Dear Esther as an experience, is perfect. As a game, it's debatable.

User Rating: 8.5 | Dear Esther PC
By FreakshowGamer | Review Date:
Dear Esther is a glorified virtual 'hiking' trip with a very absorbing narrative. It may sound a little bland and not very entertaining, but if you're a fan of memorable stories and gorgeous eye-candy, this is for you. This is not only a graphical tech demo of your dreams that can run on almost any modern system surprisingly well, but the atmosphere and overall experience is something to hold onto. It will be a conversation starter and theories about the storyline are an inevitable subject after completing it. The game is rather short and can be completed in a little over an hour, which surprised me at it's $9.99 price point. Fortunately, I don't regret a thing because contributing to a successful and deserving indie game is never a sin.

The good:
-Absolutely absorbing and memorable experience.
-Stunningly lush visuals and a surprisingly efficient performance even on weaker machines.
-Great acting performance from the narrator and really makes you feel like you're diving into his head.
-Very symbolic story and leaves a warm impression on you after completion.
-The soundtrack is simply beautiful and really matches the environments and character feelings.

The bad:
-Could have been extended in length and content since the original mod to be worth the money.
-A little more clarity on the storyline would have been nice to prevent more Google searches for discussions on the game's story.

It's hard to rate this 'game', if you can even call it that. The experience is very worthwhile, but it doesn't do much in terms of being a game, besides rendering beautiful graphics before you and controlling a character. It was hard to decide, but...

8.5/10

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