Dear Esther

By Mr. Tropnevad

Summary

Dear Esther is a ghost story told in a way that most game players have never seen before. Instead of using traditional game play elements the focus is on exploration and the mystery of the island,who you are, and why are you there.


What I Expected

The game is based off of a free 2008 Source engine mod and I had actually never heard of it before until January of this year when developers were hyping it up. When it was released on Valentines Day this year I had heard good things about this game and that everyone that was playing this was beating it within the first day of playing. Since I had a bit of free time on my hands I decided to give it a try.

The Bad

Some of you may not like the fact that you cannot save in the game. But as I said, with the shorter length of it, is there really any need to save? Also, after you finish each section of the game you can go back into the menu and pick what part you would like to play again. As I said this isn’t really a problem, I think, but others may not like it.

I absolutely hate it when you know you are a person in a game and you cannot jump or run. I understand why they did want you to run, because they want you to look at the game and remain calm. It doesn't really bother me here; others may not like that, though. As far as jumping goes, they could have allowed your character to do it, but I know why they did not. Let me explain. (You might want to skip to "The Good", because I am going to explain the technical side of making a game.)

To program a character to jump will take up some memory, but not that much. Now, say that there is an area where the designers don't want you to be able to wander into; areas that you could access by jumping, but not walking. If you were able to jump, they would have to put blocking volumes throughout the game (invisible walls). This takes up memory that could be used elsewhere. Too much memory loss will mean the game will run slow in certain areas, and while blocking volumes don’t take up a lot of memory, most level designers and programers usually build obstacles bigger than the character.

The end result is that the developers prevent you from accessing that part of the map they don't want you to get into. However, most people hate blocking volumes. Those of you that have played Skyrim are fully aware that there are no blocking volumes to be found, since you can climb on everything. So the choice for designers is to put blocking volumes up everywhere, or remove your jumping ability.

The Good

The level design in this is fantastic. You should never get lost while playing the game and if you do come to a dead end and have to turn around, there is a reason for the dead end. I never found myself lost and I was usually admiring the scenery that was around me. The designer placed trash throughout the island and several wrecked ships along the shore. The artist did a good job of giving detail to the trash by giving books titles along with pictures. Most of the trash that is found on shore and throughout the island is questionable - for instance, I found a shopping cart. While the books, tires, tools, and other debris made more sense to me. There were also a few houses I came across. The houses were designed to look old and run down and they did a good job at not only creating them, but giving a creepy feeling to them.

I was pleasantly surprised by how good the sound was throughout the game. While outside you can always hear the whooshing of the wind blowing and your faint footsteps. When the narrator is talking the game tones the volume down to where you hear the narrator, but you can still hear the faint background noise such as wind, water, and footsteps. I played with earphones (so I can hear everything better) and I was surprised that I never had to turn the volume down once I started playing. Even with what very little music is in the game, I found myself gratified that there were no extremely loud music scenes to where you had to turn the volume down or that the music was playing over the narrator.

There was one section of the game that I fondly remember. I was going up a hill towards a house and the music came on. The music was eerie and I was just waiting for something to happen. Then when the narrator came on to tell a story, it added to the effect even more.

They gave you a flashlight to use for when you are in dark places such as a cave or inside abandon houses, and while you don’t really have to go inside the houses, I did and I immediately noticed two things. For one, the flashlight automatically came out.  This should happen in every game, I think, because why waste your inventory system and why do you have to push a button? I am aware that games like Doom 3 give you a flash light that can be turned on and off, and other games like Silent Hill provide you with batteries for your flashlight, but I find it annoying. The light should come on as soon as its dark. Granted, in this game the light comes on when you enter a mildly shady spot, but I don’t want to keep on griping.



By the second part of the game I became curious if my character was able to die. So naturally I decided that when I came across a cliff I would try to fall off. By sheer dumb luck I was walking around looking for any secret areas I had not found yet and I fell into a deep hole. I died and the game put me back in the same area I was just in, just a few feet away from the hole. I was glad that I didn’t have to restart that section of the game all over again. Even the loading time was not very long to come back. I might have had to sit there for about ten seconds. I was thrilled at not having to start over again and I was glad for the short load time.

I was impressed with how well the game was able to run with so much going on in the background. I came across a section of the game that had several waterfalls going at one time along with music, other background noises, and the narrator talking. Water physics in games tend to lag down a computer, and this section of the game proved to me that not only was my old laptop still in good shape, but they were able to have a smooth running game. I never lagged and I was grateful for it. They did an excellent job at making sure everything ran smooth.

Finally, I like a game that doesn’t make me manually duck or crawl when the game knows I have to. I don’t mind it so much in games where it's to hide from another player, but if I am forced to duck or crawl then the programmer should have it set to where the player is going to go up to the object (such as in a cave) and automatically duck before they reach it. This game did exactly what I wasn’t expecting to happen. I saw that I was going to duck to go in a hole and I was like, "Well there isn’t a duck or a crawl button." Before I even reached the hole my character was already ducking to go in. I was relieved that, for once, the programmer knew what should happen. I shouldn’t have to manually hit a button (thank you very much, Homefront) to do something that should be natural.

Throughout the game I was intrigued with the character and his story. Near the end of the game something happens to you and I became curious and wanted to know more about the character and why he is on this island. At this critical part of the game, if you haven’t been paying attention to the hints that the narrator has been laying out, you will not get the whole picture. The story to this had me wanting to replay the game--not only to pay closer attention, but to maybe better grasp everything that was going on. Not to mention that there are a few places I did not explore and that is the only way you get to know more about the character. The more you explore the more the narrator will speak to you.

When I was getting closer to the ending I became curious on how the game would end. I was surprised at the ending, and while I don’t want to give it away, I do want to say that once the screen goes black you can turn the game off.

Overall Thoughts

For a game, I found this relaxing and I think that most gamers would enjoy it. Even my wife (who is not a gamer) I think would enjoy this story of mystery, and most people would not mind playing it again to figure out what really happened to this person that you are playing.

Should you buy this game? Well, if you are a gamer that likes story and adventure, I say yes. You might argue the fact that it was ten bucks and I beat it in an hour and a half. I believe it can be done faster than that though, because I had to let my dog outside while playing, but let me point something out. I don’t want to give you an economics lesson, but when you go to a movie theater you pay seven or ten bucks to watch a movie for an hour and a half or two hours and you don’t get to keep the movie. I say pay the ten bucks and try it out. If you like it on Steam keep it, if not gift it to a friend. Either way you are helping an indie developer out, and trust me, they need the help. The guys that made this I can see actually doing something even better in the years to come. So get on your PC, and if you don’t have Steam, download it and then pay the ten bucks for this game.

If your still not so sure, put it on your wish list and maybe sometime soon Steam will have a 50 percent off sale. Either way you will find yourself intrigued like I did with this. If not, well I guess you can gripe me out. Overall, I am going to give this a strong buy. Not to mention spending ten dollars isn’t going to break your wallet. Even GameStop won’t give you ten bucks for a game that you played a few months ago. Ergh GameStop. I can’t believe I even mentioned them. Anyway, go have fun and enjoy.

Overall- Buy