Dear Esther: Landmark Edition

A game without puzzles and enemies, without difficult quests and brain-breaking tasks. Dear Esther: Landmark Edition is an indie adventure game in which we play as an unknown character who ended up on an inhabited island, but he never found its inhabitants. At the beginning we are told a short story about the island and some characters who are somehow related to us. The first text the narrator reads is a letter to a woman named Esther. Next, the narrator will read everything, but in a voice-over, languid voice.

Our player’s goal is to get to the radio tower, which can be seen from anywhere on the island. Each new step will be described by a monologue accompanied by music. They will tell us about Donnelly, who was once the first to discover the island. Later they will talk about Paul, who got into an accident with Esther due to drunk driving. They will also say about Jacobson, who was a shepherd. He lived on the island in the 18th century, presumably.

While we are traveling through places forgotten by people, we will come across abandoned houses and buildings in which dishes and other kitchen utensils have been preserved; we will find caves in which chemical formulas, drawings and diagrams, chains of neurons and bacteria are described with fluorescent paint. We will also find ships on which there will also be something to see. Dear Esther: Landmark Edition is more reminiscent of an indie horror because of the periodically appearing dark figures on the horizon, which are impossible to keep up with - they disappear. The main part of the game is questions that need to be answered, but at the end of the story. A soundtrack separate from the world of games was compiled for the project with the participation of Jessica Curry. Many critics praised the game for "perfectly hitting every note and step of the game's protagonist."