mikemariano

Dear Esther

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Like most others in this third page, I picked it up during the Steam sale not having known anything about the original mod or the game itself. It was described as an exploration of a desolate environment or something like that in the store, which was a thing that appealed to me, so I picked it up. The existence of any narrative at all was sort of a surprise, since I didn't remember reading anything about it.

(It actually reminded me a bit of Gravity Bone and TFOL, which I finally just got around to playing the other night. TFOL in particular, since it's very much a linear stroll through a fragmented retelling of a story from your character's past.)

There were also some great little touches in the game. I enjoyed

The figure behind the fire up on the hill through chapter 4 who's gone when you yourself make your way to that spot

. Plus, some of the environments legitimately got a verbal "wow" from me while playing. Especially in chapter 3.

Anyway, I really enjoyed it. So there :)

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First off, I picked this up for $2.50 during the Summer sale, so I wouldn't have regretted the money I spent no matter how I felt about the experience. Fortunately, I think it's really cool. For me the environment on its own would be enough to pull me through 90 minutes of walking slowly towards something (and taking the occasional detour to see what's in some cave or crevasse or at the bottom of some hill). I think that describing it as just walking forward for 90 minutes is stupid and reductionist (not that anyone is really doing that here, but I've certainly seen that opinion). Maybe I find being able to look around an environment (even if it's not very big) at my own pace a lot more rewarding than other people. If I think about playing games like Fallout 3, Skyrim or even STALKER, probably a good 50% of my time was spent just wandering around looking at things, so 90 minutes of doing just that in a lovely and detailed environment was great.

As for the story, I thought it was good enough. Some of the themes may have been a little obvious, and some of the prose was a little purple, but I felt it worked and added to the experience. I think the randomization of some of the phrases is cool (I had to stop after the first two chapters and noticed this when I played through them again) and the fact that some of the phrases are contradictory or ambiguous is fine. I've seen some people mention that the ending was unsatisfying and didn't give closure, or just that they hated it, but I thought the ending was effective and made sense given the lead-up.

My two complaints are that (as mentioned) some of the writing isn't exactly top-notch and (sort-of ending spoiler)

taking control away from you at the end was unnecessary and took some of the potential impact away from the ending

. Neither of these are major problems, but they do detract from the experience as a whole. In any case, if the idea of walking (slowly) around an island with some occasional narration doesn't sound like the worst thing then you should check this out (I would say $5 is probably the sweet-spot for price).

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It's a very impressive art thing and a really interesting/magical place to be for a couple of hours. Loss is not a theme new to video games, but it is the most honest pretrial of it in anything I've played. Vertigo came to mind while playing, not in terms of execution or approach but in how believable I find their attitudes towards lost love.

The only problem I have with it may be specific to botanists. The foliage detail is higher than most games, but isn't high enough to satiate my constant real world desire to identify every plant. The first couple and final chapters are beautiful renderings of environments similar to those I spend a lot of time. I suppose the level of detail doesn't quite match my memory of the real world parallels here in Wales. My experience of crazy caves are abstracted through other mediums so I didn't have the same feelings about the middle chapters.

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Finally got around to playing this after picking it up in a Steam sale from long ago. I'm fairly impressed and like everyone who's late to this thread, I'm surprised at the reaction to it. Granted, it makes a terrible first impression before you learn what it's trying to do. It's slow and punishes you with it's pace if you don't know where you're going. As soon as I figured it out I was more patient with it.

It's probably not a game in the traditional sense but it was a nice change of pace, told an interesting story and was short enough to play in one sitting.

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I played this through a month or so ago for the first time and adored it. Absolutely beautiful, with great writing for the voiceover and pretty good sound design too. I'll have to play it through again at some point to see some of the randomization stuff but aside from that I don't have much to say, just that it was a great experience.

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Yeah, loved this game, I was also the one who asked the question on it for the Ruination cast. It makes me wish for more games like this where the narrative is entirely open to interpretation and requires the player as an active participant. When people have questioned to me if this is a game or not I generally go with that line of thought, it is, but the puzzle isn't something you put together in the game itself, it is something you put together in your head like you would a novel or film of similar narrative construction.

It also contains an absolutely beautiful sequence which I really shouldn't spoil for those who haven't gotten to it.

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Somehow I managed to miss this game until the latest Humble Bundle came along. Man, what a trip! Gorgeous environments, a beautiful story about loss with striking visual metaphors - all my thumbs up.

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i got this with the humble bundle, and i quite liked it, i do think it would have been better if you could walk faster (because going the wrong way is very punishing) and a jump button would have been good at least at the beginning, but i got quite immersed in it, the subtitles actually scared me more than once and made me jump because sometimes they are very sudden and i was in hyper observation mode, the voice acting was very good and the depressing tone actually made me

try and commit suicide (in game) at the part with the floating paper boats by drowning myself but it said "come back" and put me back on the shore and a very short time later the character does the same by jumping from a great height and it ends with a black screen and it says "come back" so i thought it had bugged out

there should have been credits at the end because i didn't know what to do or if the game had broken, i think this is a good start to a new type of game, that in the future with more budget behind it could be more appealing to more people and have a great impact on people and storytelling in games and i think looking at this game as the start of something good rather than the best of what this type of game can offer is a good way to approach the game, i think more interaction (or any interaction) would have been good, but it would be hard not to have interaction that makes it seem like a game type thing, so i guess it's good they didn't try that for the first game.

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If I just thought of this game as "Super Sick Hiking Simulator 2012" it would already be worth my money.

i actually sort of thought of it that way, but when i am wandering about in the wilderness (in real life) i like to touch things and climb on things, so that is why i thought a jump button and more interaction would be good, because even though generally in real life i would stick to paths, if i see something interesting or want a better view of things i would be able to get off the path and climb on things

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This game is excellent and also, as someone who's worked with the Source engine, completely off the hook insanely gorgeous and an incredible achievement. It must have required many times more gruelling work to create those environments on Source than it would have on more modern engines. It's actually one of the best looking vidjagames I've ever seen.

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i actually sort of thought of it that way, but when i am wandering about in the wilderness (in real life) i like to touch things and climb on things, so that is why i thought a jump button and more interaction would be good, because even though generally in real life i would stick to paths, if i see something interesting or want a better view of things i would be able to get off the path and climb on things

Yeah, I feel you.

Here's an interview with Jessica Curry who did the music for the game. It's a cool listen. http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2012/10/03/jessica-curry-dear-esther-top-score

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