Dear Esther released on Steam

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Dear Esther, mod turned commercial title, is now available on Steam. First released on July 29, 2008 as a Half Life 2 mod, this re-release brings an enormous graphics overhaul that pushes the Source engine further to new heights.[br]You can purchase Dear Esther on Steam here.
 
Should I play the mod first or go straight to the commercial release?
 
Aren't they basically the same as far as story and gameplay? It's pretty cool that it's only $10.
 
From the Dear Esther website's FAQ:

Q. I haven’t played the original, should I wait for the commercial release? Will playing the original mod completely spoil it for me?

A. I think this is something you must decide for yourself. It’s a remake after all, but with a ton of additional visuals, details and depth of story added in. (Personally I think it will be worth it will be worth the wait! -Rob)
Click to expand...
 
Just had a run through it. The overhaul is damn impressive, a real labour of love for the artist. Was well worth seeing.

I had never played the original mod, so it was interesting to run through with a couple of friends, and getting a completely different take from each of us. I have no idea what I experienced, but it has certainly got me thinking.
 
For some reason I expected it to be free. Well, if it's such a big improvement from the original it should have a price.
 
Well I have no income right now, but I'll be adding it to my wishlist for future purchase. I've not played the original mod.
 
Doesn't look particularly interesting.

What exactly do you do in the game? Just look at pretty landscapes whilst a narrator drones on about whatever the ****?
 
Lucid said:
What exactly do you do in the game? Just look at pretty landscapes whilst a narrator drones on about whatever the ****?
Click to expand...

Yep. Not gonna lie. It is what it is.

A short story told through exploration. The closest thing I would compare it to, are the games from 'Tale of Tales' such as The Path. With the immersive atmosphere (first-person in this case) enhancing the delivery of the narrative.

Personaly I enjoy seeing the medium used for alternative things like this, but if its not the kind of thing that interests you, I would definitely give it a pass.
 
Holy shit it's out today! AWESOME!!!

I am SO playing it this weekend.
 
Lucid said:
Doesn't look particularly interesting.

What exactly do you do in the game? Just look at pretty landscapes whilst a narrator drones on about whatever the ****?
Click to expand...

Well, that's a disservice.
 
Played and liked the original last year. I found it while browsing the "WTF" section of those yearly 1up "101 Free Games" lists while bored.

Honestly I hate narrated backstory, because I've been having a really hard time hearing speech lately -- not sure if it's laziness or hearing loss, but I use subtitles on tv, movies, and games even though I'm not deaf. Still, I really liked the whole atmosphere of Dear Esther and, after playing, I read through most of the script and thought it was very good. I also replayed it even though you might not expect this "game" to have any replay value. Even if you think you'll hate it, it doesn't hurt to try 10 minutes or all of the free mod before getting snarky about it.

Unfortunately I restricted my budget and forgot to reserve money for this. But I will get it later! And if they've added subtitles to this new version, that would be perfect.
 
Lucid said:
Doesn't look particularly interesting.

What exactly do you do in the game? Just look at pretty landscapes whilst a narrator drones on about whatever the ****?
Click to expand...

That is like saying Half Life 2 is where you run around and shoot some soldiers and aliens with an orange glowing gun.
 
Lobster said:
Yep. Not gonna lie. It is what it is.

Not really a game. Rather a short story told through exploration. The closest thing I would compare it to, are the games from 'Tale of Tales' such as The Path. With the immersive atmosphere (first-person in this case) enhancing the delivery of the narrative.

Personaly I enjoy seeing the medium used for alternative things like this, but if its not the kind of thing that interests you, I would definitely give it a pass.
Click to expand...

Thanks for not attacking me about it like so many others would have.
There's basically nothing that tells you what you actually do in the game, so that's all I needed to hear.
 
dfc05 said:
Played and liked the original last year. I found it while browsing the "WTF" section of those yearly 1up "101 Free Games" lists while bored.

Honestly I hate narrated backstory, because I've been having a really hard time hearing speech lately -- not sure if it's laziness or hearing loss, but I use subtitles on tv, movies, and games even though I'm not deaf. Still, I really liked the whole atmosphere of Dear Esther and, after playing, I read through most of the script and thought it was very good. I also replayed it even though you might not expect this "game" to have any replay value. Even if you think you'll hate it, it doesn't hurt to try 10 minutes or all of the free mod before getting snarky about it.

Unfortunately I restricted my budget and forgot to reserve money for this. But I will get it later! And if they've added subtitles to this new version, that would be perfect.
Click to expand...

There are subtitles, yes.
 
Just finished it. The playtime was around two hours, and that was one fascinating ride. I don't want to reveal too much, but suffice to say that there's a lot to dig into and the narrator does a great job. I loved the writing, the whimsical, impossible similes and claims the narrator makes fit perfectly with the mood. The visual palette was very Valve-style; color plays heavily into drawing the eye to important details and areas.

Separate paragraph: this soundtrack was spectacular. Class A stuff all around.

I will be playing through a couple more times to explore alternative areas (you cannot explore everything in one playthrough).

So for discussion with those who have played through (GAME-RUINING SPOILERS AHOY!!!)
I read through Wikipedia, and it seems to corroborate what I thought: Esther is the narrator's girlfriend or wife, and she is killed in a car crash. The symbols on the island allude to the two possible reasons for her death: the driver that hit her was drunk (there are numerous examples of the diagram of an alcohol molecule, and later on it surrounds diagrams of brain cells in a tunnel), or his brakes failed (electrical diagrams show up all over, too, and he mentions at the end that the crash was unavoidable) or perhaps both (there are parts where the electrical diagrams and chemical diagrams degrade into a mish-mash mess of both coming together).

He references Donnelly constantly and also calls Esther "Esther Donnelly." I think Donnelly is her brother, and he died of syphilis after a years-long battle with. The narrator mentions kidney stones a lot, both in his body and Donnelly's. What the significance is, I can only guess. He also mentions infections, and specifically says he has one from a broken leg. There's an area where you see surgical instruments covered in blood and some pills that I think might have the label tetracycline (antibiotic).

Other things I noticed, of whose importance I am unsure, were the constant references to Paul's biblical journey to Damascus where he gets the cataracts and they fall off. Jacobson seems to have some significance, but I can't figure it out. God damn there is so much to dig into here! It's beautiful and frustrating and exciting at the same time. I want to know the whole story!
 
Samon Fish said:
What is a game?
Click to expand...

I don't think I am smart enough to know one way or the other. I guess I was referring to what may be perceived by some as a traditional game. Most story driven games involve following a path to its eventual end, but often the path involves an obstacle or challenge that must be overcome.

I honestly don't know when a game becomes a game, and when something is being played rather than simply being experienced. I suppose it could be argued that walking through the world of Dear Esther is like turning the pages of a book, only a book whose chapters are in an indefinite order. Though you could also argue that discovering the path itself is the game.
 
But you aren't 'turning the pages of a book'. You're travelling through a fully realized virtual environment at your own lesiure and you aren't really being dictated to. It certianly isn't 'traditional' (which is hardly a bad thing), but it's no less a 'game'. People need to start thinking about what games can be as opposed to what they should be.
 
brad92 said:
t certianly isn't 'traditional' (which is hardly a bad thing), but it's no less a 'game'. People need to start thinking about what games can be as opposed to what they should be.
Click to expand...

I have removed my original remark about it not being a game, as I completely agree with what you just said, and my intention was never to cheapen Dear Esther in any way.
 
Just beat the whole game, the game is truly beautiful. It's by far the best looking Source game, yet. Infact, it exceeds any Valve game in visuals.

Now that Valve have been beaten by an indie game in graphics, now Valve has extra incentive to push their graphics in HL3.
 
ah yes, ''beaten'', by a game not even half the size or scale of an half-life episode, let alone a full valve release. and this isn't me shitting on dear esther as i am absolutely ecstatic to play it, but i think it's sort of silly to even compare this to anything valve have done.

portal 2 ''beat'' left 4 dead 2 in graphics - are we so quick to forget valve's already existing incentives?
 
That's what makes it even more funny, the fact that it's only an hour long and an indie game it has better visual effects than any recent Valve game. The developers of the mod used 98% resources already in the engine, but Valve refuse to use them for what ever reason. Time to stop catering to the minority of lower end users, and use what 48% of steam users are 'using'
 
Can we cease our discussion of graphics? Yes, Dear Esther is stunningly rendered, almost to photo realism in some places, but it is merely a tool to convey the importance of certain elements.

So I played through a second time with a friend watching, and he was unimpressed for the first 20 minutes, now I think he's going to buy it! Also, second playthrough when I came to look over the cliff at the inaccessible cave mouth again I saw a candle in the mouth and then IT WALKED OFF!!! That was mind-blowing, and I'm not sure whether the figure is the same shape as that on top of the precipice later in the game, but the more times I play through the more details I find and am fascinated by!

It's like Donny Darko and As I Lay Dying got smashed together and turned into a game.
 
SpotEnemyBoats said:
That's what makes it even more funny, the fact that it's only an hour long and an indie game it has better visual effects than any recent Valve game. The developers of the mod used 98% resources already in the engine, but Valve refuse to use them for what ever reason. Time to stop catering to the minority of lower end users, and use what 48% of steam users are 'using'
Click to expand...

you miss my point. you've answered your own question as to why dear esther is so visually impressive - it's only an hour or so long, and the majority of that hour is in a landscape that isn't too environmentally/visually different from other elements of the game. a standard valve release - episode 2, left 4 dead 2, portal 2, et all - all have varying locations, different colour palettes, different uses of matte painting backgrounds or sizes of skyboxes, and that's all still to be implemented along side other such bloaty memory usage like a.i. characters/enemies in an environment, the scale of battles or set-pieces and so forth.

dear esther looks amazing because it's an hour and a half long and all you do is wander around a pretty painting (again: not being dismissive. i'm very much in love with this particular mechanic. it's wonderfully engrossing). another valve game might not be so good looking because you do another six hours of the same thing - and more - on various other planes. there's a shit load of other things going on so it's not exactly easy to make every single second look as pretty as dear esther. or at least, this is all things i presume anyway; from listening to game developers talk of networking, engineering, the engine, etc.

but this argument is implying that previous valve titles have looked bad, somehow? portal 2 looked amazing, and as i said, it was better looking than left 4 dead 2. when the next valve title rolls around it'll look even better. what's your point again?
 
Hey.


Hey guys.


Hey, listen!


Can we not turn this into another shitty HL2.net pissing contest about graphics and other game snobbery?
 
I'm really interested in this game, though $10 is a bit too steep for a 2 hour game (even if the story elements are randomized). I will certainly pick this up when it goes on sale.
 
Wanted Bob said:
I'm really interested in this game, though $10 is a bit too steep for a 2 hour game (even if the story elements are randomized). I will certainly pick this up when it goes on sale.
Click to expand...

Why is this an issue if, you know, it's very good?
 
Maestro said:
Hey.


Hey guys.


Hey, listen!


Can we not turn this into another shitty HL2.net pissing contest about graphics and other game snobbery?
Click to expand...

hey

hey maestro

read my ****ing post.

how many goddamn times do i need to say that i wasn't being dismissive of dear esther, nor was i being positive of it's graphical qualities alone? i even said the game is wonderful for reasons outside of its aesthetic. my argument was with spotenemyboats, and it hasn't anything to do with the game other than there is a very good reason for why dear esther looks super shiney incredible amazing compared to a recent valve title, and that was that.
 
Awesome, then we can get back to talking about Dear Esther. Anyone else have ideas on what's happened?
 
Yorick said:
Well, I'm sold. Once I have $10 lying around I'm picking this up.
Click to expand...

I'd say, Yorick, what makes this game unique is that like both those works it experiments heavily with semi-linear/nonlinear narrative, the other thing they share is experimenting not with happiness or direct conflict, but instead with the emotion of unhappiness and a story revolving around a dying explorer's travels. It's a sad game and the more you contemplate the story, the sadder it gets, but it's kind of cathartic in a way.
 
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