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Dear Esther Review: When a Game is not a Game
by Jamie Fletcher on March 7, 2012 in Gaming
There are certain expectations when loading up a game for the first time. Unspoken rules govern the experience that should be presented to the player. Dear Esther breaks all those rules yet pulls off something very unique. Read on as we delve into the latest Indie funded ‘experience’.
What is a game? A rather innocent question, but ask 20 different people and you will probably get 20 different answers. Social or physical interaction, entertainment, an assault on the senses to stimulate a reaction, or just fulfilling a sense of enjoyment.
When it comes to PC and Console games, we expect a certain amount of player driven interaction; we want to be in control, to bend the environment to our will. Be it through high scores or just blowing up anything and everything that bounces across our screens.
Dear Esther is very different. In fact, it would be very hard to define it as a game at all. You may look, you may move, but you may never touch. You are both the observer and protagonist; a memory in a world that is both a museum and a prison of the mind. A narrative whispers in your ears as you explore, metaphors and symbolism fill the senses as you meander through an empty but strangely exotic island.
profitable within 6 hours of release and with over 50k copies sold within a week. An impressive title for what started life as a mod.
This is not the release for something action-packed, but more for something to contemplate over in the evening. This was something new and interesting, and I’m glad I
paid for it. Looking forward to further releases from this developer. Easily an Editors Choice.
Dear Esther
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