#The vanishing of ethan carter gameplay simulator#

It is, after all, an adventure.ДЄnd Ethan is exactly that: with the premise, it's a story we delve into and in which we progress by exploring and solving its mysteries. I would not go as far as to judge a whole, established genre for that.

Players' actions themselves in a game like that are defined by the story. With the story being up front, in these games we, players, explore and use game features with mostly the purpose to proceed into that story, to see what will happen next. Of course, this turns out to be a bit unfair when talking about adventure games: they've always been like that. Thus we get the notion that some games today tend to be just 'walking simulators', where the gaming part is just a way to be integrated, to experience the story and the world. Perhaps, devs can't rely on expecting players to play around in the game and be interested in it anymore perhaps, this isn't what most of the players want anymore but working on solid, thought-out gameplay nowadays seems to not be the priority. Unfortunately for some, this course of action tends to put gameplay itself a little bit aside. Whether it is more popular among players, easier to make, or just a generally adopted vision of gaming today. Nowaday games tend to lean towards being a good, immersive experience: with good, realistic looking graphics and animation, 'modern' (often dramatic) story, dialogue and, more and more regularly, inviting first person point of view. The deal with Ethan, as it is with Gone Home, is the same as with many games today. That being said, a story-driven game can be defined as an adventure game. I didn't say anything about story because, even though it all started as that, story isn't what defines a game genre in this case, story is more of a measurement, how much from other mediums this particular genre can 'synthesize'. Of course, proceeding into the game just by walking would cover a lot of genres, so that someone took puzzles into account. Because walking is exploring, and someone already came up with a genre for that. Many games inlcude 'walking' as its core gameplay feature (aside from other ways to interact with the game itself, such as clicking, shooting, etc), so the question here is how much of this 'walking' alone lets you proceed into the game. I don't think there is such a genre as walking simulator. Overall, I think it's worth checking out for its artistry and it's narrative ambition even. This game, on the other hand, feels like it has its narrative potential squandered because of its weaker story telling (I frequently found myself reminded me of early Playstation games).

I actually think that Gone Home's story got a lot more praise than it deserved because of the strong dialogue and (especially) the voice acting. Unfortunately, while the basic plot is more interesting than Gone Home, the voice acting and quality of the dialogue/writing are much weaker (no offence to any members of The Astronauts reading this post). I think VoEC is a more compelling experience than Gone Home with a somewhat more interesting story. Also, I hated how freaking slowly you walked (which is why I'm glad VoEC has a run button). I wasn't a fan of Gone Home either but it had more to do with the the pointless story that delighted in red-hearings and false promises. This 'piecing together' of the crimes helps make the game feel more active compared to something like 'Gone Home.'ДЄs for whether you'll like this compared to 'Gone Home,' I think that depends on why you disliked that game. Afterwards, you get a brief flash of several moments in the murder around the crime scene which you then have to figure out what their chronology was. These feel more consistent and unified than the random puzzles you tend to find in pure walking simulators (though there are a few of those puzzles as well).Д®very time you come across a crime scene, you need to search for objects used in the crime and return them to where they were before the murder occurred.

#The vanishing of ethan carter gameplay simulator#

What makes it a little more than just a walking simulator to me is that a large chunk of the 'puzzles' have a central gameplay dynamic of piecing together the events surrounding different murders. I'd say it's somewhere in between an adventure game and a walking simulator (meaning that you're only goal is to explore and experience the story).