Dear Esther is a single-player walking sim game developed by The Chinese Room for Windows, Mac OS, PS4, Xbox One, and iOS. The premise is that you are walking around on an island to uncover the details of the mysterious death of your wife, Esther. Given the dark themes of its narrative, the game is primarily targeted towards adults.
In this game, walking is the only mechanic of the game. As such, since it does not require any other skill, the game’s target audience also includes gamers of any skill level. However, even with this being the only mechanic, the game is still very enjoyable — in fact, the walking mechanic is exactly what makes the game enjoyable in the way that it tells the story. The graphics of the environment are incredibly immersive, not just in the way it is hyperrealistic but also in the way it creates a mysterious aura that entices you to explore it further (while being scared at the same time). The more you walk around, the more of the world you get to see.
As you walk around the island, based on the specific things you come across, you hear yourself read a series of letters that you have written to your deceased wife that slowly reveal pieces of the story. At first, the letters don’t seem to make much sense, but as you continue onwards, the pieces start to fit together but with intentionally left gaps that make you more curious to figure out what exactly happened. It gave me the same sensation of reading a mystery novel in which you know certain pieces of the overall story, and the holes in the story that the characters are trying to uncover entice you to read further. Walking in this game is what allows you to pick up pieces of the overall story one at a time, driving the narrative forward.
