Dear Esther Cover

IGDB / 3082

Dear Esther

2012 72 / 100 Adventure Indie
Two years in the making, the highly anticipated Indie remake of the cult mod Dear Esther arrives on PC. Dear Esther immerses you in a stunningly realised world, a remote and desolate island somewhere in the outer Hebrides. As you step forwards, a voice begins to read fragments of a letter: "Dear Esther..." - and so begins a journey through one of the most original first-person games of recent years. Abandoning tradit Show full summary

Two years in the making, the highly anticipated Indie remake of the cult mod Dear Esther arrives on PC. Dear Esther immerses you in a stunningly realised world, a remote and desolate island somewhere in the outer Hebrides. As you step forwards, a voice begins to read fragments of a letter: "Dear Esther..." - and so begins a journey through one of the most original first-person games of recent years. Abandoning traditional gameplay for a pure story-driven experience, Dear Esther fuses its beautiful environments with a breathtaking soundtrack to tell a powerful story of love, loss, guilt and redemption.

World design Nicht eindeutig ExperienceStory-focused GameplayExploration GameplayCombat-focused

Deep dive / Spielprofil

What it is about.

A structured look at the narrative, game feel, and traits that define this game.

Story & context

“A deserted island…a lost man…memories of a fatal crash…a book written by a dying explorer.” Dear Esther is a ghost story, told using first-person gaming technologies. Rather than traditional game-play the focus here is on exploration, uncovering the mystery of the island, of who you are and why you are here. Fragments of story are randomly uncovered when exploring the various locations of the island, making every each journey a unique experience. Forget the normal rules of play; if nothing seems real here, it’s because it may just be all a delusion. What is the significance of the aerial -- What happened on the motorway -- is the island real or imagined -- who is Esther and why has she chosen to summon you here? The answers are out there, on the lost beach, the windswept cliffs and buried in the darkness of the tunnels beneath the island… Or then again, they may just not be, after all…

ExperienceStory-focused GameplayExploration GameplayCombat-focused GenreAdventure GenreIndie ThemeDrama ThemeFantasy ThemeMystery Traitcasual Traitconsolation achievements Traitdarkness Traitdeath Traitdeveloper commentary Traitdynamic narrative Traitexploration Traitghosts Traithumble bundle Traitmod origin Traitnature Traitno combat Traitno hud Traitonlive Traitpolygonal 3d Traitsilent protagonist Traitsingle-player only Traitsteam Traitsteam achievements Traitsteam cloud Traitunreliable narrator Traitvoice acting Traitwalking simulator Traitxbox controller support for pc

Watch / Trailer

Trailer

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Game profile / Plain language

Everything relevant. Without the wiki wilderness.

Studio, play style, releases, and official sources — compactly prepared from external IGDB data.

01
Studios & ownership

Studio & publishing

Developer
The Chinese Room
Publisher
The Chinese Room
Franchise
Standalone
02
So spielt es sich

Spielprofil

Modi
Single player
Perspective
First person
Themes
Drama, Fantasy, Mystery
03
Wo & wann

Platform releases

  • PC (Microsoft Windows) Feb 14, 2012
  • Linux May 28, 2013
  • Mac May 15, 2012

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