Pixels or Death's Tim Hsu talks about the qualities that make Dear Esther stand out, and how none of them have to do with the actual game:
"What is obvious is its message: First-Person control is not a dedicated shooter mechanism, mechanics and gameplay do not require interaction or input, and stories need not be told in a single sitting in a linear fashion. What is less obvious is its direction: where exactly does it suggest videogames go after this?"
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.
