When comparing Ether One vs Mountain, the Slant community recommends Ether One for most people. In the question“What are the best Exploration games on Steam?” Ether One is ranked 18th while Mountain is ranked 25th. The most important reason people chose Ether One is:
The way the story is told matches it's overarching plot of dementia, so that the story is giving in pieces and not in order requiring the user to make the investment to piece it all together and come to their conclusion.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Fragmented story the player must figure out
The way the story is told matches it's overarching plot of dementia, so that the story is giving in pieces and not in order requiring the user to make the investment to piece it all together and come to their conclusion.
Pro Deeply layered
While there is little in the way of interaction, what is presented to the player is a deeply layered town with many areas to explore. It gives a sense of "realness" that makes for an experience much in the way art or music does, sometimes visceral sometimes eliciting past memories.
Pro Art in the shape of a game
Once the player answers random questions and the mountain is formed all that is left to do is observe the mountain and what happens on it. More an art piece than a game this makes for an ambient experience that can be relaxing.
Cons
Con Side quests are relatively hidden from the player
For those that go into the game blind there is little in the way of explanation that there are side quests hidden in the game that relate to certain objs=ects as one explores. This means that many players will miss a large portion of the title.
Con No controls
Which basically means this is more a screen saver than a game. There is nothing to control, no interaction at all other than tones one keyboard will play when keys are pressed.