{"id":2102033,"date":"2026-08-20T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T21:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2102033"},"modified":"2026-08-20T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T21:00:00","slug":"a-videogame-as-art-heres-why-dear-esther-is-one-of-the-greatest-of-all-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2102033","title":{"rendered":"A videogame as art: here’s why ‘Dear Esther’ is one of the greatest of all time"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The sun\u2019s just starting to set on the Hebrides. It\u2019s winter. At least, it looks like it must be winter. The light\u2019s cold and unsympathetic, drawing the rugged moorland in blues and mournful mauve. With no objective, no map, no quest marker, you take a few steps forward.<\/p>\n

Then: a man\u2019s voice. Not out in the world, coming from somewhere within earshot, but actually within your head. He\u2019s reading out fragments of letters to his wife, Esther.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Compare that introduction to the typical \u2018everyone\u2019s been murdered around you\/the world\u2019s just been blown up\u2019 opening gamers were accustomed to in 2012 when\u00a0Dear Esther<\/em> released, and you get some idea of how stark, how confrontationally uneventful, this strange little indie title was.<\/p>\n

With none of\u00a0Mass Effect 3<\/em>\u2019s space opera bombast or\u00a0Dishonored<\/em>\u2019s balletic melee combat, and without the ability to craft an ammo belt out of a dead jungle creature like you could in\u00a0Far Cry 3<\/em>, The Chinese Room\u2019s haunting and literary \u2018walking sim\u2019 nevertheless cemented a place for itself in the pantheon, and it remains as captivating to take a stroll in today as it ever was.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

That term, \u2018walking sim\u2019, was a derogatory label at first. What kind of game was this, anyway? There was no challenge, no enemies, not even a jump button. Did the developers forget to put the game in? It felt like wandering around in a videogame environment out of hours, when all the NPCs had sloped off for a pint. What was the point of it all? It was basically just a walking around and looking at stuff simulator, surely?<\/p>\n

Dear Esther\u2019s<\/em> real creative accomplishment is facing that accusation with steely eye contact, and then showing you precisely how moving and engrossing simply walking around and looking at stuff can be. As you explore the deserted Hebridean island with nightfall rapidly descending, you\u2019re constantly rounding corners and cresting hills, revealing views that make your skin tingle.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

There\u2019s a solemn poetry to the voiceover, written by Dan Pinchbeck and performed by Nigel Carrington, and it has a way of revealing its meaning so slowly, and in such an understated style, that you genuinely just have to stop and stand there at times, letting it all sink in.<\/p>\n

The author\u2019s wife, Esther, has passed away. It seems to have involved a drunk-driving incident involving a man named Paul, on the M5 motorway somewhere outside Exeter. In tandem, you hear snippets about a shepherd who lived on this island in the 18th century, and a man named Donnelly who sacrificed his safety and wellbeing to chart the place. The exact fragments of narrative you hear are different every playthrough, so there\u2019s always a lot left unsaid. It doesn\u2019t matter \u2013 you know enough.<\/p>\n

When Jessica Curry\u2019s heartbreaking cello-driven score kicks in, the barren moorland bathed in moonlight as the narrator calmly lays bare their grief and heartbreak, you\u2019re swept up in it all. You don\u2019t need anything more than what you\u2019ve got – no weapons, no interaction key, no platform puzzles. Just a sense of place, meaning, and emotion.<\/p>\n

If that all sounds a bit like something someone would say to you in an art gallery cafe when you accidentally make eye contact, that\u2019s because it is a bit. While most games are trying to entertain you,\u00a0Dear Esther<\/em> is shooting for something deeper and more artistic and, yes, that can mean that at times it tips over into tunic-wearing, finger cymbal-clanging pretentiousness. But what a treat all the same to play a game whose head is in such a different space to its peers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

The game began as a humble Source Engine mod for\u00a0Half-Life 2<\/em> back in 2008, and in its earliest forms it garnered attention for its gorgeous visuals more than anything else. It\u2019s been ported over into other game engines several times since, each resulting in a more arresting sequence of sights, the lights that bit more haunting, the shadows even eerier.<\/p>\n

But what really matters about this game is the lesson it gives all developers in minimalism. Can you remember, hand on heart, what actually happened in Far Cry 3<\/em> from the same release year? Other than all the honey badgers you skinned, probably not. But we\u2019ll always remember the strange and affecting walk we took on that Hebridean island. We\u2019ll always remember Esther.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The sun\u2019s just starting to set on the Hebrides. It\u2019s winter. At least, it looks like it must be winter. The light\u2019s cold and unsympathetic, drawing the rugged moorland in blues and mournful mauve. With no objective, no map, no quest marker, you take a few steps forward. Then: a man\u2019s voice. Not out in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,237],"class_list":["post-2102033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-topgear-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2102033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2102033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2102033\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2102033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2102033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2102033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}