Chris Young writes, Upon seeing the title of this game, Dear Esther, I was left to wonder what it could be. In the past I had heard rumblings of this Half Life 2 mod but being that it is very narrative driven in my mind defeats the idea of "playing" a game. Where is the line between game and story? This title hopes to straddle the boundary and give gamers a new experience without actually "playing" anything.
The Chinese Room's Dear Esther goes free on Steam to celebrate the 10th anniversary of this foundational title.
Eh.
I mean free is free, but I found this to be a boring slog.
Not to mention this remasters actually made the game look worse in multiple areas.
I did quite like their A Machine for Pigs and Everybody's Gone to the Rapture though.
On Valentine's Day a decade ago, Dear Esther went from a Source Engine mod to a full-fledged indie game, catalyzing the "walking sim" genre. How does it measure up today?
"The China-based indie games publisher Secret Mode and Brighton-based (the UK) indie games developer The Chinese Room, are today very pleased to announce that they will celebrate the tenth anniversary of "Dear Esther" by making the genre-defining 2012 narrative exploration game free to download from February 14th to February 15th via Steam." - Jonas Ek, TGG.
I agree, some games that don't rely on the typical survivor horror mold/elements can be a huge turn off. I find it interesting and refreshing. Because there's nothing more mysterious and horrific than the human mind (psychology).I will have to add this title to my Steam library.
yeah, it isnt much of a horror game but more of a psychologically mind screwing game, what with its atmosphere, ghosts and creepy island. good review btw but scary looking background.