So it has been three months since my last post, and frankly that is too long. I just recently purchased Humble Bundle 8. Thus far, it has been a great experience. The reason I am writing today is because I want to talk about two very similar games within the bundle. These are of course Proteus and Dear Esther.
Both these games create a very unique experience by creating an atmosphere that is unique to each separate experience. Proteus and Death Esther are simple first person exploration games. Some would shy away from the term "games" and instead say interactive art. This is however, beside the point. Each game is go at your own pace and eventually come to an end after you have essentially reached the end goal.
After experiencing both games hours apart from each other, there is one major difference between the two. In Proteus, control is never taken away from the player, and in the end, you have full control of your character. In Dear Esther, this is not the case. You are given control of your character throughout the game with the exception of the ending. Which brings you to an in engine cut-scene from the first person perspective. For some odd reason, this irritated me. Here you are, giving me full control all the way to the end to make me watch the last 30 seconds of the game. This ending would have had much more of an impact if I were to commit to my last action, on my terms.
This brings me to what I really did want to talk about. Control versus manipulation. From the get go, you are given control over your character. However, the player is manipulated, though control is not taken away, into taking the correct path. The entire game is manipulating you using various elements such as narrative, music, lights and other sensory cues, but they never touch you the player. I appreciated this for both experiences. But as I stated above, Dear Esther does do this at the very end. And I found this to be irritating and frankly disappointing.
This is the only thing that the game did wrong. Both games were great experiences and I would recommend them to anyone, not just gamers. Well, that is all for now and hopefully I will be writing more in the future.
-Smi13y
