The thing with Dear Esther is that it's not exactly a game. There are no real options for you to chose from, the only thing you can do in it is to walk around an island, trying to learn what happened.
At different points of the island there are short narrations, and these, coupled with the foreign objects scattered around, the signs of passing time and the background sounds will help to puzzle something out.
The fun part of it is that it's not something concrete that you will get from it.
The whole story is a jumble of emotions and symbols - and you rarely get something true out of it that could lead you towards the truth. And this is perhaps the reason why this game - I will be calling it a game, even though it doesn't really feel like one- is so successful.
Every single person out there probably feels they learned different things from it. As I said, it is an emotional journey, which means that every person will probably get a different story out of it.
But before I start out with what I got from it, let me talk a little about how it looks like and how it sounds like.
The whole graphic of the game is pretty amazing. The makers of it managed to create something truly beautiful to look at, and even though you have probably seen smoother worlds, the island is so nicely structured and detailed that you will feel as if you were there.
I loved the caves especially - I don't think I have ever seen such beautifully enlightened caves before-, but I don't want to tell too much about it, because I feel like I would somehow give away the story if I did.
The background sounds were also amazingly put together. I'm using the word sounds instead of music, because there isn't really a continuous music to the whole story - instead, it just picks up at exactly the right moment so you barely even notice it.
And when it's not there, you will be treated to the sounds of different things, like the wind picking up or just breezing trough a canyon; and let me tell you, that at a few points you can almost actually feel it on your skin.
As I said, they really managed to create something beautiful out of almost nothing.
All right, now let me get on with my version of the story - so if you don't want any spoilers, you can quit reading about now.
The game starts out with you on the edge of an island, at a lighthouse. A narrator will start speaking as soon as the game starts - as if someone is reading a letter to you.
It uses quite a sophisticated language, which to me pointed towards an older time; right along with the rotten buildings just about ready to fall apart, it reminded me of Cloud Atlas, and the first chapter. Strange, really, but it came with almost the same emotions.
I had no idea what I should do - I never actually read anything about the game, or watched any walktrough, and there really isn't a tutorial to find out what you have to do. The only thing was to start walking, and looking around.
The whole place seemed a little eerie, and I was almost expecting something scary to jump out from a corner. Thankfully, nothing of the sort happened - though I have to admit that I DID see some feint human-looking creatures in the distance, even when they weren't there when I got to the place.
After a while I decided that these weren't there by mistake - the story spoke about four different people - who in the end turned into two for me. Two main characters, and then at least one more on the side. As I walked around the island I also noticed some x-rays that you usually get when you are pregnant. You know, the ones about babies.
It raised some questions in me - there is no actual talk about any babies, but it made me think about Esther being pregnant. And, of course this meant that the narrator was Esther's husband - or maybe just a lover.
There were chemistry books all over the place, and chemical bonds - which somehow lent me to think about alcohol. Was someone suffering from an addiction, perhaps? It DID seem so, because at one point the narrator mentions something about taking a journey inside his own body. Was I taking this same journey, perhaps?
Besides, science was all over the place - not just with the chemistry, but it seemed to me, it had a lot of anatomy too. Drawings of what to me looked like nerves, and later on, even some mechanical bonds too. They all symbolized life to me - humanity, if you want - and maybe even the actual human body. Consciousness, or the lack of it.
In the first chapters I had no other options but to try and find my way - even at the cost of apparent death, which was thwarted every time by an almost silent command, "Come back".
This message is probably the most obvious one, because it is a key-point of the whole story.
Someone is there to stop you from slipping away into death. Are you in a coma, perhaps? Is the journey you are taking just a dream?
There are some other interesting symbols hidden in the game too. The tree of life, the golden ratio, paper-ships. Once again, they lead me to believe that this was actually nothing else but life we are talking about. The vulnerability of it. The beauty of it.
And then, when you reach the caves and you actually have to dive into the deep waters, you start to see glimpses of things. Things like crashed cars, and abandoned hospital beds.
Yes, it did seem to me like I was playing with someone's consciousness - dreams mended together with real life. The "come back" made sense now.
Then, there were some weird noises at certain points of the game too, that seemed to me like different machines. Also, let's not forget the parts where you could clearly hear what sounded like heart-beats.
And then, as you start to get closer to the end, more and more religious symbols come into it. I think that THAT'S the point where I realized that someone is actually dying.
After all, what do people turn towards in their last moments?
And then, there is the ending of the game, where all controls are taken from you, and you see yourself hurtling down towards the cliff, then the shadow of a bird... and you are once again soaring all over the island.
Beautiful, I have to tell you. Especially combined with the first words of the narrator saying that the birds have all abandoned the island a long time ago - and the one in the end, where he says that sometime in the future, there will be other birds joining him.
Guys, there is really no way for me to explain how amazing this short story is. As I said, it has so many different meaning, we could debate it for days and still not come to a conclusion. I LOVE these kind of stories.
And although there really isn't a way for you to experience it without actually playing it- I'm going to place here a full playtrough. Maybe if you will watch it like a movie, you'll get the hang of it.
Emő, you should watch it too, I think you would love it. Don't think of it as a game, but as an amazing story. :P
