Developer: White Paper Games
Publisher: White Paper Games
Rrp: £14.99 (standard version)
Released: 25th March 2014
Available on Steam, Gog,com and their own site
Ether One is a story about dementia and memory, I say story because… Well I find it hard to call this a game, not in the classic sense, it’s more a interactive narrative. It’s a heartfelt, well realised and powerful story and not one I will be forgetting any time soon. And I just realised I told a terrible joke without meaning to. Sorry.
If I were to compare it to others I suppose the likes of Myst and Riven are the closest to it, with a small amount of Dear Ester thrown in.
This game is narrative rich, especially if you chose to try and solve the various puzzles scattered around the play areas. They have even included a story within the story that you uncover by discovering nine collectible figures, or by solving the final puzzle of the game.
The world is well realised and although it doesn’t take full advantage of the engine it uses, it has a depth that no triple A title, or even most indie titles, have attained. I think I can attribute this feeling of a living world to the sound effects, at least in part, there is a great deal of effort gone into crafting a believable environment.
The game isn’t without it’s flaws though there are a number of small graphical errors, such as partial clipping through objects that occur that break the immersion.
There are also lots of invisible walls in this game, it seems like such a small gripe but when you can’t jump over things you clearly should be able to it annoys me. Admittedly this game isn’t meant for that style of play, but if a jump function is included it should be able to be used to jump small obstacles.
The good thing about this game is that you don’t need to complete all the puzzles to finish the game, and nor will not doing so affect the ending you receive (there are two). But if you do take the time to you’ll find it extremely rewarding and it provides a lot of context for what’s going on, especially at the end.
If you like Myst you should enjoy this game immensely. But I can’t recommend it to everyone, many people just wouldn’t have the patience to be willing to invest the mental energies needed to get the most out of it.
