Caltrops - Dear Esther - Is the coast clear

Forum Overview :: Dear Esther

by Vested Id 06/02/2013, 4:37pm PDT

1. The writing is the worst since Max "Noir York City" Payne. It might be the most embarrassing writing in any game.

2. I can see the original had poor graphics. They are also simpler graphics that are easier to grasp, and are more fitting to the game's ambitions, which are actually very modest. The main thing that the loads of frosting the 2012 remake brings to the game is confusion - there is a lot of stuff on the screen (weeds) and in your ear (purple prose) demanding your attention at any given moment, and little help sorting it out.

3. Pretty caves and lighting effects that would make Thomas Kincade proud. I had strong feelings about the ideas these images represented!

4. You spend the whole game waiting to be given something to do - then the remake takes that one thing away! Completely destroying the structure and irony of the 2008 original.

5. We're clearly in the midst of a new phase in gaming that began when Jonathan Blow discovered the Wikipedia article on Defamiliarization, and so far it's been more painful and less fruitful than FMV.

People love Dear Esther because it leaves them confused, but if you compare the original to the remake (the "official version") you can see pretty clearly what they were going for and it isn't much, certainly nothing deserving the kinds of love and attention it's getting. These guys love defamiliarization because it buys them time - no one knows what the fucking game means but they felt something - but there's more to art than addressing common real-life traumas like breakups and traffic accidents through unfamiliar representations.