A little exploration, a little mystery, a little puzzle, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter has it all. The goal of the game can be distinguished quite easily from the title. This is a story-driven adventure game in the likes of Dear Esther, Gone Home, and Everybody's Gone To Rapture. However, where all those games really shine all the way through The Vanishing doesn't really come together till the very end. Its a decent game with a decent story but is that enough to make the journey worthwhile?
You step into the shoes of Paul Prospero, a detective who finds himself at Red Creek Valley to investigate Ethan's sudden disappearance. You'll find various clues along the way that will help you get an idea of what happened to Ethan. These clues are broken is the a handful of sets for key areas across the game. Once you find all the pieces of a set you'll unlock vision of what happened at that spot. Its up to you to find the appropriate timeline of the event. After you get the events in the right order you're treated to a cut-scene that shows exactly what happened.
The visuals in this game are quite realistic. Since you'll need to do a lot of exploring and walking around you really get to appreciate how gorgeous this game is. The pretty landscapes and scenery are quite relaxing and calming. Since the story can get pretty dark the environments make for a nice contrast to the tone of the story. Often the scenes involve individuals seeming to be going paranoid, often hurting each or trying to capture Ethan. They believe Ethan has unleashed an ancient evil upon the town that is tainting the minds of the locals and feeding off their violence.
Most of the time all you'll need to do is just find the clues lying around. However, there are a couple light puzzle elements. In one instance you have imagines of different room options in a house and you have to figure which rooms belong to which doorways. In another instance there is a cavern with various bodies you have to find to decipher a code. After you've explored town and solved all the puzzles you finally realize what happened to Ethan. Its the emotional highlight of the game that will really stick with you and have you going back to really think about everything that lead up to that point.
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter may have an emotional impact but as a game I believe its fairly average. That is not to say this is a bad game by any means but there just isn't much to it. Besides the ending the story is pretty much forgettable. There is little variety in the gameplay and even figuring out the order of events just involves trial and error. The exploration is probably the highlight of this experience but its hardly enough to justify some of the games other shortcomings. I'm all for narrative driven adventure games but I just think that this particular one is only slightly better than average.