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The Vanishing of Ethan Carter |OT| A first person murder mystery (PC)
- Thread starter peakish
- Start date
Karak
Member
No its not a requirement.
Very minor spoiler question from the VERY FIRST scene in the game: http://abload.de/img/screendbjjb.png
Is that what I'm supposed to be seeing? I played 3 hours of the game, ran all the way back to the start, found one more thing I missed (
), but I'm still just seeing what's in the screenshot. Am I supposed to find something else that triggers a scene there? I feel like I scoured the whole area.
Is that what I'm supposed to be seeing? I played 3 hours of the game, ran all the way back to the start, found one more thing I missed (
another trap
Bandersnatch1
Member
You're missing one trap.
Ugh, thanks. I'll go back there and run around some more. >_<
*edit* I found it immediately after going back. I have no idea how I missed it before, thanks again.
I suspect I missed a couple of fairly obvious early things in the game because I didn't fully understand mechanics and kept exploring, so the story ended up being especially odd and out of order for me.
I think it's finished besides the ending though, time to do that.Ok, while i said i wouldn't play it on my laptop, i gave in and bought it on steam last night, just so i can play it this weekend (and to get the pre-order bonus). I hope it runs fine on my system, but it should according to the specs.
I'm not a huge PC gamer, but i just couldn't resist and i hope i won't regret the purchase. I'm very confident, though.
I'm not a huge PC gamer, but i just couldn't resist and i hope i won't regret the purchase. I'm very confident, though.
Ugh, thanks. I'll go back there and run around some more. >_<
*edit* I found it immediately after going back. I have no idea how I missed it before, thanks again.
I suspect I missed a couple of fairly obvious early things in the game because I didn't fully understand mechanics and kept exploring, so the story ended up being especially odd and out of order for me.
Check the "spoiler" map. There are
five
Bl@de
Member
I just tested it for 20min ... Wow just Wow. This game makes your Jaw drop. Runs perfectly at 60fps with 4xMSAA/16xAF on highest settings and is a looker. I have a GTX 770 (and lol it uses 800mb VRAM ... little stab at the Mordor Thread Panic). Easily the best looking Environments in a Game to date. I hope for some SGSSAA Bits soon.
And the atmosphere. Looking forward to playing it later.
And the atmosphere. Looking forward to playing it later.
In the install directory.
Ok, thanks!
Maxwood
Oh rock of ages, do not crumble, love is breathing still. Oh lady moon shine down, a little people magic if you will.
After spending an hour with the game; i'm incredibly impressed! It looks absolutely gorgeous and is bursting with atmosphere. Exploration is exciting and by jove, the puzzles i've encountered have been... good. Not incredibly braintaxing, but clever and well made. Hopefully, the game keeps up this level of quality, or maybe even go beyond it.
I can't see the framerate as Rivatuner's flipping out on the game, but it feels like a smooth 60FPS (after enabling triple buffering, that is) most of the time, but with a lot of little stutters while turning the camera or moving. It's a bit annoying. The game froze a couple of times as well. Ctrl+Alt+Del - Alt+Tab fixes them, though.
I can't see the framerate as Rivatuner's flipping out on the game, but it feels like a smooth 60FPS (after enabling triple buffering, that is) most of the time, but with a lot of little stutters while turning the camera or moving. It's a bit annoying. The game froze a couple of times as well. Ctrl+Alt+Del - Alt+Tab fixes them, though.
Sodding_Gamer
Member
Has anyone found a way to fix the stuttering or we got to wait for a patch? I've just given in and bought it on Steam. My Friday night sorted!
Edit: regarding length, being a 23 year old with a flat, responsibilities, gf etc I actually really enjoy short games that can be easily completed on an evening or weekend. Things like Journey, Gone Home and the like. They are pretty short games but leave me remembering almost all of it. Bloated, long games I barely remember what happens but these small, short and effective stories that don't take too much time leave more of an impact for me. As long as they aren't priced ridiculously I really don't mind the length.
Edit: regarding length, being a 23 year old with a flat, responsibilities, gf etc I actually really enjoy short games that can be easily completed on an evening or weekend. Things like Journey, Gone Home and the like. They are pretty short games but leave me remembering almost all of it. Bloated, long games I barely remember what happens but these small, short and effective stories that don't take too much time leave more of an impact for me. As long as they aren't priced ridiculously I really don't mind the length.
CheesecakeRecipe
Stormy Grey
It will always autosave after you complete an event. The save icon is the same three white dots at the bottom right corner that appeared during the initial load screen.
I know some of you are still on the fence about purchasing, so I put together my thoughts in case you want a GAFfer's opinion:
Paul Prospero, a detective with a unique skillset, is called towards a piece of fan mail as though the sirens themselves would emerge the moment he sliced the licked adhesive apart. A boy named Ethan Carter writes to him, detailing some dark happenings in the hidden countryside town he resides in. Paul realizes that Ethan wouldn't have chosen him if these dark things wouldn't require his particular abilities. His last case shall be this one, Paul decides, and sets out to the breezy hillsides of Red Creek Valley. Within minutes of arriving, he comes across a series of potentially deadly traps in the woods just on the outskirts of town. This case will be anything but ordinary for most people, but Paul Prospero is used to it.
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter takes some elements out of Murdered: Soul Suspects playbook and gives the player the ability to piece together crime scenes through supernatural ability. Whenever an important element is visible, you can interact with it to see Pauls thoughts on how it may all fit in with the current scene. Sometimes hell even be able to locate a missing object by peeking through a magic mirror-like thought process. By arranging the scene to be exactly as it was at the moment of death, Paul can see the entire final minutes of the dead through a series of flashbacks. All of this is taught to the player by letting them discover each of the functions on their own. With no tutorial some players may find themselves a bit lost at first, but once you've gotten the first case down you've pretty much gotten the hang of all the skills youll need to progress.
Through scraps of Ethans writing laying around, we learn that hes a pretty creative kid. If youd ever asked him, hed probably tell you his inspirations were Poe, Chandler, Lovecraft, and Verne. With this talent comes the evidence of a disturbed mind and a town with a secret underground some people are all too eager to get to. Some of his writing fits in with the events in town that you learn about through the paranormal mystery puzzles and newspaper clippings sitting around. There was an ever-present sensation in the pit of my stomach that something was up and it probably didn't want me here.
There was a lot of time to ponder the events of each case and how they related to the big picture, thanks to the sheer size of Red Creek Valleys map. While not a fully open world, you can get to most places through a handful of paths and practicing a little mental triangulation as you work your way around. Nooks and crannies leading to quiet spots in the shade of the forest or some tossed away rotted wood planks that once upheld something or other are all over the place. I had the option to run everywhere, but I found myself utterly entranced by the almost photorealistic, if slightly dreamy, visual work done by The Astronauts. Every few steps was another gorgeous vista overlooking a lake. Every rock looked sharp enough to scrape my skin on. Its hard to believe that this was all done in Unreal Engine 3. If you've ever looked at a single screenshot of the game, the visual fidelity remains that consistent for every backdrop.
Several times I sat down under a tree for a few moments, watching as the knee-high grass whipped around in the wind. I closed my eyes and took in the soundstage. So perfectly crafted, small sonic details most games dont have the time, money, or the will to reproduce so crisply. Had I not been watching the vivid countryside dancing before me just seconds before, I would have sworn I was listening to a Chris Watson sound collage. Positional audio is one thing that developers rarely get right, but it is one of the most essential elements in establishing a truly enveloping sense of place. When a crow cawed above my head, the sound moved realistically as I turned to face the source. Bug screeches, bending branches, rattling metal constructs, all represented with care. Headphones are an absolute must.
It isn't all purely idyllic, only a handful of shortcomings stain the pages of Ethans story. The first issue comes from the voice acting, which is about as stale as moldy bread. Paul himself performs the gravely-voiced detective role just fine and Ethan sounds much like a kid his age would, but any of the other supporting characters sound very off. The character models are another problem, their design and models not matching up to the picturesque backgrounds. They are stiffly animated, weirdly textured, and lack a lot of depth which would help them blend in more with the backgrounds. I wont say its something like the toons sitting in a bar with Bob Hoskins in Who Framed Roger Rabbit, but it is very noticeable. Some may find the game length too short, but I personally did not find this to be a big deal.
At a short 3 to 5 hours, Ethans adventure is over relatively shortly. But the game is always presenting you with something beautiful to look at, something suspicious to chew on, or some puzzle to solve. It even changes up the mechanics here and there to help keep things feeling fresh, avoiding too much repetition in the more game-y mechanics. This is a game which can be enjoyed by those who want a little meat on the bones they find leaning against a tree in the forest, reminding me a lot more of Ether One (a game you must check out if you enjoy Ethan Carter, by the way) than Dear Esther. The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is meant to be taken slowly, absorbed like a good book dripping with detail. The ending may not exactly be the most surprising and some may find themselves a little disappointed. But the journey towards it is full of heart and imagination. Much in the way that Ethan Carter himself is.
Very recommended. You probably know my taste and that I love what many call "walking simulators" but this is something a little bit more. It's a very special short story that isn't the most original idea around, but it certainly makes for a really good trip.
Vlodril
Member
eh please devs put manual saves in your games for gods sake..
At least auto save every 5 mins or something..
I don't think it's really required for this game.
I just finished. 5.0 hours according to Steam, but I suck at games so a reasonable person should be able to finish it in 3 or 3.5. I spent a LOT of time backtracking to finish stuff I missed the first time.
Overall impressions: If you like detective stories and outdoor atmosphere, you'll probably like this. If you liked Alan Wake but hated the combat, I'm guessing you'll like this (I haven't played the Alan Wake games). If you liked Dear Esther but wished it had even some mild puzzle elements, you'll probably like this.
The bad:
The good:
Because I missed a few things, I ended up going back through the map and doing a cave section last. It was annoyingly appropriate as a last section since (SPOILERS):
Finally, GIANT MAJOR ENDING STORY SPOILER DISCUSSION YE BE WARNED:
Overall, I would recommend this game. If you like point and click adventures, detective stories, or really pretty games you can screenshot, and you don't mind a 3-hour story, worth $20.
If you're only mildly interested, $10 might be a better price, but I'd say it's still worth closer to $10 than $5 side because of all the positives. It looks great, it's polished, and it runs stable. Looking back through the thread I see a couple of mentions of event bugs, so I don't know if I was just lucky, especially with that underground sequence, but I hope everyone managed to finish.
Overall impressions: If you like detective stories and outdoor atmosphere, you'll probably like this. If you liked Alan Wake but hated the combat, I'm guessing you'll like this (I haven't played the Alan Wake games). If you liked Dear Esther but wished it had even some mild puzzle elements, you'll probably like this.
The bad:
- The open nature of the maps actually made me spend a lot of time backtracking because I missed a couple of simple triggers early in the game. This made the story unfold in a weird manner, which is not really bad, but it made me spend an extra hour or two holding in shift and W to run around the mountainsides, which was a little tedious.
The good:
- Probably the best visuals I've ever seen from Unreal Engine 3 (if this is just 3, maybe tailored?), potentially alongside Mirror's Edge. In fact, thanks to the awesome textures and great color adjustments as you walk from area to area (color grading?), I feel like this is a pretty awesome game visually, from ANY engine.
- Going hand in hand with the nice textures, this game has awesome visual design. The landscape, the shore lines, the skies, the vistas ("Oh lol, that's just a static background, no way I can walk down there........wait a minute, I -am- down there now."), the muted colors, the balance of how everything fits together. It's outstanding.
- I'm bad with directions so I ran in circles a lot, but the developers did a great job creating a huge, seamless, no loading environment. It's not 10000 square miles or something, but it's a big area and things fit together pretty nicely. I think they successfully realized a vision of creating a valley for you explore with some degree of freedom.
- The story is strange but very creative in parts.
- Performance is pretty great for me. 4.2 GHz i5 3570K, 8GB RAM, GTX 770 2GB. Everything on max besides 4xAA, I got 60 fps and smooth operation (camera smoothing turned off) a lot of the time. I didn't notice regular stuttering, but I guess because of map streaming, since I don't have a SSD, there was occasional hitching when running long distances. There was one underground area where I got 35 fps or so because of some effects, and one house with special effects that might have brought me to 40 fps briefly (same with the hold-mouse-down effect). Outside of those few special effect areas, things stayed smooth and looked great the majority of the time.
- The developers made some player-friendly choices since you have to walk/run so much. There's no run toggle, unfortunately, but running does NOT give any nauseating headbob, and you do NOT get out of breath and make annoying loud breathing sounds. Hooray!
- The soundtrack is appropriately creepy in parts, and the main mysterious theme is great.
- The atmosphere is great. I hate scary games and this game feels fairly near the limit of scary I can or want to deal with. However, the atmosphere for the most part just involves tension or creepy things, with few jump scares and no combat.
- The puzzles and interactive story segments are relatively simple, but work well with the story. One note is that you should rebind the text toggle key to something other than spacebar so you don't have text showing up on top of a story segment. Tab works fine.
Because I missed a few things, I ended up going back through the map and doing a cave section last. It was annoyingly appropriate as a last section since (SPOILERS):
The entire game I had learned that thankfully, nothing is going to attack me or jump in my face. Okay, scary shadows, oh, it's a zombie. That's kind of gross but at least it won't jump on me FUUUUUUUUUUCK.
I hated going in those tunnels so much that I only got 3-4 clues for the gate, and managed to educated guess + brute force the remaining combination elements. I thought they would all be unique symbols but apparently I got lucky since the last one I spun into place was a duplicate symbol, but a valid part of the combination.
I hated going in those tunnels so much that I only got 3-4 clues for the gate, and managed to educated guess + brute force the remaining combination elements. I thought they would all be unique symbols but apparently I got lucky since the last one I spun into place was a duplicate symbol, but a valid part of the combination.
Finally, GIANT MAJOR ENDING STORY SPOILER DISCUSSION YE BE WARNED:
Am I interpreting the ending correctly in that Ethan suffocates in the room, and none of the investigations / corpses anywhere else are real? Or are they supposed to be real but caused by other events than the explanations given in the game? I'm assuming they didn't happen, and everything (including you) was just from the various stories Ethan dreamed up.
Overall, I would recommend this game. If you like point and click adventures, detective stories, or really pretty games you can screenshot, and you don't mind a 3-hour story, worth $20.
If you're only mildly interested, $10 might be a better price, but I'd say it's still worth closer to $10 than $5 side because of all the positives. It looks great, it's polished, and it runs stable. Looking back through the thread I see a couple of mentions of event bugs, so I don't know if I was just lucky, especially with that underground sequence, but I hope everyone managed to finish.
Vlodril
Member
well when i can't quit until i complete an event i think it does need it myself.
d00d3n
Member
Thank you very much.
Sound like a game I would like.
Is the game demanding? Can the graphic settings be tone down in case?
I'm think to play it through Parallels Desktop.
Yes, one investigation involves Lovecraft influences.
luca_29_bg
Member
frame rate fluctuating too much. I7 860 3.7 ghz, 8 gb ram, and 7950 oc 1150. We have and amd problem here ?
Witchfinder General
punched Wheelchair Mike
Game crashed when I lauch the game with AA. Turning it off and then turning it on in-game seems to work but the game won't let me select 16x CSAA or 16XQ CSAA.
Same here. I thought the game was actually running at 12k FPS and wondered how my GTX 680s didn't melt. Turns out it's just a bug, and you can see the actual, proper FPS with FRAPS. Rock solid 60 with in-game VSync and everything maxed (though only 2xMSAA, since I see barely no difference above it). I get +70 FPS without VSync, but the game doesn't use SLI at all. If I force AR2 on the NVCP, the game uses both cards at ~45%, but I get minor stuttering every now and then.
wanderjahr
Banned
The graphics, damn! Outstanding!
But why no 21:9 support?
or 16:10. Pretty game so far. I like these sorts of games, but black bars are kind of a bummer.
Corpsepyre
Banned
What's with the immense amount of stuttering? :/ Taking me out of the experience.
This is how I interpreted it:
Yes, it was all made up by Ethan. But there are two types of stories; ones he wrote down and his family found (those are the ones like the sea monster and space), and the murder cases.
My thought is that the murder cases are being thought up by Ethan as he's dying, and the actions of his family in them represent either how they've treated him in the past or how they were treating him just before the fire started. I say this for a couple reasons. First, the clock at the train station is always set to 7. When we see the scene of Ethan laying down to die, the time is 7. Also, his conversation with Paul kind of implies that he feels he can finally die now that he's finished telling Paul's story.
Also, when I went into the final room at first I thought we were going to get a "Ethan is the sleeper in disguise!" thing, but now that I think of it the Sleeper is probably just Ethan's way of representing all the negative thoughts his family has about him.
My thought is that the murder cases are being thought up by Ethan as he's dying, and the actions of his family in them represent either how they've treated him in the past or how they were treating him just before the fire started. I say this for a couple reasons. First, the clock at the train station is always set to 7. When we see the scene of Ethan laying down to die, the time is 7. Also, his conversation with Paul kind of implies that he feels he can finally die now that he's finished telling Paul's story.
Also, when I went into the final room at first I thought we were going to get a "Ethan is the sleeper in disguise!" thing, but now that I think of it the Sleeper is probably just Ethan's way of representing all the negative thoughts his family has about him.
zephervack
Member
The graphics, damn! Outstanding!
But why no 21:9 support?
Unreal Engine games are famous for not supporting "non-standard" aspect ratios
, I guess this means the game wont run properly on 3 screens either.Hopefully someone releases a fix for it, but im not getting my hopes up as this is quite the niche title.
If someone makes a fix for 21:9 and Triple screen it, it will be posted here: http://www.wsgf.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=64&t=27601&sid=493ad76714fcd77aeb470a973439df53 so maybe check in a few days
Yeah, I cropped out some black bars when posting some screenshots, but I barely noticed it in game, I found the game so immersive. Mirror's Edge is one of my favorite games of all time, but it was also Unreal Engine 3 and also had black bars for 1680x1050.Unreal Engine games are famous for not supporting "non-standard" aspect ratios
Hopefully someone releases a fix for it, but im not getting my hopes up as this is quite the niche title.
That sucks -- for people with stuttering, can you post the graphics card? It was fine for me most of the time with a GTX770 2GB, so it might be worse on the AMD side right now.
Yeah that was evil. BIG SPOILER ANSWER:
There's a map or two around on signs in the cave, maybe, and there are some things that have an "Inspect" cursor that should guide you, but I think you being forced to run away is intentional, to make you get lost and afraid. It was really evil to put that zombie jumping at you there, after training you the entire game that no enemies will jump at you.
I have another FIRST HALF SPOILER thought, related to the first half of the game and how the game can affect people differently depending on what order you complete the story sections:
I missed a couple of traps at the start, and didn't find the crankshaft clue until like 4 hours later, so I didn't finish the train section either. As a result, the very first time I finished a section and found a piece of paper with a story on it may have been after the astronaut and space section. As you can imagine, while I was in space I was VERY CONFUSED. I thought the game might be heading in a truly crazy direction, lol.
I'm almost kind of glad I didn't do everything in perfect order because of things like that.
CheesecakeRecipe
Stormy Grey
My rig may not be the greatest way to judge how it runs since it's a bit newer - i5 4670k + GTX 660 - but I found once I ticked off AA and ran everything else maxed out it ran above 60FPS at almost all times. The launcher does have quite a few options to tweak, though I don't know how well it would function on Parallels Desktop.
GavinUK86
Member
I'm confused. I solved the puzzle in the mines and the big tentacle monster came out then I was under water. Figured that's the next level, but then the zombie guy popped up and took me back to the caves again. Is that normal? The zombie guy looked all glitched out so I'm hoping that's what's supposed to happened and not some weird bug. I went back to the puzzle and it's all caved in so I can't access the top anymore.
SolidSnakeUS
Member
I'm gonna drink some tonight and try to get through this game. Only did the initial puzzle with the traps. Love it even from just that .
.Big Takeover
Member
I've really enjoyed my couple of hours with Ethan. I am going at a snail's pace just looking at all the lovely art. Decades later and I've finally listened to my parents - NO RUNNING!
Another guy wishing for 21:9. I knew Unreal would make it unlikely, but let's hope Flawless Widescreen can come to the rescue. I had to resort to playing like a heathen on the couch with a TV.
Not even when chasing the astronaut!
Another guy wishing for 21:9. I knew Unreal would make it unlikely, but let's hope Flawless Widescreen can come to the rescue. I had to resort to playing like a heathen on the couch with a TV.
That's a bug and someone else had the same thing. I don't know if they managed to redo it. Spoiler about correct cave ending sequence:
The zombie shouldn't show up again. You see the tentacles underwater, then after a few seconds some sequence played...might have been a flashback or something, I forget. You end up back at the entrance where you saw that warning sign about how the ritual has failed, but now the entrance is locked, and there are some notes around to read, with a story and some information about Ethan's brother. You may be able to just find that entrance and look around to see if it triggered the notes to pop up.
Please consider spoilering that because (spoiler from near the end)
The entire game you're trained NOT to expect jump scares with enemies, so even the existence of a monster or a monster jump scare is a surprise. The effect might be ruined if you know about it ahead of time.
GavinUK86
Member
No, no letters or notes anywhere and the gates still open. Well that's an annoying bug.