Ex-People Can Fly Developers Announce The Vanishing of Ethan Carter

Ex-Developers from People Can Fly (known for Bulletstorm and their work on the Gears of War franchise) have created a studio called The Astronauts, and announced a new fiction horror game entitled The Vanishing of Ethan Carter.

According to the press release, the story involves a detective with the supernatural ability to visualize crime scenes who finds himself in the middle of an investigation concerning the disappearance of a young boy. This will lead the player to “a beautiful mountain area” where you'll need to use your paranormal and detective skills to solve the mystery of the disappearance.

The story makes me think of Millennium, a TV Show that ran from 1996-1999 starring Lance Henricksen as a police detective with the same abilities. It was gritty, dark, and wonderful, but simply couldn't survive against the juggernaut that was X-Files at the time. There's a lot that can be done with a character like this and Henricksen played it beautifully; with just enough grit in his voice and wrinkles on his face to keep the self-loathing from seeming too whiny.

But I'm getting off the point...

Ethan Carter's main focus seems to be on narrative and story exposition, a huge 180 from the wild action-oriented thrill ride that Bulletstorm was, with 'immersion' being the word of the day. “What we care about the most is that the players feel like they’re really there. Immersion is our number one priority," said the game’s designer, Adrian Chmielarz. “It’s a game about exploration and discovery. We’re not abandoning the gameplay – on the contrary: we’re trying to strip it down to the bone and make sure it’s always meaningful and truly makes the experience better.”

The game is slated as a PC exclusive to be released this year, and is being produced on Unreal 3 (which is pretty obvious from the screenshot and trailer).

Check out the teaser trailer below.