Dear Esther (2012)
It wouldn't be a list of 21st century indie games without a so-called "walking simulator", and Dear Esther was arguably the one that started them all. Good luck finding us a review of this game that doesn't include at least passing reference to the debate about whether it even qualifies as a game - even the Wikipedia page offers a slightly brutal appraisal when it puts "gameplay" in air quotes in its description of what you do. But bickering about whether Dear Esther qualifies as part of this artform is about as useful and interesting as all the equivalent debates about new forms of music and literature have been down the years - they say more about the imaginations of the people vocalizing them than they do about the art at hand. Dear Esther may not include traditional gameplay mechanics beyond walking and looking around, but there's surprising depth here and it will stay with you for longer than plenty of games that cost several hundred million dollars to make.
It is a basic setup, as many good things are - you explore a Hebridean island listening to an anonymous individual reading letter fragments to a woman named Esther. It's a clever synthesis of story and location, revealing things about the author and the place as you move around, and each new location and the quirks of the spaces you explore raise questions and invite you to fill in the answers based on your observations. It won't be for everyone, but then neither is FIFA. If you are looking for a change of pace in an interactive environment that uses different muscles than the ones you usually bring to bear in video games, Dear Esther remains a deeply affecting experience. Just ask the legion of developers who followed successfully in its stead, from The Stanley Parable and Gone Home to Firewatch and The Vanishing of Ethan Carter. Dear Esther was the atom at the center of what became a universe of masterpieces.
