NGN: "I’ve begun my voyage in a paper boat without a bottom. I will fly to the moon in it. I’ve been folded along a crease in time, a weakness in the sheet of life. Now you’ve settled on the opposite side of the paper to me.” These are the opening words in the first trailer for Dear Esther that I saw, and they perfectly set the mood for what was to come in the finished game. Dear Esther is one-of-a-kind and a joy to play, but is also a very risky indie game because it is so experimental in nature. The game takes place entirely on one remote and desolate island off the coast of England, set relatively close to our modern day. The player takes on the role of an (initially) unnamed observer of the island, who runs an inner monologue as the player tours around the sights and sounds of the lonely locale.
The Chinese Room's Dear Esther goes free on Steam to celebrate the 10th anniversary of this foundational title.
Eh.
I mean free is free, but I found this to be a boring slog.
Not to mention this remasters actually made the game look worse in multiple areas.
I did quite like their A Machine for Pigs and Everybody's Gone to the Rapture though.
On Valentine's Day a decade ago, Dear Esther went from a Source Engine mod to a full-fledged indie game, catalyzing the "walking sim" genre. How does it measure up today?
"The China-based indie games publisher Secret Mode and Brighton-based (the UK) indie games developer The Chinese Room, are today very pleased to announce that they will celebrate the tenth anniversary of "Dear Esther" by making the genre-defining 2012 narrative exploration game free to download from February 14th to February 15th via Steam." - Jonas Ek, TGG.
