Bit Tech's Joe Martin writes, "The struggle to define the difference between games and art has raged boringly in the background of the industry for many years now, with critics and creators drawing confident lines in the sand only for a tide of new releases to wash them away over and again. Is interactivity and firmly set rules what defines a game - and if so then how does that fit with sandbox games and the idea of player agency?
These are arguments that the commercial release of Dear Esther by TheChineseRoom, based on the 2008 mod of the same name, will dredge up again. Is this boiled-down tale of love and loss a game, or is it more of an interactive exhibit filled with unpredictable flourishes?"
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.
