The Chinese Room's "Everybody's Gone to the Rapture" is evidence of two things: 1) The Chinese Room has not learned a single thing since "Dear Esther," however 2) They have stepped up their game a thousandfold. If you enjoyed "Dear Esther," then you will undoubtedly enjoy "Everybody's Gone to the Rapture." The reason for this is that Rapture does everything that Esther did, but it does them infinitely better. The downside to this, however, is that Rapture suffers from all the problems that Esther did, and this time around these problems have a much greater negative impact. These opening statements have probably made me sound conflicted, but that is not the case. I am very well aware that Rapture is one of the best games I've played this year and one of the best storytelling games to ever grace the market. With this in mind, though, I cannot discount the negatives, as they really hold this game back from what it could be. Here is the premise of "Everybody's Gone to the Rapture:" In a small English parish, all the townsfolk have gone missing or have died. You don't really have an objective except to find somewhere (I won't tell you where, as that would ruin everything), but what ends up happening is you learn about what happened through memories of the townsfolk. I will discuss this more in depth later, but for now, lets get started.
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I'll start this off by discussing the negatives. Like in "Dear Esther," your walking speed is infuriating. The purpose of these games is not to rush through everything, I get that, and I agree with it, but for crying out loud, give us some middle ground, Chinese Room! If I end up having to backtrack, I want to be able to do it at a better pace. Now, one thing that they don't tell you is that you can walk faster, but it is kind of a contrived way to do so. Basically, you hold down R2, and after a few seconds, you start to walk faster. It does make a noticeable difference, but it is incredibly annoying to have to do that for hours on end. I just would appreciate getting more pacing options. I love to hike, but I'm not one of those people who has to stop every two steps to admire the scenery. I am somebody who is capable of appreciating the scenery entirely while on the move. The Chinese Room really needs to get its act together next time, as the walking speed has been a complaint from just about everyone for both Dear Esther and Rapture.
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The only other negative is one that hits especially hard. In "Dear Esther," there was a remarkable emptiness to the world, meaning you couldn't interact with anything. Your only exploration was walking. The same is true in Rapture. Your only means of exploring this narrative world is through your walking around and looking at things. I would have liked some degree of interactivity, even if it were just spinning a globe or something. The point is: while the world is incredibly well designed, the physical world just feels like a paint job. This was a problem with Dear Esther, but it is a sin in this game. You might call it nitpicking, or you might say that I'm missing the point of this game. To counter that, I would point you to the middle portions of Rapture. It is an unfortunate truth that in the middle two sections of the game, exploration kind of loses some of its charm. 4 out of every 5 doors are locked, and eventually, I just gave up on trying to explore houses altogether (until the final section), because none of the houses were accessible and I just ended up having to backtrack. Not only that, but there were many more fences in the middle portions, which meant that if I went to one of those inaccessible houses, I would have to spend even longer backtracking. My point here is that there are
far too many restrictions in Rapture, and it legitimately took away from my experience.
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Now, lets move on to the positives of this game. One area where Rapture excels is in its beauty. The world is absolutely stunning everywhere you go. From the rural areas with the smaller houses to the pubs in town, you can expect every inch of this world to be rendered with loving detail. This is part of the reason why Rapture is so engrossing. You feel like you are in this world the entire time that you play.
It would be a sin to talk about the beauty of this game without mentioning the soundtrack. Folk music is my favorite kind of music, so perhaps I'm a little biased in this regard, but the entire soundtrack is made up of English folk music. There are choral arrangements of folk tunes, and even the instrumental pieces are heavily influenced by English folk composers such as my favorite composer of all time, Ralph Vaughan Williams. Folk simply oozes out of this game's soundtrack. There is no point in which the folk influence is sacrificed for extra conventional beauty. In other words, there are times when there are dissonances, but the game embraces them because in certain circles of folk music, occasional dissonances are embraced. My point is that there is a level of dedication in the music for Rapture that I have not seen anywhere else.
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The real driving force of Rapture, though, is the character development and the story. Rapture sports a small cast of characters, just the right amount for a small English parish. Everybody knows everybody and people just come over to visit at the most random times. If you have ever once lived in a small town or fantasized about doing so, then this game will touch you on a spiritual level. Every last character in this game is developed to the point where you can absolutely see them even though there are no character models in this game. This is thanks to stellar, character-specific writing and by far the greatest voice acting of any game ever made. That is not an exaggeration. There has never been better voice acting in a game. There isn't a single weak link in this statement; everybody plays their character with passion and skill, and it makes the world come alive.
In terms of story, The Chinese Room takes a similar approach to Dear Esther. Nothing is explained in black and white terms. At the end, you still don't know exactly what happened, and it doesn't matter because the experience of getting there was so good. Let me explain that a little better. You have
some idea of what happened, and with that little bit of knowledge, The Chinese Room sets up a believable conflict and believable drama. It doesn't even take you knowing everything for The Chinese Room to make their story believable. That is talent the likes of which I don't see very often. That is what I mean when I say that this game is evidence that they have stepped up their game a thousandfold. This approach worked in Dear Esther, but it works infinitely better here. At the end, you still don't know everything you might like to know, but it still leaves you slack-jawed and saying "wow" to yourself.
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I absolutely agonized over the score for this game. In the middle portions of the game, I legitimately considered giving it a 7/10. I loved it at that time, but the portion I was in was just
so restrictive that I felt it was what the game had earned. After I beat the game, I considered ramping it up to an 8/10, just because the first and last sections were good enough to negate some of the restrictions of the middle. Then I took a good night's sleep, and when I woke up, I considered giving it a 9/10, because this is one of those games where, the more you think about it, the more you like it. So, what we have are three scores: 7/10, 8/10, 9/10. In my opinion, "Everybody's Gone to the Rapture" could feasibly earn any of these scores, depending on how you look at it. I don't do ".5"s, which makes the decision even more difficult. But as of now, I have made my decision. Here is what I am basing it off of: Yes, there were many, many, many restrictions that legitimately took away from the experience, but in the end, what was it that I
remembered? What was it about this game that
stayed with me? The answer was not the restrictions. The restrictions, which they hindered the experience, were not what remained in my heart and kept me smiling for hours upon hours after finishing. In the end, it was the fantastic story, the phenomenal character development and voice acting, the raw, folksy beauty of the whole thing, and the unbridled passion that went into the development of this project that makes "Everybody's Gone to the Rapture," a must-play experience. Just keep in mind that there are some drawbacks, but that they are nothing compared to this game's beauty.
9/10
Excellent work, The Chinese Room, excellent work.
Picture Sources:
www.gamespot.com
www.twininfinite.com
www.ps4home.com
www.gameinformer.com
www.kotaku.com
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