Where is dear esther set

These monologue fragments are triggered as the player reaches certain locations in the game; each one is either semi-random, or specific to the area the player is currently exploring. This semi-random selection of voice-over parts causes a lack of coherency, and forces the player to draw their own conclusions as well as making the game replayable.

As the game progresses, other unseen characters are referred to: Jakobson an eighteenth-century shepherd and hermit and Donnelly who charted the island some time in the past. Later in the game, the readings begin to allude to the story of Paul on the road to Damascus, which is also the subject of some of the painted texts on the cliff walls.

The player's character climbs a ladder to the top of the tower after a final monologue from the narrator, then jumps off and falls to the shore below. Before reaching the bottom, the player becomes a bird and flies through the bay as the game ends, fading to black. The game follows a somewhat linear path on an uninhabited Hebridean island.

A series of obscure visual symbols are painted along the rocks of the island, most of which are biological, chemical or electrical diagrams. These refer to two possible causes of the accident that took Esther's life, a drunk driver and a brake system failure. There have been discussions about the island being a real island in the world, as well as the car accident being on an existing motorway.

This picture resembles a somewhat unique scene in the remake of the game. At a certain point before the end of the 3rd level in the caves, you will be teleported to the location where the car accident took place southbound junction 19 of the M5 motorway in the UK.

The motorway reference numbers are the same in both pictures. The overall development was directed by Pinchbeck who also wrote the story.

Perhaps the bit after you fall into the water, where you are submerged, symbolises inside the womb? This all pretty much confirms she was pregnant. Okey, if you go to the right, passed the bridge, you found a little "shore". One pic is, i think, a "ultrasound" photo or ecography of a baby! That, i supose, confirm that esther was pregnant.

And the other photo seems to be a woman esther? I saw that too! In that case, that brings the question, the three doves at the end, is that the narrator, Esther and the unborn child? If so, that is bringing tears me already lol :,. The cave drawing with letters H, C and O connected with lines to each other is a chemical bonding chart for alcohol. Here is a picture of how it is typically drawn. After reading your interpretation on the story of Dear Esther, I was surprised to see how different it was to my intake of it.

What I got from this game was that the Narrator has been dead the whole time, and he is a ghost wandering around the island over and over. He has said in one of the first chapters that he had walked this path many times, creating confusion as you have no clue what he is talking about, but at the end it all makes sense; the Narrator walks around in circles on the island until he reaches the lighthouse where you jump off and the cycle begins again, explaining the symbols and writing on the walls he drew them himself.

I also think that Esther and Donnelly, and Paul and Jacobson are in fact the same people, and that Esther and the Narrator already had kids, since the Narrator stated it before it would be extremely difficult for a woman in her 50s to be having a child.

Is it a dream sequence? Is he dead already? Interesting take. Cool interpretation, but I have a few things to add. First, forget the number of ghosts, there have been over 10 ghost sightings already. Also, Ive read somewhere that where you use the source engine to save a file, it is titled "Paul", which could lead to another interesting interpretation: That you are actually playing as Paul following in the footsteps of the narrator, which would explain why everything was already set up in front of you.

Also may explain why as an alive person you encounter the three dead gulls and three eggs Narrator, Esther, and child. So much to think about!

Best known as the type of alcohol found in alcoholic beverages. The schematics are most probably that of an anti-lock brake system. Hi Mathew, I really liked your article on Dear Esther. Also, regarding 21, that's how many miles the narrator drove up and down the motorway looking for clues about the accident, it was also the number of minutes that passed till the emergency services came, and the number of letters in the narrator's "armada".

However, I believe the clues like the number 21 are red herrings for what the story is really conveying see above link. There are also drug references outside of the drunk driving allusions and the ethanol diagrams.

I believe the kidney stone pain the narrator experienced or the psychic break which occurred after Esther died helped develop a dependency on laudanum or pain killers. I just finished this game It's was beautiful. So one thing I've seen many people asking about was the "nerve endings" and such on the walls.

As stated multiple times there was the circuit for Anti lock brake systems, the Chemical equation for ethanol. But what about the others?

Well there was a few drawings of neurons which are the signal senders and receivers in out brains. Another diagram was of the chemical equation for dopamine. A chemical that creates a feeling of happiness and pleasure in the brain when passed between neurons. Maybe this is a representation of fond memories. I don't know. Dane - Wasn't it beautiful? A relation to the influence of alcohol? Just a guess, but yes I noticed them too. Thanks to everyone who's commented so far, not sure about you but it's helped me understand the game a bit more.

I just finished the game, and i noticed sorry, can't remember exact location there is a very small picture on the ground.

If you look close enough, you can see that it is an ultrasound with a baby in the picture. I guess it just reinforces the idea of a pregnant Esther.

That would be this image. I was also able to witness the silhouette on the cliff. As I'm looking for pictures that show what I've seen, I have stumbled upon this wikia page! Maxx Never too late! Thanks for the links though. Your first picture is the last ghost you see I believe, there are many more to be found. Has anyone played this through 21 times to see what happens?

I suspect this may be something that triggers a different ending, but havent had the patience to try it I still think the story is a dream sequence. Subtle hints such as the inability to die throughout the game, the scene with the underwater city, and the transformation at the end seem to fit this hypothesis.

As for the bird- I believe it was in terms of freedom from guilt and sorrow, not submission to it. The ending's atmosphere seemed to end on a positive note, implying that the narrator may in fact not have committed suicide, rather, he might have found resolve and thus, freedom hence the bird in flight. Perhaps he was spiritually reunited with his wife and child, but I believe it was in mind and memory over actual physicality. Great interpretations regardless.

I have never tried a game like this before, but the second Amnesia game inspired me, and I must say, I was by no means disappointed. Interesting detail: there is a structure formula of C2H5OH alcohol on the wall in the of the first house on the beach. I love the above comments, and I hope I can contribute, as a neuroscientist. I was particularly intrigued by the diagrams on the walls throughout the game, especially in the hallway in the caves where the circuitry, organics, and neurons become intermingled.

There were three "groups" of neurons drawn in the game, as far as I can tell. The first, most standard, is most like your average cortical neuron; the second is most like a sensory neuron; the third looks remarkably like a scientific drawing of a perkinje neuron, which is found in the cerebellum.

Associated with motor movement and error detection and correction. There is one point in the game where all three are drawn together, in that sequence. I can't contribute much to these theories - I just finished my second playthrough, and I only saw two ghosts and have limited information! But I love reading these theories and I hope that the above information can help at all.

I have enjoyed the comments from others here. As I experienced the island it came to be the last vestige of life where the soul seeking absolution from the guilt of losing Esther as the driver when wrecked saw places he could not go and ended up thinking he'd found a way out, only to be forced to return to the path where the soul was released, a journey for corporeal to spiritual release, the nervous system, chemistry, luminescence, all worked together giving an air of searching for the way forward from death.

Here's a thought: Saul, in the New Testament, is referred to more often as Paul. On the road to Damascus to persecute Jesus' followers, Saul was basically struck down, went blind for awhile, converted and then was referred to more often as Paul. In essence, he is a new man. What if the narrator and Paul are one in the same? Now he has created an alternate personality to disassociate himself from the tragedy and guilt, is no longer "blind" and he is essentially two minds living in one man I've only finished playing it once , so this is a complete shot in the dark.

I'd play it again, but my head is spinning. I've got to digest this game first! Thank you for explaining. I had the pleasure for the first time to play Dear Esther last night but, my language is Spanish, and the game was on English without subtitles so I lost a lot.

I couldn't understand very well. Thank you for explaining!!! I think the narrators time on the island takes place years after his wife's death. He's old, he's sick, he's dying and the island is his mind; filled with collections of memory's of how he's cooped and understood her death. The Radio tower is a form of communication; I think, by jumping, he let go of what happened and finally was set free.

Reaching her. Hey guys, I also noticed the chemical formula for dopamine in certain instances as well. It's linked with adrenaline so what's the relation to that then? Hi, this probably makes no sense into the story, but im sure you've seen the ''In loving memory of Joaqueline and Steven" as an easter egg, using noclip.

Does anyone what does this mean? I'm going to have to replay Dear Esther at some point, even after so many years, questions still have no answers. It's great though you're all finding my post here helpful at least, I hope you are! Your ghosts turning into birds at the end is not a bad suggestion either.

First of all- so many great comments and theories including the author of the page! My mind is reeling with thoughts. Paul was drunk while driving with Ester in the car. He declares, "My disease is the internal combustion engine and the cheap fermentation of yeast. Sadly, Esther dies. The one thing I am trying to discern are the surgical tools and the blood. What has happened here? And also- the machine that reminds me of an ultrasound used on pregnant women.

Did they try to remove the baby after the car accident? I feel as if I am in his mind- perhaps he is in a coma or under the mental derangement of tertiary syphilis. Or did he infect his wife and fetus and was I just played it only one playthrough and thought that the island is a metaphor for the narrator himself.

A video game version of "a man is an island", if you will. In chapter one, the narrator like the player is trying to even understand what is happening. He tries to maintain composure, looks at religion as a possible answer but it's not satisfactory. Donnelly is the parallel he draws to himself, retreating from life like the hermit and getting lost in thoughts like the hermit paints his cave as a museum. The eponymous lighthouse could be Esther herself, but in order to progress in the game, i.

In chapter two, the buoy which he angrily derides at the start of the chapter keeps flashing, analogous to how the narrator can't get the accident shipwreck out of his head.

As a result, he looks into research as a way to cope with his loss. Hence all the details about Jakobson, who acts as a stand-in for Paul, similar to how Donnelly researched Jakobson but got lost in feverish hallucinations towards the end.

The narrator also loses his way, the infection is a darkness in his soul, not his leg. I can't see the caves of chapter three as anything else than the deep hole that the narrator digs for himself.

He falls in and experiences endless pain trying to even reach the surface again. Along the way, messages of despair are scattered around, as well as multiple setbacks of subsequent falls that continue to take effort to recover from. The caves are beautiful but deadly at the same time. By the end of the chapter, the beauty has turned into ugly green goo and incantations of pain that are all that's left in the narrator's life.

In my reading, chapter four is all about finding forgiveness and redemption, a new outlook on life. The narrator finds a way of letting go, by sending his letters to Esther off into the ocean and transforming them into a video game. The beacon is a beacon of hope, far away at first but the narrator makes it past the dangerous cliffs to get there in the end. By reaching the beacon and flying away as a bird, he finds the strength to escape his own island of grief and carry on with his life by himself, but honouring the memory of his wife and unborn child as well as making peace with Paul.

Other interpretations may be just as right or more so! Thanks to everyone for cataloguing and deciphering all the different symbols, it added substantial depth to the game for me. I just played too. At first I thought I was the narrator, but then I soon got a sense that he was long gone, the same way he spoke of Donnelly being gone.

Bible verses scrawled all over the island, and a flashing radio tower omnipresent in your view. Exploring a spectrum of moods within the medium of games is something Pinchbeck takes very seriously. But right at the centre of Esther's story is the idea that there's no absolute interpretation of the themes at play.

Pinchbeck expected that this may turn players off, leaving people bored and unfulfilled. He was spectacularly wrong. Instead, Dear Esther became an indie darling, downloaded more than 60, times, enthused about by the gaming press, and honoured with an international award. After an exhausting couple of years working in Sweden, Robert Briscoe returned to the UK, having decided to take some time out to recuperate. He'd originally planned to use this time to work on a small prototype he'd been tinkering with — a zombie-filled survival horror mod built in the Source Engine.

But then came an attack of the undead, as wave upon wave of brainmunchers saturated the PC games market. Not wanting his idea to be lost in the crowd, Briscoe put his project on hold. This left him with a year or so to burn. Searching for ideas, he turned to the premier mod site ModDB for inspiration — and stumbled upon an unassuming little release called Dear Esther.

It stuck in my mind for days afterwards, and although I toyed with the idea of translating Dear Esther's core mechanics to my own designs, I couldn't shake the feeling that there was so much untapped potential in the original, if only for a proper coat of paint and a more polished design.

For Briscoe, Dear Esther's main weakness was the island itself. The story was fascinating, the ideas great, but the island worked against the game: players were getting lost, or stuck, or bored.

Having worked with Source for over five years, Briscoe had a few tricks up his sleeve to bring the concept to life. The remake pushes the Source Engine to places it's never been before. Realistic waterfalls cascade down the walls of extraordinary caverns, gleaming bright blue in the phosphorescent light.

Outside, foliage sways and leaves blow in the breeze, as the moon forms a striking reflection on the eerily calm ocean. The picture painted by Dear Esther is as vivid as any in gaming. I sent him pages of notes, and I've been looking at alphas and feeding back, but right up until the deal with Valve happened it was mainly Rob's gig.

It was quickly obvious that this was going to be more than a simple graphics overhaul. With his level design techniques, Briscoe had transformed the world of Dear Esther into something remarkable: a game whose world was its primary character, and where every landmark told its own story. Until fairly recently, the Dear Esther remake was still set to be released as a free Source mod. But that changed when Pinchbeck and Briscoe decided to approach Valve with the view to licensing their engine to release a fully fledged indie game.