Dear Esther is an adventure developed by The Chinese Room, released 14 February 2012 on Linux, Mac and PC (Microsoft Windows). The main story takes about 1.6 hrs to finish.
What Dear Esther is
Dear Esther is an adventure game developed by The Chinese Room and released in 2012. It is available on Linux, Mac and PC (Microsoft Windows). It runs on Source.
The premise, in the publisher's words
“A deserted island…a lost man…memories of a fatal crash…a book written by a dying explorer.” Dear Esther is a ghost story, told using first-person gaming technologies. Rather than traditional game-play the focus here is on exploration, uncovering the mystery of the island, of who you are and why you are here. Fragments of story are randomly uncovered when exploring the various locations of the island, making every each journey a unique experience. Forget the normal rules of play; if nothing seems real here, it’s because it may just be all a delusion. What is the significance of the aerial -- What happened on the motorway -- is the island real or imagined -- who is Esther and why has she…
How it plays
It is played from a first person perspective. Its themes are drama, fantasy and mystery. It is a single-player game with no multiplayer component.
How it was received
Dear Esther holds a critic score of 72 out of 100. That places it above 42% of the 7,525 rated adventure games in our database, which average 72. Games released in 2012 averaged 70, so it scored 2 points above the year average. Player ratings track closely with critics at 72, across 182 votes.
How long it takes, and what that costs
The main story runs about 1.6 hrs.
What you need to run it
The minimum specification calls for Intel core 2 duo 2.4GHz or higher, 1GB XP / 2GB Vista of RAM and DirectX 9 compliant video card with Shader model 3.0 support. NVidia 7600, ATI X1600 or better (Pre-Sandybridge Intel graphics chipsets not yet supported). At 1GB of RAM, it will run on essentially any working PC — that is below what a budget laptop ships with today. Install size is roughly 2GB. Both tiers are compared side by side on the requirements page, and you can check your own parts against them without installing anything.
What it launched against
Dear Esther launched on 14 February 2012, within three weeks of Mass Effect 3, Crusader Kings II, Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward and Mortal Kombat: Komplete Edition. All of them reviewed better.
Released around the same time: Mass Effect 3, Crusader Kings II, Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward, Mortal Kombat: Komplete Edition.
Cheats and codes
We have not confirmed any working cheat codes for Dear Esther yet. Rather than reprint a list we have not tested, this section stays empty until one is verified.
Official trailer
Sourced from the publisher’s YouTube channel.
Screenshots
All media
Characters
All 1
Dlc
Quick answers
Dear Esther — frequently asked questions
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