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The Vanishing of Ethan Carter

Vin

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Vin

Vin

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TheVanishingOfEthanCarter_logo_t.png



New gig from the Ex-People Can Fly devs.

As a detective with the supernatural ability to visualize scenes of lethal crimes, you investigate the kidnapping of a young boy, hoping to save him before it’s too late. The investigation leads you to a beautiful mountain area, where you come across a severely mutilated body of one of the kidnappers. Using both your paranormal skill and modern detective tools you discover the mystery behind the trail of corpses in the valley, the roots of an ancient force ruling the area, and the fate of the kidnapped boy.

The most notable points are that The Vanishing of Ethan Carter will be in first-person and won't contain any combat - a big shift after Chmielarz's work on Bulletstorm and Painkiller. "It's not about shooting monsters," Chmielarz explained. "Not that there's anything wrong with that. After all, I did design Painkiller and Bulletstorm and I enjoy grinding meat with bullets as much as the next guy. But I wanted to make a different kind of game for a very long time, and now it can finally happen." When asked about the gameplay mechanics Chmielarz said, "The focus of the game is its escapist factor: the immersion, the exploration and the discovery. But it wouldn't make much sense to play as a detective if you weren't doing any detecting, would it? So there's a little bit of that, but again, the focus is not on mind bending puzzles, but on unsettling discoveries. "Take Dear Esther, add gameplay, murder and corpses. That's the closest to what The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is."

Regarding the first-person perspective, Chmielarz told me, "A few amazing games like The Walking Dead or Journey have already proven that third-person can work perfectly fine for emotions, but I think that when it comes to immersion, it's hard to beat first-person perspectives. This may be just me, but I get a better sense of presence in the virtual world if it happens in first-person. And that sense of presence is exactly what we are after. We want the players to feel like they're really there, shiver when it's cold and lower their heads when it's windy."

He also noted that he would like to support Oculus and other 3D devices and displays - something that's well-suited for first-person games. The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is due out this year on PC.
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Vin

Vin

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Independent developer The Astronauts has released the first screenshots of PC horror game The Vanishing of Ethan Carter.

The eight-person Polish studio, which has been working on the title for seven months, has released four in-game screenshots lifted from the first few minutes of the game.

In a note released today, the developers said the game will not feature any cut scenes, so the screenshots reflect gameplay. In the game you play occult detective Paul Prospero, who receives a letter from Ethan Carter and realises he's in danger. It turns out the boy disappeared after a brutal murder which took place in Red Creek Valley. Prospero uses regular and supernatural detective skills to find the missing boy.

It's all played out from a first-person perspective. Prospero's supernatural gift lets him visualise the final moments of anyone who's been murdered. The more clues you find, the clearer and longer his vision.

The Astronauts describes the game as a "weird fiction" horror, "meaning our focus is on atmosphere, mood, and the essential humanity of our characters"."With its mixture of a beautiful world with the haunting and macabre, this story is for adult players," the developer continued.

"That said, there is no combat in our game. If our game leaves any scars, you won't be able to see them. Also, we want gamers to experience the story of Paul and Ethan at their own pace, and without the need for sedatives. It's less about pure terror and more about clammy unease."

The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is in development for the PC, but the studio hopes to launch on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One also. A release date is yet to be announced - "it's a question of months, however, not years".

the-vanishing-of-ethan-carter-screenshot

the-vanishing-of-ethan-carter-screenshot

the-vanishing-of-ethan-carter-screenshot

the-vanishing-of-ethan-carter-screenshot

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Clyde

Clyde

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This appeared in an Edge magazine a few months back and I was definitely intrigued by what I saw and read.

I didn't even realise this thread is a year old. I thought about creating a thread for this game but I didn't think it was a big enough to warrant a thread. :D

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mushashi

mushashi

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My word this is ridiculously pretty. Looks interesting too but I hope this isn't another example of a pre-rendered scene and not at all representative of the finished article.

It relies on a novel technique called Photogrammetry to achieve the visuals, the developers put up some articles about it on their website earlier:

http://www.theastronauts.com/2014/03/visual-revolution-vanishing-ethan-carter/

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PK

PK

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Nice, didn't even know this existed. It seems to have been completely overlooked but Bulletstorm was a good example of a solid, well-told story - everyone had very clear objectives and motivations & the pace at which the plot unfolded was spot on. It was a perfectly judged pastiche of bro-marine shooters as well.

Really excited to see how this turns out - love the sound of the open world without artificial barriers. The mechanic whereby you can only view what happened after you've restored the crime scene to how it was before the murder sounds really interesting too.

I just hope it doesn't get too supernatural/jump-scarey, because I'm an enormous coward.

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sdmilne

sdmilne

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Downloaded it and played 5 or so minutes before bed. Initial impressions - its fucking pretty.

It's rare I buy a game before any reviews are out there so I think it will be an interesting experiemnt to avoid looking at them till I've finished this.

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JoeK

JoeK

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Still far too early to get a real impression, but I briefly went off the obvious path for a second...

It did something I really wasn't expecting at all.

Don't understand it, but if it continues to surprise in the same way throughout the game, then it's going to be very interesting.

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