Damn shame this one ngl, there's a really good 2-3 hour game here but the walking speed being set to fuckin 0.5% and half the PS trophies being "stand still for 5 minutes lol" make the whole game feel like a waste of time.
The story was genuinely interesting and the map is very well crafted, if I was able to move around it at human speed I'd have had a wonderful time exploring, but playing as what I assume was a 200lb camera being pushed around by a small child made it feel more like reading a picture book on a tablet with shitty internet.
It seriously takes almost a full minute to get from the front door of a house down the yard and across the road, bro has a fucking 3 hour commute to his shop half a mile away.
Anyway I'm sure everyone is as bored of walking-speed rants/complaints as they were being let down by what should've been a much better game.
Thanks for reading if you did, sorry for the moan but it's gone 4am now and this game would've been twice as good were it half as slow. Can't wait to speedrun it again tomorrow for the platinum! :D
Hope you all have a lovely December, hopefully I'll have a proper review before it's over but brief thoughts for now: Persona 5 Tactica was great, much better story than expected. Jedi Survivor has been really good so far, Ace Attorney isn't as good as TGAA was but it's a joy and Maya is 😌
The story was genuinely interesting and the map is very well crafted, if I was able to move around it at human speed I'd have had a wonderful time exploring, but playing as what I assume was a 200lb camera being pushed around by a small child made it feel more like reading a picture book on a tablet with shitty internet.
It seriously takes almost a full minute to get from the front door of a house down the yard and across the road, bro has a fucking 3 hour commute to his shop half a mile away.
Anyway I'm sure everyone is as bored of walking-speed rants/complaints as they were being let down by what should've been a much better game.
Thanks for reading if you did, sorry for the moan but it's gone 4am now and this game would've been twice as good were it half as slow. Can't wait to speedrun it again tomorrow for the platinum! :D
Hope you all have a lovely December, hopefully I'll have a proper review before it's over but brief thoughts for now: Persona 5 Tactica was great, much better story than expected. Jedi Survivor has been really good so far, Ace Attorney isn't as good as TGAA was but it's a joy and Maya is 😌
Shame, such a beautiful environment that is left almost completely non-interactable and is wasted on a pretentious and boring game that for some reason is insanely slow and tedious without any deeper meaning to justify such choices. Also, who tf makes walking simulators with CryEngine??
I love me my walking sims but damn this game made the walking speed quite literal :/
stellar music, thankyou jessica curry
Dont get me wrong, the developers of "Everybody's Gone to the Rapture", the chinese room, they sure know how to make an incredibly pretty game full of scenic vistas, cluttered abandonment and haunting locales. Its all stunning. They probably also know how to make a decent tale too but they cant seem to grasp the idea of making their game... well... a game? Everything is just so slow and drawn out to the point where it just takes an age to glimpse even the smallest of plotpoints. Its just not fun.
Dont get me wrong, visual storytelling is fine but there comes a point where you feel their talent may have been better placed in independent filmmaking vs games.
Dont get me wrong, visual storytelling is fine but there comes a point where you feel their talent may have been better placed in independent filmmaking vs games.
Walking simulators are something I really enjoy as they can focus mostly on the story, characters, and atmosphere. Sadly, it's also a big gamble as sometimes the story can be great, but the gameplay is awful or the story is awesome, but the ending sucks and pretty much makes the entire experience not worthwhile. The Chinese Room is notorious for its walking simulators, being almost exactly that, and this game is a spiritual successor to Dear Esther which looked great but was forgettable.
The game puts you in a small rural British town of Shropshire where there doesn't seem to be anyone around. All you know is to follow a ball of light floating around and it guides you around the town to activate cut scenes of the main characters talking about what happened at that moment. You will see the aftermath such as a wrecked car, a turned-over box, bloody rags, etc. There are no actual character models as they are just whisps of light in the shape of people acting things out on screen. This can make the game aggravating to play and pay attention to. A game with literally zero gameplay outside of an action button, and doesn't have any characters on screen better be damn good right?
As you walk around and follow the ball of light you will sometimes hear a numbers station playing on a radio or a telephone ring. These are extra tidbits of stories you can listen to. Each part of the town focuses on a specific character, but sadly I was often lost as to who was what as there were no faces to put to any of the voices. Once you see a cutscene play out your ball of light will stop and wait, sometimes. There were quite a few glitches in the game in which the ball of light would get stuck in the ground, not continue on, or just disappear somewhere never to be found. I had to restart the game to get the ball back on track.
Major cutscenes that actually advance the story are triggered by grabbing a ball of light and moving it left and right until it explodes. This was originally an excuse to use the then-new DualShock 4 touchpad. Here it's just a mouse drag and feels pointless. You know you are done with an area when you get a ball of exploding light that takes a few seconds to trigger. After this cutscene, the area goes dark and you follow a trail of lights on the ground to the next area. This is all there is to the game. It's pretty to look at, even today. The game uses CryEngine so it looks awesome and holds up well, but it's still forgettable. There's nothing memorable about a realistic-looking generic old English rural town.
I did eventually get into the story towards the end. However, the game just ends on a pretentious note and I felt deflated and annoyed. I really hate endings like this. This was four hours I will never get back and I won't take anything away from this game at all. No interesting gameplay, no memorable visuals, and no exciting story. The voice acting is great, but that's about it.
Sadly, Everybody's Gone to the Rapture is a game I've avoided for a decade and there's a reason for that. I knew that this game would be very forgettable and a waste of time. I enjoyed the idea of this strange apocalyptic infection that's passed around through phone and radio waves, but there's no pay-off in the end. That also doesn't take into account the aggravatingly slow walking pace that most people won't be able to put up with. Even if it was two times faster it would be more tolerable. It feels like you're crawling. That would be fine if there were more visuals to look at but there aren't.
The game puts you in a small rural British town of Shropshire where there doesn't seem to be anyone around. All you know is to follow a ball of light floating around and it guides you around the town to activate cut scenes of the main characters talking about what happened at that moment. You will see the aftermath such as a wrecked car, a turned-over box, bloody rags, etc. There are no actual character models as they are just whisps of light in the shape of people acting things out on screen. This can make the game aggravating to play and pay attention to. A game with literally zero gameplay outside of an action button, and doesn't have any characters on screen better be damn good right?
As you walk around and follow the ball of light you will sometimes hear a numbers station playing on a radio or a telephone ring. These are extra tidbits of stories you can listen to. Each part of the town focuses on a specific character, but sadly I was often lost as to who was what as there were no faces to put to any of the voices. Once you see a cutscene play out your ball of light will stop and wait, sometimes. There were quite a few glitches in the game in which the ball of light would get stuck in the ground, not continue on, or just disappear somewhere never to be found. I had to restart the game to get the ball back on track.
Major cutscenes that actually advance the story are triggered by grabbing a ball of light and moving it left and right until it explodes. This was originally an excuse to use the then-new DualShock 4 touchpad. Here it's just a mouse drag and feels pointless. You know you are done with an area when you get a ball of exploding light that takes a few seconds to trigger. After this cutscene, the area goes dark and you follow a trail of lights on the ground to the next area. This is all there is to the game. It's pretty to look at, even today. The game uses CryEngine so it looks awesome and holds up well, but it's still forgettable. There's nothing memorable about a realistic-looking generic old English rural town.
I did eventually get into the story towards the end. However, the game just ends on a pretentious note and I felt deflated and annoyed. I really hate endings like this. This was four hours I will never get back and I won't take anything away from this game at all. No interesting gameplay, no memorable visuals, and no exciting story. The voice acting is great, but that's about it.
Sadly, Everybody's Gone to the Rapture is a game I've avoided for a decade and there's a reason for that. I knew that this game would be very forgettable and a waste of time. I enjoyed the idea of this strange apocalyptic infection that's passed around through phone and radio waves, but there's no pay-off in the end. That also doesn't take into account the aggravatingly slow walking pace that most people won't be able to put up with. Even if it was two times faster it would be more tolerable. It feels like you're crawling. That would be fine if there were more visuals to look at but there aren't.
more like everybody went to sleep
The Chinese Room has some of the most iconic (and criticized) games in the walking sim genre, and Everybody's Gone to the Rapture seems like the ultimate representation of their style of game. One thing I can definitely praise is the haunting soundtrack which is extremely atmospheric and adds to the experience immensely. Unfortunately the pace here was just much too slow for me and I found myself struggling to pay attention and see this through to the end. The story is too metaphorical for my tastes and a lot of it went right over my head. It's definitely artistically expressive but not one I'd recommend too highly.
It is said that when God proclaimed "Let there be video games", Jessica Curry descended from the heavens and said "Ayo y'all ever heard about M U S I C ?"
When people say "I hate walking simulators," it's exactly because of games like this. If I want to take a stroll in the English countryside, I can do it in real life and at triple the pace.
i mean, i love games with an increrible atmosphere, where you just walk, solve some puzzles, listen to some calm music and these things, BUT WHY DO I HAVE TO WALK SO GOD DAMN SLOWLY????
The final boss of walking simulators.
The voice acting is natural and the game is beautiful. I played this game in one sitting, and it was much longer than I expected. I think it had a lot more impact on me than if I would have played in sections.
There is apparently a "walk faster" button, but it didn't actually do anything everytime I tried to use it.
The voice acting is natural and the game is beautiful. I played this game in one sitting, and it was much longer than I expected. I think it had a lot more impact on me than if I would have played in sections.
There is apparently a "walk faster" button, but it didn't actually do anything everytime I tried to use it.
This review contains spoilers
Beautiful landscape to explore, but walking was too slow to want to go back to explore it, I never particularly cared about the inhabitants of the world, and I felt that it overstayed it's welcome. Also the wandering ball of light tended to get lost and I wouldn't know where to go. I imagine I wasted at least an hour of playtime due to that.
All in all I enjoyed the experience though.
All in all I enjoyed the experience though.
I hate gamers so much man. The amount of shit they give any game that doesn't fall under their predetermined idea of "fun" is pathetic. God forbid a developer has different artistic intentions for their game than the average shooter/platformer/rpg/etc.
If you want to say that Everybody's Gone to the Rapture has a disappointing story thats fine, if you want to say the walking speed is too slow thats completely valid, but if you take one look at and say it sucks because its a "walking simulator" then you need to seriously reconsider how you consume art.
Again I'm not saying this game is perfect, or even great, I think it has a good amount of things wrong with it. What I am saying is that it, and games like it, get unfairly criticized by the general public. It just bums me out that so many people have such limited views when it comes to games, and I hope that doesn't hamstring the medium and cause less experimentation in the future.
If you want to say that Everybody's Gone to the Rapture has a disappointing story thats fine, if you want to say the walking speed is too slow thats completely valid, but if you take one look at and say it sucks because its a "walking simulator" then you need to seriously reconsider how you consume art.
Again I'm not saying this game is perfect, or even great, I think it has a good amount of things wrong with it. What I am saying is that it, and games like it, get unfairly criticized by the general public. It just bums me out that so many people have such limited views when it comes to games, and I hope that doesn't hamstring the medium and cause less experimentation in the future.
This review contains spoilers
+ Graphics / Visuals
+ Music + Audio Design
- Storytelling
- Pacing
- Gameplay / Gameplay mechanics
After just playing "Gone Home", I was so excited for another walking simulation. I honestly just need to get on here to rant about how frustrating this game was. I had a lot of hope for it at first. I was in awe of how good the graphics were for a game made in 2015, and was genuinely impressed by the radio transmission and the way everything was initially laid out. I didn't know it was turning into a confusing and frustrating mess.
The visuals and graphics in general were beautiful. If you're looking for a pretty game, this is for sure one of them. Gorgeous music, scenery, and a very pleasant walk-through if you aren't expecting anything else.
I will say that the story concept was really interesting, though a bit rough to decipher. I love games and films with a story and lore to pick through. I was upset that I never got that "oh my god," revelation moment from this game. The story concept felt rough and unfinished, not giving a really satisfying snap-into-place ending.
With the story, I found that not only was it difficult to follow, but it was extremely repetitive. I understand things like this need to be put in place for a non-linear game, but wow. It was bad. It would go from Stephan panicking about this 'thing' being alive and having a consciousness to "I think there's an influenza outbreak". In the second act of the game. Though the concept was interesting, trying to pull it apart was bizarre. I noticed lots of star motifs around the map, astronomy, pulled together with Christianity, and a thought-to-be pandemic. Parts of the story fell away when we noticed the man's shoes near the train track, implying everyone is naked if clothing can be seen and doesn't disappear with you.
I was so excited to explore the story concepts more but it just felt like it scraped the surface of what could have been.
The pacing and walking speed was absolutely brutal. I felt like I was pushing the joystick the entire game and wishing I could go faster. My partner noticed how slow it was and at first I told him the reason was "so you pace yourself and take your time to enjoy your surroundings and take in the story", but by the middle, I was looking up "is there a way to run" and jamming all the buttons on my controller.
The numbers. Really had me at first, I was so excited to collect them all on a piece of paper and decipher them. I wanted there to be a big moment where we find a way to cipher them and find something underlying throughout the entire game. NOTHING. ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. I was relying on this mechanic the entire game to bring something new and exciting to the plot.
The following the light mechanic felt so broken, and without receiving any instructions, I was unsure what I was supposed to do. Some balls of light were static in a bedroom, the others going around the valley quickly. I was unsure why they would make me walk halfway back around the map to show me a path I'd already been on just to let me know I missed a 10-second conversation about someone cheating on someone else.
Did anyone playtest this game? It just feels like a common courtesy to the player to block off or not suggest that a path doesn't need to be taken. ESPECIALLY in a game where you're unable to take a shortcut through bushes. I found there were a few times where there was a dirt path that I'd follow for a few minutes and get to a locked gate at the end that wasn't able to be cleared at all. This goes for houses that don't have any story inside as well. THIS was one of the things that really made me walk away.
My final straw was finding a walkthrough on Youtube (which I don't do often) to figure out where I was supposed to go. It turns out, a specific door doesn't open (beside the flashing pylon) until you hit every spot around the map and unlock every conversation. You're telling me that I might have to walk upwards of 15 minutes to the other side of the map to hear some chit-chat before walking back to unlock the end of the game? I feel like non-linear games like this need to be playtested by people of all types before being released. I left the game at that point, it felt like it was mocking me and wasting my time.
I didn't understand the shaking mechanic with the controller. It happened twice? Made me think I had some sort of powers and then released "i" don't exist. Why do I have footsteps? Kate was clearly the last person on earth and that was pushed.
Anyways, just needed to rant. I was expecting something beautiful and came away frustrated and thinking of a better game with more potential.
+ Music + Audio Design
- Storytelling
- Pacing
- Gameplay / Gameplay mechanics
After just playing "Gone Home", I was so excited for another walking simulation. I honestly just need to get on here to rant about how frustrating this game was. I had a lot of hope for it at first. I was in awe of how good the graphics were for a game made in 2015, and was genuinely impressed by the radio transmission and the way everything was initially laid out. I didn't know it was turning into a confusing and frustrating mess.
The visuals and graphics in general were beautiful. If you're looking for a pretty game, this is for sure one of them. Gorgeous music, scenery, and a very pleasant walk-through if you aren't expecting anything else.
I will say that the story concept was really interesting, though a bit rough to decipher. I love games and films with a story and lore to pick through. I was upset that I never got that "oh my god," revelation moment from this game. The story concept felt rough and unfinished, not giving a really satisfying snap-into-place ending.
With the story, I found that not only was it difficult to follow, but it was extremely repetitive. I understand things like this need to be put in place for a non-linear game, but wow. It was bad. It would go from Stephan panicking about this 'thing' being alive and having a consciousness to "I think there's an influenza outbreak". In the second act of the game. Though the concept was interesting, trying to pull it apart was bizarre. I noticed lots of star motifs around the map, astronomy, pulled together with Christianity, and a thought-to-be pandemic. Parts of the story fell away when we noticed the man's shoes near the train track, implying everyone is naked if clothing can be seen and doesn't disappear with you.
I was so excited to explore the story concepts more but it just felt like it scraped the surface of what could have been.
The pacing and walking speed was absolutely brutal. I felt like I was pushing the joystick the entire game and wishing I could go faster. My partner noticed how slow it was and at first I told him the reason was "so you pace yourself and take your time to enjoy your surroundings and take in the story", but by the middle, I was looking up "is there a way to run" and jamming all the buttons on my controller.
The numbers. Really had me at first, I was so excited to collect them all on a piece of paper and decipher them. I wanted there to be a big moment where we find a way to cipher them and find something underlying throughout the entire game. NOTHING. ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. I was relying on this mechanic the entire game to bring something new and exciting to the plot.
The following the light mechanic felt so broken, and without receiving any instructions, I was unsure what I was supposed to do. Some balls of light were static in a bedroom, the others going around the valley quickly. I was unsure why they would make me walk halfway back around the map to show me a path I'd already been on just to let me know I missed a 10-second conversation about someone cheating on someone else.
Did anyone playtest this game? It just feels like a common courtesy to the player to block off or not suggest that a path doesn't need to be taken. ESPECIALLY in a game where you're unable to take a shortcut through bushes. I found there were a few times where there was a dirt path that I'd follow for a few minutes and get to a locked gate at the end that wasn't able to be cleared at all. This goes for houses that don't have any story inside as well. THIS was one of the things that really made me walk away.
My final straw was finding a walkthrough on Youtube (which I don't do often) to figure out where I was supposed to go. It turns out, a specific door doesn't open (beside the flashing pylon) until you hit every spot around the map and unlock every conversation. You're telling me that I might have to walk upwards of 15 minutes to the other side of the map to hear some chit-chat before walking back to unlock the end of the game? I feel like non-linear games like this need to be playtested by people of all types before being released. I left the game at that point, it felt like it was mocking me and wasting my time.
I didn't understand the shaking mechanic with the controller. It happened twice? Made me think I had some sort of powers and then released "i" don't exist. Why do I have footsteps? Kate was clearly the last person on earth and that was pushed.
Anyways, just needed to rant. I was expecting something beautiful and came away frustrated and thinking of a better game with more potential.
Enjoyment - 9/10
Difficulty - 2/10
A truly one of a kind game. Through its explorative narrative moments, an immense sense of intrigue builds as you bounce from place to place, providing a meditative experience that not many games have achieved. It is also set in a VERY English country town. ENGLAND ITS COMING HOME!
🏆
Difficulty - 2/10
A truly one of a kind game. Through its explorative narrative moments, an immense sense of intrigue builds as you bounce from place to place, providing a meditative experience that not many games have achieved. It is also set in a VERY English country town. ENGLAND ITS COMING HOME!
🏆
Playing this in 2021, having lived through a year of a pandemic, made this a lot more eerie than I expected and therefore also somewhat heavy-weighing.
The game itself is of utter beauty. The production values are insanely good: the visuals - especially the lighting may it be natural or supernatural it always is a sight to behold. The voice acting - for a game that relies solely on conversations you hear, they really made sure it’s top notch. The soundtrack - it’s Jessica Curry, what more need I say. The atmosphere is superb and I like walking simulators (even though the walking speed is an insult :D), but somehow it didn’t leave the impact it probably was supposed to. I did not care for all of the characters in here and the conclusion left me unsatisfied. Still - I can recommend this game to anyone who is into the genre.
The game itself is of utter beauty. The production values are insanely good: the visuals - especially the lighting may it be natural or supernatural it always is a sight to behold. The voice acting - for a game that relies solely on conversations you hear, they really made sure it’s top notch. The soundtrack - it’s Jessica Curry, what more need I say. The atmosphere is superb and I like walking simulators (even though the walking speed is an insult :D), but somehow it didn’t leave the impact it probably was supposed to. I did not care for all of the characters in here and the conclusion left me unsatisfied. Still - I can recommend this game to anyone who is into the genre.
Hauntingly beautiful. The game shows you a snapshot of humanity right at it's end. Everything frozen in time. Cigarettes are still smoking in ashtrays, laundry is still on the line. Signs of life are all around, but everybody's gone.
The game focuses more on the interpersonal connections between all the villagers than the sci-fi end-of-the-world, which is definitely a choice. But I think it was a good one, overall. It feels like you're getting to know all the drama and gossip between the characters. The importance of human connections was a big theme in this game, and also seems to be in most post-apocalyptic media.
As everybody has said, the walking speed is comically slow. Which I thought would be fine, as long as the game is linear enough. But it's not, it's pretty open and there's lots of exploring and accidental backtracking. This just leads to frustration and "ugh i gotta walk all the way back now."
The voice acting was great and sounded realistic, but the characters being depicted by glowing lights that you can't really make out most of the time was pretty lame. It made it harder to keep up with what's really happening, and remembering names for each of the characters. Deliver Us The Moon did the whole "memory's of people from the past" thing a bit better I think.
The game also was maybe a bit too long. I still don't really know who Frank is or why he had a whole chapter dedicated to him.
The game focuses more on the interpersonal connections between all the villagers than the sci-fi end-of-the-world, which is definitely a choice. But I think it was a good one, overall. It feels like you're getting to know all the drama and gossip between the characters. The importance of human connections was a big theme in this game, and also seems to be in most post-apocalyptic media.
As everybody has said, the walking speed is comically slow. Which I thought would be fine, as long as the game is linear enough. But it's not, it's pretty open and there's lots of exploring and accidental backtracking. This just leads to frustration and "ugh i gotta walk all the way back now."
The voice acting was great and sounded realistic, but the characters being depicted by glowing lights that you can't really make out most of the time was pretty lame. It made it harder to keep up with what's really happening, and remembering names for each of the characters. Deliver Us The Moon did the whole "memory's of people from the past" thing a bit better I think.
The game also was maybe a bit too long. I still don't really know who Frank is or why he had a whole chapter dedicated to him.
A game of immeasurable power and relevancy. Undoubtedly something that deserves a sincere reevaluation given our contemporary woes and social unrest. With the luscious visual designs borrowing from Romanticist values and a breathtaking score by Jessica Curry, in ways this feels ahead of its time, achieving an overwhelming sense of isolation through the usual tropes of the "walking sim" genre. It's the massive scope that makes all the difference. What's told here is a richly drawn tapestry of a town populated by complicated people reckoning with complex events; the chief being the apocalypse itself. Or at least the end of "their" world as they know it. This game engages with annihilation as it is happening, and the intimate traumas and regrets and buried revelations that are unearthed when civilized society is pushed to the brink of oblivion. It is an expressively funereal and thunderous experience. My only qualms fall on what was probably time/budget restrictions; the interior designs becoming a bit monotonous and the way some of the areas bleed together can be disarming. Needless to say the game is consistently enthralling, finding various methods of connecting dread and beauty together through its aesthetic and voice talents, entwining them in poetic fashion.
An ethereal dance of light and darkness, cosmic by definition. It's rare to see a game take such a brave yet absolute trek into the unknown. Encompassing feels like the correct word.
An ethereal dance of light and darkness, cosmic by definition. It's rare to see a game take such a brave yet absolute trek into the unknown. Encompassing feels like the correct word.
Wonderful/stunning atmosphere and absolutely beautiful music by Jessica Curry is what makes this game dear to my heart. This is a walking sim and unfortunately the walking is very slow, but the intriguing mystery of the narrative, the visuals, setting, and again the music is what makes me recommend the game to people who enjoy walking sims.
This is more a Jessica Curry appreciation review than anything as it made me go check out the rest of her work whether in Dear Esther, So Let Us Melt, or in the Amnesia series. So shout out to her, she makes beautiful music that inspires me.
This is more a Jessica Curry appreciation review than anything as it made me go check out the rest of her work whether in Dear Esther, So Let Us Melt, or in the Amnesia series. So shout out to her, she makes beautiful music that inspires me.
Graphics look beautiful and the game has amazing lighting but who cares if the gameplay is a walking simulator going at a snail's pace. A simple sprint button would fix everything.
Jessica curry owns
Rapture uses a scifi apocalyptic premise to tell personal and intimate stories of the inhabitants of an idylic english town, problem is it goes out of its way to be as vague and mysterious as possible about it. On the surface, it doesn't sound much so the best way I explain the problem by comparing it with a tv show I recently watched called Broadchurch.
The show is a who dun it murder mystery where the dirty secrets of an isolated town are dragged to the broad day light as the investigation goes on. There the mystery is the hook and every detail revealed adds to intrigue. But make no mistake, it is primarily a drama of inhabitants. The show makes you want to know about the characters, and when you do, it's their struggles and pain that you care about over even the mystery.
Now Rapture is similar case, but the hook is vague and kept mysterious. The characters are faceless wisps of light where little dialogues snippets are drip fed to you in potentially (most likely) non linear fashion due to how the exploration is structured. Not only is it hard to keep track of who's who, but the dialogue is of mundane variety. Very little of it adds to overarching mystery, serving more to form a vignete of a group trying to deal with apocalypse that anything concrete. It left me with little reason little reason to care about anyone or what happened to them and that is why I stopped playing.
I can see how some may connect to this form of storytelling as it is a pretty game with great VA and soundtrack. The use of light to guide you and the solitude that comes from the lack of information helps to project your feelings and ideas on to the story. Maybe I could have gotten more out of the story if I finished it but I already played more that I wanted and I don't want to indulge in sunk cost fallacy.
The show is a who dun it murder mystery where the dirty secrets of an isolated town are dragged to the broad day light as the investigation goes on. There the mystery is the hook and every detail revealed adds to intrigue. But make no mistake, it is primarily a drama of inhabitants. The show makes you want to know about the characters, and when you do, it's their struggles and pain that you care about over even the mystery.
Now Rapture is similar case, but the hook is vague and kept mysterious. The characters are faceless wisps of light where little dialogues snippets are drip fed to you in potentially (most likely) non linear fashion due to how the exploration is structured. Not only is it hard to keep track of who's who, but the dialogue is of mundane variety. Very little of it adds to overarching mystery, serving more to form a vignete of a group trying to deal with apocalypse that anything concrete. It left me with little reason little reason to care about anyone or what happened to them and that is why I stopped playing.
I can see how some may connect to this form of storytelling as it is a pretty game with great VA and soundtrack. The use of light to guide you and the solitude that comes from the lack of information helps to project your feelings and ideas on to the story. Maybe I could have gotten more out of the story if I finished it but I already played more that I wanted and I don't want to indulge in sunk cost fallacy.
An ambitiously minimalist interactive story from The Chinese Room, the British team behind the previous Dear Esther.
This spiritual successor is indeed very British, not only in its beautifully realised fictional village of Yaughton in Shropshire, England but also in its sci-fi mystery narrative - its atmosphere reminded me of old British sci-fi mystery thrillers such as Village of the Damned and Children of the Stones.
The simple gameplay - follow an ethereal light to reveal memories of different characters in the final days before this mass disappearance - directs most of the gamer's attention to the story, which is where I think it falls a bit flat, and repetetive. In a rather boundless structure, you follow various moments from five different characters, all of whom end up with the same revelation: life is beautiful but must come to an end and maybe we'll all be alright and so on and so forth.
Still, I think there's much to be absorbed from the atmosphere and astonishingly life-like world design.
As with all my favourite games, the most fascinating character is the place, a village that feels real and feels lived in, whilst bearing an ominous quality in its emptiness. Bottom line is, it's Silent Hill: Shattered Memories done right.
This spiritual successor is indeed very British, not only in its beautifully realised fictional village of Yaughton in Shropshire, England but also in its sci-fi mystery narrative - its atmosphere reminded me of old British sci-fi mystery thrillers such as Village of the Damned and Children of the Stones.
The simple gameplay - follow an ethereal light to reveal memories of different characters in the final days before this mass disappearance - directs most of the gamer's attention to the story, which is where I think it falls a bit flat, and repetetive. In a rather boundless structure, you follow various moments from five different characters, all of whom end up with the same revelation: life is beautiful but must come to an end and maybe we'll all be alright and so on and so forth.
Still, I think there's much to be absorbed from the atmosphere and astonishingly life-like world design.
As with all my favourite games, the most fascinating character is the place, a village that feels real and feels lived in, whilst bearing an ominous quality in its emptiness. Bottom line is, it's Silent Hill: Shattered Memories done right.
Games need to learn to shut the fuck up.
One of the more tedious walking sims you could play. But I will say, I am a fan of some of the story plots, specifically with the priest, and majority of these stars are because of the OST.
It remains one of my top favorite video game OSTs of all time. I adore it.
It remains one of my top favorite video game OSTs of all time. I adore it.
Beautiful, serene, and understated. Similar mood to the early parts of Threads where impending doom doesn't stop the regular mundanities and melodrama that comprises modern living
grabs microphone just use the sprint button. anyway i love this game. the cosy apocalypse vibes are impeccable.
Dude wtf is this. I loved Firewatch SO much that I felt the need to inhale another "walking sim", and this game was a gross insult to the genre. I was so bored, I was so unintrigued, and I was walking SO SLOWLY.
Had wanted to play this for a long time, ended up a little disappointed. Was a pretty good story but you just move so slowly and the map is way bigger than I expected and I got pretty bored in the first half. Some of the story areas were just better than others. Ending was pretty good though, and the music was really good throughout.