Everybody's Gone to the Rapture (PS4) - Review
by VGChartz Staff , posted on 15 August 2015 / 7,682 Views
I'm incredibly conflicted about The Chinese Room’s Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture. I’ve been waiting to play the game for months, and after recently being disappointed Beyond Eyes, I was looking forward to a title that I could really sink my teeth into and confidently enjoy. Frustratingly, however, EGttR left me wanting more while never really managing to satisfy my curiosity.
If you've played Dear Esther then you already know what to expect from Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture. You walk around a mysteriously derelict scene sometime after a critical event has taken place, and it’s up to you to explore the environment and figure out what happened.
EGttR takes place in the little village town of Yaughton, which is based in Shropshire, England. It’s a beautiful, picturesque village, filled with superbly detailed houses, fields, and all manner of other trivial objects that come together to make Yaughton feel like a real, tangible place.
It’s easily one of the best-looking games to have come out of this generation so far, and the use of Cryengine has allowed me to capture some of the most stunning screenshots I’ve ever taken in a game. I uploaded a few of these to Facebook and a number of people genuinely thought I had visited a neighbouring village.
However, there's a huge drawback. Whilst the screenshots look astonishing, the actual game experience is far less exquisite, marred as it is by a jumpy framerate. One get used to the random framerate drops after a while, but such an uneven framerate is obviously less than ideal; don't be surprised if you experience a headache or two, especially early on.
Whilst EGttR looks beautiful, in contrast to Dear Esther this seems to have come at the cost not only of an inconsistent framerate but also a lack of narrative focus. EGttR clocks in at 5-6 hours of game time, so it has plenty of content, but most of it is actually irrelevant to the wider story. You walk from house to house, from farm to field, and path to road, all without gleaning any information on the town or the characters that inhabit it. Strangely, the game word itself adds nothing to the strong narrative that is implied by the game's title.
Dear Esther had a similar premise but since then games have expanded on this concept of exploratory adventure gaming. Gone Home is perhaps best example of what an exploratory adventure game can offer in terms of compelling narrative. EGttR by contrast features far too many sequences that do nothing to add to your understanding of the world or its story.
The story itself is excellent. I won't spoil it and will only briefly touch upon in this review, but I will just say in vague terms that it follows a handful of Yaughton's inhabitants. These characters are well fleshed-out and their small dramas feel realistic. The delivery of these scenes also comes across as a 'pure' experience in terms of how it's presented to the player. All in all it certainly left an impact on me and I confidently recommend this part of the game to gamers and non-gamers alike.
My main issue with EGttR's narrative stems from the fact that the game's characters and story could have been taken out of this town, placed in another environment entirely, and could have played out in just the same way without it making the slightest bit of difference. The player's interactions with the town itself do not add to the experience; they're just the delivery mechanism for a linear story that feels divorced from the medium of video games.
Is EGttR a good game? Both yes and no. Looked at in isolation, with no prior knowledge of other exploratory games, EGttR features a beautiful world in which the story and characters have meaning and feel believable. Compared to other similar games, however, it feels quite hollow.
Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture is an absolutely stunning game, but once your initial awe for the visuals begins to fade all you're left with is a drawn-out narrative that has you wandering from one story set-piece to another and so, ultimately, EGttR feels underwhelming by the time the credits begin to roll.
This review is based on a digital copy of Everybody\'s Gone to the Rapture for the PS4
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the game isnt for everyone.
Good games never are
I was going to buy this, but the framerate issue will keep me away for now. Perhaps when it's on sale? Goat Simulator will be my next PSN buy.
Every person have a different experience...
"An extraordinary piece of work, with things to say about pacing, writing, world-building and the communication of emotion that feel profoundly valuable to the industry...Its sense of purpose is overwhelming. " 5/5 [Telegraph]
Fair review.
Now brace for imminent "You just don't get it maaaaaan!"
You just don't man it, geeeeeeeet!
When did 5-6 hours become a good amount of content?
In the industry we live in
When it costs one-third of games that, for the most part, aren't even twice as long.
This game is just bad.
Pathetic review
Shame it turned out to be garbage. It was so hyped too.
There is never one truth when it comes to game reviews. http://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-4/everybodys-gone-to-the-rapture
Everyone's Gone to PS4....
Not salty at all, right?
Just saying it how it is
