My thunks: Dear Esther

I first heard about Dear Esther in late 2011 while browsing the steam "Coming Soon" section. The music and poetic narrative of the trailer immediately caught my attention. The description of the game also spoke about "random" elements which greatly intrigued me. However closer to release I became less and less interested. I can't exactly remember why this was, maybe another game occupied my thoughts or I wasn't ready to pay the £6.99 for a game that took about 60 minutes to finish. Having only just played and completed Dear Esther for the first time it's a shame I lost interest and didn't purchase when it came out in February 2012.

I won't get into the argument about whether Dear Esther is a game or not, I want to leave that to angry people on the internet. I will simply talk about what I thought.

Five minutes in, the poetic narrative brimming with metaphors (and numerous other poetical devices) tells me I shouldn't follow the narrative too closely. For if I were to try and understand every word I would only get confused and muddled. Each paragraph of narration is somewhat like a standalone poem and only with all of them put together can you actually patch a story together. This works nicely as you can still enjoy the narrative as standalone pieces if you don't understand or miss the previous paragraph.

That said I'm pretty sure the story of Dear Esther is purposely vague and confusing, designed partly for the sake of speculation and discussion. For some this could be frustrating as you aren't really supposed to understand anything clearly in the first few play-throughs. That doesn't mean you don't get anything out of the first play-through, but Dear Esther is definitely better suited to those very fond of analyzing the deeper meaning of literature and poems. After going through Dear Esther twice many aspects of the story still remain confusing but that's why I like it. There is a great element of mystery about the island, some details of which I will never understand. I adore that, but like I said earlier, others will find the lack of detail annoying.

While there may be a lack of detail in the story, it would be a crime to say the same for the look of Dear Esther. The texture quality is disappointingly low but like a painting, standing back and looking at everything at once is breathtaking. The environment feels eerily natural, there were times I could swear I wasn't looking at a computer screen. The level design is clever too, it gives the illusion of wide open spaces and many possibilities while in reality being very linear. Not to mention the final area sent shivers down my spine continuously for longer than I've ever experienced.

Definitely not for everyone, but well worth a try if you're interested.

I give Dear Esther a "Looks pretty damn good and brought a tear to my eye, out of 10".