The pacing in this game is painful

[Roler42]

Yes, i'm calling it a game, the most simplified form of a game that can possibly exist

The music is beautiful, the voice acting is superb, the visuals are gorgeous...

But the pacing is just so painfully slow... A running option would have been better rather than making me walk painfully slow and backtrack painfully slow because i'm trying to figure out where I can find the next piece of narrative

I'm intrigued by the pieces of dialogue and i'm delighted again by the music and visuals, but all that experience gets ruined because i'm forced to walk slowly...

If the devs are gonna continue applying this kind of narrative-driven style, and they keep the painfully slow walking... Then I'm honestly not interested in anymore material the chinese room has to offer

I enjoyed Amnesia: A Machine for pigs, it was amazing despite limiting the gameplay and removing the multiple endings, but this? Right now i'm forcing myself to get through it...

[Vuvo]

Its just how fast you would walk in real life o-o

[Cheater equal on teams?]

@Roler42:
I understand your point and sometimes felt the same because it was so dull boring and pointless, but running would ruin a lot, if not everything.

If you have to "forcing yourself to get through" like you wrote I would assume that "the thing" is not working for you as it was intended and as it probably should or could.

I am still feeling the pain induced thru the whole experience.....
....especially of my finger sticking to the W key as wandering through ;-)

[illgib]

Have you made trought the end? Pay attention to every dialogues as the story is unfold all along the way. Everything (or most) is explained along the way ;) I made two playtrought, and both ended with me crying my heart out. Yeah, it's unbareable beautiful, if you let the story flow trought you :)

[Cheater equal on teams?]

@illgib Sure, I got to the end but I think some things are beyond argue - if @Roler42 likes to run - yeah let him run...but sadly it is not possible in this game, but it should be because he wanted to. It's about freedom of choice.

So, I let the story thru but it echoed only a little bit. What is fine I guess - at least for me ;-)

[illgib]

Originally posted by Cheater equal on teams?:

@illgib Sure, I got to the end but I think some things are beyond argue - if @Roler42 likes to run - yeah let him run...but sadly it is not possible in this game, but it should be because he wanted to. It's about freedom of choice.

So, I let the story thru but it echoed only a little bit. What is fine I guess - at least for me ;-)

How can i explain my point without spoiling anything?
Ok let's try.
You're not phisically in there, you're dying of siphylis and you're wandering in this island that is a projection of your own mind. You're feeling guilty for Esther's death and you're escaped in this island to live like an ermitage. You're Paul and Jackobson too, together part of yourself, two personality splitted the day you came in this island. You fell in alchool (there are many references in Jackobson's lines) and you broke your leg falling into the caves, that gave you siphillys. You struggle with your own guilty while you're leaving the world as a wandering soul in this immaginary island. The aerial it's a simbol, the ascension, you leave your phisical body as a spirit.

If you pay attention you can caught different voices, but from what they are saying you can recall what i've said before. And even in the endings the "happy one" is Paul finally passing over the guilt and freeing himself from his burden *i've burned all my belongins, those death certificate, mine is written all over this island* and the "sad one" is Jackobson *I've drink all this island* he can't move on and he just leave with the burden still on his back. He said right before something about carrying Paul's body around, himslelf and his guilty as a burden *i was not drunk at all!*
So i think the pacing it's painfully slow but for a purpose, that only near the end it's unrevealed. And painfully in a....don't know how but..."nice" way, you feel the struggle and the sense of reclusion in taking different paths, but that get you to the same spot at the end.
So i'm glad you can't run, or it would had probably ruin the game itslef, making it really a walking simulator. It's alredy deep by itself without buring it deeper with common game mechanics ;)

[Cheater equal on teams?]

Thank you @illgib for your input and the nice blacklisting of the "spoilers" :-) I would assume everyone is getting his own theory and story depending on his own understanding / perception and interpretation.

I appreciate the whole concept & storytelling but I didnt't get a real connection (interest) to the character and / or (short)story.

[illgib]

It's all up here :)
http://thechineseroom.co.uk/blog/some-old-dear-esther-archive-stuff/
They posted this some time ago, they explain pieces of the story and some ingame lines, with guidelines to the translater. A nice reading, indeed, it can fix some holes in the story :)

[Rounin]

You can't run because you're a seagull.

[illgib]

Originally posted by Rounin:

You can't run because you're a seagull.

Well the seagull it's just an image, like the island. You're a soul, like the other ghosts you see sometimes, and you're dying of a blood disease after you refugee on that island. The whole thing it's a representation of his own mind, and it become clear when you enter the Caves. The seagulls are an image of freedom, because the Island is like a prison, and you can't escape from there, if you try to swim you'll drown in darkness. the seagulls are free because they can fly and go whatever they want.

And again some manly tears.....damn' onion's cutting ninjas...

[udav]

Originally posted by Roler42:

But the pacing is just so painfully slow... A running option would have been better rather than making me walk painfully slow and backtrack painfully slow because i'm trying to figure out where I can find the next piece of narrative

Actually i feel bit opposite - player move too fast for me. It like he flying above ground on wing not climbing on hills without road/moving on stones slope. Why he falls then from the cliffs? Why drowning? I will be prefer ~half speed. I feel like i'm not a human in this game its shatter all somehow.

And i can understand ending whith all that movements same path around scenes again from different point (like in Journey. @Hey look our pretty gamescenes second time!@ :) ) but its a game about sorrow and some insanity and from my point i prefer its end in darknes (like how you drowninng in this game) not fancy fly. There what happends and what you done. Then bottom line. No excuses no rewinds no quarter.

[Snekmint]

The narrator does say in the second chapter that he has fallen and broken his leg, it's infected and he is eating painkillers desperately in an attempt to get to his "final ascent". It's not clear whether this happened before the start of the game or during, because he said he was going to the caves when it happened. It's possible that he has been wandering all over the island for a long time before we even start the game, so by the time we start he is declining fast.
That is my interpretation of the walking speed... that and of course he is deep in depression and suicidal anguish, mourning Esther. He's not a superhero.

[SugaNee]

Honestly I somehow managed to go the right way 98% of the time with few second back tracking because I accedentally got turned around a couple times, but if you went any faster you wouldn't get all of the story. The dialouge nearly goes back to back almost always when you stay on the right path so it would either overlap or you'd have to wait by the time you got to the end for all of the dialog to finally end. They timed it perfectly which I appreciate, and you wouldn't be able to enjoy the scenery if you were running anyways..

[spookee {chARmed}]

At first I thought the pacing was slow but then I realised it wasn't fair comparing this to a FPS game where there's always a sprint button. I think for the story and style of the game, it was fitting, just give it a chance.

[Traveler]

Originally posted by illgib:

Have you made trought the end? Pay attention to every dialogues as the story is unfold all along the way. Everything (or most) is explained along the way ;) I made two playtrought, and both ended with me crying my heart out. Yeah, it's unbareable beautiful, if you let the story flow trought you :)

If this games story made you cry, you have some serious emotional issues...

[illgib]

Originally posted by Impish:

Originally posted by illgib:

Have you made trought the end? Pay attention to every dialogues as the story is unfold all along the way. Everything (or most) is explained along the way ;) I made two playtrought, and both ended with me crying my heart out. Yeah, it's unbareable beautiful, if you let the story flow trought you :)

If this games story made you cry, you have some serious emotional issues...

Yeah, i guess :D