15 Essential Half-Life 2 Mods You MUST Play
3. Dear Esther
Dear Esther, another game that started out as a Half-Life 2 mod and later expanded to a full retail release, is critically lauded for its revolutionary gameplay and storytelling techniques.
After being summoned to a deserted island by the mysterious Esther, you are left to explore and unlock snippets of the story. What follows is a meditative, mind-expanding and reality-bending experience.
This narrative style has been endlessly copied in the intervening years and these types of games are now typically known as "walking simulators", a term likely to put many people off. That's a shame because it's more like an interactive novel and it's incredibly engaging.
If you want to experience an intensely engaging story while exploring a beautiful, lonely island then Dear Esther is definitely worth a try. The original mod can be found for free but the retail release is the more polished version.
Award-winning. Critically acclaimed. Experimental. Essential.