Ether One is a first person puzzle adventure game by White Paper Games. The game is set around to deal with the fragileness of the human mind. For this review I will be reviewing the games story, graphics, and game play.
The Story:
The story of Ether One is rather unique. You are a restorer working with the Ether Institute and are tasked with restoring the mind of a patient suffering dementia name Jean under the guidance of Dr. Phyllis Edmond. The story is well written exploring the different aspects of Jeans life and the people who surrounded her life. The story also explores the history different people in the small mining town where Jean grew up called Pinwheel Harbour. As the restorer you explore Jean’s mind to unlock fragments of her lost memories to help cure her disease. This story shows a lot of emotion and really tugs at your heart strings as you unravel the mysteries of Jean’s memories and who she is and really learn the delicate nature of the mind itself.
With unique storytelling and twists I gave Ether One’s story an 8/10
The Game Play:
The game play is interesting. It features a unique system where you’re only allowed to carry one item at a time, but you get the ability to warp back to a place called The Case and drop off items on shelves to use later. But be warned that many items are useless in the game which can easily throw you off and item storage is limited. The puzzles are crazy because some items u get in other levels may be used for future levels and vice versa. The puzzles in the game range from easy obvious puzzles to solve to puzzles that you really need to think outside the box to solve them. Also, what is really unique is that there are no enemies to kill in this game. You are completely isolated by yourself in this game and all you get to really here are voices. The main issue on the game play is that it is very buggy and sometimes items may not be there at all or items you pick up and save for later and then load your game turn out to be completely gone. This prevents you from moving forward and you have to restart the game, which really stinks.
With an interesting game play but with all the bugs in the game play I gave Ether One a 5/10
The Graphics:
The graphics for Ether One are pretty good. It supports a detailed landscape and you can really get a feel of the surrounding area of Pinwheel Harbour. Walking through the multiple levels the graphics help bring out the stories overall emotion and you get a real sense of Jean’s memories. The problem with these graphics though is that the frames per second are whacky. Sometimes it takes your game a few seconds to load the graphics or even when transitioning levels it takes 5 mins to load the game because it temporarily freezes.
That being said I gave Ether One’s graphics a 6/10
Overall the game is good and it gives gamers a different perspective on story and game play and also proves to be a great challenge for those who decide to do everything without using a walkthrough. Overall, this game receives a 6 out of 10.
