Dear Esther: Landmark Edition

One of the best games ever created, certainly in the genre it began. Worth buying at full price but especially on sale... cmon just get it.

I like it - good if you like this kind of story, walking simulator game. A good palate-cleanse between more gameplay-intensive games.

A very calming walking simulator.

This is a walking simulator, plain and simple. The views are nice and the paths are many. Dear Esther is well renowned and mentioned on many game lists, so I wanted to see what all the hype was about. Honestly, it was okay, but not amazing for me.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3286450734
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3287443182
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3285764487

A visual album for Jessica Curry.

it is a nice story but it is slow lol

Ethereal, atmospheric, eerie. You're alone on an island, walking, walking, walking .... Listening to the ocean, the wind, the narrator ... who reads the letters.

The only way this "game" could be more pretentious, boring and lazy is if Willem Dafoe appeared as the Lighthouse Keeper.

The beautiful scenary could have been better used to make an excellent Skyrim-type game, but instead the creators decided to make a snobby suicide sim.....with devs celebrating their lack of genius in recorded notes you must listen to; so as to unlock an achievement.

As an Achievement Hunter, I feel dirty finishing this game. What have I become?

I really enjoyed this game. The scenery is beautiful, the story is very interesting, and my favourite part of the game was probably the music, elegant and ethereal. More on the topic of music, I liked that you didn't have music playing the entire time, but just in certain parts on the map. Really gives you the time to think and explore the Island. And when the music was playing, it wasn't too loud and it fit perfectly with the part of the Island that you were in at that time. I also enjoyed doing my second play-through with the directors' commentary, I definitely learned many new things about the game after listening to Dan, Jess and Rob talk about it in more detail. The only negative thing that I can say about the game is that in Chapter 3 when you have to go under the water, I did fall through the map twice in a row for some reason which was slightly frustrating, but it didn't take long to restart and get back to that part again. Another thing, and I don't think this is something every player will feel, but some parts of the Island felt unsettling. Not unsettling to the point where it's scary, but just a slight uncanny feeling, especially because there is no one else on the Island except you, but you can still see remnants of people who once lived there. I don't usually enjoy so called "walking simulators", but this one was different, I will definitely be playing it again at some point.

This IS Your Grandfather’s Walking Sim

TL;DR: A short, touching prose narrative in interactive form that has divided audiences for years.[hr][/hr]
When spending time wandering the pointless battlefield that is the online gaming community, the mere mention of The Chinese Room’s classic Dear Esther is a clarion call to self-appointed gatekeepers, summoning them to die on the hill of “It isn’t even a game!” It’s pointless to make an argument on either side of this discussion, but is Dear Esther’s content worthy of your time?

Exploring a gorgeously-rendered deserted island off the mainland of Scotland, you’ll be met with the occasional narration of prose taking the form of letters to Esther. At first, the narrations feel a bit disjointed; musings on a local scholar, occasional mentions of hermits, and other disparate topics, but over the few hours it will take you explore the unnamed island, the letters weave together in a way that eventually creates a tapestry nearly as isolating and starkly beautiful as the surrounding vistas.

Is it a game? Who cares? If you value well-crafted, human narratives, and generally enjoy the exploration of video games, you’ll have spent your time well with this wistful title.

Love the atmosphere. I wish I got the story a little more, but overall really great to see its still enjoyable this many years later.

Relaxing and reflective experience.
Totally recommend - definitely in the great classics hall of fame.

This game is vibes man, this game is vibes. I played this almost a decade ago i believe on my friend's laptop, and even back then I felt the calm and chill vibes. And even after almost a decade, this game still has those calm and chill vibes. Especially the art design of the environments. This game should be studied in terms of great looking visual design. It was pretty then and it is still really, really, pretty now.
Like, in my opinion and reccomendation, play this game on a nice saturday morning (around 6 AM or so) when cold winds are assaulting your house and body, and there is this calmness and stillness to your feelings. Bonus point if you live near seaside and all. But yeah, calm game that is not very long, and I did not regret my time with it.

"Consigo ver daqui a minha armada. Todas as cartas que te quis mandar, se tivesse conseguido chegar ao continente, e que permaneciam no fundo da minha mochila, espalhei-as pela praia perdida. Depois, peguei em cada uma delas e dobrei-as em barcos de papel. Dobrei-te nos vincos e depois, quando o sol se punha, lancei a frota ao mar. Desfeita em vinte e um pedaços, confiei-te ao Atlântico, e aqui me sentei a ver cada pedaço de ti afundar."

Game doesn't lead player for achievements well as they busy with strong emotional relationships with related relatives based on phylosophy of life. Director messages on floor having no interaction i can't be 0 to 30 dk. On the other hand why would be strange spooky ghostly ominous sounds around dk. ps: cave was a big surprise and different kinda art with game was nice.

Great game but not for everyone. I wanted to play this when it was released. But I found time now in 2025. Nice visuals.

I fell asleep and woke up to a finished game.

pretentious nothing of interest walk-fest with not bad music

a short, powerful experience with an equally beautiful soundtrack

Unbearably slow moving speed, goofy plot and zero interaction with empty world.

I don’t think I’d ever write a review for a game—but Dear Esther demands it. It’s shocking how many people haven’t finished it because this is one of the most immersive experiences I’ve ever had in a game.

I understand the unconventional playstyle—not everyone will appreciate a game without traditional mechanics—but Dear Esther is clearly a walking sim, and a great one at that. It embraces exploration and wandering, not as a means to an end but as the experience itself. There’s no real goal or objective, just movement through a world that feels heavy with emotion, as if the landscape itself is grieving.

The way the environment and narration work together is nothing short of brilliant. The island isn’t just a backdrop; it feels like a character, shifting with the tone of the story.

And then there’s the writing. The fragmented narration is poetic, abstract, and deeply personal. It doesn’t hand you answers but instead leaves you piecing together meaning, making every playthrough feel slightly different. It’s rare for a game to create such a profound emotional response, but Dear Esther does just that.I am left weeping in awe of both beauty and sadness.

Admittedly emotionally compromised by this game, so bear with. I think the British coastline is one of the most consistently beautiful places I can lay eyes on, and have dedicated hundreds of hours of my time to walking around as much of it as I can. After my granddad on my Scottish side passed away, I accompanied my grieving father down the plots of land that meant the world to the both of them, and extended as far beyond as we could. One of our trips took us to Gometra, a place of such beauty it finally broke his stoic ass into tears, despite it not being somewhere he'd ever visited before. It's just such a haunted place, the whole coast is. Freezing cold, battering you with constant gales and rain and seafoam and seagull shit - the same elements that carve the land itself. Jagged slippery rocks and mundane flora, the only specs of colour or sign of human life being litter or debris, broken glass or empty cans left god knows how long ago. On my solo walks, my mind would wander to morbid places, imagining what would happen should I trip and hurt myself; what kinds of infections I'd get, how long it'd be if at all before I would have any chance of help.

That same uneasy awareness, the pull of the beautiful and the morbid, defines my experience with Dear Esther. The game's Hebridean island is made to feel like a place out of time, a frozen echo of someone's grief. It makes use of randomised props and narration, one of the major points of contention way back at this game's release. What does it all mean? Do you really need to replay it to get the full story? Even back when this was just a simple free Source mod developed as a university project, I somehow just Got It. I didn’t need to know who Donnelly was or why the narrator was here. The weight of it was enough, the way the words hung in the air like mist over the cliffs. Some things you don’t need to piece together; you just need to let the words hang as you eavesdrop on the memories on the breeze. Maybe this all works for me because - - embarrassingly, I think anyone who knows me particularly well would attest to this - - I am very emotionally vulnerable, not only to art but so many facets of life. If I am interpreting this as an existentialist tale about grief, would I be so greedy as to also demand Answers when life itself rarely supplies them at times of struggle? Much of why I feel this game be more effective than some of its more better-regarded peers is that it invites me to sit in the loneliness of the space. Pained, empty, but full - full of all the things unsaid, all the memories tied to a place that can’t speak for itself.
And maybe that’s why it hit me so hard. The randomisation of narration and props isn’t a gimmick; it’s a reminder that stories are never static. The same place, the same words, can mean something different depending on where you are in your life when you encounter them. I’ve played Dear Esther's original form, and the remaster a great many times, but this replay was a good few years in the making - and the story I uncovered felt wonderfully evocative... not because the island has changed, but because I have.

On replay I was particularly taken to the work put into the sound design. This is such a rich soundscape... The whisper of the wind through the grass, the distant crash of waves against the cliffs, the faint echo of something that could be a voice. Doesn’t just set the mood; it deepen it, pulling me further into the island’s strange, mournful embrace. Jessica Curry’s score remains as achingly beautiful as it was I first heard it, swelling at just the right moments to catch my breath in my throat, and using elements of unusual distortion and industrial wailing to convey a real sense of sorrow. It harkens to whenever I visit the coast - there's never a moment of silence, even in relative stillness and isolation, it's this overwhelming cacophony of nature is trying to crush the ground I'm standing on. Can't praise it enough, man, entire characters in some of my favourite games don't have the presence of the wind in Dear Esther.

One unsung aspect of this game for me is the involvement of Robert Briscoe - the veteran level designer for Mirror's Edge. That being a game I adore for its incredibly well thought out world - not just gameplay-wise, but mostly by how it conveys a sense of place. Mirror's Edge thrives on its pristine, dystopian cityscapes, where every building and rooftop feels deliberately placed to tell a story about control, surveillance, and rebellion. Briscoe’s work there demonstrated an ability to create environments that are more than just backdrops, they’re active participants in the narrative, conveying meaning through their design - on top of just looking gorgeous. This same philosophy is palpable in Dear Esther. A broken fence, a rusted piece of machinery, or a strange marking on the wall - each detail feels like a breadcrumb leading me further into the island’s mysteries. It’s also worth noting how Briscoe leveraged the Source engine to its fullest potential. The lighting, in particular, plays a huge role in the game’s emotional resonance. The way the sun sets over the cliffs or how the glow of phosphorescent caves contrasts with the bleakness above ground is breathtaking. These moments aren’t just pretty, they’re deeply atmospheric to me. The final chapter's skybox? Abso sublime.

The game isn't for everyone, and I understand why. I also don't think any game worth playing would be. The only interaction function is a camera zoom, there is one walk speed, if you don't feel for it then there's nothing to latch on to. Still, the smear back at release does feel incredibly quaint now that you can hardly walk through Itch without tripping over a game like this. It doesn't feel that way now, but this was an incredibly risky game at the time, and one that has definitely helped blossom a subgenre of narrative adventure game. You have to forgive me for the glaze sesh, it never really sat right with me that this game has been forbidden from getting its flowers even now.

lo prendi y crasheo en lo que fui a buscar agua xd

Imo after playing some other walking sims this one has been the least enjoyable and the most boring. Game took no time to complete and you did nothing but walk as the narrator talked to you every once in a while. Scenic wise game is nice but others are better in that department as well.

a beautiful walk through an impossible island as a man descends into madness

Is it a game? Yes and no. There are no combat or puzzle sequences, no enemy to defeat unless it be your own introspection.
Dear Esther offers a seemingly meandering but very much directed walk along a dreary, barren Hebridean island, with the addition of some beautifully rendered, damp caves, in search of - what? absolution? answers? validation? You decide.
The narrator begins describing the history of the island, but very soon you discover he is mourning the loss of his wife in a car accident which he seeks to find meaning in.
From assigning fault to the realisation that "shit sometimes just happens", we witness his often flowery philosophising over the island, the loss of his wife, the misplaced blame he seeks to attach, until we begin to realise that he himself is dying from an infected injury, and the island may not be even real at all.
It's a beautiful, emotional journey, and the player lives it along with the protagonist.
There's no player death in this game. any death sequence (falling from a cliff, or drowning) brings a surreal, pulsating vision terminating in a soulful cry of "Come back", until we reach the bittersweet ending.
The whole game feels like a visual novel as they should be done, and an experience not to be missed.

Dear Esther is less a game and more a hauntingly poetic experience. Set on a desolate island in the Hebrides, it unravels the emotional story of a broken man through captivating voiceovers and immersive environmental storytelling. Its a narrative that invites personal interpretation and requires subsequent playthroughs to try and piece things together.

The game is elevated by its stunning soundtrack, composed by Jessica Curry, which perfectly captures its somber moments and atmosphere. If you’re drawn to unconventional storytelling, atmospheric visuals, and memorable music that lingers, Dear Esther is an experience you should try at least once.

An atmospheric walking sim. Not much is expected of you other than to follow the path. If you pay attention to the narration, you may get some idea of what's going on. The game is very short, about two hours or less, and I finished it in one sitting.

To put this game into its simplest terms, you walk through some beautiful scenery while being read poetry from a man you know little about.

This game is definitely not for everyone and there is no actual gameplay, just walking around, enjoying the vibe and listening to the narration, but i love this type of game and this absolutely blew my expectations out of the water even in the span of an hour.

Love it and will definitely revisit regularly.

Visually stunning and narratively intriguing walking sim. No way to interact with the world other than to walk through it, so if you like that you'll like this and if you don't you won't. Takes 1-2 hours to complete, well worth it in my view.

An immersive masterpiece based off a mod from Half Life 2. You will really put yourself in the narrator's shoes as he reads the letters.

Dear Esther has been for the better part of a decade a game that I've thought highly of. I first played it when I was more or less a die hard shooter fan only taking a look at it purely because it sharing a game engine with Half-Life 2 and Team Fortress 2. Walking simulators by that time had been more common thanks to Esther, but I didn't know Esther was 'responsible' for the genre's creation in the first place when I played it. I knew it wasn't a shooter, I knew it was a lot of walking, and yet I came out of it with a newfound appreciation for games as a whole.

I replayed it for the third or fourth time as of the time of this review and took the steps from the lighthouse to the radio tower again. So much of the island gets uncovered each time I walk through it and my interpretation shifts with each hike. Hearing all of the narration, the visual metaphors, and my own experiences in life and other media coming to together to form some kind of idea of what Dear Esther means is always an experience that stays with me for a few days after the descent. It's why I keep returning to the game despite experiencing, functionally, all it has to offer.

Dear Esther, for me, is a ghost story. Not a horror story or about actual ghosts (despite the actual ghosts). Esther's death is a constant, looming depression that haunts the protagonist both in a mental and physical sense with the ways they mourn and the way the island reflects those emotions - historically and by the landscape. That's not to mention the more spiritual elements or how things are randomized, out of line with the narration, or otherworldly in presentation. Its not that the protagonist is being literally haunted by the ghost of Esther, but she's always around him and the way the world shifts to reflect it makes you question whether any of its real at all.

I just realized that I played this map in Gmod it was something called gm_esther like waaay back. From that moment on I always thought it was a beatiful atmosphere and now that I'm playing it I can say it's much more, in fact the gorgeous scenery and good sound design make it a nice experience 10/10 nice walking sim

Listen, "Dear Esther" can feel slow and boring for sure. Although, its all about the vibe and story being told through the environment. To be honest i couldn't play this game for long at all before i got bored. But this game can also feel surreal due to the slow pacing, story, and environment as you play, but if you're looking for more interaction or plot twists this game might not be for you. If you want something with a similar surreal feel but more substance, you might enjoy games such as Firewatch or Oxenfree. But definitely give this game a shot before my review makes you're decision.

Dear Esther is what is considered to be the progenitor of the modern day walking simulator. And because of that it typically comes highly recommended to people looking for walking simulators or atmospheric games. So the fact that I don't recommend this game feels almost blasphemous. Yes, the graphics and sound design are absolutely gorgeous, as is the soundtrack. There is no denying this. However, compared to walking sims in recent years that give you at least some sort of objective or cohesive story, Dear Esther is, at its core, solely a walking sim with no objective other than to walk and listen to a vague story from an unknown narrator (even the devs acknowledge that the story is vague and not fleshed out). It is also insanely short as long as you don't find yourself doing much accidental backtracking. It's a beautiful piece of art, there's no doubt about that, but as a game I would only recommend it to the most hardcore of walking sim fans. Otherwise, it's skippable, in my opinion.

Not having played many walking simulators before, I was pretty impressed by this one overall. There was a lot of mystery, intrigue, and atmosphere to the music and landscape, and the narration definitely added to the surreal experience. I didn't like the single-speed walking, although that could make sense depending on whose POV you think you're in; I was also pretty confused by the story, possibly because I explored different places out of order. Those minor things aside, though, it was still an enjoyable experience, and made me wish I could visit one of these islands in real life.

GARBAGE

If you are looking for a good walking simulator then please try What Remains of Edith Finch or The Vanishing of Ethan Carter instead.

Dear Esther, pretty graphics and overly poetic language is not enough to make you engaging. In fact you're over-poetic language does a disservice to the game. Seriously, the story is indecipherable unless you refer to some dumbfuck youtube essay.
Do yourself a favour and buy one of the walking simulators already mentioned in this review. The genre has some great example's of storytelling. Dear Esther is not one of them, in fact it does much less..

I really enjoyed this, music was epic, slow paced and scenery is bueatiful. Doesnt' take long to complete, but it's a nice slow paced story and music scenery if you are looking for a non-thinking escape from reality

Great game.
When I started I was a bit dispointe until I got into the feel of the game, then it became really great.
Can highly recommend. (:

Eh. I actually start to fall asleep while playing it. I thought it would be like the game "Anna-Extended Edition" but it really wasn't. This game is for those that appreciate visuals and poems. Chinese Room did a good job overall for those that are interested in this type of game. Not my thing though. Not enough purpose to playing this game and a time waster in my opinion.

If you enjoy the more artistic side of video games, then you'll enjoy Dear Esther. Dear Esther was such an interesting experience that captures some of the unique and interactive ways that a player can experience literature through the video game format. It was a quick experience that left me wondering about what had transpired for longer than I was actually playing, which I think is fairly significant.

From what I've read, each playthrough will be quite a bit different, so I'm saving another playthrough for another day. I don't do that with many games. Dear Esther is worth your time and money.

Really specific, not for everyone production that tells really deep, intriguing and intresting story that can be interpreted in many different ways. No mechanics other than walking, so it can be describe as virtual walking in mind, which is both a journey and an attempt to understand story contained in this game. This may be a good recommendation for those looking for deep, unclear, metaphorical and philosophical journey. At the same time, it seems to be bad recommendation for someone looking for action in games, but even despite this, since it's doesn't take long to finish, i think it's worth giving this hidden masterpiece a chance.

this is not a game. you can add some (hidden) achievements in it but i'm not going trough this again to achieve them. it's not worth the pain in your finger from pressing " w " all the time to keep walking..... if you are planning on buying this game , DON'T !!

т.к. пишу обзоры для себя, чтоб "заново не переоткрыть случайно то, что надо держать закрытым", напишу про эту вещь.

Дорогой slomo.

Затевая игру в эту миниатюру, ты наверное через минуту-другую сообразищь, что к чему. Через 15 минут, первоначальная догадка окрепнет до уверенности, а в финале - найдет окончательное подтверждение. Но затем. Затем появятся вопросы. И перед тобой встанет выбор - закрыть дверь и уйти? Остаться, чтоб собрать и идентифицировать весь смысловой гербарий?

Sy,
me.

ps.
Я ушел.

Absolutely breathtaking storytelling, cannot recommend enough

Wonderful piece of artwork, beautiful scenery in a (now) retro style. Fascinating concept.

I think pyrocynical would really like this game. Cause all in le head

I like the atmosphere and the story, the scenery. What I don't like about it is, if you play it three times, you got it memorized. More ! I want more!

Nice walking sim. The rough landscape is beautiful. Recommended if you like Norway or Canada.

That said, it is really just walking. There is a voiceover which is really good and he narrates an emotional story.

Game take about 60 minutes.

In my opinion it is worth it because it is beautiful.