The Sublime and The Vanishing of Ethan Carter

It is a quiet, still afternoon. There is nothing on TV and you have read every book in the house twice over. You decide to instead go for a walk in some local woodland. The crunch of leaves underfoot, the cool air, the stillness of the tree branches; it relaxes you and puts your busy mind at ease.

Sat on a fallen log, you take it all in. You wonder if you are the only person for miles around. The pillars of bark go on seemingly forever, fading from the orange of autumnal leaves to the encapsulating blackness in the distance. In that moment you come to realise your smallness, not just in this patch of woodland, but in the whole of this vast world. In that calm, blissful moment, you are terrified by your own inconsequential existence.

This is the strange feeling known as the natural Sublime.

(Yeah, this one is going to get a bit emo.)

The Sublime is a concept that artists and poets have wrestled with for centuries, and still lacks a clear definition. The best summary I have found is by the 18^th century writer and philosopher Edmund Burke, who described the Sublime as trading proportion and feelings of harmony and peacefulness for a pleasant, distant terror; that being a small piece of a far larger world is both pleasant and terrifying.

“Oh shut up, Matt,” I hear you muttering aloud to yourselves, “I’m here for your ramblings about video games, not another university-esque existential crisis!” Well, boy, do I have a treat for you, because today we are going to examine how the Vanishing of Ethan Carter induces the Sublime in players through its art direction/implementation, its musical score, and its mechanics.

If you missed this game, Ethan Carter is a walking sim, or an interactive story, set in 20^th century rural New England, and concerns the disappearance of the titular young boy. The game takes its story inspiration from Lovecraftian and gothic horror, with the player stepping into the shoes of Paul Prospero, a paranormal detective, and setting off to the hamlet of Red Creek Valley to uncover the mysteries of the place and, ultimately, find Ethan Carter through solving both real and supernatural puzzles.

But we’re going to ignore the story for today. Instead, let’s look at the most obvious aspect of the natural Sublime – the games rendering of nature. The nature of Ethan Carter being a walking sim means that there are no other NPC’s in the game, just the player and the game world (for the most part). By isolating the player in this way the developers have enabled the landscape to take on a persona of its own, and we can see parallels of this in the world of classical art. Works such as Friedrich’s Chasseur in the Forest depict a lone cavalryman staring into an impenetrable evergreen forest as though he has spotted something, and this is not unlike the beginning of Ethan Carter: the player starts the game walking along a train tunnel, emerging into thick and unyielding woodland. This meticulously finished landscape also offers illusions of grandeur, extending the use of highly detailed tree models further than the playable area, unlike most games of this type and budget would. Combining this with global fog and camera bloom effects makes the landscape part of the drama, not a container for it.

The Astronauts, 2014

The use of the Northern Appalachia as a setting is particularly deft here, as the regions deciduous forests, mountains, and lakes have given the developers the opportunity to recreate an imposing and beautiful environment. But as the rest of the playable space is revealed to the player, the beauty of it becomes detached from any singular object, thus fulfilling the abstract, formless quality of the Sublime. The game also makes sure that the manmade objects in the game are seen as small, meaningless, and ultimately unnatural. From the poorly constructed tent in the woods to the water towers alongside the train tracks, these small, grey, uninviting structures are in direct contrast to the vast green landscapes surrounding them, playing into Edmund Burke’s idea that greatness of dimension is a powerful factor in the creation of the Sublime.

Most of these structures are not open for the player to explore either, as if the game would rather the player simply roamed around the woods and lake shore grappling with life’s greater meaning, not concerning themselves with Red Creak Valley’s inconsequential manmade history. There are, however, some larger structures that the player can enter, but these are dark, bleak spaces being overcome by nature. This eerie presentation is combined with the buildings implementation to make the player feel uneasy and want to retreat back into the welcoming virtual “natural” world, and we can see this in two of the games supernatural puzzles that revolve around manmade structures.

The Astronauts, 2014

The first of these examples is in the hamlet’s mine, where the player must find the corpses of three miners without being killed by the forth undead one who roams the mine. The player is never told that they might die so the first encounter with the undead miner can be traumatic. This section is in direct contrast to the rest of the game because it is the only time that the player can be killed, and it is at the hands of a man, albeit an undead man, in a dark and enclosed manmade space.

Secondly, there is the puzzle in one of the houses by the dam. The house appears old and dilapidated from the outside, already giving off an unsafe vibe. But once the player enters, they find that the interior of the house has been swapped with the house next door. What’s more, the player must correctly guess which rooms connect to which in order to complete the floor plan and be allowed to leave. This spatially impossible puzzle, combined with the eerie music and lighting, encourage the player to complete the puzzle as quickly as possible in order to return to the safety and normality of nature.

Music has a far larger impact on the player than just the one puzzle. The orchestral score of Ethan Carter is used to sign-post moments of drama, both in terms of gameplay but also to build upon the environment and further enhance the games sublimity. This is in line with the evolution of romantic music of the late 18^th century, with its overwhelming sound and abrupt transitions adding a Sublime quality to the music.

The Astronauts, 2014

As the game starts, the player hears the music is soft and gentle , almost as if the game is encouraging the player to take their time; to be calm and contemplative. This music blends with the sound of bird song and the player characters own footsteps in the undergrowth to keep the player at ease. With each snapping of a trap, there is a small crescendo to place emphasis on the surprise and sudden uneasiness of this place, coming to a larger climax when the player is transported to the clearing of ashes and bones. This brashness to the music is countered now by a near total silence, highlighting the unnatural surroundings.

When the player returns to the real world, the music is once again soft, gentle, and soothing, slowly building as the player emerges from the woodland onto a rail bridge, where again the music becomes loud and bombastic, seemingly coming to a crescendo with every point of interest the camera pans over. This inspires awe in the players mind and further makes them feel small within this vast world.

In summary, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter uses the natural Sublime as a means of building tension without keeping the player on edge. The surreal imagery that appear in the manmade spaces are connected by longer periods out in the wilderness, which, whilst foreboding and ominous, are benign and make the tension and fear more abstract; the player is fearful yet comforted by their isolation, knowing that they currently exist in a moment of normality within the forest. The lighting and visual effects make these natural spaces feel comfortable whilst making the player feel small within them.

A great contemplative game, perfect for a rainy afternoon.

Thanks for reading.