History VideoGame / TheVanishingOfEthanCarter

* MrImagination: Ethan.

* LovecraftCountry: Red Creek Valley is a small isolated town that look boring and mediocre at first but is actually [[TownWithADarkSecret dark and foreboding on the inside]].

* BigBrotherBully: Ethan's big brother acts like a jerk towards Ethan in the final cut scene.

The game was released on PC on September 26, 2014. The game has since been ported to Unreal Engine 4, which allowed its release to the PlayStation4 on July 15, 2015. This version was also released on the PC under the name ''The Vanishing of Ethan Carter Redux'', and is free to anyone who owns or purchases the original game.

** Whenever you need to find an object to finish a scene, a bunch of copies of the word will flutter about the screen. What's not immediately apparent is that if you move around, eventually the words will coalesce into one, at which point you're given a mouse prompt to show a vision of its location.

* GuideDangIt: An optional Easter Egg involving a sniper rifle. It's not mentioned or implied it exists anywhere in the game and you would have to be the world's best guesser to figure it out without help. [[spoiler: it involves [[PixelHunt finding a pinecone]] near the woods where you chase the astronaut, and the pinecone turns into a grenade. Then you throw it off the bridge at a specific spot and find the body of a scuba diver below the dam. Near him is a sniper rifle. After you pick it up the diver's body [[MindScrew turns into a piece of driftwood]].]]

* BodySurf: THe Sleeper moves from body to body.

* AbortedArc: Possible InUniverse example; completing [[spoiler: the grenade and diver easter egg]] earns the achievement "Unfinished Story," implying it was something Ethan was developing but dropped.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: As a GenreSavvy player you know that Prospero's statement about this being his OneLastJob can only mean [[DownerEnding doom]].

* NestedStoryReveal: Towards the end, when we learn that everything going on before was a DyingDream by Ethan.

!!The game provides Examples Of:

* BrickJoke: All of the clocks in the town are stuck at 7:00, [[spoiler:which is what time it is on Ethan's digital clock when the house starts burning and Ethan starts imagining Paul Prospero's story]]. In the post-game, the clocks move to 7:04, [[spoiler:the same time that Ethan wakes up from his DyingDream]]. The one at the train stop is set at 7:05, [[spoiler:the same time that Ethan dies]].

* DrivenToSuicide: When cornered by an axe-wielding Travis, [[spoiler: Dale, Ethan's father]], kills himself with a pair of scissors to avoid falling under the The Sleeping One's thrall, and make him stronger.

* DownerEnding: [[NoEnding Arguably]]. [[spoiler:The game has an open-ended structure, but the end of the game has Ethan locked inside the burning building.]] It is not clear what happens afterwards.

* YourMindMakesItReal: Ethan has the power to make whatever he writes become reality. [[spoiler:At least he does in the story ''you'' are playing, which Ethan is writing in his head as he dies in the burning house. The real Ethan doesn't actually have this power as revealed by the ending cutscene.]]

'''''The Vanishing of Ethan Carter''''' is an EnvironmentalNarrativeGame by The Astronauts (who consists of former [[{{VideoGame/Painkiller}} People]] [[{{VideoGame/Bulletstorm}} Can]] [[VideoGame/GearsOfWar Fly]] staff). In 1973, Paul Prospero receives a fan letter from 12-year old Ethan Carter, inspiring him to journey to Ethan's hometown of Red Creek Valley, Wisconsin. Upon arrival, he learns that the town has been abandoned for well over a decade after a mine collapse killed off its economy. Furthermore, the Carter family's house had recently burned down in a fire, leaving no survivors.

* AbortedArc: Possible in-universe example; completing [[spoiler: the grenade and diver easter egg]] earns the achievement "Unfinished Story," implying it was something Ethan was developing but dropped.

''The Vanishing of Ethan Carter'' is an EnvironmentalNarrativeGame by The Astronauts (who consists of former [[{{VideoGame/Painkiller}} People]] [[{{VideoGame/Bulletstorm}} Can]] [[VideoGame/GearsOfWar Fly]] staff). In 1973, Paul Prospero receives a fan letter from 12-year old Ethan Carter, inspiring him to journey to Ethan's hometown of Red Creek Valley, Wisconsin. Upon arrival, he learns that the town has been abandoned for well over a decade after a mine collapse killed off its economy. Furthermore, the Carter family's house had recently burned down in a fire, leaving no survivors.

The game was released on PC on September 26, 2014. The game has since been ported to Unreal Engine 4, which allowed its release to the PlayStation 4 on July 15, 2015. This version was also released on the PC under the name ''The Vanishing of Ethan Carter Redux'', and is free to anyone who owns or purchases the original game.

The game was released on PC on September 26, 2014. The game has then been ported to Unreal Engine 4, which allowed its release to the PlayStation 4 on July 15, 2015. After that, the game was updated on the PC with the Unreal Engine 4 version.

* BrickJoke: All of the clocks in the town are stuck at 7:00. In the post-game, the clocks move to 7:04, [[spoiler:the same as Ethan's digital clock]]. The one at the train stop is set at 7:05 [[spoiler:the same time that Ethan dies]].

* NothingIsScarier: The game has this vibe; nothing in the game will actually harm you, but the environment is entirely abandoned, eerily quiet, and extremely realistic, which makes wandering the valley quite unsettling and creepy.

* PosthumousCharacter: Just about the entire cast, not once during the entire game does Prospero encounter a living person, the entire plot plays out through Paul "sensing" flashbacks of their murders. Ethan appears to be the only survivor [[spoiler: but this is subverted come the ending; in reality everybody ''but'' him is quite alive and well, Ethan had only imagined their deaths as part of Prospero's story.]]

* TomatoInTheMirror: The end reveals that Paul Prospero [[spoiler: is Ethan's last story, conjured by the latter to solve the mystery of his own death. Paul, however, seems to be accepting of it, almost as if he has been aware from the start.]]

* YourMindMakesItReal: [[spoiler: Although not really. This seems to be Ethan's power but in the end it's revealed that it's all in his head.]]

* TomatoInTheMirror: The end reveals that Paul Prospero [[spoiler: is Ethan's last story, conjured by the latter to solve the mystery of his own death. Paul, however, seems to be accpeting of it, almost as if he has been aware from the start.]]

** The main plot makes frequent allusions to something called "The Sleeping One", an entity that appears to have enthralled the gist of Ethan's family, who now wish to turn him into a sacrifice.

The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is an EnvironmentalNarrativeGame by The Astronauts (who consists of former [[{{VideoGame/Painkiller}} People]] [[{{VideoGame/Bulletstorm}} Can]] [[VideoGame/GearsOfWar Fly]] staff). In 1973, Paul Prospero receives a fan letter from 12-year old Ethan Carter, inspiring him to journey to Ethan's hometown of Red Creek Valley, Wisconsin. Upon arrival, he learns that the town has been abandoned for well over a decade after a mine collapse killed off its economy. Furthermore, the Carter family's house had recently burned down in a fire, leaving no survivors.

The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is an AdventureGame by The Astronauts (who consists of former [[{{VideoGame/Painkiller}} People]] [[{{VideoGame/Bulletstorm}} Can]] [[VideoGame/GearsOfWar Fly]] staff). In 1973, Paul Prospero receives a fan letter from 12-year old Ethan Carter, inspiring him to journey to Ethan's hometown of Red Creek Valley, Wisconsin. Upon arrival, he learns that the town has been abandoned for well over a decade after a mine collapse killed off its economy. Furthermore, the Carter family's house had recently burned down in a fire, leaving no survivors.

The game wa sreleased on PC on September 26, 2014. The game has then been ported to Unreal Engine 4, which allowed its release to the PlayStation 4 on July 15, 2015. After that, the game was updated on the PC with the Unreal Engine 4. Finally, after the PC re-release, the game will get a release tailored for virtual reality equipment

!!Provides Examples Of:

* TomatoInTheMirror: The end reveals that Paul Prospero [[spoiler: is Ethan's last story, conjured by the latter to solve the mystery of his own death.]]

The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is set in an open world environment, in which the player can roam around and explore at will. The player can use paranormal abilities in order to solve crimes, such as sensing where important objects are located and reassembling the timeline of events tied to a certain death.

The game wasreleased on PC on September 26, 2014. The game has then been ported to Unreal Engine 4, which allowed its release to the PlayStation 4 on July 15, 2015. After that, the game was updated on the PC with the Unreal Engine 4. Finally, after the PC re-release, the game will get a release tailored for virtual reality equipment

The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is a video-game by The Astronauts (who consists of former [[{{VideoGame/Painkiller}} People]] [[{{VideoGame/Bulletstorm}} Can]] [[VideoGame/GearsOfWar Fly]] staff), centered around "supernatural detective" [[AlliterativeName Paul Prospero]] trying to find the titular missing kid.

Compare and contrast ''VideoGame/DearEsther''.