History VideoGame / DearEsther

* SceneryPorn: The landscapes are exceptionally well-done, and considering there is nothing but the visuals and the narrator's voice along the way, it's something you're bound to notice.

A remake was released in 2012 featuring ''vastly'' improved graphics, remastered audio, and a much more intuitive level design for the environments (one common criticism of the original mod); a further improved Landscape Edition was released on the original game's 10-year anniversary in 2017.

A remake was released in 2012 featuring ''vastly'' improved graphics, remastered audio, and a much more intuitive level design for the environments (one common criticism of the original mod).

The remake with improved graphics is [[http://store.steampowered.com/app/203810/ available on Steam]]. The old version can be found [[http://www.moddb.com/mods/dear-esther/downloads/ here]].

[[http://dear-esther.com/ The official website.]]

->''"If the subject matter is obscure, the writer's literary style is even more so, it is not the text of a stable or trustworthy reporter."''

*** The 22nd letter - the one whose text the player implicitly hears - is the last one written,folded into an aeroplane instead of a boat.
*** Several references to the Biblical book of Acts, Chapter 22 are painted on walls all over the island. Acts 22 describes the famous "Road to Damascus" ephiphany of St Paul - an epiphany like the one the narrator craves,to the point of calling the island his own "Damascus".
* ArcSymbol: Gulls, cans of paint, paper boats, circuits, molecules (particularly [[spoiler: ethanol]]), [[spoiler: car parts, sonogram pictures]]... Even ''stones'' manages to become one.

* AsTheGoodBookSays: Fragments of the Biblical story of Paul on the Road to Damascus are painted on walls in the final area the player finds. Earlier,it is also possible to find painted references to the prophesied destruction of Damascus in the Book of Isaiah.

* {{Determinator}}: [[spoiler: The narrator forces himself to continue his journey despite fracturing his leg and having it become infected, using willpower and a lot of painkillers.]]

* EveryoneIsRelated: [[spoiler: Several lines refer to Esther Donnelly and Paul Jakobsen. However much like with everything in the game, it can't definitively be said if this is the case]].

* MelancholyMoon: The full moon in last chapter adds to the gloomy atmosphere.
* MindScrew: What makes it even harder to tell what happens is that the basic events of the story change depending on playthrough. Even with such simple matters as how the narrator reached the island; sometimes he is a willing hermit, seeking solace, where in others he is a sailor who has been marooned. And at times, the line between the player character and the narrator blurs - are you someone tracing the footsteps of that hermit, or are you rambling as you go on?

* NoAntagonist: The story concerns a single man's attempts to come to terms with a terrible event in his past. He is the only person on the island and even the event that drove him to solitude was just an tragic accident.

* RandomlyGeneratedLevels: Subtly done. In every new playthrough, some objects and elements will appear in different locations and bits of the narration will change. The biggest change from playthrough to playthrough is how Esther died. [[spoiler: In some tellings, the narrator himself was the drunk, and Paul an innocent bystander, making the narrator filled with self loathing. In others, Paul was not intoxicated, and the narrator bemoans fate and the happenstance that lead to it. In others again, Paul was intoxicated, and the narrator comes to terms with Esther's death]].

* SilentProtagonist: He does have very noisy shoes though. It's not entirely clear if the Narrator is the same person as the protagonist too, but if they are, then he's quite chatty.
* SinisterSilhouettes: Every now and then you'll see a shadowy figure standing or walking around in the distance. If you're quick enough, you can run right up to them, but they won't respond to you and will sometimes even vanish instantly.

* SuperDrowningSkills: Dip your head below the ocean's surface for too long, you drown. [[spoiler: Later [[SuperNotDrowningSkills inverted]] when you can stay underwater in the cave pools for as long as you want.]]

* ViolationOfCommonSense: There are a couple points in the game that require jumps (or falls, rather, in the absence of actual jumping) no reasonable person would ever make. Especially odd considering a couple of these happen shortly after [[spoiler: the player is informed his leg is broken]].

** [[spoiler: "He tells me that he was not drunk at all."]]
*** Some playthroughs even have this line appear in a subtly different but even more gut-punching form: [[spoiler: He tells me that I was not drunk at all!"]]
** [[spoiler: "I will look to my left and see Esther Donnelly, flying beside me. I will look to my right and see Paul Jakobsen, flying beside me."]]
** [[spoiler: "And you were rendered opaque by the car of a drunk."]]
** [[spoiler: "It can only be a dead shepherd who has come to drunk drive you home."]]

* ArcSymbol: Gulls, cans of paint, paper boats, circuits, molecules (particularly [[spoiler: ethanol]]), [[spoiler: car parts, sonogram pictures]]...
* ArcWords: Damascus.

* ArcSymbol: Gulls, cans of paint, paper boats, circuits, molecules, [[spoiler: car parts, sonogram pictures]]...

''Dear Esther'' is a mod built with the Source engine (the same used for ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'', among other games). While designed in the FirstPersonShooter format, it is in reality more of a [[ArtGame sparse, linear narrative with complete emphasis on the plot]], and as such is probably the TropeCodifier for EnvironmentalNarrativeGames. The player is placed on an uninhabited, Hebridean island, and while exploring the picturesque landscape an unidentified narrator regularly intervenes with bits of voiced-over letters addressed to a woman named Esther. This is a story that you quite literally walk through: nothing is [[EverythingTryingToKillYou trying to kill you]], and there are no [[PuzzleGame puzzles that you must solve to progress]]. Unless, of course, you count the [[MindScrew plot]].

* EpistolaryNovel: The narration consists of letters addressed to someone called Esther, voiced out by a male character.

* {{Narrator}}: An single voice reads snippets of letters as the player wanders the island.
-->''"Dear Esther, I sometimes feel as if I've given birth to this island..."''

* EtherealChoir / OneWomanWail:

* InsurmountableWaistHighFence
* [[RoomFullOfCrazy Island Full of Crazy]]: Just what do the bizarre symbols all over the caves and rock faces mean?
** One of the tunnels in the caves is particularly dense with luminescent scrawlings, making it somewhat unnerving to walk through.

* {{Narrator}}: ''"Dear Esther, I sometimes feel as if I've given birth to this island..."''

* OntologicalMystery: Why are you visiting this island? Who is the narrator? Who is Esther? Who built the mast? Who painted all these molecules and messages on these surfaces? Is the island real or is it a dream? The game constantly prompts all these questions, and never quite gives concrete answers.

* RandomlyGeneratedLevels: Subtly done. In every new playthrough, some objects and elements will appear in different locations and bits of the narration will change.
** The biggest change from playthrough to playthrough is how Esther died. [[spoiler: In some tellings, the narrator himself was the drunk, and Paul an innocent bystander, making the narrator filled with self loathing. In others, Paul was not intoxicated, and the narrator bemoans fate and the happenstance that lead to it. In others again, Paul was intoxicated, and the narrator comes to terms with Esther's death]].

** ''"The moon over the Sandford junction, headlights in your retinas. Donnelly drove a grey hatchback without a bottom, all the creatures of the tarmac rose to sing to him."'' [[note]]''"All manner of symbols crudely scrawled across the cliff face of my unrest. My life reduced to an electrical diagram. All my gulls have taken flight; they will no longer roost on these outcrops. The lure of the moon over the Sandford junction is too strong."''[[/note]]

* TitleDrop: [[ArcWords Several times]] during the narrator's readings.

* ViolationOfCommonSense: There are a couple points in the game that require jumps (or falls, rather, in the absence of actual jumping) no reasonable person would ever make.
** Especially considering a couple of these happen shortly after [[spoiler: the player is informed his leg is broken]].

* EveryoneIsRelated: [[spoiler: Several lines refer to Esther Donnelly and Paul Jakobsen. However much like with everything in the game, it can't definitively be said if this is the case]].* GainaxEnding: The ending is as mysterious in its resolution as the island is in its exploration.

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dear_ester.jpg]]

* EveryoneIsRelated: [[spoiler: Several lines refer to Esther Donnelly and Paul Jakobsen. However much like with everything in the game, it can't definitively be said if this is the case]].

* GainaxEnding: The ending is as mysterious in its resolution as the island is in its exploration.

* StoryToGameplayRatio: On the ''highest'' end of the story side of the scale, near the VisualNovel genre.

[[AC:"For the proper reading experience, play [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjMCqjDOvRQ the game's soundtrack]] while reading on.]]

%%* DrivenToSuicide

* HearingVoices: The whole story is told via a faceless narrator reading letters to the eponymous Esther.

* ArcNumber: 21. ''[[spoiler: "There are twenty-one connections in the circuit diagram of the anti-lock brakes, there are twenty-one species of gull inhabiting these islands , it is twenty-one miles between the Sandford junction and the turn off for home. All these things cannot, will not, be a co-incidence!"]]''

* [[spoiler:DrivenToSuicide]]

* StoryBreadcrumbs: A deliberate choice for the game structure, related through sporadic and semi-random narration. [[WordOfGod The developers said later in presentations]] that they felt being sparse with specifics and only giving them sporadically helped make ''Dear Esther'' a much more engaging narrative, teasing the player's speculation to get them to invest more of themselves in what story they do parse.

->''If the subject matter is obscure, the writer's literary style is even more so, it is not the text of a stable or trustworthy reporter.''

!!''Dear Esther'' contains examples of the following tropes:

* EtherealChoir / OneWomanWail: The music in the caves is this. Interesting to note is that the song being sung is in English rather than Latin or whatever.

* WhamLine: [[spoiler: "He tells me that he was not drunk at all."]]

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/esther3_5889.png]]

''Dear Esther'' is a mod built with the Source engine (the same used for ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'', among other games). While designed in FirstPersonShooter format, it is in reality more of a [[ArtGame sparse, linear narrative with complete emphasis on the plot]]. The player is placed on an uninhabited, Hebridean island, and while exploring the picturesque landscape an unidentified narrator regularly intervenes with bits of voiced-over letters addressed to a woman named Esther. This is a story that you quite literally walk through: nothing is [[EverythingTryingToKillYou trying to kill you]], and there are no [[PuzzleGame puzzles that you must solve to progress]]. Unless, of course, you count the [[MindScrew plot]].

* StoryToGameplayRatio: On the ''highest'' end of the story side of the scale, near the VisualNovel genre. There are several important factors that could not be incorporated in a film, however, such as semi-randomized dialogue and the ability for every player to pace themselves at their own rate.

* UnreliableNarrator: See SanitySlippage above.