Dear Esther re-do Feb 14th

[Dr. Righteous]

I agree that some of the textures are poor, but did you even look at the screenshots? The lighting is one of the most amazing things about this game and is easily the best lighting of any source game. The environmental effects are pretty nice also. What you can't see in the screenshots is grass blowing in the wind, clouds rolling in the distance, water dripping from the caves and flowing through the environment, and the great environmental sound and music. It's also worth noting that the screenshots in that album are only of roughly the second half of the game. The first half takes place on the island during daytime, and it looks great as well.

Yeah, I did look at the screen shots. And read some of the comments about it. That is why I bought it. And I was unimpressed once I played it.
The lighting was very static. Standing on the cliff looking out to see the rocks all had the same lighting, even at distance. No fade from heavy air no shadow. The textures on some of the rocks along the paths had the same paper (scrap of paper) stuck to it every few feet. This seems so sloppy and amateurish at first I thought it was some kind of clue to unraveling the mystery. I was wrong, it was sloppy and amateurish.
The caves were eye candy. Not like being in caves at all. If you have ever been in a cave, you will realize 1 thing for sure. It is DARK. And and any light seems like a beacon.
The lighting in the caves and was done by luminescent mushrooms which seemed to be an "out" of having to provide convincing lighting. Again, this seem like such a throw back to DX8 games I took it as symbolic. These caves are "fake" and this means something.
The whole game is like this. And the big disappointment is there is no pay off end the end. The loose threads do not come together to construct a meaningful picture. If this game was a painting. It would be by Jackson Pollock.

Now don't think I'm out to slam everything produced by indie developers.
I LOVED Limbo.
A game in B&W that shows you nothing but shadows??
YES. Talk about less is more! The use of darkness, shadow, light and depth of field was brilliant in this game! The story line was very simplistic but left everything up to the imagination. I would LOVE so see more like that!

 

[djoye]

If you own the Steam version, check your library for the Landmark Edition. I don't know when this appeared, I was just browsing my library recently and noticed it. They ported the game to Unity, initially it looks rough, but you need might need to lower the brightness. Audio quality is much better, I played through it again and finally understood the story based on a search afterwards that mostly confirmed what I thought but filled in some holes in my theory.