It’s undeniably beautiful, but the eerie, uncanny calm in the fictional Shropshire village of Yaughton portents a running theme; one of sadness. It all starts innocuously enough. For whatever reason – it’s never explicitly stated – you’re caught in the little holiday village, one that’s bereft of life, and it seems that it up to you to figure out why its inhabitants have upped and vanished. Your own footsteps serve as the only sign of living humanity.

Games of this sort have pejoratively been called “walking simulators,” and this one most closely fits that bill. There’s honestly very little that you actually do other than walk. There’s a button to interact with things, but the only items you’re able to interact with are doors and gates – and the telephones and radios strewn across the village, each filling in some of the story’s blanks. There’re no “insert object X in to object Y style puzzles,” and no conundrum to really solve. All you do, in effect, is walk around the beautifully constructed, very nearly photorealistic village and listen to fragments of the past, told to you by ephemeral, ethereal bits of spectral, liquid light as they recount the past.

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This is where Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture really shines. As you walk about you’ll encounter glimmering blobs of light that beg for you to follow them, revealing bits of the major story arch, uncovering the strange entity that’s perhaps caused the epidemic of the unknown sickness that led to the village being quarantined, and why there’s nobody left. It’s a little more Sci-Fi than its Christian nomenclature might suggest, cribbing relentlessly from the work of prolific British Sci-Fi authors (whose books can be seen within the game).

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While the story, frankly, ends up going nowhere, it’s the interactions between the villagers – the human stories that emerge when people are dealing with catastrophe that become the most intriguing, driving aspects.  The writing and the voice acting that relay these fleeting bits of narrative are superb, giving real insight in to characters that deal with things like death, separation and the mundane, everyday stuff. It’s a beautiful look at humanity, at how people are flawed and fickle. It perhaps even raises important existential questions, and might make you wonder how you’d cope in a crisis, or whether there’d be any point in even trying.

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Special credit needs to be given to The Chinese Room’s Jessica Curry. As the dramatic tension of each chapter ramps up, the music hits an intense, orchestral crescendo – sometimes accompanied by Celtic vocal arrangements that are very much my favourite thing about the entire experience, seconded by the incredible attention to detail, and the care with which this village was brought to digital life. Everything is exquisitely, and painstakingly detailed, the art-style and the technology coming together to create a wonderfully realised, authentic and believable village.

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As a game though, it falls a little flat, with an oddly slow pacing that’s exacerbated by the snails-pace your character walks at. Much ado has been made about the game’s run button, but it hardly affects the miserly gait your character trundles around at – it’s still unbearably slow. It’s very probably intentional; meant for you to soak up all of the sights and sounds of the quant little village and the minutiae that lies in the details, but it works against the game. Eventually, I found myself not wanting to stray from the beaten path, lest I spend another hour crawling along to find my bearings.

It overstays its welcome too. Games of this sort aren’t usually particularly long, making them more engaging than they ought to be, but this one, as it drags you along its guided narrative can take 6 hours to complete – and even more if you’re bored enough to examine every nook and cranny of its superbly realised world.

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And as good as the writing was for most of the game, the last speech, the one that’s meant to tie it all together comes across as the poorly-scribbled pretentious prose of a teenaged Stephanie Meyer. Much of what happened, in the end, is left up to the imagination – for better or worse. As much as I enjoyed bits of the game, its conclusion and the vehicle through which they were delivered were utterly boring. Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture isn’t a game for everyone, and it certainly isn’t for me, though I wanted very much to love it

 

 

Last Updated: August 17, 2015

Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture
Like Journey, it’s the sort of game that works as a sort of blank slate on which to project your own feelings of loneliness, loss, unease, and perhaps even peace – but as much as I tried, I found no such emotional connection. No sorrow, no joy…just nothing.
6.0
Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture was reviewed on PlayStation 4
78 / 100

22 Comments

  1. AfricanTimeZA

    August 17, 2015 at 15:05

    so not good then, oh well…

    has anybody worked out the code yet?

    Reply

    • Captain JJ Fantasticus

      August 17, 2015 at 15:26

      Ranting Raptor says it’s 7.
      But I just think he’s biased.

      Reply

      • Hammersteyn

        August 17, 2015 at 15:32

        haha lol

        Reply

  2. ZA Ludomusicologist

    August 17, 2015 at 15:07

    “I’m old, grumpy and more than just a little cynical.” This game is not for you, Geoffrey!

    Reply

    • Geoffrey Tim

      August 17, 2015 at 15:11

      Thing is, I liked Gone Home, and I even liked Dear Esther. Walking sims can be cool – would have loved just a little more player agency – and a story that actually goes somewhere.

      Reply

  3. Viking Of Science

    August 17, 2015 at 15:09

    @OddSockZA:disqus, before I read this, did you find the sprint button?

    Reply

  4. stfenix

    August 17, 2015 at 15:14

    is it just me or has the site become very slow?

    Reply

    • Geoffrey Tim

      August 17, 2015 at 15:31

      Are you perchance running Firefox? We’re having some issues with Firefox at the moment.

      Reply

      • Captain JJ Fantasticus

        August 17, 2015 at 15:35

        Firefox is having issues with YOU! ;P
        Seriously though, I just tested Firefox and Chrome next to each other and Firefox does seem a bit slower.

        Reply

      • stfenix

        August 17, 2015 at 16:02

        Ah ok. Yes I am. Will install Chrome for LZ goodness then as the lag is real in Firefox 🙂

        Reply

  5. DragonSpirit009

    August 17, 2015 at 15:16

    Aw… I was hoping for a bit more out of this game. Might still get it… just to calm my own curiosity!

    Reply

  6. SargonTheBatpandaOfAkkad

    August 17, 2015 at 15:17

    Meh.

    Reply

  7. Captain JJ Fantasticus

    August 17, 2015 at 15:22

    “Everybody’s gone to rapture review”
    Where is rapture review?
    (yes, that’s how I read it)

    Reply

  8. Hammersteyn

    August 17, 2015 at 15:22

    Well it would seem that I’m not going to Rapture 😛

    Reply

  9. RinceThis

    August 17, 2015 at 15:22

    Intrigued. Nice review Asian boy.

    Reply

  10. Martin du preez (D4RKL1NGza)

    August 17, 2015 at 15:54

    lol walking simulators

    Reply

  11. konfab

    August 17, 2015 at 16:01

    I like sentences like this: “Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture isn’t a game for everyone, and it certainly isn’t for me, though I wanted very much to love it.”

    They mean that I will find a copy in a second hand bin very quickly.

    Reply

    • Martin du preez (D4RKL1NGza)

      August 17, 2015 at 16:27

      It’s a digital only game so unless you buy a 2nd hand Ps4 with the game on you won’t get it 2nd hand also I have no friends

      Reply

      • konfab

        August 17, 2015 at 17:12

        ;__;

        oh well, I will wait for it to appear on PS+ in two years time

        Reply

  12. tjsmoke63

    August 18, 2015 at 06:17

    I enjoyed the game a bit more than you did, as I did find emotional connections to the characters and I liked the story’s conclusion as I feel it does make you think and with it being ambiguous it can certainly be debated as to what it all meant. I never felt that the walking was too slow, and holding down the R2 button to sprint did make movement faster, though it took some time to build up. I finished my first playthrough in a little over 4 1/2 hours, but I’m sure I missed something along the way as I didn’t trigger many trophies in my time with the game. You are right that it’s not for everyone, and how much people like it is going to be very subjective. I do understand your points in your review, even if I don’t necessarily agree with them. I do think it’s a game everyone should at least try at some point, if only for the story, great voice acting, beautiful visuals and great music, even if they wait until it’s free on PS+. For me it was worth the purchase, and I know I’ll make a second run through the game at some point.

    Reply

    • Geoffrey Tim

      August 18, 2015 at 06:48

      I completely agree with you, and I know it’s a game that many people will love – which is something that hopefully came across in the review. There’s very definitely something special about the game – I just wish there was more to it, in the end.

      Reply

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