Dear Esther: Landmark Edition Begins its Journey on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 Today
It’s time to embark on one of gaming’s most memorable adventures as Curve Digital brings The Chinese Room’s classic to consoles in an all-new ‘Landmark Edition’
LONDON – September 20, 2016 – The Chinese Room’s breathtaking narrative adventure Dear Esther lands on consoles for the first time today, in the form of a stunning Landmark Edition.
Available now with a limited-time discount of 20 percent off the SRP of $9.99 / £7.99 / €9.99, Dear Esther: Landmark Edition gives PlayStation 4 and Xbox One owners the opportunity to experience the game which defined a genre.
Dear Esther is a narrative adventure that takes place on an uninhabited Hebridean island, upon which a lone man must piece together the chain of events which lead to his wife’s death. Widely acclaimed upon its original release on PC in 2012, it is a game unlike any other; a visual and aural experience which has rarely been bettered.
The Landmark Edition introduces a brand new commentary which reunited the original team of Jessica Curry, Rob Briscoe and Dan Pinchbeck for the first time in years, to play through and comment on the game, its legacy and offer unique insight into the creation of this incredible game.
In addition to the commentary – which can be enjoyed right from the start, if you prefer – the Landmark Edition also boasts some additional tweaks not seen in the current PC release, including additional accessibility options. In addition, the Landmark Edition introduces respectful trophies and achievements. The PlayStation 4 version is also bundled with a gorgeous dynamic theme.
“Dear Esther has been with us for eight years now, but our passion remains undiminished – and we are as excited about it now as we were the first time,” says Dan Pinchbeck, The Chinese Room. “This Landmark Edition is the culmination of the work of an extraordinary team of individuals and we’re excited to see how console players will respond.”
Dear Esther: Landmark Edition is available on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One today, priced $7.99 / £6.39 / €7.99 for a limited time. The Landmark Edition additions and enhancements will be made available to existing PC owners as a free update at a later date.
About Curve Digital
Curve Digital is the largest publisher of independent video games on console formats in the world. Working with high profile developers such as Mike Bithell (Thomas Was Alone), Dan Marshall (The Swindle) and Olli Harjola (The Swapper), Curve helps individuals and small teams bring their games to a larger audience. Curve actively publishes on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Wii U and 3DS.
Website: curve-digital.com
Twitter: @CurveDigital
Facebook: Curve Digital
With Joule having no idea what exactly happened, it is only with the help of her trusted companion bot Mack who is eventually joined by two other special bot types that she must try to find out what happened to the rest of the team that was supposed to be working on the planet and where everything went wrong. While this storyline does seem like it might have potential.
In combat players can also extract the cores of weakened bots through a tug-of-war min-game that if completed successfully rewards the player with a colored core that can be transformed into energy. Alongside the gunplay players will also be able to use Joule’s corebots to perform “lethal” attacks when they have sufficient charge to deal large amounts of damage though most of the time they simply serve as distractions to allow Joule to take on multiple foes at a time.
While the combat system ranges from either too easy to spiking in difficulty, the actual movement mechanics and platforming are a big attraction in ReCore. Joule’s equipment allows her to double jump, dash on the ground or through the air, and make quick climbs on most ledges. The game allows players to use these fluid mechanics to traverse the world in a satisfying fashion most of the time as players will easily learn how to dash through areas, jump, dash, and jump once again all in one sequence. The fact that the platforming feels so well done is a great help considering the grinding and buggy nature of this game.
Out in the field players do nothing more than gather these cores or get into random battles, which can be somewhat useful when it comes to crafting new blueprints and upgrading your companions with new parts, however even this method is frustratingly monotonous as upping various stats requires staring at a bar fill repeatedly and since stat upgrades and new blueprint pieces can only be applied at Joule’s crawler (home base), players will need to deal with another aspect of the game that is frankly terrible.
Combine this with numerous crashes to the main menu, areas where you can clip through the ground repeatedly (with the game resetting you to the same clipping point until you quit out to fix the issue), and numerous places players can explore only to find themselves stuck in the level design and you’ll be wary of venturing too far off the beaten path, though even if you do there is little to find there.
The soundtrack is fairly standard for the genre with a number of fitting pieces of music used throughout the game while the voice acting, for what there is, works well in creating a bond between Joule and her companions who speak only through unintelligible robotic dialogue.
With this legend in mind, five Machina Mages have been summoned from across the globe to Southern Cross city where they must undergo these trials in an effort to save the world. Players take on the role of a bubbly but slightly airheaded Estra, a young Machina Mage from a tiny village who wants to be friendly with the rest of the girls who have been assigned this task. Unfortunately, since legend tells of only one woman being able to restore the planet the last thing on these girls’ minds is co-operation as they wish to put their names down in history.
Sure the majority of the cast feels as if they are simply checking off various tropes when they are introduced and unfortunately they rarely go beyond these simple characteristics but when the whole cast is together they do form a rather interesting group that does its best to keep players around since the actual storyline rarely develops in an interesting fashion and often fades into the background.
The one key aspect where this game stands out is the way it handles the combat system and the Guardians. Guardians appear to be mech like beings that are controlled by the Machina Mages and each Guardian can be customized with different limbs and cores that come with different slots allowing for players to equip them with gems to augment their abilities. Unlike the main characters, the Guardians’ attacks and skills change depending on the arms that they are equipped with and they can be customized any time outside of battle, allowing players to change up their Guardian’s on the fly if they encounter enemies that are being a bit difficult.
Every enemy and character in the game also has various elemental strengths and weaknesses so using Guardian abilities or forms that are strong against certain elements while resistant to others is a good way to power through difficult enemies. While this strategy works well, it rarely comes into play and isn’t nearly as complex as one would expect. I say this primarily because on Normal difficulty the game is incredibly simple to power through without even paying attention to the elemental system. Players can easily find themselves customizing their Guardians into forces to be reckoned with and breezing through standard fights and only getting caught up by the boss fights that raise the difficulty a bit, this means those who are looking for a real challenge will need to go for the harder difficulty setting.
Idea Factory International has released MeiQ: Labyrinth of Death with both the original Japanese voice track as well as their freshly recorded English dub for the game with players being able to swap between the two at any time. The English cast handles their characters quite well and in fact certain characters come off as far more enjoyable sounding in the English dub than in the Japanese version. The soundtrack accompanying the title is fairly impressive as it features a number of unique sounding tracks to explore dungeons and fight to.
