Not only do you investigate supernatural events, you have some psychic abilities yourself, allowing you to piece together clues from what you see around you.įor example, stumble across a murder scene, and by reconstructing it back to how it was at the time of the murder you can communicate with the deceased and see a mental image of what happened.
You play Paul Prospero (a rather ostentatious name, but one that is kind of explained by what is revealed at the end of the game), a supernatural investigator in the mould of Chandler's noir-ish detectives.
How long to beat the vanishing of ethan carter free#
The visuals really do encourage exploration, and you are free to wander Red Creek Valley and solve the game's puzzles in any order you wish. There is no combat at all, the gameplay elements arising from investigating the mystery and solving the game's puzzles (which are not particularly difficult, but very enjoyable nonetheless). The best environmental graphics ever seen wouldn't mean much without a great game, and The Vanishing of Ethan Carter comes up trumps here too, further pushing the boundaries of what's possible in narrative driven gameplay. It exudes an atmosphere that deserves to be soaked up. The sumptuous visuals, accompanied by a restrained and atmospheric soundtrack, great ambient animations, and an involving and emotional story make The Vanishing of Ethan Carter a game to wallow in, like a hot soapy bath (ok, a bath filled with disturbing and creepy events and some seriously unpleasant violence, but you know what I mean). Don't be surprised to see the technique used elsewhere now, as it makes the virtual worlds of many triple AAA games look drab by comparison. That they achieved this with a team of only eight people (including just a single programmer) speaks volumes as to how a small indie team can beat AAA titles by developing new techniques. They have a blog post on their site detailing the method, with some great examples of how it works. New indie developer The Astronauts achieved this incredible feat by turning to a new technique for generating game assets known as photogrammetry. It's an absolute joy just to wander and get lost in the visuals, and my screenshots key has never seen so much use (screenshots do not do any justice to the in-game visuals by the way). Red Creek Valley is by far the most realistic and beautiful environment I've ever seen in a game. The first thing that will strike you is how amazingly beautiful the game looks.