The first-person supernatural mystery The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is good stuff. We called it a "intriguing, mostly satisfying, and most importantly, wonderfully restrained" story in our 82/100 review, and the biggest complaint—lack of a manual save option—was addressed in a "Redux" update that dropped in 2015. And now it looks like another update adding a peaceful, puzzle-free "free roam" mode, could be on the way too.
The mode is on the way, in the Xbox One version of the game that's coming out later this month. "Many people agree this is one of the most beautiful games on the market, and some expressed a desire to explore the environment without any darkness in it, and by darkness we mean bloodies [sic] corpses and locked doors. They wanted to just have a nice relaxing walk down the Red Creek Valley," The Astronauts co-founder Adrian Chmielarz explained. "That option now exists, and it’s called the Free Roam mode. Everything that was gameplay and everything that was evil is removed from the game in that mode."
Chmielarz also posted a few images demonstrating what the game looks like in the new mode. "Turn down the music, leaving only sound effects on, and it’s like you’re really there," he wrote.
Before
After no blood or interactivity prompts
Unfortunately, there's no guarantee that the free roam mode will be released for the PC version of the game. For one thing, it's apparently a timed exclusive feature for the Xbox One, but more importantly the job will require more effort that you might expect. Updating the PS4 version sounds like the biggest sticking point, but the PC version gets caught up in that too.
"It’s not like the Free Roam-enhanced PS4 (plus 4K on Pro) and PC versions (well, 4K is already there) are locked behind a key, just waiting to be released one day. Some serious work needs to be put in first in order to make them happen," Chmielarz said.
"For now, we’ll just wait and see if there’s any demand for the feature to come to PS4 and PC one day. It does seem like it, since this section of the post exists exactly because you are already asking. So we will probably do it, but the 'probably' is a key word here. We cannot guarantee the feature happening 100%, because, again, it’s not as easy as we are sure some people believe it is."
The Astronauts announced in December that it is working on a new project called Witchfire, which looks to me like The Vanishing of Daniel Garner Killed My Dick. We can only hope.
Thanks, RPS.