► WTF Is... - Dear Esther ?

Totalbiscuit shows you a game which is not a game. Mysterious eh?

[lammatt]

it's a "walking simulator"

[Fredfredbug]

Here is what Chris Crawford says...

1. Creative expression is art if made for its own beauty, and entertainment if made for money.
2. A piece of entertainment is a plaything if it is interactive. Movies and books are cited as examples of non-interactive entertainment.
3. If no goals are associated with a plaything, it is a toy. (Crawford notes that by his definition, (a) a toy can become a game element if the player makes up rules, and (b) If it has goals, a plaything is a challenge.
4. If a challenge has no "active agent against whom you compete, " it is a puzzle; if there is one, it is a conflict. (Crawford admits that this is a subjective test. Video games with noticeably algorithmic artificial intelligence can be played as puzzles; these include the patterns used to evade ghosts in Pac-Man.)
5. Finally, if the player can only outperform the opponent, but not attack them to interfere with their performance, the conflict is a competition. (Competitions include racing and figure skating.) However, if attacks are allowed, then the conflict qualifies as a game.

These are the five criteria required to be a game. Dear Esther only accomplishes the first criteria. Dear Esther is entertainment. Whether it's good entertainment is a completely different debate. But it's most certainly not a game. 

Dear Esther is interactive? No. All you do is press W and move your mouse. Are books interactive because you turn the pages? Are movies interactive because you have to look at them?

Is Dear Esther a challenge? Well, you have to get to the end, but that's not really a goal. There aren't any specific rules either like "Get to the end without turning around" or "get to the end in a certain amount of time". There are no ways to fail Dear Esther

Is Dear Esther puzzle? No, simply because you need to be a challenge first in order to qualify as a Puzzle. This means it can't be a conflict either and subsequently, a game. 

[ydarbh]

Imagine if they made a deathmatch game with Dear Esther maps.

[spwolftech]

RIP. Its 5/2022 and your still missed!

[SpiffingNZ]

There is one thing certain about Dear Esther... The music is simply amazing.

[Nostradankus]

It's still a more interactive experiance than The Flowers Of Robert Maplethorpe...

[Hal]

Firstly this is probably the first honest and raw review of this title i have seen. I'm sorry if this is somewhat pieced together from my thoughts it's late here. Anyway can we all look at the basics of what should be talked about here? The argument in my opinion really shouldn't be whether this is a game or art or in fact at all interactive. Rather it should be for what it is did it succeed. There are other games that follow this style of narrative and deliver very little game play and little interactivity if any but still achieved what it sets out to achieve. At the end of the day any more interaction/gameplay elements in the guise of picking up cans on the beach, running and jumping, and examining every part of junk one might find in the environment would add little to this title if the main function didn't work. These types of games live and breathe only one thing - the story. If it fails to deliver in this regard it doesn't really matter if its pretty to look at or is immersible in some way, lets be totally honest here. If the story moved you or worked for you than the title is a success for you and you can add what title you want to it, be it art, a game or a quasi religious experience if thats your bag? However since the story didn't work for me, being way too vague and it never gave you anything to care about or a reason to really care about the story or its characters that were never really outlined very well. Would it have been nice if I could have picked up a book and skimmed through some history or some tid bit into the story, again only if the story worked and was engaging enough to bother. As it is for me and I think for a lot of people just adding a new coat of paint to a worn out vehicle like this might look pretty but if were being totally honest here it doesn't add a lot of depth. In conclusion if you walked away from this "experience" feeling quite engaged and satisfied with its narrative you must have powers of observation that most lack for there was so little given in terms of cohesive narrative that you really had to create your own scenario in your own imagination. But i ask you if this title requires some hard core replays and really reading into everything then I don't think that should be expected of the player in my opinion. I think in its current state it could have worked if the story was more fleshed out and maybe there was some purpose to the exploration beyond padding out the game to make it longer. I really didn't mind not having any interactivity to speak of, but exploring for over an hour and not getting anything out of it other than at best some cave paintings is a little sour of a reward for this kind of experience. I applaud the effort to try new things and to not keep churning out the same tired old shit but in the case of Dear Esther i personally feel it falls flat of what it was trying to achieve, beyond the fact that it has little to no connection to classic game play elements. That was my humble if slightly long winded opinion take of it what you like.    

[derrick.t]

1:26 "If you love holding the "W' key, then this game is right up your alley."

Someone better let the people who love playing pyro in Team Fortress 2 know about this game.

[clouds]

I rather enjoyed this title. It is a good combination of art in the form of visuals, music and text. Especially the music! I agree it's not really a game but it is something I enjoy. It's kinda similar to "Gone Home" which is of course 10x better because of the added interactivity.

[weirded]

turns out death stranding wasn't the first strand type game

[JCOdrjones]

This video really ruined "what is a game" discourse

[Pnxo]

this isn't a game, It's a book with a video game engine. books aren't games

[turbulenceadams]

But your review was honest and that is good. You still missed what Dear Esther is. It's a very emotional journey through death, life, awakening, sorrow, guilt, weirdness and tunnels. It had such an effect on me but that is just my opinion too. One of a kind. Whitehead lighthouse. There was a school teacher there that lived in the caves down from the lighthouse.

[DarkRaptor]

Dear Esther is like a Chess Game without the Chess Figures and only with the Chessboard

[JayVexVideo]

I thoroughly enjoyed Dear Esther, and think TotalBiscuit inadvertently hit on an important point: The whole thing makes a lot more sense when you stop thinking about it as a game. The expectations that come with a claim like that simply do not apply, and only when you eschew them can you appreciate Dear Esther for what it is.
Having said that, there is something to be said against marketing it as a game rather than the semi-interactive art-story thing it is.

[Blakbox]

I love art, I love strolling through art galleries and just viewing and interpreting art. I'm a pretentious twat like that.

I still can't appreciate Dear Esther. The interactivity is pointless, and it's not an engaging art piece.

[zapman]

what about the guy who follows you around in the game? If you go to the light tower and look up the stairs you see something move when you look at it, and there are a few other times you see him stalking you.

[Rentonboyo]

If you've ever wondered what it means to be an emo, play Dear Esther. It's incredibly realistic, by the end of the game I really thought I was an emo. Well done.

[johnsmith-tfxb]

It was much more fun reading the comments then it was to actually play the "game"

[LordPenguinVR]

this is one of my favorite games of all time and I will stand by that no matter what. I even have a lets play of this game on my channel