When I first heard about The Vanishing Of Ethan Carter I kind of let it fall a bit to the side of the metaphoric video game road. I didn't disregard the game completely but with the little description I was given it just wasn't something that caught my eye and sucked me in. That was at least until we got some new gameplay footage for The Vanishing Of Ethan Carter and got to fully see what we will be doing on our PCs and PS4s in the coming months. Sooner on the PC but that is a whole other discussion.
For now we will focus on the actual gameplay for The Vanishing Of Ethan Carter. At least for those who don't want to have any spoilers for the story or how to solve some of the mysteries and murders that are involved in the game. If you don't car then watch away. If you do care then you can hop on down and we'll talk about what has now been shown for The Vanishing Of Ethan Carter in gameplay terms.
Ok, when I first saw all of this I instantly though about Murdered: Soul Suspect. The only difference here is that you play a living detective who can view death imprints in The Vanishing Of Ethan Carter. If you don't know you supernatural mythos, that would be the emotional energy surrounding a person, place, or thing in the real world left behind after a violent or 'powerful' death. These get left behind in The Vanishing Of Ethan Carter as clues that need to be figured out so we can get all Sherlock Holmes on the scene and see how things played out to better solve the mystery.
Unlike that other title I mention though is that not all of the clues lead to answers but sometimes more questions. Of course all of this is then left to us, the player, to figure out to push forward in the game world and find the titular character; Ethan Carter. Each of these show up as hovering text over the item or location so we can easily find them again as needed; even if they happen to be not needed or a 'plain view red herring' it just may be. Interesting twist if it works out as it is claimed here in The Vanishing Of Ethan Carter.
Lastly, there is also a focus on how open the game's world is from the start of The Vanishing Of Ethan Carter. Pretty much if you can see it and there is a way to get there as there are no invisible walls, then you can get there. There was no mention as to why you shouldn't just make a run for where you think the next clue or murder is in the game so I am not sure how The Astronauts are combating people not following the story proper but know that option is in the game. No hindering of any sorts even if it doesn't sound like a good idea to me.
I am now pretty damn excited to see The Vanishing Of Ethan Carter pan out and hope to see more as the PC launch is rolling up here soon, September 25th to be exact, and the PS4 sometime in 2015. I am hoping that date isn't too far down the line though as I don't want The Vanishing Of Ethan Carter to fall to the sidelines again.
