. This ability is a core part of the gameplay, because as you explore the mansion and its grounds, you’ll need to frequently leave your body behind to solve puzzles in areas you can’t reach.

Entering spirit form also gives you the ability to talk to ghosts, which sometimes just provides a bit more dialogue but often plays a role in the puzzles you must solve.

Numerous notes left behind by various characters flesh out the story of what happened in the mansion, and it really is a somber story. Once again, this is a horror story that ends up feeling more sad and haunting than anything else. Overall, I enjoyed it, although the final sequence feels a bit rushed.

Click for Whispering Willows spoilers
It felt to me like Wortham gave up a bit too quickly. I liked the idea of showing him how past events would have gone if he hadn’t reacted the way he did, but I thought some of those moments needed more weight, especially when he learned that Flying Hawk really would have helped him talk to his wife again.

He’d been built up throughout the story as the driving force behind all the terrible events there, so really having him see the consequences of his actions would have made the climax feel stronger.

Meanwhile, the gameplay is pretty solid. It’s simple and the puzzles are fairly easy, but it has that nice gameplay loop I like of getting keys to unlock doors and gradually being able to explore areas that were blocked off before. The final chapter had some frustrating parts, but not enough to damage my impression of the game.

I’m not sure I’d necessarily call Whispering Willows a horror game, but it’s certainly a spooky one that has its share of creepy moments.

So if you want a spooky game about ghosts, a haunted mansion, and the tragic events that occurred there, it’s worth giving Whispering Willows a try.

Telltale Games is Coming Back (Sort Of)

 Video games  4 Responses »  Tagged with:
Aug 282019
 

Last year, Telltale Games shut down and all of its upcoming games except for the final season of The Walking Dead were cancelled, but now it’s coming back!

Sort of.

LCG Entertainment announced that it has bought Telltale’s assets and IPs and will operate as Telltale Games to release the studio’s back catalog and develop new games.

It’s a bit strange since the original Telltale Games is gone. This is essentially a new developer using the same name. However, their press release says they’ll be hiring or contracting “key talent from the original company.”

In an interview with GameDaily, they went into more detail about how they intend to revive the brand and avoid the original company’s mistakes by not taking on too much at once. It sounds like their focus early on will be to take things slowly enough to get Telltale back on its feet. They also plan to both use the Telltale Tool and transition to new technology.

Personally, I hope this means The Wolf Among Us 2 has a chance to come out after all. The Wolf Among Us is one of the properties they’ve acquired, and it’s the sequel I was looking forward to the most.

Will it feel the same with a new Telltale Games at the helm? I don’t know. But at least now there’s hope that it could still be developed!

How do you feel about the revival of this new Telltale Games? What announcements are you hoping to see? Share your thoughts in the comments.

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