I never realized you had to move the camera until the text gets focused so you can get a vision of where an item is. I feel kinda dumb but I was able to beat the game and solve all the puzzles just fine.
I finally played this the other day and same haha. Never figured it out until literally one of the last puzzles when I accidentally lined them up and was given the option to see the item. Never had a huge need for it, but it would have been nice to know! Such a good game
It's nearly impossible to finish the game without some walktrough. This game has little hints or tutorials. But, this is what makes this game mindblowing for me.
I need to go back and play this again to see why Ethan was carrying the two jerry cans (of what I assume was petrol) in the mine. Because now my question has become "how and why was the fire started?" (I played it a long time ago) A couple of things I noticed from earlier scenes (in their old house) was that Ethan's dad seemed unsure of whether Ethan was delusional (as his mum suggested), rather than just being "creative", or whether the dad thought there was something to the stories, that was coinciding with creepy stuff. As the player, I initially bought into Ethan's stories as being real, or having some truth behind them, because they were too detailed and vivid to not have a kernel of truth.(and because .. you know .. game) Which I think is meant to put you in the same position as his dad, who couldn't understand where these stories were coming from if they were not real. Going back to the mines.. Ethan's dad said he was going to take care of the problem shortly before he killed Missy, who was saying the sleeper needed to be awakened (implying that she wanted to save Ethan, seemingly against the wishes of his dad). Next thing, Ethan's with his dad and carrying the jerry cans. So I've ended up wondering whether Ethan might have inherited some kind of fantastic (in the mental health sense) imagination from his dad, who legitimately believed that Ethan was causing some supernatural stuff and ended up solving the problem with fire. ..Basically because I don't remember why Ethan was the only one to be affected by the fire in a house full of people and his dad seemed to be responsible for Ethan having possession of the petrol in the first place. This is not to say that Ethan wasn't creating a narrative to justify his family's actions and treatment of him, I just found it interesting that his dad was treated sympathetically and as the victim ("you're weak, you always have been" in the graveyard), when Missy was the one trying to save Ethan and she was framed as the villain. It's a working theory, and like I said, I need to replay to see if anything supports it/disallows it.
Thank you for making this review. The thoughts at the end were really fascinating and this is certainly one of the most interesting games i've ever watched. Your play style was pretty pleasent and i do appreciate all the work you've put into this, so basicly all your thoughts while calmly exploring the game, or rather the story. Keep it up-ah
I agree with many aspects of the praise the game has gotten, but I seem to OTOH also have misgivings about more things than most reviews I've come across -- the biggest which is that most of the main Sleeper storyline was not, IMO, very elegantly written. This can of course be justified in retrospect given what's revealed in the ending, but that doesn't help for most of the actual playthrough. The direction and voice acting in these scenes also have room for improvement, I think. The approach this game took to 'uncertainty about what's real and what's not' worked wonderfully, though, and I'd be curious to see it expanded to different games as well. I know many other games (Alan Wake etc.) have something similar, but here I particularly liked how it seemed (at least to me) to be sort of implied that this ambiguity simply was integral to how Prospero's ability works, i.e. a confusing and scary aspect of something nevertheless potentially very powerful, rather than merely a mental defect to be cured or mitigated. I could see interesting things done with this also in more traditional gamey games.
lepuuttelu I agree, some of the Sleeper storyline is a bit odd, especially the "Ethan tied to the tracks" thing near the beginning which comes across a bit silly, and I'm not sure how I feel about that only being justified at the end. How believable that stuff is might depend on how immersed you are in the surreal atmosphere, and I'm not sure I felt that atmosphere early on.
“Fragments of a note to figure out a password”... oh yeah, do I know about *that* part. Not exactly my cup of tea either. At least it’s the only section of the game that uses *that* particular tactic.
Great review. I agree with most of it. I love how the story is presented, i love the music and sound effects, i love the gfx and how everything feels like a living world. The story is well pasted and interesting enough to keep me going. It's also quite unique (the game), something we rarely see in the video game industry. Oh and.. 80 % of the vistas are worthy of a wallpaper or a video wallaper for the desktop. :)
I played only the first half of this game & never got back to it for some reason but it always stuck with me. I was searching for adventure games to play & it came up, I decided to look up the story & I really wasn't prepared for this at all. Hearing what this story is about makes me want to cry because as a gay guy , I had a very similar childhood to Ethan, like, disturbingly similar. I'm 25 & I never speak to anyone in my family except my mom. Thanks for making the video. This game's concept is unique but the delivery is what's really stunning about it. Like, that clock.. They really thought it out huh?
Correction Marshall - you do have to beat that unpleasant part. In fact, that section was nerfed in one of the patches - it used to be harder to pass it. SPOILERS: When you reach the end, in order to trigger the cutscene, you have to pass all of Ethan's stories. In fact, if you haven't finished one, you can teleport to it, which even wasn't an option before one of the patches. But I think you don't have to solve the murder bits, which is interesting, given the fact that that's the main story of Ethan we are dealing with. Also - the killing spree that ensures, where one person kills someone and is then imminently killed by someone else who gets killed by someone, etc is a chain reaction. Just like how Ethan died in a way - the smoke stopped his breathing, then heart and eventually all of his other organs. His family is a representation of body parts or something? END OF SPOILERS, for now. Of course, there is lots more to be said about this game. Thanks for sharing your experience with the game with us Marshall! :)
SPOILERS for those who haven't played yet: They call it the "dead miner" - basically that freak face that automatically latches to you. He used to be way more unforgiving and able to see you from further. They also amped the sound qeue as to give you a clue if he is close, I think. END OF SPOILERS One funny thing about the Astronauts is how they were treating their patch notes. Every time they've included a note, as to the latest change for the "sniper rifle" at the lake, in the final area... thought that was interesting.
Halid Yusein Ah, good to know. And yeah, they've been having some fun with their patch notes. Probably comes from the fact that they've worked on so many shooters before, like Painkiller and Gears of War.
before this game, i played the chinese room's everybody's gone to the rapture, now in my top 2 favorite games of all time. honestly i wish i played ethan carter first because in my opinion it pales in comparison to egttr--visually and conceptually. and the gameplay too. other good games are firewatch and dear esther. gone home is really popular but idk i was disappointed in it.
@@erinhogarty dude exactly this game was great but Everybody's gone to the rapture's story is so much close to home and hard hitting that this one pales in comparison... Also that one has less mechanics and I don't see it as a negative never in my gameplay I was bored with that while I did get a bit frustrated in mines
I feel that in reality, there were other people who lived in that area .But Ethan felt isolated.So in his mind he lived in a place cut off from a bigger community.🤔 Where he lives in reality has to be the total opposite of the limited places we are allowed to explore. If the trolley tracks weren't blocked, it's possible they lead to a mountainous community or village. Ethan's imagination tended to rationalize, exaggerate,explain, and excuse why he was emotionally and mentally abused. Or🤔 in Reality, did he really have a good family that seemed too boring to write about...soooooo he makes the entire thing up. Inception movie(A dream within a dream that you manipulate)🤔 This game creates alot of questions because it "supposedly" gives you straight answers near the final curtain call. I'd like a sequel where it's focused on Ethan's characters and creations roaming the surrounding mountains,forests,and villages. Hikers come across the same area hidden beyond the hills by trees. They come across several manuscripts written by unknown authors, that lead you to believe that even Ethan himself was a made up character. Stephen King type, in the Mouth of Madness type manuscripts 🤔Add some action,mystery and adventure with realistic puzzles and problem solving.
Cool video. Man, this game is insanely deep. I finished it a few hours ago and the more I think about the ending and read different interpretations, the more I appreciate how brilliant it is. The devs who made this game really knocked it out of the park. SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS I realise what the title of the game refers to now. At the end of it, Ethan really has vanished even though we know of his fate. He was a tragically misunderstood creative mind, and we play the character in his final story before vanishes from this world. Mind = blown. Maybe the best game ending I've ever experienced, and it is still growing on me the more I think about it. END OF SPOILERS
MORE SPOILERS: furthermore, the way I interpret the story, it seems that Ethan thinks there is something wrong with him, that he blames himself for his family not being nicer to him, as evidenced by things like the story about the woman who lost her beauty because of her son. On some level I think he actually wanted to die, or at least felt he deserved to. Like the way he just lies down on the bed and accepts his fate at the end. The Sleeper driving his 'story family' to do all those terrible things represents Ethan blaming himself for his family's dysfunctional nature. When the 'story family' talk about "not waking the Sleeper", that is Ethan telling himself to not wake up from his dream at the end, because in his mind waking up and surviving will curse his family with his existence again. Man this story is so brilliant but so sad. END OF SPOILERS
You pause way too much. Like your flow is really inconsistent. It's like you break up each sentence into for or 5 mini sentences. It's distracting to a degree. Not a big issue, (I myself have a weird speech pattern, that's how I know it's distracting to people sometimes). Dunno if you script it or free flow it, but yeah. That's my only real complaint. Good video otherwise.
Personally, I hate when people hyperedit their videos and it's just a barrage of information, with no breaths taken. I'd rather people give their thoughts time to breathe, I find I miss less stuff like that (and I wouldn't describe myself as the patient type).
Great graphics, bland gameplay, made even worse by the boring investigation progresses. It consists of listening to shadowy figures that spell out all the clues for you. A detective has to add two+two and come to a conclusion; this is taken away from the player and thus reducing the game to watching a series of plays. Let the player think for himself and he will be much more immersed in interested. The Painscreek Killings is one of the few games the truly made me feel like I was doing detective work instead of going through the preset story/mechanics - which all games really are.
![PASULOL รามเกียรติ์ ตอนที่ 4 นนทกพบรัก [Ramakien Ep.4: Nonthok in love]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/tMUQgmZzf_A/mqdefault.jpg)
I never realized you had to move the camera until the text gets focused so you can get a vision of where an item is. I feel kinda dumb but I was able to beat the game and solve all the puzzles just fine.
I finally played this the other day and same haha. Never figured it out until literally one of the last puzzles when I accidentally lined them up and was given the option to see the item. Never had a huge need for it, but it would have been nice to know! Such a good game
You're not dumb. The developers are.
Pro trick: watch movies on flixzone. I've been using them for watching lots of of movies these days.
@Ayaan Judson yup, been watching on flixzone for years myself :D
It's nearly impossible to finish the game without some walktrough. This game has little hints or tutorials. But, this is what makes this game mindblowing for me.
I need to go back and play this again to see why Ethan was carrying the two jerry cans (of what I assume was petrol) in the mine. Because now my question has become "how and why was the fire started?" (I played it a long time ago)
A couple of things I noticed from earlier scenes (in their old house) was that Ethan's dad seemed unsure of whether Ethan was delusional (as his mum suggested), rather than just being "creative", or whether the dad thought there was something to the stories, that was coinciding with creepy stuff.
As the player, I initially bought into Ethan's stories as being real, or having some truth behind them, because they were too detailed and vivid to not have a kernel of truth.(and because .. you know .. game) Which I think is meant to put you in the same position as his dad, who couldn't understand where these stories were coming from if they were not real.
Going back to the mines.. Ethan's dad said he was going to take care of the problem shortly before he killed Missy, who was saying the sleeper needed to be awakened (implying that she wanted to save Ethan, seemingly against the wishes of his dad). Next thing, Ethan's with his dad and carrying the jerry cans.
So I've ended up wondering whether Ethan might have inherited some kind of fantastic (in the mental health sense) imagination from his dad, who legitimately believed that Ethan was causing some supernatural stuff and ended up solving the problem with fire. ..Basically because I don't remember why Ethan was the only one to be affected by the fire in a house full of people and his dad seemed to be responsible for Ethan having possession of the petrol in the first place.
This is not to say that Ethan wasn't creating a narrative to justify his family's actions and treatment of him, I just found it interesting that his dad was treated sympathetically and as the victim ("you're weak, you always have been" in the graveyard), when Missy was the one trying to save Ethan and she was framed as the villain.
It's a working theory, and like I said, I need to replay to see if anything supports it/disallows it.
Thank you for making this review. The thoughts at the end were really fascinating and this is certainly one of the most interesting games i've ever watched. Your play style was pretty pleasent and i do appreciate all the work you've put into this, so basicly all your thoughts while calmly exploring the game, or rather the story. Keep it up-ah
FaNaTiK3r_024 No problem, glad you enjoyed it! :)
I agree with many aspects of the praise the game has gotten, but I seem to OTOH also have misgivings about more things than most reviews I've come across -- the biggest which is that most of the main Sleeper storyline was not, IMO, very elegantly written. This can of course be justified in retrospect given what's revealed in the ending, but that doesn't help for most of the actual playthrough. The direction and voice acting in these scenes also have room for improvement, I think.
The approach this game took to 'uncertainty about what's real and what's not' worked wonderfully, though, and I'd be curious to see it expanded to different games as well. I know many other games (Alan Wake etc.) have something similar, but here I particularly liked how it seemed (at least to me) to be sort of implied that this ambiguity simply was integral to how Prospero's ability works, i.e. a confusing and scary aspect of something nevertheless potentially very powerful, rather than merely a mental defect to be cured or mitigated. I could see interesting things done with this also in more traditional gamey games.
Not a mental defect, nor e.g. some hostile plot or magic used to trick you.
lepuuttelu I agree, some of the Sleeper storyline is a bit odd, especially the "Ethan tied to the tracks" thing near the beginning which comes across a bit silly, and I'm not sure how I feel about that only being justified at the end. How believable that stuff is might depend on how immersed you are in the surreal atmosphere, and I'm not sure I felt that atmosphere early on.
Shut up dude
“Fragments of a note to figure out a password”... oh yeah, do I know about *that* part. Not exactly my cup of tea either. At least it’s the only section of the game that uses *that* particular tactic.
Great review. I agree with most of it. I love how the story is presented, i love the music and sound effects, i love the gfx and how everything feels like a living world. The story is well pasted and interesting enough to keep me going. It's also quite unique (the game), something we rarely see in the video game industry. Oh and.. 80 % of the vistas are worthy of a wallpaper or a video wallaper for the desktop. :)
I played only the first half of this game & never got back to it for some reason but it always stuck with me. I was searching for adventure games to play & it came up, I decided to look up the story & I really wasn't prepared for this at all. Hearing what this story is about makes me want to cry because as a gay guy , I had a very similar childhood to Ethan, like, disturbingly similar. I'm 25 & I never speak to anyone in my family except my mom.
Thanks for making the video. This game's concept is unique but the delivery is what's really stunning about it. Like, that clock.. They really thought it out huh?
Correction Marshall - you do have to beat that unpleasant part. In fact, that section was nerfed in one of the patches - it used to be harder to pass it.
SPOILERS:
When you reach the end, in order to trigger the cutscene, you have to pass all of Ethan's stories. In fact, if you haven't finished one, you can teleport to it, which even wasn't an option before one of the patches. But I think you don't have to solve the murder bits, which is interesting, given the fact that that's the main story of Ethan we are dealing with.
Also - the killing spree that ensures, where one person kills someone and is then imminently killed by someone else who gets killed by someone, etc is a chain reaction. Just like how Ethan died in a way - the smoke stopped his breathing, then heart and eventually all of his other organs. His family is a representation of body parts or something?
END OF SPOILERS, for now.
Of course, there is lots more to be said about this game.
Thanks for sharing your experience with the game with us Marshall! :)
Halid Yusein Thanks for the info! Out of curiosity, in what way was it harder before the patch?
SPOILERS for those who haven't played yet:
They call it the "dead miner" - basically that freak face that automatically latches to you. He used to be way more unforgiving and able to see you from further. They also amped the sound qeue as to give you a clue if he is close, I think.
END OF SPOILERS
One funny thing about the Astronauts is how they were treating their patch notes. Every time they've included a note, as to the latest change for the "sniper rifle" at the lake, in the final area... thought that was interesting.
Halid Yusein Ah, good to know. And yeah, they've been having some fun with their patch notes. Probably comes from the fact that they've worked on so many shooters before, like Painkiller and Gears of War.
Indeed.
So why did the devs put the traps there? For what reason?
I really enjoyed this game. Can anybody recommend any similar games?
before this game, i played the chinese room's everybody's gone to the rapture, now in my top 2 favorite games of all time. honestly i wish i played ethan carter first because in my opinion it pales in comparison to egttr--visually and conceptually. and the gameplay too. other good games are firewatch and dear esther. gone home is really popular but idk i was disappointed in it.
@@erinhogarty dude exactly this game was great but Everybody's gone to the rapture's story is so much close to home and hard hitting that this one pales in comparison... Also that one has less mechanics and I don't see it as a negative never in my gameplay I was bored with that while I did get a bit frustrated in mines
Try Devotion
Detention
What remains of Edith finch
Layers of Fear
Oxenfree
Life is strange
Gone Home
Journey
Flower
Abzu
GRIS
The Stanley Parable
I feel that in reality, there were other people who lived in that area .But Ethan felt isolated.So in his mind he lived in a place cut off from a bigger community.🤔 Where he lives in reality has to be the total opposite of the limited places we are allowed to explore. If the trolley tracks weren't blocked, it's possible they lead to a mountainous community or village. Ethan's imagination tended to rationalize, exaggerate,explain, and excuse why he was emotionally and mentally abused. Or🤔 in Reality, did he really have a good family that seemed too boring to write about...soooooo he makes the entire thing up. Inception movie(A dream within a dream that you manipulate)🤔 This game creates alot of questions because it "supposedly" gives you straight answers near the final curtain call. I'd like a sequel where it's focused on Ethan's characters and creations roaming the surrounding mountains,forests,and villages. Hikers come across the same area hidden beyond the hills by trees. They come across several manuscripts written by unknown authors, that lead you to believe that even Ethan himself was a made up character. Stephen King type, in the Mouth of Madness type manuscripts 🤔Add some action,mystery and adventure with realistic puzzles and problem solving.
Cool video. Man, this game is insanely deep. I finished it a few hours ago and the more I think about the ending and read different interpretations, the more I appreciate how brilliant it is. The devs who made this game really knocked it out of the park.
SPOILERS
SPOILERS
SPOILERS
I realise what the title of the game refers to now. At the end of it, Ethan really has vanished even though we know of his fate. He was a tragically misunderstood creative mind, and we play the character in his final story before vanishes from this world. Mind = blown. Maybe the best game ending I've ever experienced, and it is still growing on me the more I think about it.
END OF SPOILERS
MORE SPOILERS:
furthermore, the way I interpret the story, it seems that Ethan thinks there is something wrong with him, that he blames himself for his family not being nicer to him, as evidenced by things like the story about the woman who lost her beauty because of her son. On some level I think he actually wanted to die, or at least felt he deserved to. Like the way he just lies down on the bed and accepts his fate at the end. The Sleeper driving his 'story family' to do all those terrible things represents Ethan blaming himself for his family's dysfunctional nature. When the 'story family' talk about "not waking the Sleeper", that is Ethan telling himself to not wake up from his dream at the end, because in his mind waking up and surviving will curse his family with his existence again. Man this story is so brilliant but so sad.
END OF SPOILERS
its the weirdest game i ever played, stunning graphics though even on a ps4. ive played some on pc version console looks just as good.
yes, and the soundtrack very haunting
You pause way too much. Like your flow is really inconsistent. It's like you break up each sentence into for or 5 mini sentences. It's distracting to a degree. Not a big issue, (I myself have a weird speech pattern, that's how I know it's distracting to people sometimes). Dunno if you script it or free flow it, but yeah. That's my only real complaint. Good video otherwise.
Personally, I hate when people hyperedit their videos and it's just a barrage of information, with no breaths taken. I'd rather people give their thoughts time to breathe, I find I miss less stuff like that (and I wouldn't describe myself as the patient type).
Great graphics, bland gameplay, made even worse by the boring investigation progresses. It consists of listening to shadowy figures that spell out all the clues for you. A detective has to add two+two and come to a conclusion; this is taken away from the player and thus reducing the game to watching a series of plays. Let the player think for himself and he will be much more immersed in interested. The Painscreek Killings is one of the few games the truly made me feel like I was doing detective work instead of going through the preset story/mechanics - which all games really are.