The big selling point of 'Dear Esther: Landmark Edition' is getting to hear the thoughts of artist Robert Briscoe, writer Dan Pinchbeck, and composer Jessica Curry. That's awesome, and I really hope more games experiment with this type of storytelling in the future. Every person who watches a film will see the same scenes, but video games allow for shockingly different paths to occur. It's a really unique situation, and it shows just how unique storytelling in games can be. Sometimes being left with more questions than answers can be frustrating and unsatisfying, but that wasn't how I felt after playing 'Dear Esther.' Instead, I wanted to discuss my playthrough with other players, and I've spent the past couple days talking to others who have played the game and seeing how our experiences differed. This continued up until the ending, and I'm still filled with many questions regarding what exactly happened. This adds an extra sense of mystery to the island, as I often debated whether or not I was seeing an accurate portrayal of the events that were unfolding. Washed up debris is all over the place, and there are often elements that shouldn't naturally be there. This is only fitting, as a lot of the storytelling is done by physically looking at the island itself. While the script changing is most noticeable, the game also randomizes different visual elements as well. I can't get into more different examples without ruining some of the story, but enough can get left out to totally change how one may interpret the events of 'Dear Esther.' For example, in my playthrough the narrator described a hermit who arrived on the secluded island after sailing there on a "boat without a bottom," yet it's possible for another player to never hear about this piece of lore. 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. 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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