The Vanishing of Ethan Carter VR DLC

Preface: I played the game with a Oculus Rift DK2 and runtime 1.3 (0.8 does not seem to work). As the DK2 is not officially supported there sometimes were a few quirks with starting the game, which were solved by turning the HMD off then on, or by starting another game (I used Lucky's tale inside the Oculus home client). The Vanishing of Ethan Carter was launched from Steam. I have previous played the regular version of this game (6h playtime), and have been looking forward to a VR version of it. The combined visual and audial atmosphere in this game is fantastic, and even more so in VR as I would at times completely forget I was in a game while exploring (granted, it might have been in part because the in game world reminded me of the summer house my parents had when I was a kid). The game: You play as Paul Prospero, a paranormal detective, who have just arrived at Red Creek Valley. What, at first, looks like a peaceful village in idyllic surroundings, soon turn out to have a far more dark story. The game uses very simple to use mechanics, the most notable being the use of the players viewing directing with the HMD to guide towards clues. While the mechanics are simple to use, it can take a few tries to fully understand the "language" of them, and with the earlier puzzles the game can come across as harder than it is. It certainly pays to explore and pay attention to all that is happening. The amount of story, puzzles and exploration (/world size) in this game seems just about right. While I want more of it, it does not overstay its welcome, and all in all delivers a solid story/experience that leaves you full. The end may not be to everyones liking, but it fits in well with the narative. As mentioned earlier, the graphics and audio is excellent and creates a very belivable atmosphere. The theme have a few small changes during the story, which is helped along with subtle changes in the great music. The voice acting is solid, and gave the feeling of real people talking, and not actors alone in a sound studio. tl;dr If you like exploring and/or story driven games, this is one to heavyly consider. If you got a HMD this will give you a great experience of what VR can do. And let's hope it will support Vive e.t.c. in the future. Edit: Forgot to mention that the subtitles and on screen text were far too close, and I could only read it if I closed on eye. That might because I used a DK2 though.

Wow, the VR implementation is truly horrible. It's literally the worst VR experience of every game I've tried so far, and that's saying something. First, movement is awkward and feels completely unnatural because if you're holding forward on the controller, but turn your head, you start moving towards whatever you are looking at. This is the pretty much the most nausea-inducing experience I've had in VR so far, though I admit I was able to tolerate it. Another issue is that the game always expects your head to be in a specific location, which seems to be a sitting position, right on the front edge of your play area. If your head isn't there, because you wanted to stand up and immerse yourself in the VR, then object selection won't line up and the game will be unplayable until you go sit back down. The same issue is noticable when the game is displaying menus or text. While I realize that not everybody has room-scale VR, it's odd that this game actively punishes those who try to use it. There is a "comfort" mode where instead of using a thumb controller to move you can look at certain fixed teleportation spots, but in a way it's even worse. When you teleport, your direction often changes (I don't know why), so you get disoriented, completely breaking the VR immersion. Also, without free movement, you're not allowed to explore or interact with some of the things in the game. The net result of all these issues is that this game feels actively hostile towards VR. Instead of the VR making you feel more like you're in the game, the VR is a barrier to overcome. I'm going to get a refund on the VR version and play the non-VR version instead.

I'm not sure anyone actually tested this before releasing it. What's worse is that it cost 3x the price of the actual base game for what feels like a badly made mod. So, on to the gripes: There are a few bugs with the VR implementation that completely ruin it for me. Firstly, if you move at all (in RL) then your view when you try and rotate yourself via the controller moves almost like it's on a pivot rather than just turning around. This is obviously very disorienting and won't help with nausea. The crosshair doesn't work in VR: it appears in the same place in each eye which means you just see two of them and go crosseyed. Trying to look at objects to interact with them is completely wonky: you can't look at them, you have to look somewhere else to get it to register, as though it doesn't seem to properly track where you're looking. Tired into the issue above: When looking through the "portals into the past" things, they don't match up with the actual world at all, as though someone's rotated one around but not the other. If this was a free mod I'd say skip it. Considering it's paid DLC I'm more than a little annoyed and we've had nothing but silence from the devs. Be sure to take that into account when they publish games in future.

Game doesn't recognize Index controllers, while it clearly says it's for index. There are several other people having the exact same problem. Developers aren't responding to anything. Apparently you require a gamepad.. which is ridiculous in a VR game.

User @Dick Rambo adviced: "PLAY THIS GAME STANDING AND USE A WIRELESS GAMEPAD AND TURN YOUR BODY TO TURN AND IT WORKS GREAT !" Yes that's right but i have to tell you how things went for me, maybe this could help others : As many users here, i was tempted to ask for a refund because this game REFUSES TO RESPOND TO MY GAMEPAD, i could not even start the game ! Frustrating as hell and Devs remained silent about this issue although the store page is still showing "gamepad support". Desperating. Well i did not gave up and finally found a workaround by emulating an Xbox gamepad. This worked i could start the game and play it. So be warned people, this game is very picky about the gamepad you use... But once you get there, standing in the Red Creek valley in VR... WOW, this is one of the most rewarding experience. First, make sure you have set some SuperSampling on, then the graphics will blow your mind. Everything looks right and detailed with the right scale so you will feel like you are there, in this valley contemplating beautifull landcapes in a stunning intriguing mood. Second, for your comfort while using locomotion in VR, PLAY THIS GAME STANDING WITH GAMEPAD AND TURN YOUR BODY TO TURN. 360° standing VR WORKS GREAT ! This is truely a Gem. I'm sincere, NO JOKE people ! BUY IT NOW, that's Summer Steam sale and it's only 1,49 Euros, bundle is 4,33€ !!! so you have no excuses to miss this !

First of all, nothing in this review diminishes the core game. It's was one of the most amazing computer game experiences I've ever had and I recommend it whole heartily. If you haven't played the game, do yourself a favor and play it. So I've had my Vive for about a week now. Been playing it non-stop. Since I left my controllers upstairs I haven't tried The Vanishing of Ethan Carter VR (VECVR) or anything else that needs a regular controller until now. I just played the game for about an hour and a half, both in normal mode and in comfort mode. Also, no spoilers here. The Good. It's a beautiful game. It's just as amazing in VR. Up close everything looks amazing. I upped the rendered resolution to 100% and had no issues with frame rate (6700k and a Fury X). Some of the scripted animations work even better in VR than they did in 2d. The same is very atmospheric and being in VR really adds to the immersion. The town and surrounding landscape is a character in itself and VR really brings it out. The Not So Good The Vive was definitely an afterthought, and it's a shame. I actually feel sorry for Rift users after playing this. In "Normal" mode, the problems are less obvious, but still there. The "look to interact" with objects method of input feels crippling after you spent some time with motion controls. In "comfort mode" to move you look at an arrow then press a button on the controller to teleport to a new location. The jumps are huge and disorienting, in the woods I often didn't know which direction I was facing. Even worse, in implementing this the developer got rid of the element of exploration because everything you need to see has been highlighted with an "Explore" notice glowing brightly. Teleporting with Vive controllers everywhere has become second nature, and this game really could have used it. Something else, the Press "A" repeatedly to turn something should be just turning something with a motion controller. If you can handle the motion, definitely play this in normal mode (I only pressed forward, turning my body to move - it only bothered me when I wanted to quickly glance and something and had to stop first so I didn't head off in the wrong direction). While the game is graphically beautiful, VECVR highlights deficiencies in the hardware. The grand sweeping vistas become muddled in the relatively low resolution of the HMD. Lastly, the game seems a little buggy on the Vive. The opening screen is half of a cylinder for 180 game play, look around and you see the back side of the SteaVR home screen. Depending on where you are standing when you start the game is where you are stuck (in comfort mode) which can lead to you being off center and looking out of the corner of your HMD to highlight items. Conclusion This is still a great game. If you can handle "normal" game pad movement it could be worth playing through in VR. There will be some times where you will want to reach out and interact with your hands, but it can still be a good experience. If you are prone to motion sickness, I'd recommend turning the lights down and playing this game on a big tv. Comfort mode without motion controls isn't worth it.

Pretty interesting early VR content. You can notice that this was not designed for VR originally (the traditional navigation scheme with the gamepad makes me a bit woozy, and the lower resolution is noticable compared to the original), but it is sitll very interesting to experience this excellent game in this 'new' medium. Given the low price, I can recommend trying it out. To anyone who can't run it in the consumer version of the Oculus Rift, you need to first allow 3rd party games to be run on the Rift. In the Oculus application, go to Settings > General, and toggle on Unknown Sources.

The Vanishing of Ethan Carter VR could be one of the best VR adventure/walking/exploration games. Graphics, performance and the game itself (story, world design, music etc.) are top notch, but unfortunately there are a lot of UI and control issues that never got fixed. Some UI elements are invisible on some headsets, motion controllers aren't supported at all and the camera shaking effects from the non VR version should definitely be disabled for the VR version since they can cause severe motion sickness for some people. I still love playing this from time to time with my Rift S, but with all the issues mentioned above i cannot recommend the VR version to anyone in it's current state. I really hope there'll be a fix for all that stuff in the future, this game really deserves that.

The game is great. This review specifically concerns the VR experience. Turning your head turns your character. If you are walking in a straight line and glance to one side, your character will immediately start moving to the side. This sounds like a minor nitpick, but in practice it makes this the most nauseating VR experience I've had yet, and I've logged quite a few hours of gameplay with the Rift, so it's certainly not for lack of acclimatization. I walk around in-game like a drunken person, and quickly feel like one too. Uninstalled after about ten minutes. Don't waste your money until this is fixed. The good news is I had no problems getting it to work, as some people have complained. Tested on Oculus Rift CV1 and Windows 10. The VR experience is also fully as beautiful as the classic, so long as you're standing still.

So I played through this title on regular desktop mode and had a blast. Super great game with a great story and visuals and all the whole she-bang. But in VR? Ho, ho, le' me tell you. For the record, I am using an Oculus Rift CV1. So right off the bat, this is great to experience however the developers did some very strange and not super great gameplay decisions that people here have been talking about. So I'll address these in blocked out form. [h1]1. Locomotion[/h1] This is really the high point of this review. They have two options for the player to choose from with movement. The normal mode, which is what I'll talk about more in depth and comfort mode. [b]Comfort mode:[/b] Keeps the player stationary whiles giving indicators on screen for areas they can teleport too. No movement is really given to the player and the whole thing acts like a point and click style game. [b]Normal Mode:[/b] Alright, so this has it's ups and downs. First, If you're attuned to using an analog stick to move about and you don't get discomfort, you get 50 points. Only 50, because turning is a whole other story. Unlike other games, how the devs handled turning is really baffling to me. Rather then putting in like angle snap or at least having the option to do so, they decided to leave it smooth tuning but with a catch! The pivot point to your rotation is somewhere in front of your character and not at your feet. So as soon as you turn in any direction, your gut is jerked into a teacup spinning ride. Turning is very disorienting. It feels like you're inside a barrel spinning. Mix that in with moving in the direction your walking and it's just not good for the body. Again, I don't know who thought this was a good idea but it's what you're getting here. I find myself closing my eyes just to turn because personally, it can become very disorienting. Translating forward and back and through a loopy-loop, no biggy-figgy.Turning the camera to the right? I...I...I need to breathe over here for a moment... Like it doesn't sound that bad, but you'd have to see/feel it to understand this if it doesn't make sense. OH! Another point I wanted to mention. There is also no option to switch between the different comfort modes during your playthrough (As far as I can tell. Correct me if I am wrong). So as soon as you start the game, it has you pick one or the other and you're locked to that for the rest of the game. So choose wisely. [h1]2. Gameplay:[/h1] So like in the base game, interacting with things was super simple. Look at it, it glows a delicious orange and bam, you're making progress. In here, you gotta dance a bit more. The first thing I, other people and you will notice as well is that even if your crosshair is pointed directly at something to interact with, it won't pick up that you're looking at it. For most things, you will have a difficult time finding the 'sweet spot' on the text so that you can interact with things. And when I say difficult, I mean like you're looking at it, but you gotta turn your head like 68.9 degrees to the west for the game to register it. Not too huge of a deal, but it is a bit frustrating. Other then that, the game is the same. You're head is the camera/pointer. [h1]3. Visuals:[/h1] Game looks the same up close. Things in the distance look to have been blurred out. I assume this is to help with performance. Some might like it, I kinda like it but hey, I'm also just a man. They have removed all of the graphics options in the menu, so no tweakin' to get those...V's synced... How the game starts upon first open is what it's staying at. [b]4. Other notes:[/b] This might not happen to everyone but for me, it takes at least a good 1 and a half minutes to open. But uh...huh... I thought I had more to say here. Moving on! [h1]Would I recommend this?[/h1] - Well, it's getting a thumbs up so yes. - Already got the base game? It's like a 10 doll-hair add on. (Well that's why I got it) - I would also recommend playing this while standing and physically turning when moving. (Or play on a swivel seat. Please avoid the second analog stick) [h1]Final thoughts:[/h1] Overall, this is still a fabulous title. Despite my complaints, It doesn't take away from the game or what it tries to offer here. The VR add-on only makes this a more engaging way to experience what is The Vanishing of Ethan Carter. It's not perfect but then again, nothing really is. This is quite a ways from being bad. They still did an okay job on the VR rendition of this. If you liked the base game and you're on the fence about trying this out, you're only prolonging (or missing) a great experience. [h1]TL;DR:[/h1] It's a buy! *Rings bell* Just be prepared for some discomfort.