There are actual spirits you see from time to time if you’re looking in the right spots, but the presence of these specters is nothing in comparison to the ghosts of pain present in the narrator’s voiceovers, all of which play in sequence as you make your way from one end of the island to the other. To that end: this is a game largely concerned with ghosts. What the game evokes is far more interesting than the specifics of a plot that’s nebulous at best. Dear Esther is best left as an unsettling howl of grief into the sea wind. I can understand the merit and joy that lies within attempting to piece together a story like this, but it’s not a task that’s of interest to me. Who is the narrator? Why does the number 21 show up so much? Why is the game named after a character you only hear referenced a handful of times? Who does the player control? So on, so forth. Much has been written about Dear Esther’s narrative, with authors putting together wikis, videos and articles explaining what they believe the story is about or offering a series of possible answers for common questions about the game. Every inch of Dear Esther’s island is gorgeous, from the abandoned lighthouse that greets you to the soggy paper boats you find on the far shore and the caves that make up the belly of the isle, but I’m talking about more than the kind of beauty that’s pleasing to the eye. The games created by The Chinese Room are worlds of mourning where grief is etched into the walls, where we are allowed to explore the ruinscapes of our shattered selves. There are no great battles to be fought, no one to save. ![]() In Dear Esther the cause is already lost. ![]() There are high stakes in those games, with the protagonist’s life or fate of the world hanging in the balance. Nothing resembles the slowly building dread of psychological horror seen in Silent Hill. Despite all my efforts I can never get far away enough to think I can exist without this place.ĭear Esther is a particular kind of horror game, one that actively encourages projection and self-insertion. I have been here before and I will return here again before long. In the distance I see a radio tower, its light blinking red through the fog of dusk. I start on the shore, momentarily disturbing the still life of grass and rocks with my slow footsteps. ![]() With The Chinese Room’s latest game, Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture, out today, we look back at the studio’s first two games.ĭear Esther is the closest thing I have to a pilgrimage.
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