Pretty game, but very underwhelming.

[Quacklesnap]

I'm very impressed by what they were able to do graphically with the Source engine, but for a game with no actual gameplay I wish there was much more to the story.

It was boring and uninspired, and they tried to hide it with a purposely confusing monologue laden with vocabulary that should have stayed in a thesaurus, all spoken through a British accent.

If you want to make art in the form of a video game then you're going to have to do better than this. The strength of the video game medium is interaction, but the extent of my interaction with this game was holding down W for 40 minutes. It was little different from watching a short film, except short films don't often make your hands tired or put you to sleep or cost $10.

[smokeydubbs]

In a movie, you can only see what the camera sees and what the director shows you.

In a video game, you can stop and look around. Curiosity of what's around you and looking is interaction. Interaction with the environment doesn't always mean picking things up or interaction in a physical way.

For a story like this, I think a game is perfect. A movie is a tad too linear, and a book can't adequately explain the type of action and detail.

[Marked One]

40 minutes?

It took me 2 hours. I like it.

[Borrachofunk69]

Quacklesnap, you're either under 18, know nothing about art, or both.

Dear Esther is NOT a game and it is not directed at gamers. It's interactive emotional devastation, in pure, distilled form.

If you've been, then you'll know.

[GusTheCrocodile]

I like the part where you list "through a British accent" alongside your complaints.

Smokeydubbs has it right here; despite game world interaction being minimal, interaction with the game - as simple as walking and looking - is fundamentally important to the experience. I suspect that attempting to transpose this content into a short film would be a lose-lose situation - you'd end up with a product that still isn't interesting for you, but now isn't interesting for us either.

[purplellama]

I'm very impressed by what they were able to do graphically with the Source engine, but for a game with no actual gameplay I wish there was much more to the story.

It was boring and uninspired, and they tried to hide it with a purposely confusing monologue laden with vocabulary that should have stayed in a thesaurus, all spoken through a British accent.

If you want to make art in the form of a video game then you're going to have to do better than this. The strength of the video game medium is interaction, but the extent of my interaction with this game was holding down W for 40 minutes. It was little different from watching a short film, except short films don't often make your hands tired or put you to sleep or cost $10.


i really love words and language, so the well spoken dialog/text is my favorite part.
it's what made me want to take screenshots more so than the nice level design.
more games need language at this level, for adults.

but it did feel underwhelming, like this was the prologue.
if this was just the start of a game, wow. but in and of itself, meh.

[StabbyStabStab]

There is no such thing as a British accent you fool.

[Irongiant666]

Dear Esther is an experience where you get out of it what you take in ...... so if you take nothing in, you get nothing out.

It's NOT a 'game' - but it IS an experience. And, despite the non-interaction (physically within the game) I'd say that it IS interactive .......... in your own mind. :)

[StreetFighter]

Like in every Source game you can quicksave anytime and then resume when you're awake. :)

[DazJW]

but it did feel underwhelming, like this was the prologue.
if this was just the start of a game, wow. but in and of itself, meh.

It was an experiment that was popular enough to merit a remake to the standard of a commercial release.

The studio behind Dear Esther is in the process of working on another game called Everybody's Gone to the Rapture (http://thechineseroom.co.uk/?page_id=59) as well as another that is being referred to as "gameB (http://thechineseroom.co.uk/?page_id=53)".
EGttR is "an open-world, story-driven game" "exploring non-linear storytelling", which sounds like a development of the same concept as Dear Esther.
As for gameB - "All we can tell you is that it’s a survival horror".

[srredfire]

http://store.steampowered.com/recommended/byafriend/203810/76561197969362616

[darkironphoenix]

I'm very impressed by what they were able to do graphically with the Source engine, but for a game with no actual gameplay I wish there was much more to the story.

It was boring and uninspired, and they tried to hide it with a purposely confusing monologue laden with vocabulary that should have stayed in a thesaurus, all spoken through a British accent.

If you want to make art in the form of a video game then you're going to have to do better than this. The strength of the video game medium is interaction, but the extent of my interaction with this game was holding down W for 40 minutes. It was little different from watching a short film, except short films don't often make your hands tired or put you to sleep or cost $10.

I think if you have been pressing w for 40 mins, you haven't got the point. So many times i would stop to look at a photo, or move back to try and decipher the writing on the walls. It is not a game, but a piece of interactive art.

Also, i think you might have needed to take in some loss with you, to understand what the man has been through. The music amplifies those feelings and you can understand the man's pain.

I think that games have been associated too much with call of duty style of storytelling, where every line is yelled over gunfire, or ended with an explosion. Real stories about real people aren't exiting, but they can be empathised with more.

[Shagg]

There is no such thing as a British accent you fool.

I beg to differ. I lived in liverpool for many years and can attest that there are many different british accents throughout the U.K.

[Nova Prospekt]

I've not played the game yet, but for those calling people who call this a boring game 'less intellectual, not appreciative of art or under 18'There is no such thing.From what i gather from what a friend of mine told me,is that it's an emotional experience - not an intellectual one.

You can't say that if someone doesn't enjoy this, they don't appreciate art.You just can't.

Those was my 2 cents i felt were necessary.

[jojimbo44]

British Accent =
"I say old boy, seems you've got a bandit on you six!"
"So I have old chap, keep the caddy warm, I may be late for tea!"

[StabbyStabStab]

I beg to differ. I lived in liverpool for many years and can attest that there are many different british accents throughout the U.K.

Exactly. Many different accents. No such thing as a catch-all British accent as Americans like to think . Almost every city in the UK has a different accent.

[DazJW]

Exactly. Many different accents. No such thing as a catch-all British accent as Americans like to think . Almost every city in the UK has a different accent.

He didn't say it was the British accent, he said it was a British accent.

Geordie is a British accent.
Scouse is a British accent.
Cockney is a British accent.
And so on.

The accent the narrator has is a British one.

[MasterOfTheTide]

Sounds like OP is complaining because he is too young to appreciate art and understand more advanced english. I for one loved the experience Dear Esther game me. I played it at night and took my time (70 minutes according to steam) and was just completely enveloped in it. Most people pay more for a movie that doesn't even come close to the experience Dear Esther gives, I think I can justify the price.

Also though I can see how some people are disappointed because they paid 10 bucks for something that really is very out there when it comes to what is normally out on steam.

I think 5 bucks would have been a better price point, but I am not upset I paid 10.

[Lord Magnos]

all spoken through a British accent.


I, on behalf of my fellow countrymen, offer my sincerest apologies for our collective accent and I'd also like to end this with a 'Gee, Mary Poppins!'

[DiceDuP]

Erm British accent - no matter what accents you try to include in it there is no such thing. There are variants of an English accent, just as there are Scots, Welsh and Northern Irish accents, but not British.

It's akin to saying a Canadian speaks with an American accent - now, whom on those sides would be happy to confuse those two?

[pash1k]

Quacklesnap, you're either under 18, know nothing about art, or both.

Dear Esther is NOT a game and it is not directed at gamers. It's interactive emotional devastation, in pure, distilled form.

If you've been, then you'll know.

Gotta love hipsters.

[Leushenko]

...all spoken through a British accent.

Oh my. I wonder if this is because it is a British game? Or because the main character is British and that's where it is set?

[Lord Magnos]

Gotta love hipsters.

Why do people who say this never reveal what they like, wouldn't It be easier to say 'I wish everbody liked the things I like as much as I do.'?:rolleyes:

[Resonanse]

Why do people who say this never reveal what they like, wouldn't It be easier to say 'I wish everbody liked the things I like as much as I do.'?:rolleyes:

It's more a comment on the moronic nature of the idea that because someone who likes Dear Ester is 'more intelligent' than those who don't. As though 'emotion' can be equated to 'intelligence'. It's kind of amusing given that those who make such a statement display their own ignorance whilst attempting to be condescending.

The use of the word 'hipsters' is pretty unnecessary though.

[Quacklesnap]

Sounds like OP is complaining because he is too young to appreciate art and understand more advanced english.

If you have a story to tell, tell it. Don't try to hide it behind some cryptic, poetic sounding messages that serve no purpose other than to create a facade of intellectualism. That only leads me to think that there's no actual content, that they're just trying to be artsy to appeal to an audience that thinks artsy is cool, even if there is no substance.

I do plan an playing through it again some time to see if I can actually get anything substantial out of it, but my first impression is that they are just pandering to the crowd that gets upset when people say that games can't be art... but apparently they get even more upset when you say that this game was bad art.

[ElfShotTheFood]

Quacklesnap, you're either under 18, know nothing about art, or both.

Dear Esther is NOT a game and it is not directed at gamers. It's interactive emotional devastation, in pure, distilled form.

If you've been, then you'll know.

You've posted this little blurb twice. Each time you've posted it, I've laughed.

The rest of your post is pure snobbery, by the way.

And if this isn't a game and isn't aimed at gamers, why is it being sold on a website where people can buy games?

[brataccas]

And if this isn't a game and isn't aimed at gamers, why is it being sold on a website where people can buy games?

theres no hope for the next generation of humans is there :( dear god I want to faceplant so hard, that I bleedout.

[Quacklesnap]

And if this isn't a game and isn't aimed at gamers, why is it being sold on a website where people can buy games?

Whether it is a game, or art, or both doesn't matter. That's just pointless semantics. It is what it is, but it isn't very good.

If somebody wants to call me "under 18" or say that I "don't understand art", then that's their prerogative, but ad hominem attacks aren't going to diminish my arguments, they just show me which users to ignore.

[Inazuma]

At the start of the game you don't know who you are, who the narrator is or if they're actually the same person. This question looms on and isn't helped by the fact that the dialogue is randomised rather than intelligently placed. The most important thing to do at the begining of any story is to establish who and what kind of person the protagonist is and where it's set. You can break this rule of course, and many have. In fact I am a big fan of stories with huge mysteries (LOST, Half Life, MGS, etc). But with the way DE has done it, I couldn't really empathise with the character and get emotionally involved, so despite the great voicework, Dear Esther has stumbled. I really think it could have worked much, much better given some critical changes.

I appreciate that this was an experiment. It's good that someone did this experiment. But as with all experiments - some fail and some succeed. I personally think its failed as a game and a story medium. However it is commercially successful. Even that can be argued down though. The first draw of the game is because its so fantastically beautiful in screenshots. The second draw is that it sounds brilliant from descriptions. Third is the reviews and selective quotations they put in their marketing. The reviewers themselves probably were very swayed by a few factors (the main one being that they were trying to look highbrow when in fact they probably played it in between sessions of whatever the current most popular brawler or FPS is).

Anyway to round this off, I think it was crude of the developers to take what was a free mod and sell it without adding much more depth or reinvention to it. They could have done so much more, because Dear Esther really is an intriguing concept.

[lawina]

I have a huge irritation against repulsive and cocky British accent. Can we please have an American English voice over?

[Ratone]

I see nothing wrong with "English Accent", sure, we can debate demographics and linguistics all day long here, but as far as movies/games go, yes, there is a "British Accent".

It is usually given to older, self-indulgent, "oh I'm so smart and refined" "wise-♥♥♥" characters. So yeah, Dear Esther narrator falls right into the category.Sure, maybe he is having hallucinations because of anesthesia, or maybe he is into delirium because of alcohol withdraw, but all in all, he makes some random awfully bad metaphors sounding like he is "the literary genius".

And please, lets stop with the "Oh you don't like the game because you don't understand it hurr durr", people have been saying this since The Matrix came out, it sort of got old 10 years ago, you know?
And lets be honest, for a game that was designed to be a "open canvas, random story-telling, no conclusions" it shoves "It was a car crash!" too much on us. Sure, there are some RANDOM elements here and there, some "Out of sequence" narration and bla bla bla. But by the end of the day, we got a pretty simplistic story with pretty amazing graphics.

Lot of people siding up with "The game", I ask you guys this:
If Dear Esther rewarded exploration with story, wouldn't it be a better game? if you could read the covers of the books, wouldn't it be a better story? If the game storyline changed depending on how much you explored the island, how much you focused on specific objects, wouldn't it be a better story?

There is no point denying, Dear Esther is a level design portfolio. The "history" of the remake gives this away: Ex-Level Designer from DICE was bored, played the mod, called the developer, developer said "Yeah, I'll write one or two new lines" and that's it.

And, paying on the same coin: If you think that crawling around a desolated beach, listening to your crazy uncle babble about life and death is a "emotionally devastating experience". Try one day to... you know... walk around a real one and listen to some interesting person.

[Irongiant666]

There is no point denying, Dear Esther is a level design portfolio. The "history" of the remake gives this away: Ex-Level Designer from DICE was bored, played the mod, called the developer, developer said "Yeah, I'll write one or two new lines" and that's it.



Let's correct that a bit:

- Robert Briscoe spent two years on the graphics
- Dan Pinchbeck did far more than write one or new lines
- Jessica Curry re-arranged and re-recorded the whole soundtrack
- All of Nigel Carrington's lines were re-recorded
- the island was made a bit larger, the narrative enhanced


Go play the original mod, then play the remake. Then you can compare them.

[Mulky]

I have a huge irritation against repulsive and cocky British accent. Can we please have an American English voice over?

British accents rule. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFcZIY-t1bc

[DoomyDoomDoom]

Would have worked better as a screensaver or movie. Having to nudge the mouse now and then kinda sucked.