Quick & Painless Reviews: Dear Esther

2deep4me

I've heard mixed opinions about this game: That it's a deep and touching experience at best, and an arduous fifty minute walking simulator at worst. This game was on sale yesterday for $2.46, so I figured I didn't have much to lose if I at least took this game for face value and just appreciated seeing some pretty scenery here and there.

So it is true that this game is basically a walking simulator, but it is also true that it is very pretty at times. The landscape and soundtrack make for a very soothing experience, though not always so. If you're inquisitive enough, you'll be drawn into the odd abandoned house or small cave, which can be rather unsettling, especially when coming upon bloody surgical tools, and indiscernible markings on the walls. Some have gone so far as to label Dear Esther as a horror game, but that's a very big stretch-- these creepy settings make up maybe four minutes of this game's lifespan.

As you progress, a narrator laments over the history of the island you're on, its previous inhabitants, kidney stones, and the death of his wife. There's some 2deep4u metagaming stuff, like how the narrator, though voiced by the same person, represents the voice of several characters; what the markings in the sand and walls mean; and there are also tales of a dozen or so ghost sighting to those with a keen enough eye. I'm not going to pad this blog with all of that stuff, mostly because I don't care, but also because I don't want to spoil that aspect of the experience for you.

My only major gripe about this game are the cheap 2D sprites used on some of the plant textures. A lot of games use them, but when your game is all about the immersion, it's kind of distracting when it is obvious the plants are always "facing" me, especially so when I'm walking through waist-high long grass and weeds. Even the mushrooms in the caves are 2D sprites, which I felt was exceptionally lazy.

Anyway, for your enjoyment, I took several screenshots on my journey across the island. Something worth noting about the screenshots is that the image files are labelled with different names, which I suppose lends to the theory that the narrator is the voice of different characters. Alas, if you choose to play this game, here are some of the neat things you'll get to see:

What does it mean?!