Dear Esther is a game devoloped by thechineseroom and Robert Briscoe ,published by the chineseroom. It is distributed on Steam, which is an good choice, not only because I like Steam, but because Dear Esther was originally a modification for the Half Life 2 engine aka Source. The game was released on 14. February 2012 which is about 3 years after the mod, which was released in 2008.
Dear Esther cannot be described as a game, since you cannot interact with the world in anyway but to walk and look around and zoom in on object if you want to. You should think of it as an movie in which you constantly hold the play button instead.
This is by no means a negative thing, if you want to experience a story, just don't expect a game in the traditional sense.
In Dear Esther you are on an Island somewhere in the British Isles. While you explore your surroundings the narrator reads out passages of his diary.
Through this narrative you learn why you are on this island and ofcourse who Esther is.
Throughout the game music is used to create a fitting atmosphere, which is also helped by the stunning visuals, which are by far the best I have seen in a source game to date.
Here are some of my screenshots as a demonstration:
Although I thouroly enjoyed my time with Dear Esther, which I bought on release, since I love the mod, it cannot be neglected that the game is only about 1 hour long.
This may seem too short for some, especially since it costs 7,99€ or 10$ on Steam right now.
I believe,though, you should consider quality over quantity. And I for one definetely believe Dear Esther is worth the current asking price. If you are still not conviced though you should wait for a sale and buy it then or if you do not care all too much about graphics and you own Half Life 2 you could play the original modification instead.
Store page:
http://store.steampowered.com/app/203810/
Developers:
http://thechineseroom.co.uk/
http://www.littlelostpoly.co.uk/
Modification:
http://www.moddb.com/mods/dear-esther
