A map drawn at the final stop on your journey will help you to find the ones you happened to miss.įor example, I had a feeling I knew where the game was going once I got to the Vandergriffs’ charred mansion, the madness that had possessed the Carter family fleshing out in each vision, the ultimate fate of Ethan becoming clearer. You can run into story elements, which are scattered throughout the town, separately from the timeline and still be able to piece it together.
You can follow the path the developers set out for you, but sometimes it is hard to find and ultimately, it’s not important. However, I think where this message mostly becomes relevant is in the narrative, which manages to be linear yet able to exist outside traditional chronology (and not counting that some of the puzzles require you to put scenes in the proper order). You are presented with control instructions on puzzles, so there is hand-holding. The Astronauts want you to know very early that the game won’t hold your hand (literally, the first message that appears tells you just that) but this is kind of a muddled message.
This is just one of the juxtapositions Ethan Carter offers. Despite the focus on visuals, the actual game part of the game stands out more than the art in these instances (call them “systems” or “mechanics”, if you like). It’s strange considering the pastoral quality of the setting. Your powers take the form of synesthesia, allowing you to see your thoughts and possible paths towards memories or other objects in bold, floating words that block your vision. As you walk around you get pieces to the story, which builds up the crux of the gameplay. You can touch objects in the world and see memories associated with it. As supernatural detective Paul Prospero, you have to use your psychic abilities to unravel the mystery surrounding the town, falling into the story of a demonic force that feeds off the hatred of others. Blood trails cover railroad tracks, homes are decimated, and remnants of what happened to Ethan’s family are everywhere. Things take a step away from the scenic and quaint as you travel through the town. It’s almost peaceful, although that’s not taking into account the tension running through your body throughout the game as you try and figure out what happened to a little boy named Ethan Carter while also trying to vanquish the demons that seem to follow all the clues The juxtaposition here can create some mixed reactions from players, especially as they try and figure out how much to truly enjoy the view and what actions to take. There’s nobody around, not even any animals to bite at your heels.
With your first step you can hear the crunch of leaves, your shoes picking up dirt.as you walk what seems like miles to even get to Red Creek Valley. From the first second you are sinking into grass, surrounded by nature. Without even touching other elements, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter by The Astronauts is a beautiful game. These places are so rare that it’s difficult to get through Ethan Carter without stopping to stare at the sun peeking out over the mountains, to escape into another world for a couple of hours. The flora is overgrown in Red Creek Valley, weeds sticking through the spaces in the railroad tracks and leaves littering paths between buildings. If you were to drive through the American Midwest or the South and really search for them, you can find glimpses of places like this: spaces untouched by the city, where the people can’t hope to stop the onslaught of nature. Red Creek Valley is an old mining town with sparse, separated buildings, a church that probably wouldn’t pack the town’s population, and its own complex, if limited, history. There’s something very familiar about the picturesque setting of The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, even if it’s hard to believe that a place like it could exist.
0 kommentar(er)
