The Vanishing of Ethan Carter

From the very first moments, it’s hard not to admire the stunning environments and the eerie, unsettling atmosphere. Red Creek Valley is easily one of the most visually striking worlds I’ve explored in a game. Unfortunately, that’s where most of the praise ends for me. You’re dropped into a large map filled with side paths and dead ends, with very little guidance on where to go or what to do next. Finding objectives often feels needlessly confusing, turning much of the experience into an unintentional walking simulator. A simple compass or clearer direction system would have gone a long way. More than once, figuring out how to progress felt like searching for a needle in a haystack, and I eventually had to rely on YouTube walkthroughs just to finish the game. I genuinely don’t know how someone is meant to complete it without outside help. The story is certainly unique, but uniqueness alone doesn’t make it compelling. It delivers a serviceable emotional arc, but nothing particularly memorable or impactful. In that sense, it reminded me a lot of Murdered Soul Suspect a game with interesting ideas and atmosphere that ultimately settles into mediocrity. I wish I had more positives to point out, but aside from the visuals, the soundtrack was the only other element that stood out in a good way. Overall, I’d only recommend this to very patient players with plenty of free time who are willing to push through confusion in exchange for atmosphere.

This game is among one of the first games I ever bought on my steam account close to over 10 years ago soon. I never ended up touching the game until 2026! The date of writing this review.
I am actually very happy I didnt end up playing it earlier as I do think having grown up and developed with life and experiences in real life really helped me truly appreciate this masterpiece.
Absolutely fantastic story and ways of hinting at different things. Bravo!
The game looks fantastic even in todays standards as of 2026.
REALLY thought provoking puzzles with some great difficulty sometimes. Made me shout out in glee when I figured out the solutions.
I REALLY like how it doesn't hold your hand at all which can get annoying after crossing the map a few times but thats about it in my experience.
The extremely subtle insinuations of detail in the story REALLY played with my mind about theories throughtout the whole game! The Achievements you slowly unlock along the way were nice little crumbs of detail too.
Puzzling together the storyline and in what order the murders happened in the bigger picture really got me invested in the story. The actual solving of the individual murders and piecing together the order of things puzzles were really satisfying to do.
Regarding the ending and the reveal, really moved me and brought a tear to my eye. Fantastic storytelling, VERY rare to find gems like this game. A Really great thought provoking expereince regarding (SPOILERS!!! Ahead) Escapism and how how it's used to give our own Life and eventual death meaning, and maybe making these stories is a way of saving ourselves or hide from a reality we cannot change or refuse to accept. Beautiful Game.

Interesting mytery solving game with a really depressing story

I really liked it.
The atmosphere especially carried the experience (I recommend playing in the evening around sunset, btw).
And the ending was quite interesting too. I kind of expected it to go that way, but it didn’t make it any less enjoyable :)

This game was an interesting one, it was a simple and fun to explore walking simulator, right up until the end when the game gained more depth than I was expecting.
Quick note: this game comes with the normal version and redux edition, I played the redux one but the time didn't "count" so I had to idle in the normal version for a short time to be able to write this review.
If I am being honest, as I was playing this, the story was not gripping me. It wasn’t really my thing, but I resigned myself to just enjoying the game as a walking simulator as that was what I was in the mood for anyway. I just wanted to relax, walk around kind of braindead, looking at stuff. The investigative element was a welcome addition as this felt quite unique, and I actually found it quite fun combing the map as I went along for the “areas of interest” which had the little investigative parts to them. It’s a pretty simple system, but it felt very detective-esque and I think it’s always fun when games pull that off. The text appearing like thoughts, assessing a scene, and having to deduce its chronology was novel to me.
This game only really got interesting to me, and became something I enjoyed at the very end. I can’t say too much as it really is something you need to see for yourself but the game realigns itself in another perspective right towards the end which turned this game from something I was feeling fairly apathetic about, to something I thought about after it ended and intrigued me enough to look at discussions about this game both in the community hub and on Reddit. It did a really good job of making me think back on the game, and rethink different aspects of it to fit the new perspective. In that sense, it was only after I finished the game that I realised the detail and effort the devs put into this game to create this experience. As an example, I noticed in the train station that there was a clock with one side reading 7:00, pristine, the other was broken and burnt and read around 7:05 which foreshadowed the ending. A completely unnecessary detail to add to the game but something that really added to the feeling after the ending that “the signs were there the whole time”.
The map is “open” to an extent, the way in which I combed through the map did still make it feel fairly linear to me, and I was fortunate enough to have found everything as I went along so that I did not need to backtrack for anything. I like to think though that if I did I wouldn’t have minded, as essentially at a certain point if you missed something you are just kind of told where to go and the map isn’t that big to make it a chore. I enjoyed walking around in this game, the music and scenery is nice so I doubt it would have bothered me.
There is a surreal twinge to this game, which I loved as I'm just a fan of surrealism in games. I think it makes for a more intriguing experience to think about why things feel a little “off”. You can have a very surreal experience in this game very early on, but it’s something that is missable. If you try to go back through the tunnel your character initially comes from at the start of the game, it lets you get to the end of the tunnel only to wind up exactly where you started. This immediately made me question the world around me.
Overall, I enjoyed this game more than I was expecting to. I think in the end it is a really interesting story that was portrayed in a unique and thoughtful way. You kind of need to pay attention to the details to get the most out of this game, but I think if you’re up for it, it’s a rewarding experience.
I would definitely recommend anyone to try this game for themselves, but especially so if you are someone who enjoys psychology or philosophy in any sense. Even those that enjoy thinking about symbolism and what could represent what, I think would really enjoy this, as it seems like a lot of detail and thought went into this game.
I don’t like adding loads of spoilers in reviews, but I do also want to share some thoughts about the game and the ending. I really do believe you should just play it so this part will be spoiler tagged so you can just skip over it if you’d rather not know.
Going back to how this game makes you realign, I enjoyed the fact that at the end you’re told by Ethan he’d written a story about everyone. His family clearly did not support his creativity in the way of his writing, and you start to see that the stories that you find around the map can be linked to family members. In this sense if you paid attention during the game you can get a better idea of their characters by looking at them from the perspective of Ethan. For example, the story about the woman who loses her beauty after having her child is likely about his mother. That story ends with the child asking a witch to give her beauty back, which the witch does, but the child disappears. This makes you think that perhaps Ethan feels as though his mother would be happier, and get her “beauty” back, if he was gone. Notes and Interactions in the game suggest that she loses her temper with him, so he may feel that she doesn't actually want him, and resents him. A tragic thought for a child to have about their mother. The game lets you put together ideas and context like that for yourself which I found enjoyable.
It was also fun to think about how Ethan’s story tied in with reality, it seems as though Ethan created his last story as he suffocated, “the sleeper” in his story is likely actually referencing himself, and it seemed the possessed family did not want to “wake” the sleeper, as that perhaps meant that Ethan would be brought out of his dream world, and be aware of his reality, before slipping away. Ethan was maybe hoping to stay in his dream world in his last moments. The detective, another character of Ethan’s, wakes him at the end, bringing the realisation to Ethan (and to us) but reassuring him and helping him come to terms with things before he passes. It’s an incredibly sad story realistically but it’s told in a really interesting way.
For more reviews of games with psychological, philosophical or thought-provoking themes, check out my curator page Psychology, Philosophy & Thought, where we review games that explore the mind, get you thinking or make you question.

The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is a short but very enjoyable detective game. For its age, it still looks really good, especially when it comes to the beautiful landscapes and scenery. Exploring the world and looking for clues is probably the best part of the game. The puzzles are simple, but I still found them interesting enough to keep me engaged. The game also has a nice atmosphere that fits the mysterious story very well. It's not a long or complicated game, but it doesn't need to be. For me, it's a simple and enjoyable detective adventure that is still worth playing today.

Good game, cozy, great to finish in 1 sitting, the story was interesting and unique, the narrator was great, visuals were fantastic, the puzzles were kinda iffy, but all in all a great experience packaged into a 4hr estimated runtime.