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The fascinating part about this game, as someone that played it ~5 times, is that the story CHANGES. Esther seems to always get run over by a car, but sometimes it's the narrator, sometimes it's someone else. Sometimes it was an accident, sometimes it was a drunk driving case. The stuff the narrator rambles about moves to different spots, or even disappears entirely. It's like listening to someone with alzheimer trying to piece together his memory, or someone stuck in a fever dream who is about to die and can't make sense of reality anymore. Which, in both cases, makes it questionable if that island is even real or just part of a big hallucination to explain away the oncoming death of the narrator.
In my playthrough the narrator definitely killed his wife by driving drunk. Thank you for this comment! I was very confused by the interpretations in the comments at first. The game also uses a lot of biblical symbolism to hint at the few clear truths among the deranged rambling. Items like the bird nest on the ground are direct references to bible passages.
I've also played this game maybe four or five times, and I am pretty sure I have never heard several of the snippets in this playthrough. I don't know how many they'd written and recorded in total, but it's possible I still haven't seen or heard all of them yet! And yeah, aside from the bits of narration having a random element to them (also some dependence on which specific spots you choose to investigate), the artifacts and items on the island seem to change on different playthroughs as well. Definitely way more to this game than first meets the eye.
It's true! My own playthrough was different as well, and later on I watched a friend of mine play, and the story he pieced together was definitely not the same as mine. The basic components are still there, but there are alternative narrative pieces at certain points throughout the island, like seeing things from different vantage points. It's such a good game.
1:57 for those wondering, it's the molecular structure ethanol. The triangles means that the hydrogen molecule is at the front, while the dashes means that the molecule is at the back
My housemate had a very "eurgh!" reaction to the big mess of diagrams in the cave--she'd recognized an earlier one as a neuron and started identifying the others as they came up--and the mass of paintings with the Damascus writings is literally the components of the human body intermingling with the parts of a car engine.
At the end when he says "Come Back", you can hear the music fade into the sound of a flat line which makes me believe that maybe Esther was in a coma and died at that moment.
The golden ratio, also known as the divine proportion, is a special number (equal to about 1.618) that appears many times in nature, geometry, art, an architecture. The golden ratios can be found in shells, plants, flowers, and animals, among other places. It is believed to be one of the strongest and oldest connections between math and creative arts.
One line she kinda missed very early on is "you've been made opaque by the car of a drunk". Without that piece of information, Gab misunderstood a lot of the context unfortunately. Esther was killed by a drunk driver on the M5. The narrator recounts the times he's driven across it so many times, passing over her last resting place. The island, whether it was once a real place or not, it's like a metaphor now as we sightsee over the landmarks of their life; small shrines dedicated to snapshots in time. The broken cars, the scrawled words, they're all metaphors respresenting his trauma. I like to think of this final tour of his island or 'their island' as something of a fever dream, either from his infected leg, the many fistfulls of pills he's taken or even just a flash of his life before his eyes as his final moments. "I will take the exit at mid-thigh and plummet to my Esther" he recounts as we make the ascent to the peak, as he did, as Jakobsen did, and he intends to visit his Esther in the afterlife, a concept he earlier grumbled against, having spend time with the christian missionaries, but has now come to accept in the end of his life.
All a metaphor. The caves are the recesses of his mind. The figures are neurons, the phrases random thoughts... The coins on the bed represent coins left on a tombstone to show rememberence (sp?)... Anyway... I like your interpretation.
Strange to say that somebody misunderstood a totally abstract story. It's deliberately open to interpretation. I would say you're the one missing the point.
@@trickster721 Nope. Not what I said at all actually. I said she missed a line in there where it literally says Esther got killed by a drunk driver. It wasn't intentional she was also speaking to the chat. And because of that it removed a lot of the potential context for the rest of the story. She kept speculating things about who Esther is and thinking the main character was the one who got hit by the car. Yes a lot is open to interpretation, but it's not just a jumble of words, there is a story and you're supposed to interpret what the island is and represents on your own.
When I was in college I took a class on Mammoth Caves. It's the longest cave system in the U.S. and my professor got in touch with scientists that worked there. We visited a few times during the semester and we got tours that were off limits to the public. I was studying archaeology at the time, so it was really exciting for me to see the 19th century graffiti people left way back then. There were also some Native American artifacts and a piles of old broken 19th century shoes from tours from back then. You won't find any stalagmites or stalactites in those caves though since it's a dry cave, but there are really cool gypsum crystals. The one thing this game doesn't do right, at least at the part I'm writing this at is how DARK caves are. You don't know pitch black until you've been in a cave, away from the entrance (or a similar structure) and turned your light off.
I highly recommend Everybody's Gone to the Rapture. It is a little longer, maybe 3-4 hours depending on how much you explore, but it's a beautiful game with great music and the story is a lot easier to follow.
I really enjoyed EGTTR. The atmosphere is incredible, and they did a wonderful job of telling the story of the lives of the people through nothing but the voice overs. It's like an interactive radio play. The ending is... an ending. But for me everything leading up to it was wonderful.
YES. I was hoping someone would recommend EGTTR, it's one of my favourite ~*~vibe~*~ games (and the same person did the soundtrack for Dear Esther and EGTTR)
I remember playing that game and feeling such an eerie sensation at wandering around an English village that was completely deserted The level of detail is incredible
I'd LOVE to see you play Everybody's Gone to the Rapture! It's one of my all-time favorites. It's a lot like this one in terms of the slow, calm pace, but with a more straightforward story, more characters, and interactivity. thanks for another great video!
for me I remember it because of stalacTite and stalagMites. T = looks exactly like a stalactite lol horizontal line is the ceiling, vertical line is the stalactite M = also looks like exatly like two stalagmites growing from the ground
39:05 Omg. She didn't notice but after the narrator talks about being shone a light after surgery and how it was like a long tunnel with a moon of light at the end, the cave DOES look like that eye. Eyelashes and everything! And there's the moon at the exit!
Remember people dumping on this game a massive amount back in the day. I don’t mind walking sims as long as it’s well made and it doesn’t cost as much as a AAA game.
@@falconeshield The toxic behaviour around this game is literally the start of the term "walking simulator" alongside similar games which would be released after Dear Esther.
Yea, those who came into this expecting an actual game were sometimes very disappointed. Calling Dear Esther a "game" might be stretching it. I think of it more as an interactive poem. Regardless, it's a beautiful experience!
@@falconeshield I was at university doing a computer games design course when this game came out - it definitely split people's opinions on it. Some loved it, some hated it. Some felt it proves games were art, some felt it was pretentious boring nonsense. Some people on the internet didn't even class it as a game, which is just incorrect, really. May not have been a "traditional" game, but it is still a game. (i mean, you can make a game out of how long it takes someone to wash the dishes, for example. Or seeing who can punch a punching bag the hardest. At its heart, a game is simply an arbitrary set of rules that create a difficulty or issue the player has to overcome, hopefully in an entertaining way - whether that's doing something against a timer, pushing buttons in a correct order, running from ghosts in Pacman, defeating Alduin, shooting hordes of zombies, or simply getting from point A to point B. Not all those issues are fun for everyone, but they're still issues to be overcome by players.)
I’m inclined to think there was a car accident where Esther eventually dies and this is an allegory to the grief he is experiencing while she’s in a coma. Remembering the pieces of his life with her while being in greater and greater pain until she dies at the end. The biblical references that get more desperate and angry and hopeless where god is supposed to save good people, but Damascus is a burnt out wreckage might point to him losing his faith as she nears death. Just my thoughts tho! Fascinating game - makes me think of experimental fiction with a stream of consciousness unreliable narrator. The story itself is pretty heartbreaking but beautifully executed.
I remember the first time I played this. It was the day I had to put my cat to sleep because of a tumor behind her eye. This game helped me grieve the loss, not sure it helped with the guilt though. I really liked this game and have played it several times since. I'm very excited to watch you play this. 💜
This game reminds me of 'Everybody's Gone to the Rapture', which is a great game with an excellent story that was both whimsical and absolutely terrifying because it lets you make your own assumptions while also having a fleshed out plot. The unknown of it all was what really spooked me, plus the soundtrack was so pretty.
The soundtrack hit me Hard! Jessica Curry does amazing music for video games. I remember looking up her work when I was into Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs. While I didn't look into Dear Esther at the time, I adored the tracks she played for this, too. It compliments the visuals so well. Thanks for sharing!
Music really reminds me of The Painscreek Killings! Also every time the narrator starts talking, I always think it's a text-to-voice reading for a second.
I remember when this game came out, I was assigned to review it. It left me absolutely heartbroken, and it's so rare to have a game with any kind of actual narrative. It is definitely in my top 5, although it's something I will never play again. I even skipped the ending of the video so I didn't have to see too much of the game.
You see a fleeting glimpse of someone you think they're in robes? You continue on when you finally catch up to the figure, they turn around "it is I the candle lighter, I made a sworn oath to only light candles "
this is gonna sound crazy but there’s an “ezelsbruggetje” for stalactites vs stalagmites in dutch! Stalactieten hangen als… welja, tieten. This has been the only way to remember for me ever since I was little hahah
I figured that this was about a man grieving over the death of his love. Based on what I could tell, it does not seem as though he ever accepted what happened with the crash. It appears that he got drunk and drove both him and Esther over a cliff; and based on how erratic he gets towards the end of the game, I think he's trying to make excuses to 'prove' that it wasn't his fault. He's speaking about Esther's beauty and how much he loves her at the beginning, but the reality of the crash weighs on him more and more. I could be completely wrong about this, but if I'm correct that's extremely depressing. Grief can absolutely destroy a person, and it doesn't look like the narrator wanted to accept any help to deal with his.
Ok so the story I kinda half got but honestly the landscapes, caves, water, reflections were stunning. Better than a lot of other games. So beautiful. Id have watched you walk through this even without the story
Used to play this all the time as a kid back in 2012. I remember exploring and loving every detail - and I still do. It's so very beautiful. Thank you for playing! :)
I think the interpretation you read is valid, but maybe, in my opinion, it's taking things a little bit too literally. I don't think the island is real. It is a metaphorical and symbolic manifestation. I like your initial, gut interpretation that you play as Esther in a coma or in the last moments of her life, and the island is symbolic of her memories and her final thoughts. She flies away at the end. And when she does, she hears the voice of a loved one (the narrator) say "come back!". And it's the same thing she hears if she tries to sink into the black sea. And I guess the letters she hears or recalls narrated are symbolic of her understanding of the people she's left behind, such as the narrator (presumably her husband) and the things he's been telling her. But it's also very abstracted and dreamlike, as it would be, perceived and experienced through layers of coma. Her husband is racked with guilt and sadness about her condition or her passing, and tells her that one day they'll be together again (he will fly to her). And she perceives this as a letter. And then she flies too, away from him, far across the sea, while he calls out for her to come back. But she'll wait for him there. And throughout the story, these abstractions represent many things, her self, her accident, her condition, her husband, the driver of the other car etc.
Omg, this game was so good, the story and narritive were so creepy together, the scenery was perfect, the ending! I was so upset i couldn't sleep for a long time until i had calmed down! They did such a great job with it.
I really enjoyed Everybody's Gone to the Rapture - it definitely has more of an interactive story and experience, with lots of different aspects you can explore. It's beautiful and really interesting. You CAN sprint in that game, which I didn't find out until afterwards, which definitely changes how long it is haha.
Apparently the game can be intepreted differently. You missed some places, where the narrator tells some more. That is why you missed the pregnancy part
This is actually an interesting story. Back in 2012 I loved the look of this game and there were no gaming youtubers playing it, so I bought it and set up a way to record a video. At the time I have never made a youtube letsplay video, I also knew nothing about the process of recording a letsplay. I tried my best but about 10 min in I just wanted to check to see if the recording was working. Low and behold the gameplay recorded but not my voice. And because I didn't understand how to do it at the time I gave up trying to record the letsplay and just play the game for funzies.
Gab's videos are always a perfect example of things I love. Horror, coziness, and the ~vibes~ Which also means I get to wrap up in a warm blanket and have a cup of tea ☕ :)
I don’t remember if you’ve played this, but if you haven’t yet and you’re looking for more games to play for TH-cam and Twitch, I genuinely recommend Eastshade. It’s on PS4 and PC and it’s such a beautiful, whimsical little game with one of the nicest soundtracks I’ve ever heard. There’s also a prequel called Leaving Lyndow. Anyway, love this, I played Dear Esther and really enjoyed it as a little thought/creative experiment!
As far as I understood Esther had died after a car accident and his brother died from terminal syphilis. This was his last journey to find closure. His last journey to join Esther.
you can easily remember if the terms stalagtites or -mites are correct by the shape of the letters. stalagTites are from the ceiling dropping down like the letter T and stalagMites are coming up from the bottom like the letter M
This is an amazing game. I understood the story in a much more sinister way though. I believe that the narrator is actually Paul Jacobson and Donnelly is actually Esther, so Esther Donnelly (in the end at least). This coming from the final passage. This would mean that the narrator and clearly lover or husband or so of Esther, was actually the one possibly drunk and being responsible for the accident and her death and not being able to deal with his grief, he did definitely try, her means to rejoin her in death. Well, that's at least what I understood from watching the play through.
4:20 I believe Gabby Gabus Goobers is referring to the "golden ratio". It's one of the most common mathematical ratios that can be applied to the Mona Lisa, the Twitter and Pepsi logos, and even can be used to create the perfect golden spin, thus creating an eternally endless spiral which can be utilized within the trans-continental American race, the "Steel Ball Run" 🦅❤🇺🇸 Additional facts within the replies 😁
I just went through this recently as well. It was like $1 on a Steam sale and Chinese Room did the Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs. This was a really relaxing, pretty walking-simulator and at times looks great, especially on an OLED monitor.
I was so excited when I got the notification for this upload! I would love to watch you play Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture! It’s a beautiful game in every way and my favorite of The Chinese Room’s works.
My interpretation of this game is that the whole island is a metaphor and that the person we’re playing as is the narrator and that the whole game is his final thoughts which are sadly weighed down by his grief of his wife dying in a car accident perhaps to his hand also I think it’s not a surgery table and is actually a mortuary table and the coins represent that you can’t take stuff with you when you die
This game feels A LOT like "The vanishing of Ethan Carter" and the soundtrack sounds so much like it too (such a good soundtrack too). I was also getting a deja vu kind of feeling and if you played that game that might be why :)
To me was the travel to the Afterlife In Ancient Greece we had a custom to bury our d3ad with 1 Drachma so they can give it to Charon Charon suppose to look like a dark shadow that holds a lantern Give him the 1 Drachma you can board the boat until the Gates of Hades The gates was supposed to be in the peak of a mountain on a lifeless island So this is my interpretation I have play this game before 12 years I don't remember it to be graphical pleasing (why i say that, because the title remind something but then i saw the electronic circuit in the cave walls i remember it)
45:45 The timing of you talking about the fact that this is was very out there as a walking sim around the time the game came out, at this specific spot is incredible, as there's a director's commentary at that exact place on the steps, about how they feel about the "walking simulator" term and how this was the first of the genre!
rewatching this game after having played it myself a few years ago, it's amazing how much better I understand the monologue the second time around. It's such a different experience to watch someone else play, you can really dive into the text that way. Almost brought me to tears this time whilst last time I was scared of the ghosts haha
Reminded me of the days when I read e.a.poe, and the story regardless if it was tragic emotional, or frightening would unfold in my mind. This was a very captivating game. I enjoyed it 👍 Nice run through Gabs. I expect nothing less from puzzle playing, intellectual mystery solving, etc. Such a good channel all around.
This is one of those games I could swear I had in my Steam library - and it turns out I don't. That's going to change, I suspect. Thanks for playing it, Gab.
Oh silly me for getting ahead of myself, you did mention Everybody's Gone to the Rapture at the end, it is longer but you won't regret it! In fact, you'll love it forever, I promise!
I could watch hours and hours of Gab playing this type of mystic athmospheric games. Just so relaxing. The soundtrack reminds me of Kona another game i enjoyed.
I played this back then, and I didn't agree with all the negative reactions, but I was disappointed in my expectations. It seemed like such a little nugget of what it could've been. The atmosphere was fantastic, though, and I didn't mind the walking sim aspect. I think it would get a better reception now that there are more games like this. That said, I always wanted more from the story for a game that's all about story. I'm curious to see how I feel about it now watching gab play it new, especially the landmark edition. I had no idea it was the same dev as Still Wakes!! I'm so glad they went so much farther!
Oh you're playing Dear Esther ♡ If you enjoyed this game, I can recommend to play Everybody's gone to the rapture too ♡ It's also from the same developers I think. It's a little longer and very atmospheric, but it has more story and more to discover ♡ I've played both games years ago but I still think about them from time to time ♡
There are many different video game genres out there, and it can be fun to try them all. I’ve been into visual novels lately, and this game is the perfect example of why. It’s a game with a story, but it’s also a puzzle of lore. That's why i liked What Remains of Edith Finch so much! Never heard of this one, thank you for playing!
While this wasn't exactly the first of the great "walking sims," it was probably the first to break into the "mainstream" on this scale, and is probably the game, or one of the games, that more or less resulted in the term "walking simulator" being coined in the first place. This game is ultimately a massive historical landmark, as unassuming as it might seem 12 years later. Then came the Stanley Parable and Gone Home, if I am not mistaken. The bros were really mad about the state of video games back them. Boy were they mad.
12:14 The game's music was composed by Jessica Curry, who also composed the soundtrack for the video games Everybody's Gone to the Rapture and Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs. This is probably why you were triggered.
I am so glad you're playing this. Because it was released in a time when a walking sim was not yet accepted as a game, and barely as a narrative device, it was panned and overlooked. If you have not, I hope you consider playing Everybody's Gone to the Rapture. With an even lovlier and more moving soundtrack, and a beautiful story you uncover through exploring, it is one of my all-time favourites. Look up Jessica Curry - she has done some absolutely striking scores for games.
The visuals of this game remind me so much of Anglesey in Wales!!! Highly recommend visiting for anyone who loves the look of this game, some of the hiking there is almost identical to this game! Edit: not the cave part hahah I left this comment before Gab got to the cave portion lol
Nice story and graphics. This just a walk through with really good graphics and story. The view in the caves in breath taken!!! I played this game many times. You need watch it many times to get more out of it.
Pssst, Gab, the figure with the lantern may be a symbol for the tarot figure, The Hermit, who symbolizes by their lonesome (upright): The Hermit card symbolizes soul-searching, introspection, being alone, and inner guidance. The Hermit may symbolize a spiritual journey to an extent, taking time alone to reflect on and better understand one’s own life.
Dear Esther actually started as a university research project demo around 2008. The experiment was to see how much interactivity you could remove from a game and still keep the player engaged just by choosing what to observe, and to create a story that doesn't rely on specific plot points. (The narration and imagery are randomized.) Another fun fact: this game directly inspired The Stanley Parable.
Weird, I played the game yesterday, with the full Director's commentary, and nothing of what you just said was mentionned even once, only that it started as an Half-Life mod. (Not implying that you're wrong or lying, but rather curious as to why they didn't mention it at all in the commentary if that's truly the case)
@@Congele_ Yeah, I've wondered why it doesn't get discussed more. When you hear Dan Pinchbeck and Jessica Curry talk about the game in interviews, it's very clear that they're serious turtleneck art gallery types. Maybe they thought it would harm the commercial release to be seen that way, I don't know. Things were different back then, people were very hostile to the idea of taking games seriously as art.
What I get from this game is this guy is super depressed because he lost everyone close to him while he still remains, so now his only obsession is the island and the memories of the island, when it used to be a very populated island, and he was close to everyone but then everyone died, and he doesn't take it well, and he just lost his mind and he is ready to die to join everyone else.
Everybody's Gone to the Rapture is in my top 5 fave games of all time. There's so much to explore and find in the game, it would require multiple playthroughs to get it all
Gabs, since you like The Chinese Room games, you should also play Everybody's Gone to the Rapture for a very similar vibe as Dear Esther. Also amazing soundtrack!
Stalactites are stuck TIGHT to the ceiling. Stalagmites, MIGHT reach the ceiling. Another way to remember is stalactites have a T for top of the cave and stalagmites have a G for ground.
The fascinating part about this game, as someone that played it ~5 times, is that the story CHANGES.
Esther seems to always get run over by a car, but sometimes it's the narrator, sometimes it's someone else. Sometimes it was an accident, sometimes it was a drunk driving case. The stuff the narrator rambles about moves to different spots, or even disappears entirely.
It's like listening to someone with alzheimer trying to piece together his memory, or someone stuck in a fever dream who is about to die and can't make sense of reality anymore. Which, in both cases, makes it questionable if that island is even real or just part of a big hallucination to explain away the oncoming death of the narrator.
WOW
In my playthrough the narrator definitely killed his wife by driving drunk. Thank you for this comment! I was very confused by the interpretations in the comments at first.
The game also uses a lot of biblical symbolism to hint at the few clear truths among the deranged rambling. Items like the bird nest on the ground are direct references to bible passages.
I've also played this game maybe four or five times, and I am pretty sure I have never heard several of the snippets in this playthrough. I don't know how many they'd written and recorded in total, but it's possible I still haven't seen or heard all of them yet!
And yeah, aside from the bits of narration having a random element to them (also some dependence on which specific spots you choose to investigate), the artifacts and items on the island seem to change on different playthroughs as well.
Definitely way more to this game than first meets the eye.
It's true! My own playthrough was different as well, and later on I watched a friend of mine play, and the story he pieced together was definitely not the same as mine. The basic components are still there, but there are alternative narrative pieces at certain points throughout the island, like seeing things from different vantage points. It's such a good game.
Wow, interesting!
1:57 for those wondering, it's the molecular structure ethanol. The triangles means that the hydrogen molecule is at the front, while the dashes means that the molecule is at the back
Thank you for explaining!
🧠✨
good old line-dash-wedge
name the one here too 42:31 lol
@@hjker sorry, I can't make out the letters
The Chinese room devs just existing in Brighton
Gab : *I know where you live*
My housemate had a very "eurgh!" reaction to the big mess of diagrams in the cave--she'd recognized an earlier one as a neuron and started identifying the others as they came up--and the mass of paintings with the Damascus writings is literally the components of the human body intermingling with the parts of a car engine.
At the end when he says "Come Back", you can hear the music fade into the sound of a flat line which makes me believe that maybe Esther was in a coma and died at that moment.
The golden ratio, also known as the divine proportion, is a special number (equal to about 1.618) that appears many times in nature, geometry, art, an architecture.
The golden ratios can be found in shells, plants, flowers, and animals, among other places. It is believed to be one of the strongest and oldest connections between math and creative arts.
The golden ratio is actually not common in nature. It's just a common misconception.
@@cparks1000000yes this
One line she kinda missed very early on is "you've been made opaque by the car of a drunk". Without that piece of information, Gab misunderstood a lot of the context unfortunately. Esther was killed by a drunk driver on the M5. The narrator recounts the times he's driven across it so many times, passing over her last resting place.
The island, whether it was once a real place or not, it's like a metaphor now as we sightsee over the landmarks of their life; small shrines dedicated to snapshots in time. The broken cars, the scrawled words, they're all metaphors respresenting his trauma. I like to think of this final tour of his island or 'their island' as something of a fever dream, either from his infected leg, the many fistfulls of pills he's taken or even just a flash of his life before his eyes as his final moments.
"I will take the exit at mid-thigh and plummet to my Esther" he recounts as we make the ascent to the peak, as he did, as Jakobsen did, and he intends to visit his Esther in the afterlife, a concept he earlier grumbled against, having spend time with the christian missionaries, but has now come to accept in the end of his life.
All a metaphor.
The caves are the recesses of his mind. The figures are neurons, the phrases random thoughts...
The coins on the bed represent coins left on a tombstone to show rememberence (sp?)...
Anyway... I like your interpretation.
Strange to say that somebody misunderstood a totally abstract story. It's deliberately open to interpretation. I would say you're the one missing the point.
@@trickster721 Nope. Not what I said at all actually. I said she missed a line in there where it literally says Esther got killed by a drunk driver. It wasn't intentional she was also speaking to the chat. And because of that it removed a lot of the potential context for the rest of the story. She kept speculating things about who Esther is and thinking the main character was the one who got hit by the car.
Yes a lot is open to interpretation, but it's not just a jumble of words, there is a story and you're supposed to interpret what the island is and represents on your own.
I love when Gab plays games like this. It's so cozy.
Me too! I play her videos like this when I'm crafting and I feel so cozy and chill.
When I was in college I took a class on Mammoth Caves. It's the longest cave system in the U.S. and my professor got in touch with scientists that worked there. We visited a few times during the semester and we got tours that were off limits to the public. I was studying archaeology at the time, so it was really exciting for me to see the 19th century graffiti people left way back then. There were also some Native American artifacts and a piles of old broken 19th century shoes from tours from back then.
You won't find any stalagmites or stalactites in those caves though since it's a dry cave, but there are really cool gypsum crystals. The one thing this game doesn't do right, at least at the part I'm writing this at is how DARK caves are. You don't know pitch black until you've been in a cave, away from the entrance (or a similar structure) and turned your light off.
I highly recommend Everybody's Gone to the Rapture. It is a little longer, maybe 3-4 hours depending on how much you explore, but it's a beautiful game with great music and the story is a lot easier to follow.
I really enjoyed EGTTR.
The atmosphere is incredible, and they did a wonderful job of telling the story of the lives of the people through nothing but the voice overs. It's like an interactive radio play.
The ending is... an ending. But for me everything leading up to it was wonderful.
YES. I was hoping someone would recommend EGTTR, it's one of my favourite ~*~vibe~*~ games (and the same person did the soundtrack for Dear Esther and EGTTR)
There's not enough love for this game so I hope gab plays it!
I remember playing that game and feeling such an eerie sensation at wandering around an English village that was completely deserted
The level of detail is incredible
I'd LOVE to see you play Everybody's Gone to the Rapture! It's one of my all-time favorites. It's a lot like this one in terms of the slow, calm pace, but with a more straightforward story, more characters, and interactivity.
thanks for another great video!
Yess!! I strongly agree! It's been years and I still sometimes think about this game, it was so atmospheric ♡
I never finished it, but it was a wonderful experience. I absolutely want to see Gab play that!
The ghost sightings in the game are my favorite part, especially the one you can see only by looking at their reflection in the puddle of water.
Yes! I caught that too, had to rewind because I thought I was seeing stuff. Loved that little detail
Stalactites hang "tight" to the ceiling, stalagmites "might" connect (to stalactites to form a column). That's how I remember. ^_^
I learned stalaCtites are on the Ceiling, and stalaGmites are on the Ground!
Tights go on the legs on the ceiling :)
Tites down (pull tights down to remove them), mites up (pull mittens up to remove them)
for me I remember it because of stalacTite and stalagMites.
T = looks exactly like a stalactite lol horizontal line is the ceiling, vertical line is the stalactite
M = also looks like exatly like two stalagmites growing from the ground
@@gentlechaos5911 I wrote the same thing 21h ago and now my post is just gone from the replies
39:05 Omg. She didn't notice but after the narrator talks about being shone a light after surgery and how it was like a long tunnel with a moon of light at the end, the cave DOES look like that eye. Eyelashes and everything! And there's the moon at the exit!
Remember people dumping on this game a massive amount back in the day. I don’t mind walking sims as long as it’s well made and it doesn’t cost as much as a AAA game.
What? I recall people praising it up and down forever in 2014. Maybe I missed the early reviews in 2012.
@@falconeshield The toxic behaviour around this game is literally the start of the term "walking simulator" alongside similar games which would be released after Dear Esther.
Yea, those who came into this expecting an actual game were sometimes very disappointed.
Calling Dear Esther a "game" might be stretching it. I think of it more as an interactive poem. Regardless, it's a beautiful experience!
@@falconeshield I was at university doing a computer games design course when this game came out - it definitely split people's opinions on it. Some loved it, some hated it. Some felt it proves games were art, some felt it was pretentious boring nonsense.
Some people on the internet didn't even class it as a game, which is just incorrect, really. May not have been a "traditional" game, but it is still a game.
(i mean, you can make a game out of how long it takes someone to wash the dishes, for example. Or seeing who can punch a punching bag the hardest. At its heart, a game is simply an arbitrary set of rules that create a difficulty or issue the player has to overcome, hopefully in an entertaining way - whether that's doing something against a timer, pushing buttons in a correct order, running from ghosts in Pacman, defeating Alduin, shooting hordes of zombies, or simply getting from point A to point B. Not all those issues are fun for everyone, but they're still issues to be overcome by players.)
I loved this when it came out
I’m inclined to think there was a car accident where Esther eventually dies and this is an allegory to the grief he is experiencing while she’s in a coma. Remembering the pieces of his life with her while being in greater and greater pain until she dies at the end. The biblical references that get more desperate and angry and hopeless where god is supposed to save good people, but Damascus is a burnt out wreckage might point to him losing his faith as she nears death. Just my thoughts tho! Fascinating game - makes me think of experimental fiction with a stream of consciousness unreliable narrator. The story itself is pretty heartbreaking but beautifully executed.
I remember the first time I played this. It was the day I had to put my cat to sleep because of a tumor behind her eye. This game helped me grieve the loss, not sure it helped with the guilt though. I really liked this game and have played it several times since. I'm very excited to watch you play this. 💜
One of the pioneers to popularize the walking simulator genre, a classic!
It's weird how this game didn't become popular during the lockdown years (2020-22)
This game reminds me of 'Everybody's Gone to the Rapture', which is a great game with an excellent story that was both whimsical and absolutely terrifying because it lets you make your own assumptions while also having a fleshed out plot. The unknown of it all was what really spooked me, plus the soundtrack was so pretty.
The soundtrack hit me Hard! Jessica Curry does amazing music for video games. I remember looking up her work when I was into Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs. While I didn't look into Dear Esther at the time, I adored the tracks she played for this, too. It compliments the visuals so well. Thanks for sharing!
The writing of these letters in this game are astounding. I'm blown away by the beauty and the passion, as a poet I'm loving listening to these.
Music really reminds me of The Painscreek Killings!
Also every time the narrator starts talking, I always think it's a text-to-voice reading for a second.
The music reminds me of the music from Getting Over It lol
I also thought it sounded very familiar to the painscreek killings!!
this is THE game that invented the term "waking simulator" !
I remember when this game came out, I was assigned to review it. It left me absolutely heartbroken, and it's so rare to have a game with any kind of actual narrative. It is definitely in my top 5, although it's something I will never play again. I even skipped the ending of the video so I didn't have to see too much of the game.
You see a fleeting glimpse of someone you think they're in robes? You continue on when you finally catch up to the figure, they turn around "it is I the candle lighter, I made a sworn oath to only light candles "
Stalagmites MIGHT reach the ceiling someday, while stalactites hang onto the ceiling TIGHT! I can't remember it any other way hehe
I learned stalaCtites are on the Ceiling, and stalaGmites are on the Ground!
The "M" in Stalagmites looks like two of them pointing upwards while the "T" in Stalactites looks like a downwards facing one.
this is gonna sound crazy but there’s an “ezelsbruggetje” for stalactites vs stalagmites in dutch! Stalactieten hangen als… welja, tieten. This has been the only way to remember for me ever since I was little hahah
Ha, dat is ook mijn ezelsbruggetje 😄
4:55 Fibonacci sequence I believe. Or something of the like. He had rules about repeated geometry in nature
I figured that this was about a man grieving over the death of his love. Based on what I could tell, it does not seem as though he ever accepted what happened with the crash. It appears that he got drunk and drove both him and Esther over a cliff; and based on how erratic he gets towards the end of the game, I think he's trying to make excuses to 'prove' that it wasn't his fault. He's speaking about Esther's beauty and how much he loves her at the beginning, but the reality of the crash weighs on him more and more.
I could be completely wrong about this, but if I'm correct that's extremely depressing. Grief can absolutely destroy a person, and it doesn't look like the narrator wanted to accept any help to deal with his.
And thus Gab faces the true horror: her nemesis, chemistry.
I've always loved the atmosphere of this game with its sense of melancholy and desolation
The music is beautiful
Ok so the story I kinda half got but honestly the landscapes, caves, water, reflections were stunning. Better than a lot of other games. So beautiful. Id have watched you walk through this even without the story
Used to play this all the time as a kid back in 2012. I remember exploring and loving every detail - and I still do. It's so very beautiful. Thank you for playing! :)
I love this, and also Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture, which is a similar game but much more involved.
This gives me Edith Finch vibes, I wonder of the EF developers were inspired by Dear Esther
Oh yes, BIG Edith Finch vibes!!
These developers are amazing. Deserve a LOT of recognition, and they are first class at picking decent voice-over actors! Makes such a difference. ❤x
Stalactites hold tight to the ceiling. Stalagmites might make it to the ceiling.
I always remembered it as stalaCtities = C for Ceiling and stalaGmites = G for Ground! This is a way I’ve never seen, pretty neat.
@@Qirimagines That's cool! Never heard of that. I think it's pretty neat!
damn this game is a blast from the past! Didn't this pretty much start the walking simulator genre?
Esther was actually a car, his favorite car. 😂
I think the interpretation you read is valid, but maybe, in my opinion, it's taking things a little bit too literally. I don't think the island is real. It is a metaphorical and symbolic manifestation. I like your initial, gut interpretation that you play as Esther in a coma or in the last moments of her life, and the island is symbolic of her memories and her final thoughts.
She flies away at the end. And when she does, she hears the voice of a loved one (the narrator) say "come back!". And it's the same thing she hears if she tries to sink into the black sea.
And I guess the letters she hears or recalls narrated are symbolic of her understanding of the people she's left behind, such as the narrator (presumably her husband) and the things he's been telling her.
But it's also very abstracted and dreamlike, as it would be, perceived and experienced through layers of coma. Her husband is racked with guilt and sadness about her condition or her passing, and tells her that one day they'll be together again (he will fly to her). And she perceives this as a letter. And then she flies too, away from him, far across the sea, while he calls out for her to come back.
But she'll wait for him there.
And throughout the story, these abstractions represent many things, her self, her accident, her condition, her husband, the driver of the other car etc.
Omg, this game was so good, the story and narritive were so creepy together, the scenery was perfect, the ending! I was so upset i couldn't sleep for a long time until i had calmed down! They did such a great job with it.
i really need something to calm my nerves. Gab has always a perfect timing
The music for this is absolutely lovely
Despite me gatekeeping this game for years it's actually nice to see it get some recognition
I really enjoyed Everybody's Gone to the Rapture - it definitely has more of an interactive story and experience, with lots of different aspects you can explore. It's beautiful and really interesting. You CAN sprint in that game, which I didn't find out until afterwards, which definitely changes how long it is haha.
This reminds me of your playthrough of "What remains of Edith Finch." It was oddly relaxing
Apparently the game can be intepreted differently. You missed some places, where the narrator tells some more. That is why you missed the pregnancy part
Oh so Esther was pregnant when she got into a car accident with a drunk driver. That's terrible 😢
This is actually an interesting story. Back in 2012 I loved the look of this game and there were no gaming youtubers playing it, so I bought it and set up a way to record a video. At the time I have never made a youtube letsplay video, I also knew nothing about the process of recording a letsplay. I tried my best but about 10 min in I just wanted to check to see if the recording was working. Low and behold the gameplay recorded but not my voice. And because I didn't understand how to do it at the time I gave up trying to record the letsplay and just play the game for funzies.
Gab's videos are always a perfect example of things I love. Horror, coziness, and the ~vibes~
Which also means I get to wrap up in a warm blanket and have a cup of tea ☕ :)
i've heard that everybody's gone to the rapture is hit or miss but i will say that the music is AMAZING. probably one of my fav soundtracks
I don’t remember if you’ve played this, but if you haven’t yet and you’re looking for more games to play for TH-cam and Twitch, I genuinely recommend Eastshade. It’s on PS4 and PC and it’s such a beautiful, whimsical little game with one of the nicest soundtracks I’ve ever heard. There’s also a prequel called Leaving Lyndow. Anyway, love this, I played Dear Esther and really enjoyed it as a little thought/creative experiment!
As far as I understood Esther had died after a car accident and his brother died from terminal syphilis. This was his last journey to find closure. His last journey to join Esther.
you can easily remember if the terms stalagtites or -mites are correct by the shape of the letters. stalagTites are from the ceiling dropping down like the letter T and stalagMites are coming up from the bottom like the letter M
This is an amazing game. I understood the story in a much more sinister way though. I believe that the narrator is actually Paul Jacobson and Donnelly is actually Esther, so Esther Donnelly (in the end at least). This coming from the final passage. This would mean that the narrator and clearly lover or husband or so of Esther, was actually the one possibly drunk and being responsible for the accident and her death and not being able to deal with his grief, he did definitely try, her means to rejoin her in death. Well, that's at least what I understood from watching the play through.
@Gabs The Golden Ratio. A pattern that repeats itself in nature.
Definitely a game for the vibes, and the exquisite writing.
I am OBSESSED with the soundtrack, but never got around to playing the game. Thank you for this.
4:20 I believe Gabby Gabus Goobers is referring to the "golden ratio". It's one of the most common mathematical ratios that can be applied to the Mona Lisa, the Twitter and Pepsi logos, and even can be used to create the perfect golden spin, thus creating an eternally endless spiral which can be utilized within the trans-continental American race, the "Steel Ball Run" 🦅❤🇺🇸
Additional facts within the replies 😁
Also I love the defensiveness Gab takes at 18:31. Such a caring person ❤It's not a nice thing to be called.
I just went through this recently as well. It was like $1 on a Steam sale and Chinese Room did the Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs. This was a really relaxing, pretty walking-simulator and at times looks great, especially on an OLED monitor.
I was so excited when I got the notification for this upload! I would love to watch you play Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture! It’s a beautiful game in every way and my favorite of The Chinese Room’s works.
My interpretation of this game is that the whole island is a metaphor and that the person we’re playing as is the narrator and that the whole game is his final thoughts which are sadly weighed down by his grief of his wife dying in a car accident perhaps to his hand also I think it’s not a surgery table and is actually a mortuary table and the coins represent that you can’t take stuff with you when you die
This game feels A LOT like "The vanishing of Ethan Carter" and the soundtrack sounds so much like it too (such a good soundtrack too). I was also getting a deja vu kind of feeling and if you played that game that might be why :)
To me was the travel to the Afterlife
In Ancient Greece we had a custom to bury our d3ad with 1 Drachma so they can give it to Charon
Charon suppose to look like a dark shadow that holds a lantern
Give him the 1 Drachma you can board the boat until the Gates of Hades
The gates was supposed to be in the peak of a mountain on a lifeless island
So this is my interpretation
I have play this game before 12 years I don't remember it to be graphical pleasing (why i say that, because the title remind something but then i saw the electronic circuit in the cave walls i remember it)
45:45 The timing of you talking about the fact that this is was very out there as a walking sim around the time the game came out, at this specific spot is incredible, as there's a director's commentary at that exact place on the steps, about how they feel about the "walking simulator" term and how this was the first of the genre!
rewatching this game after having played it myself a few years ago, it's amazing how much better I understand the monologue the second time around. It's such a different experience to watch someone else play, you can really dive into the text that way. Almost brought me to tears this time whilst last time I was scared of the ghosts haha
Reminded me of the days when I read e.a.poe, and the story regardless if it was tragic emotional, or frightening would unfold in my mind. This was a very captivating game. I enjoyed it 👍 Nice run through Gabs. I expect nothing less from puzzle playing, intellectual mystery solving, etc. Such a good channel all around.
This is one of those games I could swear I had in my Steam library - and it turns out I don't. That's going to change, I suspect. Thanks for playing it, Gab.
Oh silly me for getting ahead of myself, you did mention Everybody's Gone to the Rapture at the end, it is longer but you won't regret it! In fact, you'll love it forever, I promise!
Ohhh, nice throwbacc. I still love the soundtrack a lot! Will be nice to see you go through the game and fill the gaps in my memory again.
I could watch hours and hours of Gab playing this type of mystic athmospheric games. Just so relaxing.
The soundtrack reminds me of Kona another game i enjoyed.
I played this back then, and I didn't agree with all the negative reactions, but I was disappointed in my expectations. It seemed like such a little nugget of what it could've been. The atmosphere was fantastic, though, and I didn't mind the walking sim aspect. I think it would get a better reception now that there are more games like this. That said, I always wanted more from the story for a game that's all about story. I'm curious to see how I feel about it now watching gab play it new, especially the landmark edition. I had no idea it was the same dev as Still Wakes!! I'm so glad they went so much farther!
Oh you're playing Dear Esther ♡ If you enjoyed this game, I can recommend to play Everybody's gone to the rapture too ♡ It's also from the same developers I think. It's a little longer and very atmospheric, but it has more story and more to discover ♡ I've played both games years ago but I still think about them from time to time ♡
There are many different video game genres out there, and it can be fun to try them all. I’ve been into visual novels lately, and this game is the perfect example of why. It’s a game with a story, but it’s also a puzzle of lore. That's why i liked What Remains of Edith Finch so much! Never heard of this one, thank you for playing!
While this wasn't exactly the first of the great "walking sims," it was probably the first to break into the "mainstream" on this scale, and is probably the game, or one of the games, that more or less resulted in the term "walking simulator" being coined in the first place. This game is ultimately a massive historical landmark, as unassuming as it might seem 12 years later. Then came the Stanley Parable and Gone Home, if I am not mistaken.
The bros were really mad about the state of video games back them. Boy were they mad.
Honestly such a deep game and I'm glad Gab finally played that ❤️
12:14 The game's music was composed by Jessica Curry, who also composed the soundtrack for the video games Everybody's Gone to the Rapture and Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs. This is probably why you were triggered.
It’s only in the corner of my eye… what the fuck !?
Goober don’t ever change 😂
I am so glad you're playing this. Because it was released in a time when a walking sim was not yet accepted as a game, and barely as a narrative device, it was panned and overlooked. If you have not, I hope you consider playing Everybody's Gone to the Rapture. With an even lovlier and more moving soundtrack, and a beautiful story you uncover through exploring, it is one of my all-time favourites. Look up Jessica Curry - she has done some absolutely striking scores for games.
The thing I loved about this game are the details in it, most obviously the ghosts you can find but there's more details than that.
The visuals of this game remind me so much of Anglesey in Wales!!! Highly recommend visiting for anyone who loves the look of this game, some of the hiking there is almost identical to this game!
Edit: not the cave part hahah I left this comment before Gab got to the cave portion lol
Wow, this was so different to most games I see but I really liked it, the caves paintings and Crystal light was incredible
Nice story and graphics. This just a walk through with really good graphics and story. The view in the caves in breath taken!!! I played this game many times. You need watch it many times to get more out of it.
Perfect Gab game. I was too ADHD to get very far so this is a treat this evening ✨
27:42 the way i was always taught to remember it was: stalagmites might "grow" to reach the top. And stalactites hold on tight to the ceiling!
Oh, I loved this game. Nice to see someone playing it now.
wow thx for this game. Very atmospheric.
What a gorgeous visual novel. Bravo to putting that together in 2012.
I love it when you play games like this! Cozy story games.
you make all the games you play cozy! you're my #1 comfort youtuber ♡ take care always gab
I just finished a little to the left and was looking at more games by them and saw dear Esther this is such a weird coincidence haha
They’re not by the same developers though
@@sushidashi6152 oh nvm lmao
Pssst, Gab, the figure with the lantern may be a symbol for the tarot figure, The Hermit, who symbolizes by their lonesome (upright): The Hermit card symbolizes soul-searching, introspection, being alone, and inner guidance. The Hermit may symbolize a spiritual journey to an extent, taking time alone to reflect on and better understand one’s own life.
I wish I could just walk out my door and to a nearby forest or beach. I would go there every day!
Dear Esther actually started as a university research project demo around 2008. The experiment was to see how much interactivity you could remove from a game and still keep the player engaged just by choosing what to observe, and to create a story that doesn't rely on specific plot points. (The narration and imagery are randomized.) Another fun fact: this game directly inspired The Stanley Parable.
Weird, I played the game yesterday, with the full Director's commentary, and nothing of what you just said was mentionned even once, only that it started as an Half-Life mod.
(Not implying that you're wrong or lying, but rather curious as to why they didn't mention it at all in the commentary if that's truly the case)
@@Congele_ Yeah, I've wondered why it doesn't get discussed more. When you hear Dan Pinchbeck and Jessica Curry talk about the game in interviews, it's very clear that they're serious turtleneck art gallery types. Maybe they thought it would harm the commercial release to be seen that way, I don't know. Things were different back then, people were very hostile to the idea of taking games seriously as art.
What I get from this game is this guy is super depressed because he lost everyone close to him while he still remains, so now his only obsession is the island and the memories of the island, when it used to be a very populated island, and he was close to everyone but then everyone died, and he doesn't take it well, and he just lost his mind and he is ready to die to join everyone else.
You can get more on further play throughs as different dialogues can be opened on certain points
Everybody's Gone to the Rapture is in my top 5 fave games of all time. There's so much to explore and find in the game, it would require multiple playthroughs to get it all
really enjoyed my times with Dear Esther, been a few years, might be time to revisit! Not sure what it is about it, but I liked!
Everyone’s Gone to the Rapture is one of my favorite games, it’s so amazing 😭💕
Gabs, since you like The Chinese Room games, you should also play Everybody's Gone to the Rapture for a very similar vibe as Dear Esther. Also amazing soundtrack!
Stalactites are stuck TIGHT to the ceiling. Stalagmites, MIGHT reach the ceiling. Another way to remember is stalactites have a T for top of the cave and stalagmites have a G for ground.
The original game you could zoom in and read books ,documents and look at the pictures That’s how the person online filled in the story.