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The Vanishing of Ethan Carter key art: a boy seen from behind on an autumn forest path, the scene torn open by a burning rift into a grey, skull-strewn world

Psychological horrorCosmic and Lovecraftian horrorMystery and detective horrorHorror walking simulatorsHorror puzzle

The Vanishing of Ethan Carter

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An occult detective relives a family's murders in a beautiful, empty valley.

Platforms
PC, PlayStation, Xbox, Switch
Stores
Steam, GOG
Price
Paid
Rated
Very Positive on Steam (86% of 4,152 English reviews); 82 on Metacritic for PC; 4.39 of 5 from 8,399 ratings on the PlayStation Store; 4.1 of 5 from 656 ratings on GOG
Length
about 4 hours
Players
1
Made by
The Astronauts
Released
2014

No. 22 of the murder mystery horror games · No. 27 of the detective horror games

Get it on Steam GOG (includes the Redux remaster)PlayStation Store (PS4)Xbox One and Series X|SNintendo Switch

What frightens An occult detective arrives in a lonely Wisconsin valley after a boy's disturbing letter and finds bodies along the railway, a blood-splashed rail car and an abandoned mining village. With paranormal sight he relives each grisly death, uncovering a family turned on itself by a being called the Sleeper.

Content: blood and gore at the crime scenes, violence, strong language, a child in danger, occult themes, rated esrb mature and pegi 18.

A first-person weird-fiction mystery from The Astronauts. Paranormal investigator Paul Prospero comes to Red Creek Valley in 1973 to find a missing boy, and uses his gift to reconstruct the grisly deaths of the boy's family and the thing they woke.

About The Vanishing of Ethan Carter

The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is a first-person horror mystery by the Polish studio The Astronauts, who also published it, released on PC in September 2014. It came to PlayStation 4 in July 2015, Xbox One in January 2018 and Nintendo Switch in August 2019. Buying it on Steam or GOG gets both the original and Redux, a remaster made in Unreal Engine 4. It is voiced in English and Polish, with subtitles in French, Italian, German, Spanish and Czech as well.

In 1973 the paranormal investigator Paul Prospero receives a letter from a twelve-year-old fan, Ethan Carter, and travels to the boy's home in Red Creek Valley, Wisconsin. Ethan is gone. The valley is a gorgeous stretch of forest, lake and mining village, built with photogrammetry from photographs of real places, and it is empty except for signs of recent violence.

The game tells you at the start that it will not hold your hand. You roam freely, and when you find a body you use Prospero's gift: sense where the missing objects of the scene belong, put everything back, then order the ghostly moments of the crime to see what happened. Side stories are puzzles of their own, and one has you avoid a presence. There is no combat at all, and the makers say plainly that it is less about terror than about clammy unease.

It is horror in the weird-fiction sense rather than a scare machine, drawing on Lovecraft, Algernon Blackwood and Stefan Grabinski as well as Raymond Chandler's detective stories: a family destroyed from within, a being called the Sleeper, and an ending that recasts everything. HowLongToBeat puts one run at about four hours. It suits players of story-driven mysteries who want dread and atmosphere more than frights, and its gore is shown at the crime scenes.

How to play The Vanishing of Ethan Carter

  1. Buy it on Steam, GOG, the PlayStation Store, the Xbox store or the Nintendo eShop; on Steam and GOG you can choose the original or Redux when you play.
  2. Explore Red Creek Valley freely in first person; nothing marks where to go.
  3. At each death scene, find the objects that belong there and put them back.
  4. Touch the body to see moments of the crime, then put them in the right order.
  5. Find and solve the valley's side stories to unlock the full ending.

Screenshots

A bloodied man crawls along railway tracks in the forest as a rusty rail car with a bright headlamp comes up behind him
A rusty yellow rail car splashed with blood on overgrown tracks in an autumn forest, the words Enter and Blood floating beside it
A glowing blue ghostly figure holds up a lantern beside a stone mausoleum in a misty forest graveyard under a full moon
Mossy graves and crosses before a wooden church and a stone clock tower among autumn trees
A crumbling brick building with a wooden double door, piles of firewood and a large autumn tree under an overcast sky

Tips

  • Look around carefully when words appear on screen; they point toward clues.
  • Explore everywhere before heading to the end; some stories are easy to miss.
  • Take your time; there is no combat and no rush.
  • Play it with sound up; the valley's quiet is part of the mood.

Questions

Is The Vanishing of Ethan Carter a horror game?

It is a horror mystery: grisly deaths, an occult presence and steady dread, with no combat and only a few scary moments. The makers describe it as less about terror and more about clammy unease. It is rated ESRB Mature for blood and gore, strong language and violence.

How long is The Vanishing of Ethan Carter?

HowLongToBeat puts the main story at about four hours, and finishing everything takes only a little longer.

What is the difference between the original and Redux?

Redux is the remaster made in Unreal Engine 4. Buying on Steam or GOG gets both.

How do the puzzles work?

At each death scene you restore missing objects and then order glimpses of the crime to see what happened.

  • first person
  • detective
  • paranormal
  • open world
  • 1970s
  • wisconsin
  • weird fiction
  • no combat

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Guides with The Vanishing of Ethan Carter

The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is played on store.steampowered.com and its makers' stores; this page links to them and is not part of it. Pictures are from the game's own pages and remain its owner's. Terms and pictures.

Sources: store.steampowered.com, store.steampowered.com, en.wikipedia.org, xbox.com, store.playstation.com, gog.com, dekudeals.com