Dear Esther: Landmark Edition

Still, some people will find meaning and depth in what Dear Esther delivers. I envy that. The linchpin of these games is to develop a connection with the player. Along with that connection comes emotion. Dear Esther is simply too disconnected from itself to ever connect with me.

It's clear that the “walking simulator" genre has moved on since its birth child four years ago. The antiquated gameplay has been surpassed by the likes of Gone Home, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, and Firewatch, and the visuals are just as murky as a Scottish rainfall. There are far more and much better narrative-driven experiences to be had in 2016, and so Dear Esther: Landmark Edition feels like a bit of a relic in this day and age.

A beautiful early example of the narrative driven 'walking simulator' brought to life with stunning graphics and the same intriguingly muddled narrative as its become famous for.

At its core, Dear Esther represents an exploration (or walking simulator, if that’s one’s preferred assessment) title for exploration fans.

Dear Esther, You are a brief experience, but you were ever worth my time.

Dear Esther: Landmark Edition is only $9.99 on PlayStation 4, and if you’re a fan of Everybody’s Gone To The Rapture – the spiritual successor to this game – and want to see where it all started, then this is a game you have to play.

A hauntingly immersive experience which may not be as exciting as the average game but four years on it's still a beautiful piece of art. If you haven't played it before now is the time to pick it up.

While Dear Esther is visually captivating, it amounts to a little more than a countryside slog in every other aspect.

Dear Esther has always challenged the definition of what it means to be a game, but the way that it controls the placement of the narrative with the player's advancement through the world creates an experience that can only exist within a game. The environments and the score create a world that's a little more like experiencing a classical art museum rather than a traditional game world. The audio commentary from the developers provides a nice little addition that really cements this as the ultimate release of Dear Esther.

Clocking in at just over an hour, the experience provides a great look into the beginnings of the narrative exploration genre. I just don’t find the look to be entirely compelling on its own merits.