Everybody's Gone to the Rapture on PlayStation 4

Dear Esther was 100% linear though... That was the main problem with it. It was such a non-game that it could have been just a DVD or audio book and the experience would have been exactly the same.I think it's strange that people keep comparing Gone Home to Dear Esther, seeing as they're almost the complete opposite of each other in terms of execution. While Dear Esther can practically play itself if you hold down some buttons, Gone Home absolutely has to be played and interacted with intimately to complete, let alone get the full story.The way they tell their stories isn't even similar. Dear Esther is literally a narrator telling a story, while Gone Home is a mystery you have to unravel.

@accolade

: You do understand what a metaphor is?

Not because it is a term used usually to describe a religious end of the world, is it a biblical quote.

However, you are doubly wrong, as "The Rapture" is actually discussed in Thessalonians 4:17, depending on the translation, and it refers to the believers being caught up in the sky to meet the lord.

I'm sure there will be plenty of influences from various sources, as there were in Dear Esther, which in fact had some real profound observations about Abrahamic / Judeo - Christian Religiousness.

It actually had some of the most academic and relentlessly cryptic observations of the general the human condition that I've seen in any game, without the juvenile blunt "black or white" treatment of the subject.

If the fact that the guys from thechineseroom analyse complex subjects in a non pyrotechnic manner through games bothers you, I believe Everybody's Gone to the Rapture might not be the game for you.

In any case, I'm quite curious for what the game will end up being... although the teaser really showed almost nothing..

@accolade said:

That's a weird thing to get bent out of shape over. There are plenty of things in the modern perception of Christianity that aren't strictly stated in scripture, so get over yourself?

Besides, the game looks to be tending towards the sci-fi and not the biblical, and it seems to merely be using the term "rapture" to indicate a more general apocalyptic event that results in the sudden disappearance of everyone.

@cloudnineboya said:

I think you really misread the tone of this game if you think there are going to be any enemies at all. It really seems more like some event just obliterated most (all?) human life, and you just walk around a bunch of abandoned areas, feeling all sad and unnerved by how empty everything is. I'm pretty sure thechineseroom is putting all of their "scary enemies" ideas into the Amnesia sequel, and this game is almost entirely about just exploring a landscape.

They're both non-games where there is A) no fail state, and B) no gameplay aside from walking around and basically finding audio/text logs. Dear Esther is certainly more surreal and ambiguous in the way the narrator sort of blends characters and events together by the end, whereas Gone Home is much more literal, but they are very much the same kind of interactive fiction, play for 2 hours or less sort of experiences.

It may just be my obsession with ominous command lines (Memories of a Broken Dimension comes to mind) but this game looks really cool.

Yeah you're probably right, I just had those two on my mind having watched them very recently. Public service announcements work so well just because it is so chilling to hear a message about potential anilhilation delivered so calmly and in such a matter of fact style. Almost like a weather forecast.

The first time I saw Threads (or at least some of it) was back in the 80's when I must have been about 6 or 7. My mum had taken me to a CND meeting and it was on in the background as people talked and drank tea. I ended up watching it horrorstruck and didn't sleep for days.

If you liked Threads and haven't seen The War Game, you should really check it out on You Tube. For a documentary made in the 60's it is so far ahead of its time, both in message and in the techniques and style it employs. It still shocks even now and you can see why it scared the authorities into banning it. It stands out in the same way as Citizen Kane, in that you can't believe that a film so modern in style and conception could be made when it was.

There is another documentary by the Watkins on You Tube which is also worth a watch. Its called Culloden and is about the battle fought their in the 17th? century. What makes it so radical is that it is filmed as if by a documentary maker who was there at the time. He goes round interviewing all the protagonists and then films the battle and the aftermath, as if he were a correspondant simillar to those embedded in Iraq today. It is so far ahead of its time.

Why are people comparing Dear Esther to Gone Home?

Yeah, Threads is a fantastic film (as is the american equivalent, The Day After, by Nicholas Meyer, who also did the two good Star Trek movies). Public service announcements have been a major part of a lot of apocalyptic/post-apocalyptic movies though, Night of the Living Dead, The Day of the Triffids and Failsafe among plenty of others used them, so I'm not sure it's so much a specific reference as a trope in the genre.

looks ok, but that contrast in the graphics was pretty fucked up

This looks really interesting! Hope it plays a bit like Gone Home. I'm really glad I got my preorder in for a PS4 launch.

Stupid computer!

Huge ultra-fucking bummer that they backpedaled from this being on PC =/

This game really reminds me of the film 'Threads,' and the BBC doc about what would happen after a nuclear war called The War Game which got banned in the 60's. The little touch like the public service announcement, makes me wonder if they had them in mind. They are both on YouTube if people want to watch - I would highly recommend them - both amazing for their time and still worth watching now.

Guess I'm not "playing" that.

Really sad to hear this is now PS4 exclusive. Dear Esther was great and I'm sad thechineseroom have taken the decision to work exclusively with Sony. Still, they said that after the PS4 version comes out they aren't tied into exclusivity forever (like Journey), so there is still a chance. A slim chance, but a chance nonetheless.

Have fun in Sony jail!

You don't have to hope when the info is out there. They made everything for AMfP. Frictional dudes were only there to oversee the project.

Looks interesting, is this suppose to be a 'downloadable' game like Journey, or a full retail release like Beyond Two Souls?

You've got my attention.

I thought the closing line of dialog was kind of cheesy but the whole Loop is still ACTIVE part gave me chills for some reason so I'm interested.

Its weird that they decided not to put it on PC anymore.

@mrgtd: No joke at all.

No PC release means this game can suck it.

It's going to be an indie experience kind of deal that takes over an hour to finish but by design is meant to be played again, I gathered that much from the post-GamesCom PS4 presentation Q&A.

I dunno, I feel like this trailer is missing something, can we somehow get a stage full of people and stream it from their perspective? maybe we should also get an incompetent director who keeps demanding that we show the audience instead of the trailer, thereby missing key parts of what people fucking tuned in for in the first place.

please be a real game. please be a real game...

Besides that this game looks bland, Bible does not include the word rapture nor allude to any sudden disappearance of the anyone unless you misinterpret a passage.

If this is like Dear Esther, let's hope they've taken lesson from Gone Home, the thing that eclipsed their game in just about every way.

Don't know enough about this yet but it could be promising and The Chinese Room will hopefully be showing off their craft in a Machine for Pigs very soon to attract new fans to keep an eye on this.

Looks as boring as Dear Esther. I hope their influece on A Machine for Pigs was purely art direction.

Please do not go full on horror,ie hordes of zombies/infected its the things that you don't see that creeps the shit out me. just like the atmosphere in Dear Esther. Like the shadowy silhouette on top of the cliff who disappears when you start climbing further up. I Think i trust you to do something cool with this.

Can't say it interests me at all, especially with the kind of trailer they put out for it.

oh yeah!

DAMNIT! Just missed it. But yes, looks very interesting.

This is great news. Dear Esther was sort of great. Gone Home was pretty good. This looks like it could be quite a treat for fans of slow, non-linear narratives