Dear Esther 2.0

[jay pettitt]

Dammity dammit I'm beginning to feel like a salesperson and I'm slightly bored of saying how utterly, utterly astonishing Dear Esther 2.0 is. But it does need saying.

 

It's not for everyone and it does cost a few bob - if you're the kind of person who finds books or going outside boring, preferring instead the telly; don't bother or try the free HL2 mod of the same name. But otherwise go and do this and then come back and we can talk about how Esther seduced you, how long it took to succumb and whether or not it was the laudanum what did it.

 

Something like this, with Dark Mod-esque object interaction and mantling would be dreamy. Not that it isn't dreamy already.

 

http://youtu.be/D7VJ4lP-05A

[Sotha]

Aww.. Why do they have to charge for it? I liked the first one, but it would have been preposterous to demand paying for it...

If this was free, I'd certainly go for it.

[jay pettitt]

It still is free of course. But Esther 2.0 is something else. I don't think you could do that without charging. At least, I don't think it's at all unreasonable to divine an income from work like that. When it started I thought - that's nice, they've switched the beginning for a cut-scene and I stood there on the end of the jetty, starring at the water waiting for it to end. That was shortly before my jaw fell open.

 

To my mind £6.99 is a bottle of wine, or a DVD. I'm okay with that.

 

If the production values of Esther is anything to go by, I'm newly excited about gameB too.

Edited February 15, 2012 by jay pettitt

[OrbWeaver]

I found the original Dear Esther quite incredible, and something truly unique. The only thing which detracted from it was the poorly-mixed, noticeably clipped backing music — a real shame considering the artistic quality of the composition. I certainly wouldn't rule out paying for the sequel just to see where they have taken it.

[Baddcog]

Wow, the trailer certianly makes it look pretty damn sweet.

 

It also makes me think we need some stalagtite models

[betpet]

Yep, it looks wonderful and a stroll around the island is a great experience.

[SiyahParsomen]

No interaction? Blah, it means nothing to me even it's pure beautiy. Just wandering in an island bores me in seconds.

[betpet]

No interaction? Blah, it means nothing to me even it's pure beautiy. Just wandering in an island bores me in seconds.

 

The point of the game is to lose yourself in the emotion of the thing. Not blow the crap out of it

[SiyahParsomen]

hmm.. an emotional game. I see.

 

 

nope not for me at all.

[betpet]

hmm.. an emotional game. I see.

 

 

nope not for me at all.

 

Yeah, not to everyone's taste but different from the norm

[Glyph Seeker]

Can't wait to play it.

 

Will probably make me cry like a girl.

[simplen00b]

I'm definitely intrigued, but I do need to ask - do I have to have a copy of HL2 to play the original mod, or (given HL2 source code has been open source for quite a while) is it now a stand-alone mod? Can i start playing if I install using this Desura thingy? Sorry if this is a 'facepalm-the-newbie' question, but, y'know, i'm a newbie (and also a tightwad ). Just wanted to check before I started downloading anything.

[betpet]

As far as I'm aware, it's standalone but having the games installed anyway means I can't be 100% sure without uninstalling them. I'm pretty sure they would have to make it standalone or they'd have to clearly indicate you'd need HL2 or whatever installed also.

[simplen00b]

That's why I ended up asking here - couldn't find any clear statement one way or the other on any other DE-connected websites. Anyway, I'm downloading Desura now and will report back for anyone else who may be interested. I have a back-up OS image I can reinstall if it all goes horribly wrong...

[jay pettitt]

Esther Circa 2008 is a HL2 mod. It uses HL2 assets - so I'd guess you need it installed. Esther 2.0 is stand alone.

[simplen00b]

Yep - downloaded & installed Desura, and it needed HL2 in order to play DE.

 

So I guess next question is, apart from Dear Esther, are there many (any?) Thief-like atmospheric mods for HL2? Enough to make it worth forking out £2-3 for a s.h. copy of HL2? (Cap'n Tightwad in full control here.) Just had a quick look on moddb and it looks like there's over a thousand HL2 mods, most of which seem to involve either (i) killing zombies, (ii) killing zombies, or (iii) killing zombies (none of which I'm particularly interested in). Any advice welcome!

[demagogue]

In my HL2 mod folder I've got:

Radiator series (made by campaignjunkie aka radiatoryang aka Robert Yang, who posts here a bit; also has a good blog on these kinds if FP-IF, with links to good mods: http://www.blog.radiator.debacle.us/),

Void (time-travel puzzle game, made by a student team with a TTLG guy, Kroakie),

NeoTokyo (only multiplayer one I like; cyberpunk CS like),

Causality Effect,

Dear Esther,

Eclipse,

Iris,

Mistake of Pythagoras,

Metastasis,

The Stanley Parable,

Weekday Warrior

[SeriousToni]

Wtf, this trailer tells nothing about the mod itself but self-praise

[demagogue]

On the contrary I think it tells you pretty much everything about this mod.

You walk around pretty scenery and that voice-over keeps talking.

WYSIWYG.

[SeriousToni]

Oh haha, that's the wrong game for me I guess

[simplen00b]

Thanks for the list demagogue. 2nd-hand copy of HL2 is on order and (assuming it's playable) I'll check some of your suggestions out.

[PranQster]

Linux > Wine > Steam > Dear Esther...

... downloading now. Hopefully I didn't just waste $10

 

Edit:

It runs (maybe). It was loading fullscreen and displaying no graphics, only a black screen, but I could hear music and hear the menu options clicking when I moved the mouse. I edited to video.txt file and set fullscreen to '0'. Now it displays in a window and I could set options, etc. Now to test the actual game...

It Works It's a bit stuttery when displaying captions and playing the audio narration while I move around*, but if I stand still during that time it is ok and smooth after the narration stops. Time to explore

*only the first narration right after loading was stuttery... the second time it happened, it was smooth as glass.

Edited February 17, 2012 by PranQster

[betpet]

Linux > Wine > Steam > Dear Esther...

... downloading now. Hopefully I didn't just waste $10

 

Edit:

It runs (maybe). It was loading fullscreen and displaying no graphics, only a black screen, but I could hear music and hear the menu options clicking when I moved the mouse. I edited to video.txt file and set fullscreen to '0'. Now it displays in a window and I could set options, etc. Now to test the actual game...

It Works It's a bit stuttery when displaying captions and playing the audio narration while I move around*, but if I stand still during that time it is ok and smooth after the narration stops. Time to explore

*only the first narration right after loading was stuttery... the second time it happened, it was smooth as glass.

 

Glad to hear you got it working

[PranQster]

Me too. It was pretty neat, visually. Apart from a couple of performance hiccups right after loading the chapters, it ran smooth as glass.

It did cost twice what it should have though, since there's nothing to do but walk through the story.

[Thiefette]

Tried this out and found it was a beautiful experience but not my kind of game. If there's something to solve or discover (I'm not sure) farther into it I don't think I'd remember whatever had been said nor what I'd seen.

I found walking agonizingly slow and would have liked a run option. Just my opinion.