![]() ![]() Graphically, the game is beautiful – just as it was when I played it four years ago on PC. The fact nothing can be interacted with – something that was later added to walking simulators – means that you don’t know how much of the environment is important or just there for extra detail. There are some hints of story told through the environment, but if you’re not really paying too much attention, you’ll likely miss it. If you wander in a direction that the game isn’t guiding you to, you’ll most probably find nothing. If Dear Esther had a lot less ambiguity in the dialogue and put more of the story hidden within the world, it would be much better for it. When it comes to exploration, it feels as if there is very little what is there to explore feels rather redundant. For everyone else, there’s a small sequence nearer the end that should make it pretty obvious. Like a cryptic film, you’ll probably find yourself finishing a playthrough and heading to Google to search “Dear Esther meaning”.Īs Dear Esther plays out however, some people may begin to piece together what’s going on. A lot of the dialogue, right up until the last 10 minutes or so, makes little to no sense not helped by the fact it reads like poems, giving an air of pretentiousness. The primary narrative element of Dear Esther is a series of letters being read to you by an unknown character as you explore a desolate island. It’s weird going back to Dear Esther and remembering how little of it actually made any sense, but also that the first time I played it on PC I was extremely interested by it. If you approach these games with the idea that you’re not there for intense gameplay but rather just to have an “experience”, to be told a story, then this genre has a lot more to offer. Video after video of “what makes a game” covered YouTube, and it felt like a lot of upset for a game that just wanted to guide you peacefully through a story. When Dear Esther originally released, there was uproar over the lack of gameplay. Dear Esther was pretty much the first game to be labelled a walking simulator, and it stands as a testament to how far the genre has come, with many other games since expanding on what Dear Esther tried to accomplish. ![]() I’m a fan of the walking simulator genre – what started out as a tag on Steam is now a legitimate genre in its own right, penned by the players themselves. With this edition comes a few lighting tweaks and some commentary. The commentary is only really for huge fans of the game, but it is fairly interesting to listen to, and it did highlight some aspects I hadn’t paid much attention to. Obviously you can’t just bring a game to consoles these days, it has to be some kind of remaster, so Dear Esther comes to consoles as Dear Esther Landmark Edition. ![]() And with Dear Esther being a walking simulator, I can’t exactly talk too much about gameplay either if you’re not familiar with the term, it’s simply a case of walking around and exploring the areas. ![]() As quoted in the commentary that comes with this newer version: “using randomised blocks of voice-over in the game, and the kind of randomised prop details… means that it gives it a really different feeling every time you go through”. As good as that sounds however, it means one player could potentially get more out of the game than others. With a game this short – at around an hour and thirty minutes – I can’t really explain too much of the story as anything is a spoiler. Still, it’s nice to replay the game that sparked the uprising of the player-titled “walking simulator” genre. It’s a bit strange releasing Dear Esther on consoles now, because there are other – and arguably much better – titles in the genre available. ![]()
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