Dear Esther
| Dear Esther | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Developer(s) | Thechineseroom |
| Publisher(s) | Thechineseroom Curve Digital (consoles) |
| Distributor(s) | Steam |
| Producer(s) | Dan Pinchbeck |
| Programmer(s) | Jack Morgan |
| Artist(s) | Robert Briscoe |
| Writer(s) | Dan Pinchbeck |
| Composer(s) | Jessica Curry |
| Engine | Source, Unity |
| Platform(s) | |
| Release date(s) |
Microsoft Windows 14 February 2012 OS X 15 May 2012 Linux 28 May 2013 PlayStation 4, Xbox One 20 September 2016 |
| Genre(s) | Exploration game, art game |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
| Aggregate scores | |
|---|---|
| Aggregator | Score |
| GameRankings | 71.29% |
| Metacritic | 75/100 |
| Review scores | |
| Publication | Score |
| Destructoid | 4.5/10 |
| Eurogamer | 8/10 |
| GameSpot | 8.0/10 |
| IGN | 8/10 |
| PC Gamer (US) | 84% |
| VideoGamer.com | 9/10 |
| The Daily Telegraph |   |
Dear Esther is a first-person video game developed by Thechineseroom for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. First released in 2008 as a free-to-play modification for the Source game engine, the game was entirely redeveloped for a commercial release in 2012. Spurning traditional game design, Dear Esther features virtually no puzzles or tasks. The player's only objective is to explore an unnamed island in the Hebrides, listening to a troubled man read a series of letters to his deceased wife. Details of her mysterious death are revealed as the player moves throughout the island.
While some reviewers challenged the status of Dear Esther as a video game, citing the minimal gameplay as a step away from convention, it received a generally positive critical reception. The game was released for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on 20 September 2016 and re-released for PC/Mac 14 February 2017 under the name "Dear Esther: Landmark Edition".
A spiritual successor, titled Everybody's Gone to the Rapture, was released for PlayStation 4 in August 2015 and for Microsoft Windows in April 2016.
The "gameplay" in Dear Esther is minimal, the only object being to explore an uninhabited Hebridean island, listening to an anonymous man read a series of letter fragments to a woman named Esther. The letters suggest that Esther was his wife and that she is dead, killed in a car crash. As the player reaches a new location on the island, the game plays a new letter fragment relating to that area. Different fragments are played in each playthrough of the game, revealing different aspects of the story each time. Several other unseen characters are referred to by the narrator: a man named Donnelly, who charted the island in the past; Paul, who is suggested to be the drunk driver in the accident in which Esther died; and a shepherd named Jakobson who lived on the island in the 18th century. As the player explores the island, they find the derelict remains of buildings, a shipwreck, and a cave system whose walls are adorned with images resembling chemical diagrams, circuit diagrams, neurons and bacteria. At various points a figure is seen walking away from the player in the distance, but disappears before they can be reached. The identities of the characters become more blurred as the game progresses, as the narration moves between topics and relates the characters in different ways. The ambiguity of the randomly played letter fragments forces the player to draw their own conclusions of the story.
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