Dear Esther

Reading about this thing makes me ponder the definition of "game".

How do you define it? Look in the dictionary? I looked at the Merriam-Webster definition and didn't like it, as it could also be used to classify reading a book as a "game".

Games are primarily an interactive medium so I would say that they need to derive some value from that interactivity. Does Dear Esther do that? If we were to remove the need to hold down W to progress and simply make it an on-rails narrated cutscene would it really detract from the experience in some meaningful way? Seriously, I'm asking, because I haven't "played" it.

If you had to hold down the Play button to watch a movie would that suddenly make it a game?

I'd say Dear Esther is closer to a "choose your own adventure" book. You're just simply choosing options and then watching the results of said choices, nothing else.

There are choices in there?

From what I've played so far, yeah. There are multiple paths you can take, and you're free to explore all the little corners of the island, but I'm not sure if that alters the narration.

There are choices in that each area tends to have little side paths, that all dead-end, but there is only one primary route. The thing that makes it slightly different than a movie is that some of the objects move around each playthrough, and the narration changes a bit.

It was an interesting experience, and very pretty, but I got it in a Humble Bundle too. It is most certainly not worth 10$. Flower and Journey are much better attempts at artsy exploration games because you're actually doing things and Journey lets you piece the story together yourself.

Speaking of exploration games, you guys got any good ones to recommend? All I have is Skyrim and this game.

I noticed realMyst is for sale over at GOG, but reviews I read say the controls suck.

realmyst is kind of awkward, but Myst V controls much better. And if you like wRPGs, the Divinity franchise isn't bad.

To clarify, Realmyst was Cyan Worlds first attempt at a true 3d free-roaming game. It's a tad twitchy, and the areas are really small, but if you want to try Myst without playing a slideshow, it's pretty good.

If the Myst games are all first-person puzzle exploration, then I'm very interested. Is the entire Myst series good?

Yes. Cyan only made the first 2 and the 5th one, but the 3rd (made by Presto, the Journeyman Project guys) and the 4th (made by Ubisoft) are pretty good too. However, only the first 2 and the 5th are readily available right now.

The first Myst is kind of a tech demo. It's good, but it was showing off what you could do with a CD. The second one, Riven, is where the series became really good. You can explore 4 of the 5 islands in the game without doing a single puzzle, but there are a ton of puzzles to do. You do need to basically learn a base-5 number system and there are a couple really nasty puzzles, but it's really well put together.

The 5th is the weakest, but it's not bad, and it has David Ogden Stiers in it as well.

The first 4 are also among the few games that use FMV and live actors well.

edited 18th Jun '13 11:34:31 AM by Zendervai

Although, as all the characters in the original were played by the programmers, you get some really wacky acting:

I have to learn a number system. Fascinating, probably sounds better than it really is though.

One more question: are there any annoying "find the pixel" visual puzzles? Countless "escape the whatever it is" adventure-puzzler flash games have this, and I don't like that.

Sort of? There's one really irritating puzzle in Riven that involves trying to figure out locations on a grid, but I don't remember any puzzles that were actual pixel hunts. There is a thing where you need to find these wooden things that make noises, but that puzzle is practically impossible anyway. Your cursor changes whenever there's anything to interact with, so it isn't that bad.

I seem to remember a frog in a swamp to open a door. Not quite one pixel, but close.

I've got Miasmata sitting in my Steam library; it's unplayed so far but I grabbed it during the spring indie sale precisely because it looked very much like a first person explorer.

Played with the right mindset I say that Minecraft also counts, sort of; if you're willing to play with mods you can enhance that as well.

(Edit to add: It's on sale on GoG for $3.74 for the next 18 hours.)

edited 19th Jun '13 11:38:37 AM by Elle