holoz0r's A-Z of Steam: Dear Esther - A melancholic landscape
I did not know what to expect walking into Dear Esther. I picked up the "Landmark Edition" gratis as a part of a Steam, Humble, or otherwise something give away, and I'm not sure that it is a game that I would purchase using my own money.
It feels far more like an experience as opposed to game; the sort of thing that you would experience in an art gallery as a large, immersive projection, or indeed as meditation on how certain stories can only be told in certain media.
Dear Esther is certainly something that can only tell its story as a video game. While it is a small game, and only requires about an hour or two to reach its natural conclusion, there's an incremental depth given to the audience with each subsequent play through.
This reminds me of having walked the same streets, but had different things on my mind throughout each journey. As the anonymous protagonist has what seems a rambling monologue, the landscape of the island on which he roams unfurls like a painting; feeling expansive due to the weight of the subject matter the protagonist discusses, and yet at the same time oppressive, due to the fact that all you can do in this world is think, roam, and observe.
The music in the game serves to make this all the more enigmatic and dare I say, beautiful; as it helps you ponder on the dialogue you've heard, and the environmental meanderings are given meaning by it.
If "landscape paintings" were a genre of video game, this would be it. It is branded a "walking simulator"; but truly, the way in which the environment is lit and is strategically laid out to the player by way of paths means that each view, each journey down a path; is a landscape that is carved by the feet that formerly trod upon it, and the elements of erosion with the passage of time.
While I only spent just over an hour with this game, that hour was a slow and profound experience. As an artistic project, it is masterful, melancholic and beautiful, but as a "game", it is something that people would not categorise as enjoyable.
You're left uncomfortable, thoughtful, and yearning for more meaning. The exact same feeling you get upon completion of an excellent novel.
As a result, my feelings on this title are mixed, but it is most definitely an experience that will fly, like a raven, far above the heads of most.
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