The Random One said:
Eeeeeh. Do you think, then, that complete freedom of choice is the only way a game really is a game? That complete freedom thing is a child of the first GTAs, a direct storyline in which you do the thing in the order you are supposed had always been a perfectly acceptable way to structure a game and remains so. The fact that you are controlling the character, and not just reading/watching/whatever some fella doing whatever he's doing, adds a new level to the way the story is experienced. I guess you argue that linear games make this interaction an illusion, but I put forth that all fiction is an illusion by definition anyway.
Then again, I haven't actually played the game. I suppose that if you were to finding yourself hitting the next plot coupon despite it being obviously stupid/pointless from the character's point of view it would be an equivalent of the ridiculously stupid fodder for the machete-wielding supernatural murderer of movies, and no better.
I really need to get the Source engine somehow to play these games.
My favorite game series is Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, a direct-path storyline game with almost no branches whatsoever, so I think you're misinterpretting.
To try to give you a better idea of why I'm criticizing it, I will summarize Dear Esther. You begin on a dock of a large island (no, not Myst, bigger). You walk forward and explore the island (though in the end only certain paths will progress forward). As you reach certain map triggers, a narrator begins talking; he appears to be writing a letter to Esther about his stay on the island. It's very poetic and well-read, though I can't quite draw a clear connection to what I'm seeing on the island. You keep moving forward, no puzzles or anything, occasionally piano music will accompany the narrator. The environments are very vast (sometimes meaning you lose your way) but all you ever do is walk through them. No enemies, nothing to press the Use key on, no decisions, nothing. As you progress up these rock cliffs toward the end you see some really extensive chalk carvings on the rock, kilometers across, like it all makes sense in someone's head. Eventually you reach the top of the island after lots of dialog, and you beat the game.
My main criticism is that while a "cinematic" game, like say God of War's simon says cutscenes, has at least SOME interactivity, there is literally no cognitive difference between playing through Dear Esther and watching a video of someone playing through it.