The Vanishing of Ethan Carter
The Astronauts · 2014 · Mystery, Atmospheric, Detective, Walking Simulator, Exploration
PC
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About The Vanishing of Ethan Carter
✦ AI summary
You play as occult detective Paul Prospero investigating a missing boy and a trail of murders in Red Creek Valley, using supernatural abilities to communicate with the dead and uncover dark secrets. This atmospheric first-person mystery focuses entirely on exploration and discovery with no combat, blending weird fiction horror with detective noir storytelling.
GOOD NEWS EVERYONE: By purchasing the game, you actually get two games now: 1) The original The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, 2) The Unreal Engine 4 remaster called The Vanishing of Ethan Carter Redux. Please see The Astronauts website for details.
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is a first-person story-driven mystery game that focuses entirely on exploration and discovery. It contains no combat or explosions of any kind. If our game leaves any scars, we hope you won’t be able to see them.
You play the game as Paul Prospero, an occult-minded detective who receives a disturbing letter from Ethan Carter. Realizing the boy is in grave danger, Paul arrives at Ethan’s home of Red Creek Valley, where things turn out to be even worse than he imagined. Ethan has vanished in the wake of a brutal murder, which Paul quickly discerns might not be the only local murder worth looking into.
Inspired by the weird fiction (and other tales of the macabre) from the early twentieth century, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter aims to significantly evolve immersive storytelling in games. While it features a private detective and quite a few mental challenges, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is not an especially puzzle-ridden game. Our focus is on atmosphere, mood, and the essential humanity of our characters.
Still, the discoveries won’t happen on their own, or without your help. Using both Paul’s supernatural skill of being able to communicate with the dead, and your own powers of observation, you will discover the mystery behind a trail of corpses, the roots of a dark ancient force lurking in Red Creek Valley, and the fate of a missing boy.
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is a first-person story-driven mystery game that focuses entirely on exploration and discovery. It contains no combat or explosions of any kind. If our game leaves any scars, we hope you won’t be able to see them.
You play the game as Paul Prospero, an occult-minded detective who receives a disturbing letter from Ethan Carter. Realizing the boy is in grave danger, Paul arrives at Ethan’s home of Red Creek Valley, where things turn out to be even worse than he imagined. Ethan has vanished in the wake of a brutal murder, which Paul quickly discerns might not be the only local murder worth looking into.
Inspired by the weird fiction (and other tales of the macabre) from the early twentieth century, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter aims to significantly evolve immersive storytelling in games. While it features a private detective and quite a few mental challenges, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is not an especially puzzle-ridden game. Our focus is on atmosphere, mood, and the essential humanity of our characters.
Still, the discoveries won’t happen on their own, or without your help. Using both Paul’s supernatural skill of being able to communicate with the dead, and your own powers of observation, you will discover the mystery behind a trail of corpses, the roots of a dark ancient force lurking in Red Creek Valley, and the fate of a missing boy.
Key Features
- Explore and interact with the beautiful yet ominous world of Red Creek Valley, which was created with the use of revolutionary photogrammetry technology that allows for nearly photorealistic environments.
- Communicate with the dead and see how they died in order to gather clues that help you piece together the truth behind Ethan’s disappearance -- and the fate of his family.
- Experience, in non-linear fashion, a story that combines the pleasures of pulp, private eye, and horror fiction, all of it inspired by writers such as Raymond Chandler, Algernon Blackwood, Stefan Grabinski, and H. P. Lovecraft.
- Conduct the investigation on your own terms and at your own pace. Although there are a few scary bits in the game, players will have no need for sedatives. Our game is less about terror and more about clammy unease.
DLC & expansions
🎁 Complete the collection
Base game + 1 of 1 DLC at today's best prices.
$4.75
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What Steam players say
Recent verbatim reviews from Steam — separate from playze.io community reviews below.
This game was an interesting one, it was a simple and fun to explore walking simulator, right up until the end when the game gained more depth than I was expecting. Quick note: this game comes with the normal version and redux edition, I played the redux one but the time didn't "count" so I had to idle in the normal version for a short time to be able to write this review. If I am being honest, as I was playing this, the story was not gripping me. It wasn’t really my thing, but I resigned myself to just enjoying the game as a walking simulator as that was what I was in the mood for anyway. I just wanted to relax, walk around kind of braindead, looking at stuff. The investigative element was a welcome addition as this felt quite unique, and I actually found it quite fun combing the map as I went along for the “areas of interest” which had the little investigative parts to them. It’s a pretty simple system, but it felt very detective-esque and I think it’s always fun when games pull that off. The text appearing like thoughts, assessing a scene, and having to deduce its chronology was novel to me. This game only really got interesting to me, and became something I enjoyed at the ve…2 found this helpful
[h1] The Mind of a Kid [/h1] Please don't mind my playtime, I played the Redux version and it doesn't log your time in game or let me leave reviews for that version. So, I have to load up this version and let it run while I did some chores, before I could leave a review. But, to review this game, the story is amazing! This is probably one of the best, if not the best walking sims ever. The story is fun, and intriguing. Also, the voice acting is phenomenal! I was invested the entire time and wanted to know why things were happening the way they were. Then, the ending surprised me entirely! I did not know exactly what I was in store for me, but that ending truly made me sad. If you like walking sims, and really enjoy investigative stories, then this is for you. They say the game doesn't hold you hand, but nothing about the story will keep you stuck, and the puzzles are not hard to figure out. Also, the game is not entirely too long. You can complete it and find all of the stories in about 3 hours, one sitting too. I hope to see more from The Astronauts, because this game is really fun and kept me on the edge of my seat.
larp game idc what happened to ethan im drunk while playing ts walkin sim too many good reviews i wanna hate just this once
Genuinely beautiful game — the map design is stunning, the game design is thoughtful, and the story pulls you in properly. This is a well-crafted experience. One real gripe though: I was 80% through the game before I actually figured out the core mechanic for solving the cases. Had to start over from scratch. And with no manual save option, that wasn't a quick fix — that was losing hours. The tutorial-by-discovery approach works until it doesn't, and here it cost me a full replay.
Firstly, I found the original version of the game did not run well, with constant stuttering, so I would recommend playing on the redux version which comes with purchase. It was a very pretty game, with extremely immersive sound design. Especially for a game made in 2014, and I thought the puzzles we're fairly fun, whilst still being simple, so beginners can still enjoy it. However I was disappointed by the story. The ending felt very clique and obvious, which is unfortunate as it felt like it had a lot of potential. I would only get the game if it is on sale. I brought it for a dark and emotional story, but it didn't really give me that. However, I still enjoyed exploring the environment, so was still worth the £4 I spent on it.
Recommend.
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