Complementing those vistas is Jessica Curry’s gorgeous score, a string-heavy composition of melancholy and eerie, tender beauty. On more than one occasion the game’s visuals are simply breathtaking the cave section in particular is beautiful, otherworldly in its layering of psychological symbolism, gurgling with beautifully rendered water and glowing with ethereal phosphorescent fungi.ĭear Esther is a story told visually, with the island’s vistas variously inspiring discomfort, desolation and awe. Indeed, that a small indie developer can achieve remotely this level of graphical fidelity is nothing short of astonishing. Unsurprisingly for a four-year old game, low-res textures are noticeable on close inspection of some environmental features, but the staggeringly detailed beauty of the game’s art design and its inspired setting, a barren island in the Scottish Hebrides, easily overcomes any minor technical shortcomings. Wind blows across the island’s coarse grass and scrub, flotsam litters the beach and a mournful grime seems to cover every surface. The game, newly repackaged in its ‘Landmark edition’, which includes an insightful and thoughtfully presented developer’s commentary, has been newly cleaned up and presented in crisp 1080p, running at a silky-smooth frame rate throughout. The Brighton-based developers wowed and confounded gamers in equal measure last year with Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture now returning to their seminal work, it’s fascinating to witness in retrospect the development of Dan Pinchbeck and his team’s craft, the game itself having lost none of its haunting, mysterious qualities. Originally created in 2007 as a Half-Life 2 mod and later re-made in 2012 as a commercial release for PC, Dear Esther: Landmark Edition has been a long time coming, marking the first time console gamers can play through developer The Chinese Room’s original walking simulator. Christopher Machell reviews Dear Esther: Landmark Edition…
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