Dear Esther was originally released back in 2008, it was a game that passed by me but had some curiosity about it. It was later re-released in 2012, with an upgrade to the visuals, and now with an added commentary mode while playing the game by the creators. After just finishing the Vanishing of Ethan Carter and having enjoyed the Chinese Room's Everybody's Gone to the Rapture I thought Dear Esther would a perfect next game.
I like Jacob's Cream Crackers - to be fair I like most crackers, add a little cheese, a little meat, maybe even some chives or salad. It's a great snack and goes perfectly with wine and some grapes. If you can envision all of this then image a cracker without cheese, or meat or anything, would it still be enjoyable or just really dry and relatively tasteless? Playing Dear Esther I found myself asking was this a brave and bold endeavor to risk and try something different? Did it hit the mark or was it just dry and underwhelming?
The story has you follow a faceless, nameless man who is talking about his wife, Esther. It is clear within the opening few minutes that she has passed away. He wanders around a Hebridean island, that seems uninhabited but over the years has had some visitors. The story is all about Esther, the man's feelings towards her, what happened to her, and as a consequence what has happened to him. It could almost be interpreted as a love letter of sorts.
The English language is incredible, it helps us create sentences and stories by lining up words together, and the combinations of those words are almost infinite. There is a reason I specifically mentioned that is throughout the game, the words and sentences used are never simple. Each piece of dialogue sounds overly poetic to the point where it feels that is more important than telling the actual story. Flowery language, Nolls describes it as when she reads it in novels.
Overall the game is design to be interruptive, which can be a good thing or simply away to avoid good storytelling. If you play the game multiple times more story is told. Unlike the story and stories in Everyones Gone to the Rapture, I was left feeling disconnected and never felt a real pull towards the narrator and his woes.
Visuals
While Dear Esther has many shortcomings the visuals are not one of them. The island you wander is beautiful, everything from the overgrown grass and wildflowers to the long-forgotten ships that beached on the island, to the skies above. They all look so real and it is easy to truly imagine the island is real.
Overall the visuals are beautiful and can feel how much work was put into them and by far is the strongest part of the game.
Music
The music provides a constant feeling of melancholy, which considering the narrator is talking about his deceased wife and how that has affected him suits it perfectly. The composer is English composer Jessica Curry who not only was the co-head of the Chinese Room but also created the music for Everybody's Gone to the Rapture and Amenisa A Machine for Warpigs.
The soundtrack is just under an hour and while short is certainly memorable and haunting. The music style used in Everybody's Gone to the Rapture can certainly be felt in Dear Esther.
Overall like the visuals the music is one of the most standout parts of the game.
Gameplay
When I first heard about Telltale Games The Walking Dead I wasn't really interested. I want a game to be interactive, to pull me, to be part of it all. Of course, I was wrong about it, when I sat down to play it I was hooked and it is up there as one of my favorite video game series. The reason I note this is that I had misgivings about Dear Esther, but after playing Everybody's Gone to the Rapture I thought it can't be that bad.
Unfortunately, it is bad. The game, and I am using that term lightly, is a walking simulator from a first-person perspective. There is no interaction with objects and is a linear experience traversing an island until you reach its summit. The game is like certain people, they can be attractive looking but if that is all they have going for them I am going to get bored real quick.
Overall the gameplay is lacking and felt more like a dull indie movie than a game.
Final Thoughts
So, after just under two hours how did I feel. Underwhelmed and disappointed. The story didn't really pull me and the overly convoluted way of writing everything seemed like a way to make something mundane sound more interesting and sadly failing. The visuals and soundtrack are amazing and to me is the only saving grace for Dear Esther. The gameplay did not exist and was purely a walking simulator. This one manages to just about scrape a 3 out of 5
