DSOGaming writes: "And it’s finally here with us. Indie game, Dear Esther, has finally been released on Steam and is priced at 6.99 euros. Dear Esther immerses you in a stunningly realised world, a remote and desolate island somewhere in the outer Hebrides."
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.
Saw the trailer and I left feeling even more clueless as to what exactly this game is about.
Reviews seem to say its not a game but more like an audio book that you slowwwly walk through. That could be great if they didnt also say the story was a bit of a miss.
Ah, I'll probably buy this "game".
It looks pretty enough.
Edit: Nothing like wandering around a empty island on Valentine's day! It's gonna make the entire game seem like a metaphor for my life... :S
It's pretty great, actually. I suppose for people that feel compelled to pigeonhole and compartmentalize everything they play/watch/hear into categories, DE might feel a little frustrating. But for those that don't really care what medium it falls in and can enjoy it on it's own terms, it's a great two or so hours.
It's basically a psychological horror story. And I promise, if you take the time to look at everything the answers are all there, though exactly what's going on is never explicitly spelled out. I know there were a few reviewers that seemed like they got frustrated by the lack of interactivity and seemed to skirt past a lot of what makes the experience special, but that's a huge disservice to what the developers were trying to accomplish with this game.
I'm not going to say it's a game that's going to appeal to everyone, but if you don't mind forgoing a bit of interactivity, it's a really eery and interesting story.