Calum Petrie reviews The Vanishing of Ethan Carter: Xbox One Edition…
Upon the original release of the game in 2014, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter was both praised and ridiculed for its simplicity. The game was labelled a “walking simulator” due to the bare bones investigation and traversal around the game’s luscious and outstanding vistas. After some time out of the public eye, the game has made its way to the Xbox One and more importantly, an enhanced graphical version on the Xbox One X.
I had been curious to see what all the fuss about this game was; personally I’m not the biggest PC gamer and therefore I missed out on a lot of hidden gems on Steam. The chance to review this game on Xbox One arose and I was more than happy to be three plus years behind the rest of the world to find out what such an interestingly-named game had to offer.
Before playing though I had a little blurb from the developers, the charmingly named “The Astronauts”, telling me the story of the game’s development and why the Xbox port took so long. The company received brilliant reviews for the original release and when it came to porting they had to either take on the job themselves, or outsource. The horror stories of outsourcing had left them, with their small team and tight time constraints, to be very picky with the port. Finally they worked with Polish studios SPIN, who not only ported but redesigned aspects of the game and pushed the graphical capabilities to produce some stunning 4K resolution graphics.
The game itself is one of the most beautiful titles I have played from a smaller studio, and its ability to create an atmospheric and breath taking landscape is the first thing anyone should notice. This coupled with the “paranormal investigation” aspects of the gameplay create the whole framework on the game. Players take on the role of Paul Prospero who has come to the town of Red Creek Valley; he has been hailed here by a 12 year old boy named, very surprisingly, Ethan Carter. When arriving in Red Creek Valley, Paul is met with death and bodies littered everywhere. Our job is to piece together the crime scenes and use our occult abilities to visualise the crimes to piece together the rest of the larger story.
The story will throw in some curve balls ranging from human sacrifice and an entity known only as “The Sleeper” to a space ship and witches. I will warn you though; the storytelling in this game is delivered in a very even manner. The exploration appears to be the number one focus as players must travel all over Red Creek Valley and its few landmarks to stumble across the abnormal cases and the murder scenes before piecing together the overall story.
The Xbox One version is enhanced for Xbox One X, as previously mentioned, though the game contains a “Free Roam” mode which is included with the PC version’s “Redux Edition”. This is something the Xbox One version will contain over the PlayStation version purely on the fact the Xbox One players had to wait so long for the release on this platform.
Free Roam is exactly what it sounds like, a chance to explore the grounds of the town and just take in the craftsmanship of the developers. This version of the game does not contain the dead bodies and investigations that litter the main game, allowing instead for a purely explorative experience.
The game is probably best enjoyed on the higher resolutions, but do not let that put off anyone who is not playing on the One X. Free Roam mode is probably the most leisurely jaunt you can enjoy, while taking in some breath-taking scenes – all without actually getting out of your seat.
The game only lasted about 4 hours for me, and left me struggling to understand what I was supposed to be doing sometimes. It will not win awards for the length of its overall gameplay, and once you complete it there will not be much to discover on a second play through of the game. I would advise to take your time, as the game does not feed you all the information and I probably prolonged my gameplay by having to back track and solve murder investigations as I was unaware of what I was supposed to be doing in the game originally.
All in all, this game is an enjoyable and refreshing experience. When getting bogged down in a world of battle royal games and multiplayer experiences, it is nice to take the time to enjoy a purely narrative game where you can lose yourself for a few ours in the wilderness.
All I would finish with is, the run button is the right trigger on Xbox One. It took me half an hour of slow walking to discover the game’s “run” controls. Now that I have mentioned that I would recommend you venture out and find your explorations of Red Creek Valley a lesson on atmospheric level design.
Pros
- The delivery of the narrative.
- Stunning visuals
- Fantastic Soundtrack
Cons
- Not much replay value
- No real explanation of controls of game mechanics
Rating – 8/10
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