This means that each scripted voice-over sequence can unfold in several different ways, and that means that the story I was told will likely differ from the one that other players will experience. The game's story is semi-randomized for each playthrough. What is more interesting than the narrative, is how it's delivered. The only thing that is really clear from the very beginning is that the island where 'Dear Esther' takes place holds some dark secrets. His quips sometimes contradict each other, and his abnormal delivery only furthers the intrigue. This comes in the form of voice-over (large or small captions are also available) from what seems to be an unreliable narrator. The story is kept intentionally vague at first, and allows the player to put clues together. This helped the simple act of walking stay interesting for the entire game, even if it was only for 90 minutes or so. It really felt as if I was uncovering two mysteries at once, as I stumbled upon caverns and heard the nameless narrator remark upon events that occurred in the past and present. Thankfully, 'Dear Esther' takes place on a gorgeous, mysterious island that I wanted to explore every inch of. Just like in real life, walking around a virtual landscape can get boring. I always knew that I had to keep walking in order to advance the story, and that sort of simplicity actually felt refreshing in an era where I often have to deal with different gameplay systems intertwining. Instead, 'Dear Esther' feels like a much more curated, yet distinctly individual, experience since there is really only one thing to do at any point.
#DEAR ESTHER SCRIPT FULL#
It lacks the rooms full of objects, and light puzzle-solving elements that have become standard in this type of game, but I don't feel like it suffers from it. One thing that stands out is that The Chinese Room's game really just has one mechanic: walking. So, it's interesting to look back at 'Dear Esther,' since it's essentially the catalyst point of an entire subset of indie games. The gaming landscape has changed a lot in the past four years, and games like 'Gone Home' and 'Firewatch' have shown that first-person narratives have a place in gaming. It was a simple experience, but also a very divisive one. Sure, that seems really silly now, but it shows how foreign the concept of a game where the player just explored an island by walking around was just a few short years ago. When 'Dear Esther' was commercially released in 2012, it was the center of a lot of "is this really a game?" debates.
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