Ether One Review (PC)

Just a few years ago, pure adventure games seemed to be getting an increasingly rarer occurrence and, as such, titles got massive chunks of action plastered all over them, trying to please a crowd that wasn't traditionally into exploration games.

Thankfully, this is not the case nowadays, when independent developers have been steadily putting out classic adventure games back on the map to the point where you don't even have time to play them all anymore, let alone finish them, and Ether One is precisely the kind of game purists were pining for a while back.

But White Paper Games' creation is far from being late to the party, as it has enough appeal to draw you in even if you're not a long-time fan of traditional point and click adventure games.

First of all, if you like adventure games, then get your hiking shoes on, for you're about to do some serious walking. The game belongs to an emergent genre of first-person non-shooters, as instead of guiding a bunch of polygons through the environment, you use the classical WASD control scheme, eagerly awaiting for a weapon that never comes.

The game's premise is where things get really interesting, as the human mind has always exerted a certain undeniable fascination on... well... the human mind. As such, you play the role of a Restorer, a person who delves into the memories of a patient suffering from dementia in an experimental attempt to repair her memories.

As such, you navigate a fabricated world made of memories while the doctor in charge monitors the patient's reaction to the things you encounter, gauging their importance and your progress toward restoring the lost pieces of her life.

Being an adventure game, Ether One also has a whole slew of puzzles that eagerly await solving, but there's a catch: they're completely optional, serving only to complete the story and validate the lives of the participants.

It looks like we're finally on the way to the fabled day when we'll be able to skip boss fights in order to continue exploring the storyline, as the game allows you to unfold its story at your leisure, marking the first occasion on which not being able to figure out an elusive solution to a difficult puzzle doesn't mean you're stuck.

A delightful collection of fancy-pants bow-ties

Birch don't kill my vibe, birch don't kill my vibe

There are many flavorful ideas, such as the inventory, which feels like a brilliant idea but at the same time is a bit contrived. You can instantly teleport to a sort of "safe house" that shelters your own identity while you explore the patient's mind, and it is there that you can store all kinds of items that you may or may not use during the course of the game.

As such, you are limited to carrying only one item at a time, so you're going to be making a lot of trips to the closet, especially since there are a lot more objects that you can interact with than are needed to actually progress through the story.

This makes for some interactions to be a bit wonky, especially when you're already holding an item and you have to take another one into your possession in order to uncover a third one, which is impossible without a quick trip to the closet.

But you can say that the game has pretty much everything a great adventure game needs, from an interesting premise to an engaging storyline that gradually unfolds and tells a moving story, to some challenging puzzles that don't get in the way of the non-linear progression.

Another two fields in which Ether One shines are the visuals and sounds department. White Paper Games decided that it was not enough to entice your mind, and that your senses could also benefit from a royal treatment.

As such, all throughout the game, you'll find varying degrees of mood pieces gracing your ears, relaxing tunes that appear to be at home in your currently explored environment, providing some extra depth to the feeling of immersion.

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Ambient sounds also play a huge role in establishing the game's atmosphere, from the noise of leaves in the wind to the constant humming of mechanical machinery when you're near the mining equipment.

The voice acting is also surprisingly good, conferring an even more realistic quality to the entire adventure and surprising you with bits and pieces of the mind you're exploring and convincingly fleshing out a real person's life and thoughts.

As far as graphics go, the indie dev has managed to create beautiful environments, with very high-quality visuals that are not encountered in your everyday adventure game. Although the world is not populated by anyone, you will stumble upon remnants of its inhabitants' existence scattered all over the place, which will help deliver the notion of a living and breathing settlement and will convey veracity to the presented events.

The only bad thing about the game is the lack of a guiding hand to help you along your way if you're in a hurry, but this is the kind of game best enjoyed when you can take your time anyway, when you can explore all the nooks and crannies looking for another hint and have the storyline properly pan out.

There are also a couple of puzzles that will seem a bit underwhelming and others simply trite, but keep in mind that the developers designed the game as a tribute to the era when gamers used to play the roles of accountants with various in-game trivia that might have been of interest further down the road and, as such, expect you to also carry a mighty pen and a trusty piece of paper around while playing.

In all fairness, it would have been a much better idea to make a journal where your avatar simply documents the important pieces of information gathered along the way, since he's the trained and paid detective and you're just along for the ride, but that's just how video game characters are, they can't be bothered with being responsible for anything.

Happens to me all the time

When this boat's rocking, don't come knocking

Another issue is the walking speed, which is just too slow, and you'll constantly find yourself running from place to place. It would have been nice for running to be a toggle or to have the option to sprint rather than just having to hold a key down for the entire length of the game.

But this is just nitpicking, and the game truly is an enjoyable and refreshing experience.

The Good

The Bad

Conclusion