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[Blizzard]

Yeah, maybe this warrants a PM.

As for that other stuff:

Spoiler

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.

About your question on my profile:

Spoiler

It says "Explored the family house" for Home. I'm not sure why you wouldn't have it.

About that ending spoiler:

Spoiler

That's a quote from the game. Maybe repeating the ending sequence does give it to you. I'll post again if I get it.

 

[Inkwell]

I unfortunately used a coupon for 25% off to get this on GMG just before it went on sale on Steam for 40% off. It was still worth it.

I really loved the experience of playing this. It was just beautiful to look at. The whole time I was thinking "Man, I cannot wait to play something like this with an Oculus Rift". The puzzles were interesting, though I would have liked one or two more. The voice acting felt a bit off sometimes. That may partly be due to the writing. It was a little underwhelming and weak. I won't go into a lot of detail here, but there may be a good reason for it. I'm not quite familiar with the development team who made this, but the story seems like it may be very personal to whoever wrote it. I was actually a little irritated by the ending when I first saw it, but after thinking on it some more and realizing how everything fits together I quite like it. I'm tempted to go into a detailed critique of the story, but I don't think I'll be covering any new ground that probably wasn't covered in the thread.

By the way, anyone who enjoyed this game may want to check out Ether One. I would say it's in the same genre as Ethan Carter. It has way more puzzles, but the majority (if not all) of them are optional. It's not as technically impressive but still looks nice. Has kind of a painted quality to all the textures. If you're interested, check out the official thread. Here's what I thought about it. It seems it's not on sale on Steam right now, but maybe it will be a daily/flash deal.

 

[zero shift]

Is this game one of thise advwnture games where it is common to get stuck a lot?

 

[Teggy]

Just played through this this weekend. Something curious I saw was that only about 11% of players of the game even solve the first puzzle. Wonder if people just don't get the game.

 

[Fuu]

Just played through this this weekend. Something curious I saw was that only about 11% of players of the game even solve the first puzzle. Wonder if people just don't get the game.

Those stats are all wrong because the achievements were added much later.

I and a lot of others beat the game on release week and have none of the achievements. Even though they're retroactive I think most people who play a game like this don't really care about reinstalling just for that. I actually lost my save somehow and been planning another run to get the achievements, haven't gotten to it yet though.

 

[Teggy]

Those stats are all wrong because the achievements were added much later.

I and a lot of others beat the game on release week and have none of the achievements. Even though they're retroactive I think most people who play a game like this don't really care about reinstalling just for that. I actually lost my save somehow and been planning another run to get the achievements, haven't gotten to it yet though.

Ah, didn't know about that. Makes more sense.

 

[Bel_Air_Jeff]

I booted this game up last night and beat it in one sitting.

I enjoyed it for what it was. I didn't really understand what i was supposed to do in the beginning and I missed some of the early puzzles. When I got to the end of the game, the trek back to the beginning was kind of frustrating.

I wish they just implemented different endings depending on what stories and puzzles you solved.

But overall, it was a pleasant experience. The game is beautiful and the music was wonderful.

Twin Peaks vibes all over this game. I wish the game pursued some more surreal concepts and themes.

 

[Captain Pants]

I've skimmed the beginning and end of this thread, so if I missed a solution, I'm sorry. This game simply won't start for me. I've tried everything and have no idea how to get it to actually run. The configuration screen comes up, but the game won't launch. My drivers are up to date.

I've got an i7, 8gbs of RAM and a 660M. It isn't a top of the line machine anymore, but it seems to run everything else just fine.

 

[Blizzard]

I've skimmed the beginning and end of this thread, so if I missed a solution, I'm sorry. This game simply won't start for me. I've tried everything and have no idea how to get it to actually run. The configuration screen comes up, but the game won't launch. My drivers are up to date.

I've got an i7, 8gbs of RAM and a 660M. It isn't a top of the line machine anymore, but it seems to run everything else just fine.

My only suggestion is (and I know this is a horrifying thought) posting on the game's Steam discussion forum on the offchance a developer or another player sees it. Unless there's crashlog generated somewhere, I'm not sure how to debug that.

 

[IcyRhythms]

I finished it this morning. I enjoyed the game and it's absolutely beautiful to look at. That said, the developer accused me of lying by telling me "it's impossible" to get the performance I was getting while playing this game.

http://steamcommunity.com/app/258520/discussions/0/626329820986289685/

As I told him, even with the fixes I looked up such as thebsmoothframerate to TRUE, latest drivers, and a couple of other things, the game still ran poorly a lot of the time. Stutter like crazy in this game. Performance drops all the down to 17 at one point. :-\

4690K
GTX 770 4GB
8GB RAM

 

[jrcbandit]

I enjoyed the experience, but I didn't really understand what to do at first without any direction so I missed completing the first 3 puzzles and had to backtrack. I ended up completing it one sitting because I wasn't sure when it saved even though I had that option turned on. Still, I enjoyed the game more than Gone Home/Dear Esther as there was actually some gameplay involved rather than just reading/listening to things.

However, the game had horrible performance with anti-aliasing turned on other than FXAA. I have a 4770k o/c to 4.5 Ghz, 16 gb ram, 970 GTX SLI. With FXAA, it maintained around 96 FPS (the Hz I have my monitor set to with adaptive v-sync) except when running around outside there would be a periodic hitching/stuttering, a common bug in many UE3 games ;p. However, what is really disappointing is MSAA 4X, 8X, or 8xSQ - at those settings I would get lots of FPS drops below 60 and when everything is in "ghost mode" when solving crime scenes the FPS would drop to below 25 FPS!

 

[Blizzard]

I enjoyed the experience, but I didn't really understand what to do at first without any direction so I missed completing the first 3 puzzles and had to backtrack. I ended up completing it one sitting because I wasn't sure when it saved even though I had that option turned on. Still, I enjoyed the game more than Gone Home/Dear Esther as there was actually some gameplay involved rather than just reading/listening to things.

However, the game had horrible performance with anti-aliasing turned on other than FXAA. I have a 4770k o/c to 4.5 Ghz, 16 gb ram, 970 GTX SLI. With FXAA, it maintained around 96 FPS (the Hz I have my monitor set to with adaptive v-sync) except when running around outside there would be a periodic hitching/stuttering, a common bug in many UE3 games ;p. However, what is really disappointing is MSAA 4X, 8X, or 8xSQ - at those settings I would get lots of FPS drops below 60 and when everything is in "ghost mode" when solving crime scenes the FPS would drop to below 25 FPS!

That's a little strange. I wonder if it has something to do with SLI or new drivers. I have a worse CPU (i5-3570k 4.2 GHz) and worse GPU (770 2GB) and I seem to remember it running pretty great overall. I ran at 1680x1050 if you're running a higher resolution.

Then again, I ran at 2X MSAA to keep the framerate up for, so maybe I had the same thing.

 

[Chris Murphy]

Completed the game earlier today, I really enjoyed the experience. As I get older and have less free time I appreciate these smaller more thought provoking games.

One of the prettiest games I've played. I enjoyed the puzzles and the sense of imagination that the game portrayed through the stories of Ethan and it had way more game play than other games in the genre such as Gone Home.

I wish the character models and facial animation was a bit better. The models of the family had good faces but were very 'computer gamey' for the most part. Kind of took me out of the experience at times.

The game world also felt like it was created and then they had to think of things to put in it as opposed to the narrative creating the game world. Maybe it was a conscious design choice but I don't think I've played a game with so much geography that was purely just there to walk around. Maybe it was to create the sense of having to find the crime scenes but I often found myself walking through the forrest thinking it would lead somewhere to find a rock filled dead end. Although I think the world designer did and amazing job of making the borders of the walk able world seem natural and real.

Spoiler

The ending was predictably melancholy but I enjoyed the monologue between Ethan and his make believe protagonist

 

[Jedi2016]

JRC, Blizz: AA in general in this game doesn't seem to be optimized worth a damn, and is a killer on performance, far more than it needs to be. I turned it down just to get a solid 60 at 1080p, I was only getting in the 40's with it cranked all the way up.

 

[Inkwell]

The game world also felt like it was created and then they had to think of things to put in it as opposed to the narrative creating the game world. Maybe it was a conscious design choice but I don't think I've played a game with so much geography that was purely just there to walk around. Maybe it was to create the sense of having to find the crime scenes but I often found myself walking through the forrest thinking it would lead somewhere to find a rock filled dead end. Although I think the world designer did and amazing job of making the borders of the walk able world seem natural and real.

I'm not sure how they planned the level design, but I do agree with you. I felt like I explored every nook and cranny of the map and mostly felt disappointed when I found nothing. I believe that exploration in games should be rewarded no matter what. I don't necessarily mean the reward has to be something super useful within the game. For example, maybe there could have been a few hidden paths that led to more beautiful vistas, or maybe some unique art assets or props that gave insight into the story.

 

[StevieWhite]

Liked this game, but it's kind of like a 2014 version of Myst. It's a fun ride, but visuals aside, I am having difficulty wrapping my head around the critical reception of the game.

 

[Blizzard]

Liked this game, but it's kind of like a 2014 version of Myst. It's a fun ride, but visuals aside, I am having difficulty wrapping my head around the critical reception of the game.

Didn't people like the Myst games? It's been so long I'm not sure if the same sort of review process was around then, but I can't really remember people talking bad about them besides tough puzzles.

 

[Inkwell]

Liked this game, but it's kind of like a 2014 version of Myst. It's a fun ride, but visuals aside, I am having difficulty wrapping my head around the critical reception of the game.

Didn't people like the Myst games? It's been so long I'm not sure if the same sort of review process was around then, but I can't really remember people talking bad about them besides tough puzzles.

I think Ethan Carter is a tad overrated. I mean, I really enjoyed it, but I think most people liked it for the visuals and story. That is a lot like what happened with Myst. Myst is more of a game though. You have to complete puzzles to reach gated areas, and also solve puzzles to collect essential items. There is still a large Myst fan base because the game design is sound. Besides visual and story, there isn't really a whole lot of gameplay in Ethan Carter. So yes, it is a somewhat valid comparison. I just think the Myst series are better games. I obviously have a biased view though. Just look at my avatar.

 

[Chitown B]

I started this game a few months ago and played for a few hours. I got to to a point where there seemed to be a grated sewage type tunnel I was supposed to get into somehow but there was no way in. Then I stopped playing.

 

[Blizzard]

I think Ethan Carter is a tad overrated. I mean, I really enjoyed it, but I think most people liked it for the visuals and story. That is a lot like what happened with Myst. Myst is more of a game though. You have to complete puzzles to reach gated areas, and also solve puzzles to collect essential items. There is still a large Myst fan base because the game design is sound. Besides visual and story, there isn't really a whole lot of gameplay in Ethan Carter. So yes, it is a somewhat valid comparison. I just think the Myst series are better games. I obviously have a biased view though. Just look at my avatar.

I liked Vanishing of Ethan Carter, but I do agree it's less of a "game" and more of an "interactive story". I'm okay with that and think there is room for quality software of both types.

The common term is "walking simulator" for things like Dear Esther, but Vanishing of Ethan Carter is somewhere in the middle since it does have some basic puzzles.

 

[Inkwell]

I started this game a few months ago and played for a few hours. I got to to a point where there seemed to be a grated sewage type tunnel I was supposed to get into somehow but there was no way in. Then I stopped playing.

There was another entrance hidden near by. I'm guessing you didn't enjoy it enough to continue playing anyway though. I would say it's worth it just for the visuals alone.

I liked Vanishing of Ethan Carter, but I do agree it's less of a "game" and more of an "interactive story". I'm okay with that and think there is room for quality software of both types.

The common term is "walking simulator" for things like Dear Esther, but Vanishing of Ethan Carter is somewhere in the middle since it does have some basic puzzles.

I agree with you 100%. I'm a fan of "walking simulators", and I really enjoyed both Gone Home and Dear Esther which seem to be the poster children for these kinds of experiences. Partly because I'm banking on them being Oculus Rift material for when I purchase one in the future. I do genuinely enjoy them though. By the way, I find the term "walking simulator" to be both good and kind of annoying. It allows me to find some other experiences like these games. I hate it for being kind of a derogatory term for these kinds of games, and it also tends to be applied to games that don't entirely fit.

 

[Chitown B]

There was another entrance hidden near by. I'm guessing you didn't enjoy it enough to continue playing anyway though. I would say it's worth it just for the visuals alone.

I thought it was really pretty, and interesting. However my graphics card chugged on it so movement was a bit choppy. I'll probably go back sometime but maybe only after I get a better system. I wish it was on consoles. I think it's coming to PS4 so maybe I'll play it there.

 

[StevieWhite]

Didn't people like the Myst games? It's been so long I'm not sure if the same sort of review process was around then, but I can't really remember people talking bad about them besides tough puzzles.

That's a fair point - I guess I'm just somewhat surprised that the reviews are as glowing as they are, particularly when gamers and critics alike tend to look down their nose at games like Myst in retrospect.

I'm also surprised at how many reviews seem to be docking points from the game solely because they did not enjoy the mine tunnels, which I didn't find to be particularly challenging or aggravating at all.

 

[unknownstranger]

Just finished the game. Ended up looking up how to solve 2 puzzles (the maze house and the mine puzzle) and the vague location of a few others I missed. Ending kind of soured the game for me. The piano bit right before the credits sounded bad and I don't understand the ending at all.

Spoiler

So you're just a character made up by Ethan? Did he make up everyone dying as well as The Sleeping? Is the fire he dies in at the end actually real? If so how did he predict the house burning down?

Still enjoyed the game but it didn't end on a good note for me.

 

[Inkwell]

Just finished the game. Ended up looking up how to solve 2 puzzles (the maze house and the mine puzzle) and the vague location of a few others I missed. Ending kind of soured the game for me. The piano bit right before the credits sounded bad and I don't understand the ending at all.

Spoiler

So you're just a character made up by Ethan? Did he make up everyone dying as well as The Sleeping? Is the fire he dies in at the end actually real? If so how did he predict the house burning down?

Still enjoyed the game but it didn't end on a good note for me.

If you want to read a little bit about the ending, There's a blog post from developer discussing it. They won't directly give you an explanation, but they try to give a few hints.

My take on the whole thing is this:

Spoiler

Ethan loves to read and write stories, most of it being horror. His family doesn't seem to approve of this. His father is probably the only one who supports or defends him in some way, though only a little. The entire game most likely occurs in Ethan's head. The developers cite An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge as inspiration for the story (It was turned into a short film, which was then aired as an episode of The Twilight Zone. I highly recommend watching it). So, the general flow of the story is this: Ethan is hiding in that house writing stories. His family, searching for him, finds him in the house. The entire ending sequence unfolds, and the fire starts. Ethan is either dying or unconscious. This is where the game events take place. It is unclear if Ethan actually dies in the fire, or is rescued by his family. Some people might think the whole game is a cheat, that the story doesn't matter because it equates to "it was all a dream". This isn't necessarily true. Through the story of the game, we learn about Ethan and his family. It's almost more of a character study about Ethan than anything else.

I have a few things to point out with regards to the story. It's been a little while now since I've finished playing, so I might forget something or possibly get things wrong. Anyway, each puzzle is part of one of Ethan's stories. I previously said he enjoyed writing horror stories. This is true for all of them except the spaceman one. There's definitely Lovecraft influences throughout the entire game. The main story kind of has this going on with the Sleeper. It's more pronounced with the puzzle in the caves. I think it even directly mentions Cthulhu. Ethan's family is fairly harsh on him. This manifests as them wanting to sacrifice him in the main story. Only his father resists and helps Ethan escape. As a side note, you may have noticed that some props from the game show up in the ending. His mother has the lantern, where the broken one is present in the game at the church and cemetery. The lantern at the cemetery may be a reference to Ethan's death at the hands of the fire started by the lantern breaking. His brother also has the axe in the ending as well as the main game. I don't remember any other ones.

With all of that out of the way, we can summarize this up a bit. Ethan his hiding and writing when his family shows up. He is ridiculed and bullied a bit and the fire starts. He essentially enters a dream where the previous events are internalized and incorporated into a story where one of his characters, Paul Prospero, is there to rescue him from his evil family. Some of his stories are incorporated as well. In the end Paul is too late, although it would never have mattered anyway. It's unclear whether Ethan actually dies or not. I'm of the opinion that he does.

At the heart of the story is Ethan's love for writing. It should have been nurtured by his family. Instead he was picked on and persecuted for it. It makes me wonder if the writers had a bit of personal experience with this. I can imagine that this idea could be broader than the scope of the game. I can think of plenty of people who were picked on in high school for being different or having specific interests.

Wow, that ended up being way more long winded and bloated than it needed to be for such a simple set of questions now that I read it. Here, I'll do a tl;dr version in order of your questions:

Spoiler

Yes
Yes
Yes
He didn't, the story occurs in the time between the fire starting and Ethan (most likely) dying.

 

[Dries]

Holy fuck, how does this game save? I just lost an hour of playtime because the game never saved at all.. You can't save manually and the time between autosaves takes so long! WTF. /rant

 

[Weetrick]

Holy fuck, how does this game save? I just lost an hour of playtime because the game never saved at all.. You can't save manually and the time between autosaves takes so long! WTF. /rant

IIRC, it saves automatically, but only after you've solved on of the side-quests completely.

 

[abracadaver]

@fenderf4i @_LarZen_ @oculus Ethan is being re-made in UE4. Worry not

https://twitter.com/adrianchm/status/591325810000166912


Will it be a free upgrade?

 

[Chitown B]

Holy fuck, how does this game save? I just lost an hour of playtime because the game never saved at all.. You can't save manually and the time between autosaves takes so long! WTF. /rant

IIRC, it saves automatically, but only after you've solved on of the side-quests completely.

The saving system is crap.

 

[dr_rus]

https://twitter.com/adrianchm/status/591325810000166912


Will it be a free upgrade?

We don't know yet.

 

[Menome]

The saving system is crap.

Whilst I wouldn't want a sequel as it's a nicely self-contained story; in any future similar games the save-system really is the main thing that needs tweaking.

 

[Dries]

Damn, while exploring I get these sudden framerate dips for like 1-2 seconds where I lose about 10 frames. It's not really like a stutter, cause it's not continious. It just happens every time I walk into a new area or when I'm running.

Anyone else get this?

 

[Chitown B]

Damn, while exploring I get these sudden framerate dips for like 1-2 seconds where I lose about 10 frames. It's not really like a stutter, cause it's not continious. It just happens every time I walk into a new area or when I'm running.

Anyone else get this?

yes

 

[Jedi2016]

Damn, while exploring I get these sudden framerate dips for like 1-2 seconds where I lose about 10 frames. It's not really like a stutter, cause it's not continious. It just happens every time I walk into a new area or when I'm running.

Anyone else get this?

Streaming/loading issue in the engine, it's been there since day one.

Good news about Oculus support, though. I can't really see UE4 making much difference otherwise, though. Heavy baked lighting and photogrammetry, doesn't rely on advanced engine tricks as much as people assume. I'll be more than happy to be proved wrong, though, the game's gorgeous enough as it is.

 

[Dries]

yes

Streaming/loading issue in the engine, it's been there since day one.

Good news about Oculus support, though. I can't really see UE4 making much difference otherwise, though. Heavy baked lighting and photogrammetry, doesn't rely on advanced engine tricks as much as people assume. I'll be more than happy to be proved wrong, though, the game's gorgeous enough as it is.

I see. Too bad. Just another one of those things where you think: "how could the devs not have noticed this?"

 

[Blizzard]

I thought loading/streaming hitches have been in Unreal Engine 3 since the days of Mirror's Edge and presumably earlier. I'm not sure if it can be eliminated without heavy engine changes.

 

[abracadaver]

Unreal Engine 4 update will be free:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/258520/discussions/0/618460129742136403/

 

[Blizzard]

That's awesome. I seem to recall the primary reason for updating was the console porting process, so giving existing PC owners a free upgrade is a nice way to build goodwill.

 

[oatmeal]

Got this on the steam sale.

Gorgeous game. I had no clue what k was doing. I would partially solve everything and then move on. Need to go back to the traps as I guess I missed one.

I had no idea what the sense stuff meant.

I solved the house room puzzle which was really neat. But I have been partial solving everything. Looked at a walk through to confirm the first two things and realized there was a ton of stuff I missed. I thought I scanned everything and I traversed everywhere.

I was just playing it wrong. Never watched any videos leading up either tho.

 

[oatmeal]

Went back to the start and redid the trap and the murder solve. Now that I knew how the mechanics worked, I made quick work of the rest of the game. Did all of the stories (had already done them before the end sequence which was nice).

Great game. Incredible atmosphere.

 

[Mr_Zombie]

I both like and dislike that you can wander around and accidentally come up against a puzzle with a cool sequence. It forces me to check everything that might be even slightly interact-able before I'm moving on and I'm sure I already missed some stuff.

Spoiler

The sequence with chasing astronaut was awesome

.

I really liked the house room puzzle. At first I wasn't sure what am I supposed to do, but when it clicked, it clicked.

 

[Blizzard]

I both like and dislike that you can wander around and accidentally come up against a puzzle with a cool sequence. It forces me to check everything that might be even slightly interact-able before I'm moving on and I'm sure I already missed some stuff.

Spoiler

The sequence with chasing astronaut was awesome

.

I really liked the house room puzzle. At first I wasn't sure what am I supposed to do, but when it clicked, it clicked.

That spoilered sequence:

Spoiler

Thinking back, I probably missed parts of each earlier story. The astronaut was the first one where I actually triggered the whole sequence.

This meant that the game looked pretty ordinary to me, walking through the woods, up until the astronaut and space flight happened. That was abruptly very creepy and surreal until I figured out what was happening with the stories.

 

[oatmeal]

That spoilered sequence:

Spoiler

Thinking back, I probably missed parts of each earlier story. The astronaut was the first one where I actually triggered the whole sequence.

This meant that the game looked pretty ordinary to me, walking through the woods, up until the astronaut and space flight happened. That was abruptly very creepy and surreal until I figured out what was happening with the stories.

This is exactly what I did...

Spoiler

I triggered all traps but didn't "sense" them when I had done it because I didn't understand the picture was filling out more.

I found the rock with the murdered guy and put it back but didn't find the crank, nor the dry spot. Didn't notice the picture was filling out more.

Found the astronaut and did that, had no idea what I was playing...moved forward and crossed the dam and solved the house and the witch house...and got stuck at the church.

I think anyone playing for the first time should know that you want to complete the picture.

 

[Mr_Zombie]

I was lucky enough that the only video (beside the first trailer) of the game that I saw was the official walkthrough of the murder puzzle, so I could grasped basic gameplay mechanics, but since I watched it a long time ago (before the game was released) I forgot the details (e.g. I forgot where the crank was, what was the exact sequence and what to do with those floating multiplied writings).

 

[Mr_Zombie]

I finished the game two days ago. It was short (Steam shows 5 hours) but damn was it good.

The scenery is beautiful. If I had to choose one game that should support Oculus Rift, it would be The Vanishing of Ethan Carter. It was one of the very few games where every now and then I stopped for no reason and just looked around, delighting myself in the views.

It's a shame there's so few puzzles in the game, because as few as there were, they were really good; often abstract, but logical enough that after a while you knew what to do. And some of them even ended with a really nice experience piece

Spoiler

the astronaut one, the one with miners and their ceremony

.

The story... I remember reading someone saying that this is one of the best executed lovecraftian-like story to appear in games.

Spoiler

You are never in danger, everything you experience belongs to the past - it already happened and the only monster - that can't even hurt you - is the one from miner's puzzle.

And yet throughout the game you can feel the anxiety, experience the madness that consumed those people.

Spoiler

And then, there's the second ending. Sure, you can call the game out on using the "it was just a dream" cliche - or at least that's how I interpreted it - but it was so well executed and still really sad. The family had problems, there were almost no relationships between family members; and the one thing that finally brought them together was Ethan's fate.

 

[Fushichou187]

Only an hour in (on PS4) but I dig the "drop you in, no hand-holding" approach. Moves at a quick enough clip and I am really enjoying the sound design in some places. The only gripe I have-- and it's one that I have with a lot of games-- is the speed of the subtitle text not keeping pace with the voiced dialogue. It's distracting, nothing else. Certainly not a deal breaker.

Story is starting to shake out like something that's right up my alley, theme wise. Looking forward to putting another hour or two into it this evening and hopefully finishing it up on Friday.

 

[Deleted member 30609]

I really enjoyed the game.

I wish the story didn't... ENDING SPOILERS

Spoiler

I wish it just leaned into the initial premise rather than landing on the "the inspector was part of the story too and the boy is being burnt based on an accident" thing. It felt like it would have worked better if they'd just been earnest about it and left that final bit up to the reader to interpret. A little bit of ambiguity would have gone a long way.

So many great parts, but this is an example of an ending flattening out the experience rather than elevating it.

 

[Oneself]

PS4 version got a patch today!

- added 30 fps lock/unlimited framerate option
- size on PS4 HDD reduced in half
- tweaked the brightness setting algorithm
- framerate improvements (mostly by removing some unneeded assets)
- config now loads up just once until app is closed
- smaller savegame fixes
- smaller game script fixes
- a couple of collision fixes
- extra safety measures for when the matrix glitches



So yeah, the game is smoother generally!!

 

[GAMEPROFF]

Finished the game... I liked it but was a little bit disappointed, too. The initial PlayStation Gamescom Reveal let me think that the game would be a little bit more action oriented, that there would be actually a couple of Lovecraft inspired creatures and more...

Still, I really enjoyed the mythos callbacks.

 

[Shahadan]

I really enjoyed the game.

I wish the story didn't... ENDING SPOILERS

Spoiler

I wish it just leaned into the initial premise rather than landing on the "the inspector was part of the story too and the boy is being burnt based on an accident" thing. It felt like it would have worked better if they'd just been earnest about it and left that final bit up to the reader to interpret. A little bit of ambiguity would have gone a long way.

So many great parts, but this is an example of an ending flattening out the experience rather than elevating it.

I think you're mistaken. There are more than one way to interpret anything in this game.