The Vanishing of Ethan Carter - ludonarrative dissonance begone

[Deleted member 7219]

Best thing about the game is the soundtrack. Story is very disappointing - the atmosphere of the game makes you feel like something massive has happened, or is about to happen, but really it is just something slightly sad. Maybe that was the point? If so, they shouldn't have charged so much for a 4 hour experience which ultimately amounts to naught.

Still, the soundtrack is good:

 

[Dexter]

Tis' on Sale for 60% Off if anyone cares, I bought it: http://store.steampowered.com/app/258520/

 

[jcd]

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[CRD]

I bought this game on Christmas and was a huge letdown.

It is just an interactive movie without a decent, clever or interesting plot. Sure the game have nice graphics but as a game, you can skip it and nothing of value will be lose.

 

[vonAchdorf]

They are currently hiring people for their new game.
It will be an "open-world action adventure", and they plan that it's going to be more of a game, than TVoEC, so they need an AI programmer. They plan to use UE4.

For the Polish speaking people:

Programista: AI / Generalist
dla The Astronauts (Warszawa)

Praca stała Programowanie

Nazywamy się The Astronauts, zrobiliśmy The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, a wcześniej założyciele dziesięć lat działali w People Can Fly (Painkiller, Bulletstorm, Gears of War: Judgment).

Robimy nową grę, open world action-adventure. Będzie moc, choć oczywiście nie rzucamy się z motyką na słońce. W każdym razie, jak widać z opisu, tym razem robimy bardziej grę niż eksplorera jak Ethan. Choć nadal będzie w niej nastrój i historia, która ma ciężar, to bez ludzi i stworzeń, które to towarzystwo często chce nas zabić, się nie obejdzie. Poszukujemy tedy programisty AI. Fajnie by było, gdyby potrafił coś jeszcze i mógł pomóc przy innych rzeczach jeśli trzeba -- ale nie jest to warunek konieczny. Warunek konieczny to ogarnąć rozsądne AI na podstawie tego, co oferuje Unreal Engine 4 oraz własnego kodu.

Zapewniamy dyskrecję komunikacji. A jak znacie kogoś z Astronautów, możecie pogadać z nim bezposrednio o studiu. Ale oczywiście zapraszamy też do pytań mailem, chętnie odpowiem.

-- Adrian Chmielarz

http://www.skillshot.pl/jobs/2570-programista-ai-generalist-at-the-astronauts

 

[Beowulf]

So, I finished it just a moment ago. It took a whooping 3 hours, according to steam - and that even counting long backtracking from the very end to the very beginning and then back again, as I didn't read the first note.

It's a very linear walking simulator indeed. I don't know really what to think of the final "twist".
On one hand it looks like it was written as a get-out-of-bad-stories-jail free card, so the holes and pitfalls of the story could be easily explained.
On the other hand, one can get the impression that the overall arc was the original idea, that the developers tried to somehow fill with content later.

The visuals are nice, with some gorgeous vistas, the graphics, thanks to the textures, look photorealistic at times; but the game suffers a little bit from the object cloning.
Having all the stuff Chmielarz wrote on his blog about muh-immershun in mid, it's pretty jarring that in the very first minutes of the game you encounter the same train carriage cloned 5 times, and blocks of chopped wood just slightly rotated. But they do look good.

Music and sounds are p. good and help create a nice atmosphere (when it doesn't fell apart due to linear not-game design). The first trip to space caught me by surprise, and left me anticipating more reality bending an toying with the player sense of familiarity with the environment.
But to my great disappointment nothing of that sort happened.

The first 2 "murder puzzles" were ok, the later ones felt rushed, with items laying close by and event sequences so short, that you can solve them quicker than the story contained in those puzzles unfold during play-back sequences.

If I hadn't bought it on a sale, I would regret the purchase. But for a mere 3 dorraru it can be nice distraction if you are looking for some quick, not to jarring, entertainment.

 

[vortex]

He worked on Bulletstorm, Gears of War: Judgment and Painkiller.

 

[Ivan]

fuck yes. Painkiller and Bulletstorm were solid