Dear Esther is not a game. Rather it is a story to be experienced. However, a story like this told through the game medium can lead to boredom. If I had wanted a pretentious english accented narrator reading lines from a thesaurus at me, I would have read Keats. Minimalist seems to be the motto of the developers, as you can only travel a linear path and hear snippets of dialogue from a guilt ridden man. There are no puzzles to solve, no treacherous jumps to make, no demons to fight except your internal ones. The visuals are eye catching, and the story is somewhat poignant when it is not trying to be artistic or intelligent. That is about the extent of my praise for this indie title that tries too hard in certain areas and falls flat everywhere else. 45-60 minutes of walking along beaches and discerning metaphor is not as cerebral as it sounds. More depth can be found in other titles like Braid or even World of Goo. Use your ten dollars to buy lunch; that would be more fulfilling. 4/10

Dear Esther is not a game. Rather it is a story to be experienced. However, a story like this told through the game medium can lead to boredom. If I had wanted a pretentious english accented narrator reading lines from a thesaurus at me, I would have read Keats. Minimalist seems to be the motto of the developers, as you can only travel a linear path and hear snippets of dialogue from a guilt ridden man. There are no puzzles to solve, no treacherous jumps to make, no demons to fight except your internal ones. The visuals are eye catching, and the story is somewhat poignant when it is not trying to be artistic or intelligent. That is about the extent of my praise for this indie title that tries too hard in certain areas and falls flat everywhere else. 45-60 minutes of walking along beaches and discerning metaphor is not as cerebral as it sounds. More depth can be found in other titles like Braid or even World of Goo. Use your ten dollars to buy lunch; that would be more fulfilling. 4/10