It doesn’t help that your walking speed is sluggish. You can’t run, which makes traveling a slog. You can walk, look around, and zoom in on anything. Though in the case of this “walking simulator,” your actions are limited.
In most games, any issues with story can be easily remedied with good gameplay. Overall, you’ll need to be in a certain mindset to appreciate Dear Esther’s tale, especially if the randomized details don’t work out in your favor. There is some merit to the emotions and feelings the narrator can stir up and the revelations at the end may sprout discussion, but this is a slightly above average short story at best. This game is so dependent on its story that this move only further muddles the already confusing narrative. In a strange form of storytelling, the details revealed to the player are randomized per playthrough, meaning that one player’s perception of the fiction may differ completely from another’s, for better or for worse. Players may have trouble understanding the story because of how the complex tale is told. The writing is of a higher literary nature but ends up sounding a bit pretentious when spoken out loud. The monologues are deep and open to interpretation but are mostly vague.
However, as you walk around, a man’s voice over plays at certain points, giving insight into the story through brief anecdotes. The circumstances surrounding your presence on the island are unclear.
Since the game uses a first-person perspective, you never get a chance to see who your character is or what he looks like. In Dear Esther, you play as a mysterious character walking around an island.