Overview: Dear Esther is a game where the player walks around an island and unravels a story which gets told along the way.
20140509:
Today I played until I reached The Caves where I became too sleepy to continue.
The scenes in the game are gorgeous and game has a wonderful atmosphere.
Throughout the game, the player simply walks around the island - triggering the player character to continuing narrating his story at various locations. This can either be a good or bad experience depending on a player's core gaming preferences (e.g., action gamers are more likely to be bored, and role-playing gamers are more likely to be engaged).
Dear Esther can be considered less of a video game and more of an interactive story, where the listener is only told more of the story if the listener can arrive to the appropriate locations on the island. At times, the game began to feel dull. While soaking up the environment was fun, the exploration and beauty aspect of the game was short-lived. In addition, I wanted to hear more parts of the player character's story.
Overall, I had fun and would highly recommend the game to players who especially enjoy story-driven games.
[20140509 Assumed Post Date][20190630 Edit]
20140510:
I started up Dear Esther again today and was disappointed to learn that I had failed to save my progress. While I was disgruntled about having to start back at the beginning, I had managed to experience some new details which I had not experienced yesterday.*
My thoughts on the ending: I got to a part in the game where a cut scene occurs. It felt like an ending, but then I heard the words, "Come back." These words were also whispered earlier throughout the game, e.g., when the player dies by falling off a cliff. In those cases, the whispered words to come back are meant to signify that it isn't time to die. Hence, when I heard those words at the end, I felt like there was more to the story. However, nothing seemed to happen. Consequently, I felt unsatisfied with the ending.
*Today (20190630) I read the following on Wikipedia: "Different audio fragments are revealed in each playthrough of the game, presenting a slightly different narrative each time."
[20140510 Assumed Entry Date][20190630 Edit]
20140510:
Today I played the game again. After reading some forum posts and playing the game again, I was more accepting of the game's story and ending.
I suspected during this run that perhaps strafing left and right would increase the player character's speed (about the twelve minute mark of the recording). Apparently, according to the description in a speedrun of Dear Esther, alternatively pressing A and D in addition to W will in fact boost the player character's speed by about 15 to 30 percent. Watching the speedrun, there are also a couple of places where the speedrunner intentionally dies.
Dear Esther (PC) (2012)
Relevant Links:
Dear Esther Website
Dear Esther (Wikipedia.org)
Dear Esther (PC) (Metacritic.com)
Dear Esther (Steam Store Page)
20140509:
Today I played until I reached The Caves where I became too sleepy to continue.
The scenes in the game are gorgeous and game has a wonderful atmosphere.
Throughout the game, the player simply walks around the island - triggering the player character to continuing narrating his story at various locations. This can either be a good or bad experience depending on a player's core gaming preferences (e.g., action gamers are more likely to be bored, and role-playing gamers are more likely to be engaged).
Dear Esther can be considered less of a video game and more of an interactive story, where the listener is only told more of the story if the listener can arrive to the appropriate locations on the island. At times, the game began to feel dull. While soaking up the environment was fun, the exploration and beauty aspect of the game was short-lived. In addition, I wanted to hear more parts of the player character's story.
Overall, I had fun and would highly recommend the game to players who especially enjoy story-driven games.
[20140509 Assumed Post Date][20190630 Edit]
20140510:
I started up Dear Esther again today and was disappointed to learn that I had failed to save my progress. While I was disgruntled about having to start back at the beginning, I had managed to experience some new details which I had not experienced yesterday.*
My thoughts on the ending: I got to a part in the game where a cut scene occurs. It felt like an ending, but then I heard the words, "Come back." These words were also whispered earlier throughout the game, e.g., when the player dies by falling off a cliff. In those cases, the whispered words to come back are meant to signify that it isn't time to die. Hence, when I heard those words at the end, I felt like there was more to the story. However, nothing seemed to happen. Consequently, I felt unsatisfied with the ending.
*Today (20190630) I read the following on Wikipedia: "Different audio fragments are revealed in each playthrough of the game, presenting a slightly different narrative each time."
[20140510 Assumed Entry Date][20190630 Edit]
20140510:
Today I played the game again. After reading some forum posts and playing the game again, I was more accepting of the game's story and ending.
I suspected during this run that perhaps strafing left and right would increase the player character's speed (about the twelve minute mark of the recording). Apparently, according to the description in a speedrun of Dear Esther, alternatively pressing A and D in addition to W will in fact boost the player character's speed by about 15 to 30 percent. Watching the speedrun, there are also a couple of places where the speedrunner intentionally dies.
Dear Esther (PC) (2012)
Relevant Links:
Dear Esther Website
Dear Esther (Wikipedia.org)
Dear Esther (PC) (Metacritic.com)
Dear Esther (Steam Store Page)
Date/Time
Friday, May 9, 2014
@
20:16
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