Dear Esther
Step into the gaming world with Dear Esther, one of the top $1.99 games in the App Store! Crafted with creativity and innovation by Sumo Digital Ltd, this captivating Entertainment game is bound to grab your attention. With its content rating of 12+, it caters to a wide audience. Ever since its release on 1st October 2019, it has been constantly updated, with the latest version rolled out on 11th November 2019.
Whether you have a liking for Entertainment, Adventure, or Simulation games, Dear Esther is sure to keep you hooked!
User Ratings
Join the crowd of 238 gamers who have given their verdict on Dear Esther.
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Dive into Dear Esther
The Chinese Room’s cult classic Dear Esther arrives on iOS for the first time, in this faithful interpretation of the internationally renowned game.
A man stands on a desolate Hebridean shore. As he takes his first step forward, he starts to speak: “Dear Esther…” and so begins a dreamlike, complex tale of love, loss and redemption. We’re invited to explore the windswept island, descending into an eerie, otherworldly story where reality fragments and falls apart.
Generally recognised as kick-starting the walking simulator subgenre, Dear Esther features dynamic narration that means the story changes each time you return to the island. Since the original release, Dear Esther has sold over one million units and is seen as a benchmark in interactive and emotional storytelling. PC Gamer said it “provokes thought and feeling in a way few other games do.” It also won praise for its visuals and music, with The Daily Telegraph saying “Dear Esther’s visuals are majestic”, and Jessica Curry’s soundtrack receiving awards and nominations from BAFTA among others.”
Dear Esther includes subtitles in French, German, Spanish and Russian.
We strongly recommend playing the game with sound on, it’s great with headphones.
If you need any help please contact us at [email protected].
What’s Fresh in the Latest Update?
Discover what’s new in the recent update of Dear Esther on 11th November 2019:
Additional localization
Hear from the Players – Dear Esther Reviews
Find out what gamers are saying about Dear Esther:
We have never played a game that made us feel so connected, and heart broken when it ended. This is the best and most detailed game Ill ever play.
Iv never written a review. Just finished it in one sitting. The way you pulled the bleakness and confusion in the beginning into the chorus of the various parts coming together at the end was just sublime.
Very engaging game. Not much we can say that hasnt already been said. Changed the way we look at games…. It is short running at 2 hours tops if youre taking your time. This game has a way of transforming the player. It really is like being submersed in a mind altering book that has an other-worldliness tinged throughout its duration. You are on a pilgrimage alone and have lessons to learn.
A great game to enjoy and play to relax.
We gave five stars because of the graphics and the storyline. It was very engaging and kept us until the end. Like we said not much there, no enemies to fight, no collectibles or loot, not even puzzles except which way to walk next but we played straight thru only took a few hours. Kind of dark, kind of creepy, also sad!
Yes, we agree with so many others that all there is, is well, walking. We almost gave up like three times. We decided our $2 was worth giving it a chance and Im glad we did. Super slow, but wow when you make it to the caves its absolutely beautiful. Worth every penny. Dont expect an adrenaline rush or suspenseful experience, just enjoy roaming and look at the detail this game maker made. We’ve never seen any like it.
Admittedly, this review comes years late. Nonetheless, some things deserve their due praise no matter when. This is a miraculous achievement of multiple disciplines combined in perfect unison to create a unique and engaging viewing experience.
Breathtakingly beautiful. And a few times quite disturbing and frightening. Recommended for those who want their game to transport them somewhere, not for those who are into fast action moves.
Beautiful! Played it on PC and absolutely fell in love. Second time playing it again, and we’re discovering new things. It is a simple exploration/walking game, which took us about 2-3 hours, in which the narrator tells a story. If you’re looking for interaction or anything more than that, this isn’t the game for you. Although the game has several parts which you can start from, we wish it would let you continue where you left off. Other than that, absolutely beautiful game.
Nice Work. Dont Set your expectations high here. Its peaceful, calm and relaxing with beautiful scenery, especially if your a fan of Scottish Highlands, Islands, Oceans, dark and dreary weather, the Maine Coast… We have only walked around so far and appreciated the breezes and fauna. Have yet to get to a puzzle. But its everything we need to escape these troubled times. Enjoy. Find Peace. More Love Less Hate. Thanks for a wonderful experience. Make more Im a huge fan!
This is for people who enjoy exploring human depth and are satisfied with things being left to personal interpretation. We were so moved, that we couldnt shake the story for days. The voice acting, the words, the visuals were all beautiful. Thank you for sharing your art, developers.
Esther is a women having lost husband she haunts the game???
We highly enjoyed every moment of that. We were happy to find that there are no hidden jump scares (since we hate those), but a rather amazingly suspenseful journey that will leave you puzzled with questions. We need another game to play like this, one that is just as remarkable as this one.
A wonderful piece of beauty but please, PLEASE fix the controller support! The Xbox and PlayStation controllers both dont work with the camera movement very well… Only walking.
Love the game from previous play throughs but Im trying to use a controller and the right thumbstick is incorrectly programmed. There is no Y movement, only X. Please fix devs so we can give a 5/5!
We were heartbroken when this stopped working on our Mac after macOS removed support for 32 bit apps. So glad to have it back on iOS. This version looks wonderful but has slight stuttering from time to time. We would like to see keyboard/mouse or comtroller support added. The touch controls work well, but options are always nice. Anyways Im super happy to have this playable again and even on our iPad that.
Sorry devs, we played the entire game hoping the ending would make it worth the endless walking but in the end we were just as confused as when we started. This is more of a story than a game, which is fine for people that enjoy that. We were hoping thered be a mystery to solve and clues to interest with. Instead, all we could do is walk endlessly forward as the narrator droned on. The story just barely getting strung together into something vaguely coherent by the end. Coherent, but for us at least, uninteresting. Two hours completely wasted.
The graphics are very great we loved moving through it. With the other comments do agree it does get boring, especially when the character moves a little slow. The ending is great and there is so much emotion put into the mc going towards the tower, we wouldnt change anything about it. We think what it needs the most is to be able to save and know when the player can save, Im not sure what parts are chapters and parts arent there is no text that tells you that a chapter has ended.
Unplayable with a controller. This should absolutely be working correctly with a game like this. Please fix.
Very beautiful graphics and music, but all you do is walk around and listen to some narration.
Its a beautiful little game, ruined by the excruciatingly slow walking speed. Couple this with the need to explore multiple paths and backtrack, and all that repetitive walking quickly becomes boring. Were they trying to force us to meditate or something? The last straw was when we lost a bunch of progress because its not clear when the game is saved. No way Im repeating all that.
The game itself is beautiful, but it lacks any sort of interaction. You can only walk through it triggering short narratives. It reminds us of myst without any puzzles. To be honest we were disappointed by the game.
Really pretty but super dull. The balance between the music and voiceover is off so we missed a lot of what was being said even with subtitles. Not worth the money for us. Oops.
Not sure how youre supposed to move. On our phone theres no obvious way to distinguish between looking around and walking around.
We can’t figure out how to move. If we had a mouse or some other control besides our fingers, maybe we could do it. Very frustrating!!!!
But we do not know why. The graphics are nice. If there is a story, we missed it. Not recommended.
Nothing about controls. Absolutely not intuitive game play. Cant find anything about how to play the ios version on gaming sites. Huge disappointment and utter waste of money.
Freezes up at the same spot every time.
Dont be fooled by the trailer, there is nothing happening in this game. You walk until you get dizzy. Save your $5.
We cant speak to how this plays on PC but for iOS it isnt worth the effort. The game has no save state and after 10 minutes of trying to navigate we had to stop only to find myself back at the beginning when we picked it up again. It is also very slow paced which gets boring quickly.
We played this game for an hour and a half. Suddenly the mountains disappeared and nothing worked. Refund requested.
Beautiful game, that gives you no direction on how to play or control. We tapped the screen, pressed the screen with no effect. Somehow we managed to move right into the ocean and drowned (twice). We ended up with two fingers on the screen and was able to move, but not in a straight line. We gave up before we threw up.
Its already been said, but Ill say it again: its just walking. There is no interaction with the environment, nothing to figure out. Boring.
Cant save progress… Only can save after a chapter is completed which can take longer than a person can play. Game restarts. Bought it… Deleted it. Frustrating. Too bad because game is beautiful.
Very moving, haunting and satisfying game. We feel as if Im walking inside a story.
We’ve always loved this piece of art. Its touched us a lot. Im happy to have it mobile now, where we can just pick it up and experience it again whenever and wherever we choose to. Theres a few issues in this port that could be fixed to better match the original, but nothing drastic. Some of the music doesnt play at certain parts, and when youre underwater, it can control a bit janky. Other than that, we were very happy to see it on the App Store. Worth the money if you want something atmospheric and soothing to escape to for an hour, or if you enjoy picking apart an intriguing and emotional story like we have and replay it multiple times to hear new dialogue. Or just stand around and enjoy the scenery.
The graphics are nice but it quickly gets boring. There’s nothing you can interact with, you just walk and that’s it. Also there are glitches like seeing through mountains or getting stuck in between rocks. Not worth $5 for us. Games are supposed to be interactive, this one is just a walking monologue.