Dear Esther, the sombre Half Life 2 mod where you steer a tortured man around an abandoned island listening to his internal monologues, diary entries, or whatever that constant talking is, has been quietly polished up by Robert Briscoe. He's released a ton of screens and a little walk-about trailer, showcasing his rendition subterranean world where you spend a significant portion in the middle of the game. It's gorgeous.
You might not know Robert Briscoe, but you've marvelled at his work: he was an environmental artist on Mirror's Edge - you know, that game where everything was tolerable but the environments were amazing. He's been shining up Dear Esther for the best part of a year, and he's ready to show his progress , via the medium of shedloads of screens. I hope you like caves!
I enjoyed Dear Esther, but I didn't finish it - I just got stuck and couldn't progress, somewhere near the end of the cave section (at least, that was my desperate hope at the time). Hopefully an industry-hardened 3D artist will have more luck designing navigable levels than Dan Pinchbeck did when he cobbled the original together out of Half Life 2 assets. Anyone else played it? What did you think?
[via Reddit ]
