Ether One

Plot

The player assumes the role of a "Restorer", an employee of a futuristic memory-retrieval company called the Ether Institute of Telepathic Medicine. The Restorer is tasked with investigating the thoughts of Jean Thompson, a 69-year-old woman diagnosed with dementia, and retrieving her lost memories. The Institute is able to generate 3D simulations of damaged memories, and the Restorer must reconstruct them using the remaining pieces of those memories. The project is led by Dr. Phyllis Edmunds, who guides the Restorer through the memories. She claims that the project is on the brink of losing its funding, and that Jean's case will either make or break the future of the Institute.

Once inside the patient's mind, the Restorer makes their way through the patient's childhood memories of Pinwheel, a seaside village in England which relies heavily on tin and iron mining. Throughout the journey, the Restorer learns about the village's residents, a terrible accident in the mines that cost the lives of dozens of its citizens, and Jean's growing relationship with a boy named Thomas, whom she later marries. While rebuilding the memories, the Restorer encounters a gem-like stone, representing the dementia they are attempting to rid the patient's mind of. They must destroy the stones using the "Artifact", a lamp capable of erasing the dementia from the mind.

The patient's mind becomes more and more unstable as the process continues, and it is revealed through a series of flashbacks and revelations that the Restorer is actually Thomas. It is also revealed that he is not inside Jean's mind, but is instead inside his own, trying to cure himself of his own dementia. Thomas had worked with Jean's father in the mines, and while Thomas managed to escape the deadly collapse, her father did not, leaving him riddled with guilt. Thomas' worsening condition and Jean's subsequent passing lead to Thomas creating his own fantasy world. Their son, Jim, had admitted him into a memory therapy clinic, where Dr. Edmunds had been working to bring his memories back and stop the dementia from progressing. With her help, and his memory of Jean encouraging him, he travels through the memories of his traumatic childhood in which his mother left his alcoholic father (who later dies in an accident at home), and is able to release himself from his fantasy world, curing his dementia and making the project a success. Afterward, Thomas is released to Jim's care, and thanks Dr. Edmunds for all her help.

Gameplay

Ether One is a first-person exploration game with optional puzzle solving. The player is cast as a "Restorer", "an individual with the ability to project himself into the mind of someone suffering from mental illness in the hopes of restoring their memories".

After the game's premise is introduced to the player, the town of Pinwheel (the game's central location) is opened up to the player. The player must collect red bows tied to objects. A broken reel projector on the floor indicates a puzzle; once a puzzle has been solved, the memory it represents can be played back. Puzzles may involve physical tasks, such as completing a shipment of cider, while others are more mentally labouring in nature. The puzzles become more difficult and obtuse throughout the game, simulating the chaos and difficulty of a person suffering from dementia. The player can also teleport at any point to a "hub area", a virtual room where objects (picked up in memories) can be stored. These objects often have little-to-no relevance to the game's plot, and also tie in with the game's portrayal of dementia.

Development

The game was developed by a six-person team at White Paper Games. Ether One is the studio's first game. A Mac version of the game was planned, but shelved due to performance issues.

Story

"Our main goal was to tell a story that we could invest ourselves in," said Pete Bottomley, co-founder of White Paper Games and game designer. "That's the only way we knew we could create something really interesting. If someone looked at a part of the game they hadn't seen recently and some aspect of it didn't seem credible they'd be able to see something immediately."

PlayStation 4 edition

On August 14, 2014, White Paper Games announced a PlayStation 4 edition of Ether One. The company also announced that the PS4 edition would be rebuilt from scratch in Unreal Engine 4. Bottomley ruled out a possible Xbox One port, saying:

There’s not really much to say. Sony contacted us first and were really excited about getting Ether One onto the platform. It feels like a good partnership and the whole PlayStation team has been great to work with. No one from XBOX has contacted us and none of the team are XBOX players so it wasn’t really a consideration.

The change in game engines and consoles brought a number of technical challenges for White Paper Games. Sound composer Nathaniel- Jorden Apostol said that the "realisation" that the game would have to be rebuilt in a new game engine was a "really exciting prospect for the studio". The company received support from the creators of Unreal Engine 4, Epic Games. Apostol was confident that those that had played the PC version would "love it on PS4 just the same". He also announced that the PC version would be ported to Unreal Engine 4 in a later update once they had "the console specific stuff out of the way".

The game was released to PlayStation Plus subscribers for free as part of the "Instant Game Collection" on May 5, 2015. Sony approached White Paper Games regarding the deal, an event that Apostol called "a dream come true". The game also received a retail release on Blu-ray Disc in September.

Reception

Ether One has received positive reviews from critics. Aggregating review website GameRankings gave the PC and PS4 versions 82% and 72% respectively, while Metacritic gave the PC and PS4 versions 82/100 and 75/100 respectively.

Several reviewers praised the atmosphere and immersion of the game. Sam Prell of Joystiq praised the environment, writing that the uninhabited dreamscapes feel "almost haunted; there is a constant, pervasive feeling that something is not right here". He also favourably compared the game to the 1939 classic The Wizard of Oz. Richard Cobbett of IGN also praised the way the game "sets up a hauntingly cryptic atmosphere with no real hint of exactly where it's going, slowly opening up the watercolour town of Pinwheel for exploration".

The narrative of the game divided critics. IGN's Cobbett felt that the story was fragmented and confusingly told, but in a way that feels appropriate for the dementia plot at its core and the revelations that unfold. PC Gamer's Angus Morrison described the narrative as "tragic [...] a saga of dementia, death and industrial decline that is discovered rather than told". Morrison, however, criticised the ending, calling it "unnecessary". Joystiq's Prell offered both praise and criticism for the story, complaining that plot threads were dropped "seemingly willy-nilly" but adding that despite its convoluted structure, the plot "hits all the notes it really needs in order to make players emphaphetic to the Restorer's plight". John Walker of Rock Paper Shotgun said the puzzles started off fulfilling and grounded, but became more obtuse and dull as the game continued.

Several reviewers favourably compared the game to 1993 puzzle game Myst. PC Gamer's Morrison said that Ether One's challenges were less challenging than Myst's, saying that "[...] when Ether One has you stumped, you're missing the obvious. For an adventure puzzle game that's the Holy Grail". Game Revolution's review stated that Ether One was closer to Myst in style and execution than any other game.

The game's lack of violence (in comparison to other games of the era) was praised by Steven Hansen of Destructoid, who stated that "There's been blowback against first-person games that don't feature a gun or at least a sharpened tooth brush. Anything to harm someone with. While exploratory and firearm free, Ether One isn't exactly in line with The Stanley Parable or Gone Home. Not entirely, anyway."

Depiction of dementia

Ether One has been praised for its portrayal of dementia. Michael Thomsen, in a piece for The New Yorker, stated that "As a player, you’re never sure what’s important and what isn’t, so the system encourages you to take everything. This hoarding is repaid with periodic puzzles [...] As the game progresses, these puzzles increase in complexity, as does the array of random objects filling the shelves. The collection gradually overwhelms the player’s ability to remember just where all of these things came from and why they seemed important enough to retrieve. Why did I bring this plate all the way back here? Whose hat is this supposed to be again? It’s a tidy simulation of the cognitive degradation of dementia." Destructoid's Steven Hansen also praised the simulation, stating that the game takes "a sort of reverse Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind approach".