It's how they're shown in a way only video games can do. It's not how all these things are written down, though, that makes them compelling. All the while Prospero jumps from murder-scene to murder-scene in a contemplative, but deliberate, pace. Scattered about are these short, heart-breaking tales, both a reflection of Ethan's perception of his own reality, and a fantasy of how he might fix the broken people around him. He takes refuge in his own written stories in place of a disparate, inattentive and sometimes abusive family unit. It's the tale of Ethan's specific brand of boyhood anxieties, apprehensions and consolations. The story itself, a sly mix of supernatural and familiar horrors, never really treads over new ground. In essence, you're following a trail of bodies in hopeful search of Ethan, which is as far as I'll say for the sake of spoilers. His isolated home and family in the desolate but beautiful fictional Red Creek Valley are in need of Prospero's particular talents for reasons that grow darker, more horrific and more suspenseful as the 3-4 hour campaign unravels. It's all wrapped up in what can often feel like a slight or tepid end product, but I'm left with the feeling that The Astronauts have unlocked a strikingly new way to tell stories, that video games are just the tool to get you to the finish line if the artist at hand wants it to be the case.Īs Paul Prospero, a private detective imbued with some sort of supernatural sense, you're simply dropped into weird-fiction/horror scenario at the post-marked request of a young, troubled boy – Ethan Carter. Though there are flaws in the design, 'The Vanishing of Ethan Carter' is a bold, intelligent step towards not an ideal of narrative in games, but an ideal of narrative as games, and in turn, games as narrative.
![the vanishing of ethan carter pump house open the vanishing of ethan carter pump house open](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/LJD0ArTPbf0/maxresdefault.jpg)
'The Vanishing of Ethan Carter' deserves a spot on that list.
![the vanishing of ethan carter pump house open the vanishing of ethan carter pump house open](https://oyster.ignimgs.com/mediawiki/apis.ign.com/the-vanishing-of-ethan-carter/4/4b/Damethancarter.jpg)
'The Last of Us,' 'Journey,' 'The Walking Dead'' and others tell their stories in unique, yet newly effective ways. They don't have to be the important, driving thing in their respective games, they mostly need only serve the minor purpose of propelling the player through the gameplay, and yet there's a bubbling potential currently in the process of exploding. Much is made of the way video games tell their stories.