Dear Esther

Dear Esther started as a source mod several years ago and has been tuned up and re-released on Steam earlier this week using the Portal 2 engine. I first learned about Dear Esther through some incredible reenshots released on Duncan Harris' DeadEndThrills website and after 'finishing' Dear Esther last night I find myself in awe of this incredible piece of work.

It would be difficult to classify Dear Esther as a 'game' - it all depends upon your definition of what a game is. Sure, you can go to Metacritic and see a bunch of reviews but I think if you applied current standards of interactive entertainment to Dear Esther then you'd find the experience wanting.

Rather than a 'game' in the most conventional sense, I think Dear Esther is an interactive poem. You walk around an island in first person as parts of the narrative are revealed through excellently acted voice-overs but also through the sights and sounds of the island itself. Further narrative details are abound, if you choose to look for them. I completed the story in about 70 minutes but spent the next few hours contemplating the haunting and incredibly touching narrative. Dear Esther is a story about loss and intense regret.

From a technical standpoint Dear Esther is stunning. As you can see from the screenshots the game is absolutely gorgeous and just as impressive is the audio, from the aforementioned voice acting to the music and haunting ambient sounds.

At $10 I don't know if Dear Esther is for everyone. It depends what you want or are looking for in an interactive experience. There are no fail-states, no conflicts, no puzzles, no explosions and yet the story stayed with me long after I had shut my computer down. I've certainly never experienced anything like it but adored every second.

Lavan