Dear Esther Is An Experience

A HL2 mod brought to my attention at Rock, Paper, Shotgun, it is not anything like a typical fps. More akin to the The Graveyard, this experience is not something you 'play', but the world is something you inhabit, if only for a little time.












Fragments of the narrative are triggered upon crossing the island, apparently in somewhat random fashion, making the story reveal itself in a decidedly non-linear fashion. Marks scrawled upon the rock reveal another level of story, one that intermingles with the voices in your (its, their, our?) head.

How do you 'play' procedural poetry?

Are there even words to describe experiential gameplay?

Embedded post modern narratives?

Inhabited bodies of discordant discontent?

Or is it all simply acting?