Just finished playing Dear Esther

**Bridge** · 07-09-2012, 07:38 PM

Yeah I know we have a lot of Dear Esther threads, but anyway I was curious to see what all the buzz was about so I bought it. I had heard it only took like 3 hours to finish so $9.99 seemed like a fairly high price point. To my dismay it only took me about an hour, roughly half of that spent walking s l o w l y. I fail to see how it warrants such a high price. I would have maybe spent 2.99 on it. Anyway I found the game to be very beautiful to look at and the narrator turned in a pretty solid performance. But the story is almost non-existant and the gameplay certainly is. Auto-crouching, auto-flashlight and no jumping or running? Seriously? Fuck you. It's the fucking Source engine! It takes more effort to remove the functionality than just leave it in. This game has nothing already, but without controls (apart from WASD and zoom) this isn't a game at all (and I really wasn't expecting a game). The story is intriguing but nothing is done with it and in the end it's actually quite boring. I don't like pretentious poetry and almost none of the narrations make any sense but I did enjoy the flow of sounds and the narrator's vocal timbre.

To be honest I felt insulted (like any time I use a Mac) and severely disappointed in the end. It had a great atmosphere and the soundtrack was cool but the game is too shallow. Very mixed feelings about it for sure, what did you guys think?

**Xanatos** · 07-09-2012, 07:50 PM

(07-09-2012, 07:38 PM)Bridge Wrote: (apart from WASD and zoom)

It has zoom?!

**Statyk** · 07-09-2012, 08:05 PM

haha, It does. I found it out on accident trying to see if there were any maneuvers I could do, such as crouching.

I don't know why they took away all controls, and like Bridge said, I think the price was a bit too high for the lack of gameplay... I got it on sale for $5 but even then, I could've used that on DLC or another game, you know? It tells a great story and the atmosphere is amazing... But it wasn't exactly worth buying when gameplay and timeframe come into play. I beat it in about 45 minute, maybe 50. And it was a bit unsatisfying.

**Nyarlathotep** · 07-10-2012, 01:56 AM

I thought it was well worth the money. I always believe in quality over quantity. The game's world, music, writing and acting are all top notch. It's a whole experience from start to end. It took me two hours on the first run, when I stopped and looked at the small details. Many of which actually change on subsequent playthroughs. They add to the fragmented story.

Finishing the game in an hour or less seems like you were just walking from the start to the end without paying it much attention.

**Bridge** · 07-10-2012, 04:34 PM

(07-10-2012, 01:56 AM)Nyarlathotep Wrote: I thought it was well worth the money. I always believe in quality over quantity. The game's world, music, writing and acting are all top notch. It's a whole experience from start to end. It took me two hours on the first run, when I stopped and looked at the small details. Many of which actually change on subsequent playthroughs. They add to the fragmented story.

Finishing the game in an hour or less seems like you were just walking from the start to the end without paying it much attention.

Nope, I actually explored every reachable area (almost half of it isn't reachable because of the dreaded Gentle Slope of Unclimbability and cheap level & game design (seriously, no jump? for a non-Myst FPS game that is inexcusable). I didn't play it on Steam so I don't know exactly how long it took but it couldn't have been more than 90 minutes. It's just so boring. I like looking at cool landscapes (as I said I took screenshots) but I don't like walking for ten minutes to an area that then abruptly ends for no logical reason.

But to each his own. I didn't like the story because the game was not interested in telling it to you. Compare it to Amnesia that also presents a fragmented story that little by little unravels, sometimes only through a few second long audio file. The difference is that Amnesia forms a coherent story by the end whereas Dear Esther gives you some vague themes with nothing tying them together. I just wasn't interested at all. In hindsight though (yeah... one day) I actually think it was quite enjoyable and I will probably play it again. I just hate how the game treats you like a spectator most of the time.

Spoiler below!

I much prefer games like Myst and Ocarina of Time that give you beautiful (and scary/mysterious) environments but also a purpose and a goal.

**Traggey** · 07-10-2012, 05:43 PM

I loved it, enjoyed it plenty, wasn't looking for a gameplay experience from it because that's not really what it is.

If you didn't want to pay money for it you coudl've just gotten the HL2 mod verision and played that instead.

**Bridge** · 07-10-2012, 06:40 PM

(07-10-2012, 05:43 PM)Traggey Wrote: I loved it, enjoyed it plenty, wasn't looking for a gameplay experience from it because that's not really what it is.

If you didn't want to pay money for it you coudl've just gotten the HL2 mod verision and played that instead.

2)It's not that I didn't want to pay money, it's that what I got was not enough for such a high price. And it's not a quantity over quality thing; I just didn't feel the story was interesting or developed enough (because let's face it, who can develop a story and pace it correctly in ~20 minutes?). I don't want to accuse the devs of being lazy (I have no right) but it's just too minimalistic, and not in a good way. Subtlety is one thing, but not telling the story to your audience is quite another. Had it been a complete audiobook, with the narration being nearly constant and the story properly presented, I probably would have liked it a lot more.

1) Okay, this is just ridiculous. Not looking for a gameplay experience? It's an FPS with mouselook, movement controls and a fully rendered and (mostly) traversable 3D environment. Why even tease the player if you didn't want him to be able to do anything? Just have the game engine render an on-rails video presentation (like in the UT '98 intro) and narrate over it. Upload it to youtube or sell it, whatever you want, this did not need to be a game (because there's no interactivity).

**RawkBandMan** · 07-10-2012, 07:52 PM

The game, is what I think, supposed to be a story telling game. Nothing else. What you're paying for, is basically a $9.99 book, where you can control the protagonist in the world of Dear Esther. You should've looked it up a little more before you bought it, because I am sure most reviews say that the game is basically a book placed into a interactive world. Since this is a 'book', $9.99 (Or at least here in Canada) is a steal. Most books nowadays cost at least $20/$25.

True, I only played the mod, but I expect them to be very similar, besides graphics and achievements. I found the mods atmosphere to be chilling, and the story to be quite good. It took me a couple playthroughs, but at the end, the story actually made sense (With some help from the Internet to explain the story, as well), and I enjoyed it. I played the mod about five more times after that before it stopped working for an unknown reason, but I am confident that once my new computer arrives, I will be either buying this game, or re-downloading the mod again.

This is all matter of opinion, so don't really take much of what I said as a fact. (Besides the game, for the most part, being a book.)

**Bridge** · 07-10-2012, 10:57 PM

(07-10-2012, 07:52 PM)XxRoCkBaNdMaNxX Wrote: The game, is what I think, supposed to be a story telling game. Nothing else. What you're paying for, is basically a $9.99 book, where you can control the protagonist in the world of Dear Esther. You should've looked it up a little more before you bought it, because I am sure most reviews say that the game is basically a book placed into a interactive world. Since this is a 'book', $9.99 (Or at least here in Canada) is a steal. Most books nowadays cost at least $20/$25.

True, I only played the mod, but I expect them to be very similar, besides graphics and achievements. I found the mods atmosphere to be chilling, and the story to be quite good. It took me a couple playthroughs, but at the end, the story actually made sense (With some help from the Internet to explain the story, as well), and I enjoyed it. I played the mod about five more times after that before it stopped working for an unknown reason, but I am confident that once my new computer arrives, I will be either buying this game, or re-downloading the mod again.

This is all matter of opinion, so don't really take much of what I said as a fact. (Besides the game, for the most part, being a book.)

I knew very well what this game was going to be, I just didn't expect it to be that vacuous. And give me a break. This is far from being a $9.99 book. Last time I checked, in order to be considered a novel your book needs to have at least 100 pages. If you wrote down all of the narrations what you'd get would scarcely exceed 3 pages. Would you buy 3 pages and illustrations (no matter how well done) for $9.99? Well, I wouldn't.

**Nyarlathotep** · 07-11-2012, 02:41 AM

The story itself is written so that it's a puzzle. It's not meant to be told coherently, because there are meant to be any number of possibilities of what the story is actually about. The only concrete element is the car crash, which is the emotional center of the game. Other than that it's more of a surrealist experience.

Each time you load the game up you'll encounter randomized dialogue and visual details. Many of these changes are extremely subtle. It may not be your thing, but there is a lot of content there.

Jumping, running, and crouching were removed to maintain the solemn atmosphere and to avoid people triggering voice lines too soon. They didn't want people jumping and crouching randomly, they wanted their full attention on the environment.