The Vanishing of Ethan Carter begins with the words, “This game is a narrative experience that does not hold your hand.” That single sentence defines the gorgeous world of Ethan Carter perfectly: like Gone Home and Dear Esther, it’s a fantastic first-person exploration game that focuses on tone, freedom, and environmental storytelling in lieu of combat.
You play a detective on the trail of the titular missing boy in rural Wisconsin. You have the ability to see into the past and piece together memory fragments, which play out in the form of Ethan Carter’s great puzzles. These smart challenges reward you with bits of backstory, and the actual act of solving them fit in with the eerie Lovecraftian tone.My favorite puzzle had me using scratch paper to piece together the former layout of a now-burned-down house from flashes of someone else’s memories. It’s rare that a game in 2014 gets me jotting down physical notes, but like Fez, Device 6, and Legend of Grimrock, Ethan Carter trusts that you have the patience and drive to solve its mysteries.The puzzles simultaneously provide interesting challenges, smart world building, and insight into who you are and the folks wrapped up in this disappearance truly are. On top of this, the writing does does a fantastic job of creating distinct characters and an effective gothic-horror vibe. Interesting parables are scattered throughout the world, and while they’re certainly entertaining on a surface level, digging a bit deeper into their subtext helps flesh out Ethan Carter’s main story in some really great ways. The way events unfold and the mysteries that linger after the credits roll trust you to come to your own conclusions, which is how I like my storytelling delivered.
Aside from the writing, a lot of Ethan Carter’s power also comes from impeccable environmental storytelling. Right from the get-go, you’re free to explore the wilderness to your heart’s content. Areas can be visited in any order you want, delivering a sort of freedom that allowed me to personalize my time. It takes about 25 minutes to run across the breadth of Ethan Carter’s wilderness, but you’ll definitely want to take your time and soak it in. The world is filled with tiny details and scraps of information that beg to be devoured. Which is fantastic, because The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is one of the most gorgeous games I have ever played.
What’s even more impressive is that you right from the start, you can wander anywhere you want without without a single loading screen to pull your out of the experience. Seriously, I can’t count the number of times I stopped moving and just lingered on a view throughout my three-hour journey. Sprawling valleys, shimmering lakes, and autumnal forests make Ethan Carter one of those games where I want to screencap nearly every single moment.
The keyword there is nearly, because while I loved most of my time in Ethan Carter, there’s one area that’s much weaker than the rest. I found myself spending far too much time lost in a visually unimpressive mine trying to solve a particularly frustrating puzzle. When I finally discovered the solution after one of the longest hours of my gaming life, I felt cheated. Unlike the rest of the puzzles, I didn’t earn the reward, but rather stumbled upon it.Despite that one area being notable low-point, the rest of The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is remarkable. The combination of its gorgeous visuals and powerful mysteries make it one of those games that stuck with me and begged to be replayed.
