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I stumbled upon Dear Esther (http://www.moddb.com/mods/dear-esther/downloads/dear-estherzip) yesterday on ModDB and it turned out to be a really interesting experience. It's a non-game of sorts; there are no enemies, action scenes or real objectives. As you walk the island, a narrator speaks of two different stories, and it's up to you to decide what they mean. Saying more would spoil the experience.

It's a Half Life 2 mod and I really recommend it.

After you play (or if you cannot do so), you can read the author's description (http://www.thechineseroom.co.uk/esther.htm) and the game script (http://www.moddb.com/mods/dear-esther/downloads/dear-esther-script).

I think there's a bunch to learn from this. Also, it's one of those games that make me inspired just by playing it.

What are your thoughts?

The design of the level is awful. I fell out of the map, twice. The premise seemed interesting but spoiled by poor execution.

Yeah, I got to a place where I could jump out if I wanted too. It seems the author is making a new version that fixes these issues.

Just found this today, and I was impressed. I ran into a few glitches, but I think the game is worth finishing. Really nice soundtrack, too.

(http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m58/plecostomus_2006/vgames/dear_esther.jpg)

Sounds cool.
The author's description of it reminds me of programming declaratively in Haskell or Prolog versus procedurally in C/C++ or Python or Perl or Java or... you get the idea.

You might want to wait a bit before playing it. The levels are getting full overhaul by Robert Briscoe who worked for example as level designer for Mirror's Edge.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--LmQrsD6b0&feature=g-u

is this video accurate? it was pretty negative, so i was wondering if there is a more positive report to counteract it

The GameTrailers and IGN reviews seem somewhat positive-ish...

Looked pretty nice at times, the game was really boring though (doesn't help that theres random voices talking to you). It feels like an extended version of that graveyard game. Walk slowly and try and stay on the path! Pretty easy, but I died a few times: tried taking a shortcut down a cliff and walked into the water a couple of times  :(.

I really enjoyed it, I didn't think I would to be honest. The story is well told and engaging, the graphics and art direction are great, and the sounds and music are equally as great.

The game does things different on subsequent playthroughs, which was a welcome surprise. And I had more fun listening and understanding the story and the connection to the island than I did with any puzzle/platformer (tired and boring genres) game of the last few years.

I agree with Allen, although I haven't done a second playthrough yet. It's only two hours long, but in my opinion definitely worth the $10.

Only thing that bothered was the end (not the very last screen, but the ending sequence).

I heard it had sold well enough to refund the dev, walking simulator have their champion now, it's now an official genre of game and it's not "pixel cheap" anymore. That's make two points for notgames with amnesia.

i kind of thought it was strange that he showed *no* narration in his video of the game, just the parts of the game where you walk, so it did seem to give a skewed view of it. so i'll probably try it out when it's on sale for 2.50 or something

he didn't show any of the narration? that's like showing a review of dance dance resolution with the sound muted. of course it's going to look dumb.

WHAT ARE YOU EVEN SAYING

Has anyone really been far even as decided to use even go want to do look more like?

yeah he said it'd be a "spoiler" to show any of it, but i think it was just an excuse to make the game seem worse than it is (he talked for 17 minutes about how it's not a game)

I really enjoyed the game. Needs a shift in expectation to get into it -- you're walking slowly, deal with it! -- but it looks gorgeous and is the closest thing I've seen to poetry+game.

I wouldn't play it again though. :)

Enjoyed it, it is a game about standing in line at a theme park.

I bought this on Steam sale recently and just now finished it. The game itself took only 90 minutes to play through, but I'm almost speechless... I've never seen such beautiful and breath-taking 3D graphics like these before. I was spellbound at almost every turn. This is the "10" of 3D graphics, for sure, and I'm not sure how I'm going to sit through another 3D game anytime soon if it doesn't look like this. This left me craving for something with this much beauty and realism but also more interactivity. The experience is very much "on rails" even though you can control your movement and zoom in your view to get a closer look at things. The story is poetic and might seem a little bit obtuse or esoteric; I'm not sure I really got it... Seemed to have a lot to do with dying but I'm not going to spoil anything.

Anyways, I believe this game is still at least half off on Steam for the remainder of the Summer Sale, so do yourself a favor and grab it if you haven't already.

I played this game at 2 AM in complete darkness on a 32" HDTV with HDMI output from my PC. I've got a pretty good video card, too. I'd recommend nothing less than my setup (ie: don't bother watching it on YouTube or anything that compromises the resolution; this game is definitely meant to be enjoyed at the highest possible resolution)

WHO THE FUCK IS THIS GUY
http://i.imgur.com/YMy8J.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/i9wzR.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/1Ohbc.png

That ledge inevitably drops out of view for a second while you make your way to it and once you get there the figure is gone, the candle that was beside it still there.

On the other side of this particular cliff there was a cave you can't reach and if you pay attention you can catch a glimpse of a figure holding a light (probably one of the candles) quickly moving out-of-view
http://i.imgur.com/RZRgo.jpg

Who sent out the boats inside the cave?

Who lit the candles?

I don't understand everyone who says it's a boring and tedious game (as much praise as it gets for it) because ever since that first encounter I was waiting for someone to jump out and murder me. I was frightened shitless, not even slightly bored.

yeah I saw those. not sure what they are or represent but it certainly made my second play-through more exciting than I thought it would have been.

I thought it looked really interesting, I love atmospheric games (sounds like it isn't called one). Can it even be called atmospheric? Its really hard to tell from the reviews. From what I can see although it looks visually fantastic.

I think if you approach it with the right frame of mind and not 'oh look a game with no running or objects or puzzles or fighting it must be crap', or even that you won't enjoy it, then the experience isn't going to be great.

But if you approach it like a book and are ready to be immersed in the story and mystery, then it's gonna be a lot of fun. I think that the problem with most of the negative reviews about design is that the people writing them approach the game with a narrow mind.

okay I just want to bring attention to the post a few up I made asking who the other person on the island is

I don't really think anyone can answer that question, as far as I recall there's nothing in the narration that describes or otherwise explains them. it's up to personal interpretation I think.