DEAR ESTHER REDDIT SERIES

These fragments of narration are triggered as the player reaches various key locations along the path, typically when certain landmarks are in view, or when the player approaches those same landmarks.

DEAR ESTHER REDDIT SERIES

Throughout the player's journey across the island, a disembodied narrator speaks, reading aloud fragments from a series of letters to a woman named Esther (It is not directly specified who the Narrator is, but it is generally believed that he is Esther's husband, as well as the player character). The player walks up the cliff path towards the beacon and, upon reaching it, climbs to the top of the tower and leaps off the cliff, taking flight and flying around the island and across the bay before the game ends, fading to black.

From here the player character makes their way out of the cave, falling down more shafts before having a vision of a motorway, completely sunk underwater, before awakening on a moonlit beach beneath a cliff, where a radio beacon stands. The player walks past the lighthouse, along a cliff edge, past a beach strewn with shipwrecks, and various abandoned buildings including an old bothy, until eventually they fall down a hole into a massive network of caves, lit by bioluminecent fungus. There’s a good chance that I’ll play it again too, something has obviously resonated with me.The game opens on an old pier in front of a long-abandoned lighthouse, and the player can begin walking around. A sense of isolation overcame me while the grim environment kept me emotionally sombre and though I felt the need just to stop playing, I also felt that I needed a conclusion.Īfter finishing my short playthrough (around 1-2 hours), I found myself revisiting the game a further two times – once to make sense of what I’d witnessed and another to listen to the included director’s commentary. When playing the game at home by myself, I easily lost myself to the game. While the extent of your abilities lays solely on looking and moving, that does not mean that it’s your only focus.ĭuring a recent Curve Digital preview event, an effort had been made to create an immersive experience by playing in a darkened room and setting the air conditioning too low – effectively providing a harsh coastal feeling. But anything else from there (option & share buttons not included) acts as a small zoom function, and that’s it – here’s no picking objects up, no puzzles and no jump/climb function. You have the well known first person console controls, with the left stick used to move and right to adjust your position of view. While personally, I feel that term is an over-simplification, here it’s a hard one to argue as there is little interaction you can partake in while playing. If you’ve never played Dear Esther or any other game similar in nature, you may still have heard the label of “walking simulator” thrown around. Admittedly, I had to look up a Let’s Play video to see the original PC title running in Valve’s Source engine in comparison to the new Unity 5 version on PlayStation 4 & Xbox One systems. Upon looking around your environment the sea, sky, grass and ground, the effort made into recapturing the game’s original aesthetic while rebuilding into something breathtaking is apparent. As you take your first steps forward, the game’s enchanting score begins as a man’s voice can be heard, reading a series of letters to a woman named Esther. Surrounding your view are the sea, a house close by and lighthouse in the distance. Beginning without explanation, you find yourself on an uninhabited Hebridean island the sky is dark and the atmosphere dreary.

Dear esther reddit