The problem when a video game wakes up and thinks its a movie, then a game, then a movie, then a game, then a poem...
The premise is beautiful, the scenery spectacular, but for me there is simply not enough interactivity to call this thing a video game. I can move, sure – if somewhat slowly – but my ability to interact with the world is only in a passive (not active) way. At the end of the day, it may as well be a movie I am watching or tragic digital bedtime story.
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for pushing genres and experimenting with new ideas – let's face it we need them - but in the end Dear Esther feels like it accidentally robbed me of one of the most important things about being a gamer... That my actions count. That what I do matters.
Maybe I'll play it again and mash the keys until some character stats or journal pops up, or perhaps even a hardcore WOW-like inventory, but I suspect this was not the point. In the end I'll have to suffice with imagining my own backpack, the only thing in there of course being a soggy letter saying "Dear Esther, $10 including tax, Regards, Steam".