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The Vanishing of Ethan Carter |OT| A first person murder mystery (PC)
- Thread starter peakish
- Start date
FlyingSaucer
Banned
What is this puzzle/story that I didn't finish yet? I don't know what to do right now.. I was thinking that I have done everything that I could have done and now I can't finish the game because of this
Screen is from a YT video
Isnt it
the astronaut ?
For anyone with hardware problems, the patch notes say to subscribe to http://steamcommunity.com/app/258520/discussions/0/616189106477566461 since further updates will presumably be posted there.
Aha, ok.. thanks for the tip.. going to see if I can find it
Bit of tooting their own horns going on here, but interesting post nonetheless and I'm always down with devs being upfront like this. I for one had no qualms with the game's plot and structure and I want to read more analysis about it in the future. I do feel a lot of people focus too much on endings while at the same time wanting instant gratification
from a "twist"
I'm curious about the "layers no one has gotten to yet". Good post on steam community about
Ethan's stories
exmachina64
Banned
Finally finished the story in the early morning hours yesterday. I'm happy I supported this game at release, I would say this is perhaps the best narrative experience I've had with a game.
Witchfinder General
punched Wheelchair Mike
Finished the game. Simply amazing. A true masterpiece. I didn't think a game was going to unseat dark Souls 2 for my GOTY but The Vanishing of Ethan Carter has done. Stunning art, beautiful, evocative music, a living, breathing world and most importantly a fantastic story not undermined by game mechanics but rather supported by them. The ending was satisfying and hauntingly sad at the same time.
The Astronauts have new fans in my wife and myself.
Kudos.
BTW, here's my interpretation of the ending:
The Astronauts have new fans in my wife and myself.
Kudos.
BTW, here's my interpretation of the ending:
Ethan, a smart, creative kid who's misunderstood by his family. They treat him so poorly that he chooses to retreat in fiction and imagine an ancient evil has infected their minds rather than accept they simply don't care for him. Ultimately he dies at their hands, the final ignominy. Paul Prospero, a chacarcter of his own fertile imagination, couldn't rescue him from his sad, lonely life nor his untimely death.
Turin Turambar
Member
Most stupendous beautiful game ever. And great ambient classical music, btw.
But worst save system ever. You can walk around 1.5 kms in game, explore some houses, find some clues, take some items and use them... and the game still won't save! Just because that, I won't recommend buying the game.
It starts with a message saying the game doesn't have hand-holding... pretty funny. It isn't that it doesn't have hand-holding, it's that is purely directionless. You don't know where to go or what to do, there aren't any npcs to talk, your character doesn't have any concrete plans... it isn't believable. Of course I suppose his plan all along was to use his psychometry on everything until finding what happened, which is what it the end you end doing.
The writing from the little I can hear and read isn't very good, all very typical nor very developed (for now). The voice acting is very mediocre, which doesn't help.
In the end it's a empty landscape with some puzzles you have to solve, it feels kind of arbitrary. There is no sense of accomplishment when you find a clue, or you search enough cluelessly to find the interactive objects, or you don't.
But worst save system ever. You can walk around 1.5 kms in game, explore some houses, find some clues, take some items and use them... and the game still won't save! Just because that, I won't recommend buying the game.
It starts with a message saying the game doesn't have hand-holding... pretty funny. It isn't that it doesn't have hand-holding, it's that is purely directionless. You don't know where to go or what to do, there aren't any npcs to talk, your character doesn't have any concrete plans... it isn't believable. Of course I suppose his plan all along was to use his psychometry on everything until finding what happened, which is what it the end you end doing.
The writing from the little I can hear and read isn't very good, all very typical nor very developed (for now). The voice acting is very mediocre, which doesn't help.
In the end it's a empty landscape with some puzzles you have to solve, it feels kind of arbitrary. There is no sense of accomplishment when you find a clue, or you search enough cluelessly to find the interactive objects, or you don't.
Is this some sort of troll or a suggestion that you should
collect all items and go up "somewhere" to get a secret second ending?
Yeah, I didn't exactly understand this exchange either:
Boskee, could you be more direct lol?
With a GTX 770 2GB I was doing 2xMSAA to keep the framerate high. 4xMSAA might have worked but might have also dipped in places.
For me the filter or whatever makes the game look so smooth that I hardly ever noticed aliasing or sparkling, so at least I didn't feel like I was really missing out.
ToyMachine228
Member
Any word on when the console versions of this are coming? I'd rather play it on a platform that I can trust to run it at a high level.
CyanideFuse
Member
I think it is just some point in 2015; I haven't heard of a firm date.
What system specs do you have?
The English Conquistador
Member
Lol, my partner and I didn't actually know this had horror elements in it. Then we found out earlier this week and holy shit lol. Quite the surprise when it all starts going down.
PS4 is sometime in 2015
http://www.theastronauts.com/2014/08/ps4-gamescom-trailer-pc-pre-orders-soon/
paperspace
Member
No console will be able to run it at a high level.
Salty Hippo
Member
Can someone explain the structure of the game to me? How exactly are you supposed to play this? I feel like I've spent the first hour just running everywhere like a maniac. Are you supposed to finish a bunch of small puzzles, or is everything part of one single giant puzzle? I'm kind of overwhelmed by the open nature of the environments, you can always move forward and it seems easy to miss stuff.
Not really a spoiler, I guess, unless you specifically don't want to know anything about the game's structure:
There's a number of separate puzzles you have to solve in order to finish the game, I think there's like four or five. Once you get to the end, there's a map of them all and if you haven't completed something, you'll have to go back and do so in order to watch the actual ending.
matrixman92
Member
idk what it is about this game, but I cranked everything down to the lowest settings possible and it is extremely jittery when moving around. It has the same amount of jittery/lagginess on the highest settings as it does the lowest settings...not sure what the deal is
It doesn't matter what settings you use the game just stutters like hell on some setups. Doesn't look like they're ever going to address it.
matrixman92
Member
ah ok. I tried to just deal with it, but it sometimes goes to a slideshow. Might just have to count this as a loss
Is it when you're running? If so it's the game hitching as it streams in content I believe. Unreal engine has this issue at times depending on PC configuration.
Walking might help resolve it giving your PC more time to stream. Getting around will take abut longer but at least the view is nice.
If it stutters even while walking you might want to try for refund or hit Google to see if any users fixes as that would make game terrible to experience.
My new PC with decent specs stuttered as well. Far from being a slideshow, but I noticed a slight jitter every so often. A minor annoyance, but an update would be nice.
ToyMachine228
Member
It will still look good and polished.
Just completed it last night.
Quite gorgeous looking, although the quality of the textures is a bit uneven: most are spectacular, while the lack of detail in others caused some clashing. Would LOVE if the developers dropped an even higher resolution pack. The game size is not that big anyway.
Not sure if it was mentioned, but the usage of environmental sounds is pretty good. From the gate and dam, to the chirping, running water and the moving foliage, it all adds to the ambience. Hope they improve the sound transitioning, making it less abrupt and the mixing more dynamic.
Overall, the game is ok. The stories are entertaining and full of atmosphere, and the ending is quite expected and foresighted. That moment when you reach the
was far better than anything Skyrim presented. Didn't like the portion when Ethan
. Kind of took me out from there. Personally, my major complains are the lack of body awareness (the game begs for it), and that it felt the arc was 1-2 stories short to bridge the moment all goes bonkers. They likely cut content out of the Church, the area with tons of cut trees and the machinery room.
BTW, play the game with the Polish voice acting. Only way to go.
Quite gorgeous looking, although the quality of the textures is a bit uneven: most are spectacular, while the lack of detail in others caused some clashing. Would LOVE if the developers dropped an even higher resolution pack. The game size is not that big anyway.
Not sure if it was mentioned, but the usage of environmental sounds is pretty good. From the gate and dam, to the chirping, running water and the moving foliage, it all adds to the ambience. Hope they improve the sound transitioning, making it less abrupt and the mixing more dynamic.
Overall, the game is ok. The stories are entertaining and full of atmosphere, and the ending is quite expected and foresighted. That moment when you reach the
river down the lake and the burning house
apparently starts the fire, his dialogue was all "hey gramps, fuck off from here!
BTW, play the game with the Polish voice acting. Only way to go.
I've bought the game day one, but I didn't' have the time or found the right conditions to play it until now.
I've done circa 1 hour and I'm amazed.
Red Creek Valley is not only a beautiful graphics work, it feels like a place.
Despite invisible walls and limitated interaction, I have the vivid impression to be inside that environment.
The philosophy behind the attention to details and the aesthetic remind me somehow HL2,
I've done circa 1 hour and I'm amazed.
Red Creek Valley is not only a beautiful graphics work, it feels like a place.
Despite invisible walls and limitated interaction, I have the vivid impression to be inside that environment.
The philosophy behind the attention to details and the aesthetic remind me somehow HL2,
Often I just watched vistas or awesome places for minutes, something I rarely do in video games ever. And when I thought about it I realized that this is the reason. The game world in Vanishing feels more real and more compelling. In most games all the places you visit feel like movie set pieces or theme park attractions.
Salty Hippo
Member
Just finished it. Thought the plot and ending were a bunch of nonsense, but I guess it was worth playing it for the graphics and music. Disappointing overall though, I expected much more from the story.
Seconding this. If there is a slight hitch occasionally like in Mirror's Edge, that is probably Unreal Engine loading and there may not be much the developers can feasibly do.
If you get more common stuttering, there have been some possible fixes posted throughout the thread, but I am not certain if if there is a fix-all solution. I would say that developers seem to be interested in fixing things, since they were posting on the forums and getting patches out quite quickly early on. It may be that certain videocard / driver / software combinations are difficult to find and reproduce the problem with.
I think the main fixes I remember seeing were the frame rate limit and/or the smoothing stuff in the INI file. Basically if you haven't changed the INI file at all, there may still be something in other player suggestions in the thread that can help. If not, you may be out of luck unless the Steam forum has something.
Emerson
May contain jokes =>
Honestly, what's up with this annoying super cryptic shit? Is there another ending or what?
doniewhalberg
Member
Played through this with my girlfriend this evening for halloween. Pretty awesome stuff! I have to admit, I'm not sure what the message of the game is. I agree with witchfinder's interpretation of events up the page, but I'm not sure what the astronauts were necessarily trying to say with it, other than life is sad and cruel?. I'll have to replay at some point with proper perspective. Some really sad touching moments though, the times you key into what's *going on*.
I've spent parts of this weekend playing through the game and loved almost every second of it.
As a fan of the 'Walking Simulator' genre, it's one of the best I've played in recent times. A combination of Myst's lack of clear guidance and Lovecraftian horror that manages to wrap itself up satisfactorily story-wise. Plus, as has been mentioned by almost everyone else, ii is just absolutely bloody beautiful to behold. Of my five hours of playtime, I think at least one of those was spent simply walking around and admiring the scenery.
Aside from realising I'd have to do a two-mile hike back from the very start of the game as I'd missed one trap when I was first there.
As a fan of the 'Walking Simulator' genre, it's one of the best I've played in recent times. A combination of Myst's lack of clear guidance and Lovecraftian horror that manages to wrap itself up satisfactorily story-wise. Plus, as has been mentioned by almost everyone else, ii is just absolutely bloody beautiful to behold. Of my five hours of playtime, I think at least one of those was spent simply walking around and admiring the scenery.
I missed the same thing and had the same hike, ha.
SPOILER ABOUT EVENTS:
I also missed the crank on the train, so I think the astronaut section was the very first investigation/event I actually finished. Naturally I was VERY confused seeing that play out as my first event.
I didn't find the astronaut until after I got to Ethan's map in the basement. Being so late in the game overall for me, it somewhat cemented the idea that had been forming in my head that everything happening was all the product of Ethan's imagination. Which of course turned out to be correct.
Did anyone else have severe performance issues with this game when running SLI + AA?
I have 2x980's, and if I turn on any sort of AA, the performance completely tanks - ONLY when I look up at the trees, it's bizarre.
The performance is fine (120+fps) and then I look up at the trees and the performance goes to shit. If I turn off AA but keep SLI, performance is fine. If I disable SLI, I can run with AA, and the performance is at least consistent, regardless of where I look.
I've only found one thread with the same issue, and there isn't really a solution there.
I took some video demonstrating the issue.
I have 2x980's, and if I turn on any sort of AA, the performance completely tanks - ONLY when I look up at the trees, it's bizarre.
The performance is fine (120+fps) and then I look up at the trees and the performance goes to shit. If I turn off AA but keep SLI, performance is fine. If I disable SLI, I can run with AA, and the performance is at least consistent, regardless of where I look.
I've only found one thread with the same issue, and there isn't really a solution there.
I took some video demonstrating the issue.
I agree, game looks good, the first couple of mysteries were pretty fun, setting up the scenes etc. I just didn't care for the ending or the protagonist origins
I generally just dislike any game that plays the "it was all a dream, you were in someones imagination or you were dead the whole time" card, its lazy and boring. I would have liked it a lot better if he actually had been a living paranormal investigator.
Messofanego
Banned
This dude is so awesome looking in this shot *SPOILERS*
Messofanego
Banned
Man, fuck the moment in the caves. Startled the shit out of me, the most ever since Amnesia. Goddamn.
Yeah, I hate scary games. I thought it was basically built perfectly since:
The entire game, you're trained to take your time and examine everything slowly. Aside from traps popping up at the beginning, you're also taught that there are no humans, no monsters, and no enemies in general. You're taught that nothing will ever jump into your face, so calm down and explore.
Then THAT happens.
Then THAT happens.
Messofanego
Banned
Yup, perfection.
Woenix Phright
Neo Member
All right, I've made it to the turbine room and I have no option to turn it off. I have completed every investigation and still nothing. Anyone else have this problem?
Stupid question, but:
Have you
examined all of the turbine wheels carefully? And if so, are you able to turn any of them at all?
Woenix Phright
Neo Member
At the time, no. But I quit the game and loaded it back up and it was solved when I did so, so I was able to actually finish it. Thanks for the quick reply though.
Messofanego
Banned
Real life inspiration video, pretty awesome stuff. Turn on subtitles.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xq9DtKSQXrw&feature=youtu.be
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xq9DtKSQXrw&feature=youtu.be
The game just updated for me with 14 achievements added. Blog post about it: http://theastrocrew.tumblr.com/post/103220889213/achievements-in-the-vanishing-of-ethan-carter
Achievements (may be spoilery -- the names and icons are there, but all descriptions are hidden): http://steamcommunity.com/stats/258520/achievements
One of the achievements is apparently about something new, but I don't know what they're referring to. There's also a mention of something that no one might have figured out that has to do with the achievement names, and I think that's (STORY SPOILER)
Achievements (may be spoilery -- the names and icons are there, but all descriptions are hidden): http://steamcommunity.com/stats/258520/achievements
One of the achievements is apparently about something new, but I don't know what they're referring to. There's also a mention of something that no one might have figured out that has to do with the achievement names, and I think that's (STORY SPOILER)
the stages of grief, perhaps that the boy experiences while locked in the room?
So, is there an alternative ending or not? We got those highly cryptic posts by Boskee earlier in this thread (http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?p=132368036&highlight=#post132368036, http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?p=132412928&highlight=#post132412928, http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?p=132432284&highlight=#post132432284) and then there's this: http://steamcommunity.com/app/258520/discussions/0/616189106505896862/#c620696522096502035 (although this one might by a joke and I'd also like to note that people in that thread are taking speculation way too far). And then there's the fact that I only have 10/14 achievements despite having apparently done everything; there's also one achievement ("Unfinished story") that precisely no-one has.
And is there any way to read the achievement descriptions without unlocking them?
Has anyone tried PMing Boskee? I guess I figured that was interpretation or something, rather than an actual game change.
I don't know of a way to read the descriptions without unlocking them. I also don't know of an alternate ending yet.
I continued my game and shortly thereafter got 11/14 achievements. ACHIEVEMENT SPOILERS:
One is very obvious about the tunnel. I'm almost POSITIVE I had previously walked all the way through it and noticed it just puts you out in the same place, but maybe the game didn't save that or something, so I had to do it again. That put me at 12/14 achievements. The description just mentions walking towards the light, so it's presumably part of Ethan's journey, after the stages of grief (other achievements).
The only two I don't have are one about the time, and one about the unfinished story. I'm guessing the time one has to do with the clocks. I already knew the thing about the train station clock matching the time of death, but walking in the train station and looking at the clock doesn't do anything. Maybe if I triggered the endgame sequence again it would give me that achievement? I'm not sure.
I'm guessing the unfinished story one is about the sniper rifle (joke?) thing they keep putting in every set of patch notes. This patch, they said they sent a diver to fish the sniper rifle out and put it somewhere no one will ever find it. They also said that there's one new thing people will have to find. The achievement icon is a sniper rifle scope. So I'm GUESSING there's actually a sniper rifle in some obscure place in the game now. I tried looking through a bunch of high places and likely spots in the map, but found nothing so far.
The only two I don't have are one about the time, and one about the unfinished story. I'm guessing the time one has to do with the clocks. I already knew the thing about the train station clock matching the time of death, but walking in the train station and looking at the clock doesn't do anything. Maybe if I triggered the endgame sequence again it would give me that achievement? I'm not sure.
I'm guessing the unfinished story one is about the sniper rifle (joke?) thing they keep putting in every set of patch notes. This patch, they said they sent a diver to fish the sniper rifle out and put it somewhere no one will ever find it. They also said that there's one new thing people will have to find. The achievement icon is a sniper rifle scope. So I'm GUESSING there's actually a sniper rifle in some obscure place in the game now. I tried looking through a bunch of high places and likely spots in the map, but found nothing so far.
If anyone can help me get those two I would appreciate it.
Yeah, maybe this warrants a PM.
As for that other stuff:
I did the tunnel thing during my initial playthrough too, and the achievement didn't unlock for me either, so there's that. What do you get "Home" for then, as you seem to have it? As for the sniper rifle, I thought about that earlier, and it probably makes sense, considering that patch note about divers.
EDIT:
I checked the remaining achievements' descriptions via SAM, and here's what they are:
Unifnished story - Found the sniper rifle
What happens then? - Another story, kid. What else?
What happens then? - Another story, kid. What else?