Dear Esther: Landmark Edition

Dear Esther is light on gameplay. Which I can understand sounds almost sacreligous to a lot of people who love video games. However, I cannot reccomend it highly enough. The narrative experience is a beautiful, difficult to accept, and mournful tale, that is more than enough to compensate for the simple nature of the game.

First let me admit that I only played the original version powered by the Source engine. But considering that the port, according to the description, only features cosmetic upgrades I feel that all my criticisms remain valid. Dear Esther is the original walking simulator - well, the way Gears of War is the original cover based shooter. Others have done these things before but these are the landmark titles that set standards for many years to come. Now, it's easy to dismiss Dear Esther for providing "no gameplay" since all you do is walk until it just ends. However, personally I instantly grabbed my wallet when I saw the game released on Steam several years ago because I actually admire games that explore the limits of the genre. The problem is that Dear Esther has in my book ONLY its experimental ambitions going for it while the execution provides nothing noteworthy other than a few nice views, unlike later more sophisticated titles like The Vanishing of Ethan Carter and Kholat or even the much earlier The Path which actually bothered to use the genre's format for more than just boasting about impressive environmental art skills. So what does Dear Esther actually provide? Well, you walk on a nice island but only along a narrow tunnel so you don't really feel like doing any exploration, more like sitting in the world's slowest roller coaster. You see stuff that you can do nothing with. As you walk a narrator occasionally reads randomly selected excerpts from a letter. In the end something happens that you don't care about because the game's format fails to sensibly convey any facts about anything. The end. In conclusion: A tech demo for the Source engine that is not even powered by the Source engine anymore and that, if its original release were today, would go by as unnoticed as a depressed teenager's self-pitying tweet. For anyone wondering: The one extra star in my rating is for the nice presentation and atmosphere.

I loved this and lost myself in the scenery and the music, and simply exploring. While it can be a short game if you rush through it, its also possible to simply wander, listen to the voice-over, the music, and enjoy the experience of wrong turns, dead ends, and working out how to get through. I missed the achievements and at least half of what I was supposed to see, but I can do that next time I play, as I will have more idea of what I am doing, where I am going, andd how to get back onto the main track after wandering off. There is still a lot to explore, and enjoy. If you enjoy walking sims, scenery, and no-kill games, this is one to try. I was sorry when I finished it.

This should not be here. What it's doing here I do not know. If you came here looking for a game, this is not it. All you do is walk around and listen to narration, nothing more. There is no challenge to unlocking these narrations, they just play when you reach a new area.

It is a great experience. The graphics are triple AAA grade. And the (english) narration is very nice. I like this kind of adventure. It reminds me the old magnetic scrolls adventures but now in 3D and speech output that is so realistic, as if there is someone who reads the book while you take a walk on this island. Maybe the developers aren't reading this, but i would like to make a wish. Add please an italian translation to this book. It would me make happier than I am now. Great work, I recommend it to text adventure players, and players maybe which like Myst style games. (I played it for circa 20 minutes, and I stopped playing it with an unhappy feeling. Its realy that good. Do not know if you find puzzles though. 20 minutes are too short to tell about puzzles, give the game a chance.) It is worth the price as the game is right now.