You just have to experience it.

Based on a famous 2008 Source mod, once more done on the same engine, with first class results. Also: great score (Jessica Curry).
I am certainly hoping for more games like this.

A warning: try not to read any reviews before you play. Most are filled with spoilers and sometimes with factual mistakes as well.

Link to the official site.

It sounds cool. But is it a multi-player game? (Because I don't know how to play those kinds of games.)
Edit: I figured it out.

Last edited by RoseCity : 23rd Feb 2012 at 04:12 AM.

I love indie games!

When I saw the announcement for Dear Esther and I said "I'm def getting that one." Too bad it's a single player though, 'cause I wish there were more good multi-player or at least co-op indie games.

SpyParty. Just in case you're interested.

Dear Esther looks really cool, but I'm not sure I'd be able to stomach the supposedly vague and wordy writing. Stories with too much ambiguity just tend to bother me since I want all of the answers.

A stunning game that will not be to everyone's tastes.

It is, in effect, a long walk narrated by a man who may be going crazy - remembering and misremembering fragments of scattered lives: a cartographer, a shepherd, Paul traveling to Damascus.

Little more than an hour long, it invites replay in order to experience its beautiful setting and soundtrack along with the fact that the main characters monologue differs on subsequent plays.

It is an experiment in creating stronger ties between the ludonarrative and the story as penned by the authors. This game's is as much about your experiences within it as the story being told by our unseen protagonist.

If there is such a genre as 'art game' then this is most certainly in that category. Just don't go expecting a game in the more traditional sense of the word.

I played Dear Esther for the first time yesterday. It is definitely extremely different from what I'm used to with video games. But, for me at least, it's a good difference. The graphics in the game are stunning, and although all the just walking was annoying as heck at first -- I got into what the game was about and started enjoying it.

Not everyone will like the style presented with this game, especially if fps, quests, killing mobs, or solving puzzles are the only game styles you enjoy. To give the game a fair chance I would go with pico22's suggestion to not read any reviews about the game before playing it. Some of the reviews are just brutal. Though I've only played the first chapter of the game myself, it is blatantly obvious some of the reviewers didn't even get that far.

Last edited by aSimmersLife : 27th Feb 2012 at 02:24 AM. Reason: Left a word out, haha

Given the entire game can be completed in an hour I can promise you that even the reviewers who didn't enjoy Dear Esther played the full game.

That said very few reputable game outlets gave it bad reviews (possible exception being Destructoid) - Outlets like Eurogamer, Edge, IGN, Game Informer and GameSpy all gave it very warm reviews.

Even though I disagree with his opinion of this game, my friend Stephen did produce the following piece of Dear Esther inspired brilliance for the Aussie TV show he presents, Good Game. It still makes me giggle. :D

http://www.twitvid.com/FLL0V