Released last month by a tiny team of developers, it looks like a game from the late 1990s, back in the days when developers stretched detailed textures over low-polygon models to create “realistic”-looking objects. The creepy exploration game Paratopic reaches a little further into the past for its style, but it’s another perfect fusion of just-retro aesthetic and gameplay-light narrative. But today, its distinctive angularity looks almost intentional, intensifying the story’s stark loneliness. At the time, that made Dear Esther look dated. Half-Life 2 was several years old when the mod was released, approaching the twilight realm of last-generation graphics: too old to impress, too new to inspire nostalgia. My first experience with an exploratory “walking game” was the 2008 Half-Life 2 mod Dear Esther. In our biweekly column Short Play, we suggest video games that can be started and finished in a weekend. It can be difficult to find time to finish a video game, especially if you only have a few hours a week to play.
