The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is a game I had sitting in my backlog for a while, but I really didn't have any expectation for it since I'd barely heard of it, and this game was a lot more interesting than I initially assumed it would be. I'm glad I decided to check it out.

First things first, this game is very beautiful looking. That's pretty obvious, so I won't ramble on about it, but yeah, this game is stunning, and I frequently paused to take in the scenery. The music is also solid and the atmosphere is really well-executed. I felt that the gameplay was pretty fun and unique for this type of game. I liked a lot of the puzzles and mechanics, but I felt the investigations were way too easy and I never really had to question anything, usually the verdict was super obvious at a first glance. I also ran into two major glitches; the first one was where I couldn't interact with a certain object and I had to reload my save and play for like five additional minutes to get back to where I was, and the second glitch was where I couldn't visualize the final murder site no matter what I did, so I had to reload the game. These are admittedly huge bugs that should absolutely be fixed, I don't know what caused them, but they definitely ruined the immersion a lot. But still, the gameplay was fun and a bit relaxing honestly. Though this absolutely is NOT a horror game like it's advertised as.

I also must say that I'm not huge on the "openness" of this game, since I feel it hinders the progression quite a lot. While I understand the idea by making a lot of the game optional since it makes the world feel more explorable, I also feel like it's way too hard to find some of the optional sections, since some are in very precise locations, and the game's true ending is only obtainable by completing all the optional areas, which completely ruins the ending since a lot of it is left unexplained, unless you get the true ending. I personally just ended up using a walkthrough to find all the optional areas, since I didn't want to miss any major content, and I'm glad I decided to do that.

As for the story itself, it's good but nothing amazing. I don't really have much to say about it, aside from the fact that it's your normal paranormal murder story... Until the ending, where it's revealed that everything that occurred was just part of a story written by the titular Ethan Carter. Honestly, I like the ending quite a bit, and while it's not nearly as conclusive as it could've been if they decided to continue down the paranormal mystery route, I think what we got is more interesting and still very conclusive. I think the twist that Ethan wrote the story as a form of escapism from his toxic family is very interesting. It's a lot more interesting than the story simply being about some evil monster making nice people do evil things. I think it's very cool that the "the Sleeper", whom you thought was the antagonist, was likely meant to represent Ethan all along. The amount of foreshadowing as well is very cool, which I always appreciate in games like this. It's a pretty cool ending, and the game has a good story in general.

Overall, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is a beautiful looking game with a strong atmosphere and an interesting story. However, while the gameplay, mechanics, and puzzles are fun, I do think the game falls flat in some areas; such as the openness ruining the progression, easy investigations, and very annoying glitches that prevent progress. I recommend checking it out, though you've probably already played it, otherwise you've just been spoiled on everything.

6.5/10

For personal reference more than anything else. But have still done the spoiler warning just in case.

Finished for the first time after originally playing about 20 mins(?) of it a couple of years ago and struggling to get into it.

Story is kind of weird and feels like a strange mishmash of a bunch of different things that don't really go together. The cult plot is ok but rendered pointless by the twist which is itself quite good even if its been done better before. The twist does also explain why the various stories are there but in all honesty I think a couple were a little too odd and if they'd been removed the game might have felt more consistent.

The game also feels like its trying a little too hard to say something but due to the writing not being great it leads to some lines that just don't sound good and some short stories that are pretty weird but are entertaining. This may also be explained away with the twist but I still feel like these sections were supposed to be profound.

The gameplay is mostly fine for what is basically just a walking simulator, thankfully you move at a good pace especially when some backtracking may be necessary if you miss something. The few puzzles in the game were kind of annoying but also a bit too obtuse for me so I just used a guide. The main part of the gameplay (outside of the walking) is finding various clues around a small area and then having to put up to 6 visions(?) in chronological order which was pretty easy if not really satisfying as the game then tells you exactly what happened (it just feels like a detective game where you don't really do much detective work).

The world is really nice and pleasant to explore due to a lack of NPCs (outside of one section) and the music that plays throughout the game. I also liked how its all one small world which is not cut off by loading screens or anything making it truly feel free to explore.

The freedom came at a slight cost however, when I got to one of the final areas having not solved any deaths and only doing a couple of the side bits because I didn't realise what it was that I was supposed to be doing when exploring each area. This is warned about in the beginning where the game tells you it won't hold your hand but I think this is a pretty bad choice as the game can get kinda confusing at times if you don't know what to do. At the very least perhaps a tutorial of some kind wouldn't have hurt.

The only glitch I had was when doing the last death, I had a glitch where it wouldn't come up with the button prompt to put the visions in order meaning that I had to quit the game and then come back in which put me right back in the same room and the glitch was no longer present.

Overall the game was alright, I don't think I'll ever come back to it but it was interesting and has made me want to play more of these types of games.