The Vanishing of Ethan Carter

The Vanishing of Ethan Carter
Developer(s)	The Astronauts
Publisher(s)	The Astronauts
Director(s)	Adrian Chmielarz
Designer(s)	Adrian Chmielarz Krzysztof Justyński
Programmer(s)	Adam Bienias
Artist(s)	Andrzej Poznański Michał Kosieradzki Adam Bryła
Writer(s)	Tom Bissell Rob Auten
Composer(s)	Mikołaj Stroiński
Engine	Unreal Engine 3 Unreal Engine 4 (Redux)[1]
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows PlayStation 4 Xbox One
Release	Microsoft Windows WW: September 26, 2014 Redux PlayStation 4 WW: July 15, 2015 Microsoft Windows WW: September 12, 2015 Xbox One WW: January 19, 2018
Genre(s)	Adventure
Mode(s)	Single-player

The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is a 2014 horror adventure video game developed and published by The Astronauts for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4^[2][3] and Xbox One.^[4]

Gameplay

The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is set in an open world environment, in which the player can roam around and explore at will. The player can use paranormal abilities in order to solve crimes, such as sensing where important objects are located and reassembling the timeline of events tied to a certain death.^[5]

Plot

In 1973, Paranormal investigator Paul Prospero receives a fan letter from 12-year-old Ethan Carter, inspiring him to journey to Ethan's hometown of Red Creek Valley, Wisconsin. Upon arrival, he begins encountering unsettling paranormal phenomena, as well as evidence of recent violence in the tiny mining village.

As his investigation progresses, Prospero learns the Carter family's dark secret: Ethan had released a malevolent spirit known as the Sleeper, threatening their lives. When his uncle and mother tried to sacrifice him to appease the Sleeper, Ethan escaped with the help of his father, who committed suicide in an effort to not become a vessel of the Sleeper as Ethan's older brother Travis now was. Travis turns on Ethan, forcing his grandfather Ed to kill Travis. Ethan and Ed try to destroy the Sleeper's chambers, but Ed traps Ethan inside the chamber and waits to die outside as Ethan sets a fire within. Prospero finds Ethan, but he suddenly vanishes after they both realise Prospero was too late.

Using an elaborate mural created by Ethan, Prospero discovers that he is in fact a figment of Ethan's imagination. The cult of the Sleeper was an invention, as were the deaths of the family members during Prospero's investigation. Ethan had built a sanctuary inside a mansion in town to escape his family, particularly his overbearing mother, and abusive brother and uncle. When his mother accidentally sets the mansion on fire, trapping Ethan in the room with no way to save himself, he summons Prospero to provide comfort as he's consumed by the smoke by enacting a fictitious series of events. Having fulfilled his purpose, Prospero tells Ethan to let go, and that a new story awaits before both of them fade from the world.

Development

The game was developed by three former People Can Fly employees, who had previously, with the company, worked on first-person shooter video games. The team was interested in moving into more story-heavy games. They almost released one, titled Come Midnight, as a collaboration with THQ, although ultimately this was canceled. Upon forming their own company, The Astronauts, the team had the freedom they needed to work on such a game.^[6]

From the start the game was always going to be focused on horror. In dissecting the genre, lead designer, Adrian Chmielarz, discovered the genre of weird fiction and from there the story "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" which he took inspiration from. Although he stated that he had the basic idea in mind prior to reading it, the story helped certify the concept in Chmielarz mind.^[6]

Feeling that settings in games inherently felt "a bit artificial", the team instead were inspired by nature to create a more natural-feeling world. The setting in particular takes inspiration from the Polish Karkonosze mountains with Chmielarz describing the game as being "shot" there. The team used photogrammetry technology in order to create the in-game environment and make it look like the mountain range.^[6]

Reception

The Vanishing of Ethan Carter received positive reviews. Aggregating review websites GameRankings and Metacritic gave the PlayStation 4 version 82.46% based on 26 reviews and 81/100 based on 32 reviews^[7][8] and the Microsoft Windows version 81.27% based on 41 reviews and 82/100 based on 65 reviews.^[9][10] The game sold 60,000 copies in its first month on sale.^[11] As of December, 2017, the game has sold over a million copies.^[12]

Julian Aidan from Hardcore Gamer praised its well-designed open-world, visuals and story, but criticized the gameplay for being too linear, as well as finding the narrative aspect of the game weak.^[13] Shaun McInnis from GameSpot praised the simple yet enjoyable puzzle-solving, captivating story, outstanding graphics and breathtaking environments, but criticized its weird and vague auto-save system.^[14] Christopher Livingston from PC Gamer also criticized the save system, but praised the decent voice acting, enjoyable puzzle-solving, as well as the intriguing, satisfying, and wonderfully restrained story.^[15]

Port

The Vanishing of Ethan Carter was ported to Unreal Engine 4, and was released for the PlayStation 4 on July 15, 2015.^[17] The Unreal Engine 4 port was released for the PC on September 11, 2015, under the title Vanishing of Ethan Carter Redux. Apart from the new engine, the revised version includes a new save system, and eliminates the backtracking from the ending sequence of the game.

References

External links

• Official website