Dear Esther, A Beautiful New Take on Interactive Storytelling

Originally a Half Life 2 mod built with the Source Engine in 2008, Dear Esther is an interactive storytelling experience unlike anything you’ve taken part in before. In a first person perspective you’ll be exploring a desolate island trying to uncover who you are and why you’re on this mysterious island. But instead of me telling you what it’s about I’ll give you the information from the games About page on the official site which can be found here.

“A deserted island… a lost man… memories of a fatal crash… a book written by a dying explorer.”

Dear Esther is a ghost story, told using first-person gaming technologies. Rather than traditional game-play the focus here is on exploration, uncovering the mystery of the island, of who you are and why you are here. Fragments of story are randomly uncovered when exploring the various locations of the island, making every each journey a unique experience. Dear Esther features a stunning, specially commissioned soundtrack from Jessica Curry.

Take a look at this stunning trailer below and try to tell me when your done watching that it wasn’t beautiful.