I found myself oftentimes getting stuck on the tiniest edge of a rock or being unable to emerge from the water, stuck there until I reloaded or drowned, depending on what part of the game I was in (yes, really, and more on that later too).
Drabness of new-gen game criticisms aside, however, I do wonder exactly how buggy the original mod was, because the “fixed” mechanics are barely fixed at all. It’s tricky, but it is possible there’s an excellent horror point-and-click called A Date in the Park that excels in making horror very possible on a bright, sunny day. Just because your story is depressing or scary doesn’t mean the overall tone has to be. But what a lot of people find to be a gorgeous and moving experience wore on me very quickly to the point where I can’t believe this is actually a paid product, and that the company actually expects you to play it more than once (more on that later).įirst, while the graphics are gorgeous, the landscape can be… well, too drab. Which, I will give the developers, they were clever in some degrees with their atmosphere. Many people consider it a gorgeous work of art open to much interpretation. I hope you get used to that.įrom there, your goal is to explore the island and make your way down the rather winding, convoluted path to your end goal. The game starts out with fantastic setting and tone a drab island, waves crashing on the shore, and the protagonist, credited as the Lost Man, saying, “ Dear Esther,” and continuing to monologue from there. The third thing you’ll notice is that the island you’re on is very, very eerie. His voice acting is very well done, and I’d like to see him in future works.
The only other game he’s done voice work for is the XBox 360 game Heavenly Sword. This is Nigel Carrington, and honestly, he hasn’t been in enough work. The second thing you’ll notice is that the narrator has a very nice voice.
Now this doesn’t inherently make it bad I’ve heard a lot of griping that “walking simulators aren’t games.” I personally disagree and happened to love Everbody’s Gone to the Rapture, which is another walking simulator of sort. You can do nothing but either hold the “W” key on your keyboard or forward on the joystick. Meaning that this involves literally nothing but walking. You find out very, very quickly, that this is a walking simulator. But that’s one good point in its corner, especially because Dear Esther is meant to be an incredibly immersive experience. Just because it looks nice doesn’t mean it’s automatically a good game. The graphics on Final Fantasy XIII were outright gorgeous and breathtaking, and I hated the game more and more with each passing minute. That being said, I have a mantra: “Good graphics do not a good game make.” My favorite game of all time is Sonic Adventure 2, and man, dose polygons. The final product, I believe, is used on Unity, which is pretty common among the indie developing scene. It’s stunning what they were able to push the many engines they ended up porting the games through. It’s here where I found it and went, huh, well, let’s give it a shot.įirst off, the graphics are gorgeous.
As recently as last year, it made its way to the current-gen consoles, both on PS4 and XBox One. In another tactic, they turned to the Indie Fund for help, and were able to pay the company back in the first few hours after the game’s initial remastered release on Steam in 2012.
Upon wanting to make a remastered version, the University this British game studio had relied upon for funding for the first mod refused them funding for the remaster. It was generally well-liked and received, although there were many bugs reported, such as glitches in moving around the terrain (being stuck on items, having the game lag or freeze, and poor level design with an incredibly barren landscape).
But back to the first experiment of TCR’s.ĭear Esther, piggybacking a bit off of what I talked about in Submerged, was originally a Half Life 2 PC mod. This last one surprised me I quite enjoyed Everybody’s Gone and plan on replaying it as I see it as a game with much to explore and offer, as well as having very likable characters, a mysterious but cohesive plot, and gorgeous scenery. There are some games that make you want to kick back and have a drink after you’ve finished, and then there’s some games that just make you want to drink.ĭear Esther is made by The Chinese Room, also known for working on Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs and partnering to work with Santa Monica Studio to make Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture.