Quick Look: Everybody's Gone to the Rapture

@hazelnuttz: And after reading some commenters talking smack about GBwest, I don't mean to say Jeff and Dan are knuckle draggers. I'd just have liked this ql to be done by someone that is into this type of game or at least seems to get what it's going for.

Seems super neat. Seen more of it and the voice acting, writing, and music is really good.

THANK YOU. GEEZ. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR SAYING THIS.

It's like they're afraid to say "this game sucks" lest they incur the wrath of the pretentious game police.

"I guess I can open this door but not this door... and sometimes I can walk over stuff but authorities now... I think thats.. I MEAN I "feel" like that's bad. But, you know, it's art so I guess that's just artistic and I haven't evolved enough to understand it."

Really want to hear Austin's take on this game.

I think that there is room for "relaxing" video games, but this looks really bland to me.

@ripelivejam: ye-......yeahhh........

@humanity: that's a pernicious, limiting, point of view. videogames shouldn't be anything other than what the creators wanted them to be. imagine if the only kind of movie was a big fun blockbuster, or the only kind of book harry potter. so so damaging to the growth of a medium

@ripelivejam: ye-......yeahhh........

This game looks super amazing from an atmosphere perspective in theory, but I'm unsure about it because I really didn't like Dear Esther. I loved Gone Home, and I even liked very open ended stuff like Proteus, but this just seems like it's missing something in the same way that Dear Esther did. Even though it was one little island and you could wander around as you liked, I really felt like Dear Esther was extremely linear because of the way it very obviously funnelled you between key locations.

EDIT: Those fences they were having so much trouble with are called Stiles, and they're quite a common way of allowing people to get past a fence while keeping animals in/out, at least in rural communities.

Why is Dan saying "Shrapture"?

But both of them are into these types of games, as expressed in this very video.

Yeah after not getting anything out Dear Esther while trying my hardest, being completely bummed when Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs was a 4 hour snooze-fest, and now hearing that Everybody's Gone to the Rapture is rather bland too I don't think I'll be giving Chinese Room any more money. Maybe if they became just a company that provided art assets, but if they're doing design and story I'm out.

I just finished it. It's a great game overall, and it's probably my favorite 'walking simulator' game, but yeah, the walking is pretty slow, and I didn't notice it until the last time I played it, an hour before I finished it that you could hold R2 to go faster (because I saw someone post that on Facebook earlier), and it's still slow enough that you have to question at first whether it's doing anything. It's unfortunate that it says nothing about that in the controls menu (nor can you change anything), and it goes so slow even then.

That said, that's probably the games biggest issue, otherwise there's the somewhat unsteady frame rate, which is okay, and by default (as I had kept it, because I don't like changing my TV settings) the brightness/contrast was off, and changing it in game doesn't fix it as all it does it make it a not-so-ideal tone of dark. It just looks a bit washed out at times, so it feels unnatural. I also have some questions about stuff in the story, since to me, some of it is ambiguous, but perhaps irrelevant. So that said, I wasn't entirely satisfied with the story.

The characters' stories were intriguing and had some nicely emotional moments, making me care for the characters you come across; the sound design was great, and I loved the realistic, largely relatable setting. I will say though, that part that Dan was in at the beginning of the video, you aren't able to go any other speed, as the player character moves even slower than the normal slow. Oh, and I think Dan may have passed some parts already, as in, finished them, because at 8:50, he should have gotten some conversation there between two characters. He backtracked (as he mentioned just after I typed that).

The weather and time of day changes due to what's happening and where you are in the game, it's not a weird glitch.

So it's an episode of the archers where everyone is ghosts?

Also I'm staggered that Dan knows how to pronounce Shropshire.

@uninvincible: Honestly, to me, Dear Esther was kind of a bore, and I didn't even finish a Machine For Pigs, but this game was great to me.

Dan knows how to properly pronounce Shropshire, he never fails to amaze me.

@marokai: You make a good point as to seeing coverage from those skeptical of the genre. I just find it hard to believe we're getting objectivism from a guy like Ryckert based on his statements (I hate being held up) and the 'fair shakes' he's given other games in genres (his dota intro video on GI is eye opening). But maybe you're right, and I should treat this site more for entertainment and less for objective review style coverage.

As for this East vs. West schism you think you see, I'm pretty sure they're playing it up with videos entitled "us vs. them". I think it's perfectly fine for the two sites to have different flavours, specialities, and even for the readership to have favourites. If they were the same, then what would be the point? If the makeup of the two teams wasn't so obviously built out of convenience, I might think that they did it on purpose. The west coast frat boy arcade knuckle draggers vs the east coast sophisticated stuck up academic social justice warriors. Adds a lot of dimension to the site don't you think?

I find it really disheartening how many people are arguing the point that "video games don't have to be fun." Also everyone seems to implicitly come to the conclusion that I'm bashing this game specifically without me having said anything of the kind. I was referring to something that Jeff starting saying and then changed his mind about halfway through the Quick Look. It does apply here though.

I mean games are games. Don't pull up the dictionary definition for me, we're all on a gaming forum, we know what a video game is. One of the only reasons things like Gone Home or this product get referred to as games is because video games are one of the few interactive entertainment mediums. It's not a movie, because it requires input, and it's not a book because of course it isn't - well you move something around so I guess it's a game. But maybe some of these products aren't best suited to being video games? Maybe there should be a separate category in order to level expectations accordingly?

I mean can Dear Esther really be called a game? On one hand who cares right? It's a thing, labels are dumb, let's just move on with our lives. On the other, since this is a site with an extensive wiki concerning all sorts of video game categorization, what constitutes a game? If we are to assume that the most basic player input automatically makes something into a video game then that is a shaky definition. When I sit down to "play" something I am expecting a certain degree of mechanics to exist for me to interact with. Simply walking forward and hearing exposition does not satisfy my need for that particular genre of entertainment. I love a good story, I thoroughly enjoyed Journey and am not opposed to alternate methods of storytelling, but be up front with me about what it is you're presenting.

So I guess in the end it is a highly subjective viewpoint. To me saying that not all games have to be fun is like saying that not all foods have to taste good. They don't, I guess, but thats not the sort of experience I'm looking for when I sit down to have a meal.

I have already played through Ethan Carter this year and that seems to have more going on than this game. So as interested as I might initially have been in this I honestly don't think I have the patience for this game.

Shame it doesn't seem particularly interesting, I like the setting a great deal.

I'm loving the music though.

H button sprints, just so you know.

From what I've played I am enjoying this more than Dear Esther, which felt like an art gallery to me, super pretty, well written prose but did not pull me into its narrative at all.

This just has a bit more interaction even through I wish it was more like Gone Home in terms of interactivity but this is going for a much larger environment so that would have been tough to pull off. I enjoy leisurely walking through the environments and noticing little details of stuff that is similar to what I remember when I visited the UK.

I did manage to get completely lost in the first section of the game though. I got to the point where the ball of light had just disappeared. I wandered around for about half-an-hour and found some additional radios and optional dialog sequences. Then I just ended up quitting the game and restarting to see if the light came back.Turns out the game doesn't save your progress on any of that optional stuff (which is tied to achievements) until you hit the next story checkpoint so be warned. I got the ball of light back briefly but it didn't really lead me where I needed to go. Turns out I was trying to do things out of order. I was supposed to go to this house and then go to this church but I stopped by the church first, triggered some stuff but wasn't able to trigger the proper sequence until after I had visited this house and returned.

If I had stayed on the critical path the ball was leading me I probably would have done everything in the right order but since I wandered around that didn't work out great. So I guess what I'm saying is that the game could use more robust ball scripting to help lead the player when they go off-path. I am still very interested in playing through the rest of it though,

stile¹stʌɪl/nounplural noun: stiles

1. an arrangement of steps that allows people but not animals to climb over a fence or wall.

This looks boring. I think there's something nice about seeing realistic settings realized in 3d spaces. I can't recall who used that expression in the first place, though I believe it was Austin. Point is, stuff like Alan Wake can create a specific mood by having places that look like real life and has a certain level of detail. It's one of the cool things about open world games that are set in cities, too. But nothing about walking around here seemed interesting to me. Dan and Jeff were being very funny and not very negative, and I was still bored about ten minutes in. Part of it's probably that it sounds like the plot is given away in the title. Where have all these guys gone? Oh I don't know, maybe they went to the rapture. They clearly haven't gone home. Another part is probably that empty places with no humans to speak of is the normal setting for stuff like this, or lots of video games in general really, just because having real talking NPCs are both more expensive and more difficult than leaving audio logs everywhere. It doesn't look like there's anything special to see. Just Skyrim, Dark Souls or Bioshock Infinite without all the opportunities, gameplay, wondrous settings or mystery and nothing in exchange except a painfully slow walking speed.

Really hung up on the fact that the camera is barely higher than the hood of a car, too. I wish first person games sometimes had a main character that was higher than 140 cm. This doesn't usually bother me all that much, but in a setting like this it stuck out.

pardon me if im wrong but the entire point of games is to play them as an activity so having fun would be an important part of that

I liked Dear Esther. There, I said it.

The story resonated with me on that particular day at that particular time but it's not something I'd recommend to people often. It's an audio book.

Didn't hate Machine For Pigs but totally understand the criticisms coming, as it was, as a sequel to Amnesia TDD.

Doubt I'll bother with Rapture...

Dan owes me a keyboard though - I had a mouthful of tea when he said "Witch doctor" and it's now gone everywhere.

EDIT - Yep, stiles are things. Them be stiles.

What amazes me is how many people exist that can't fathom the idea that the Industry is large and diverse enough to support games in this style, alongside whatever it is they enjoy. I see no point in getting annoyed or angry over a particular style of video game, it's really silly.

I've recently been to Shropshire and I can confirm that shadows move very quickly for no apparent reason sometimes.

So, I don't like The Chinese Room in general. I think their games have a problem with pacing (not only movement speed), the writing is not my thing, etc etc. I have absolutely no interest in playing this game specifically. But it's so weird we're still stuck evaluating games only in terms of fun, enjoyment, satisfaction and dismissing any other kind of relevant, interesting experiences as what games "shouldn't be".

@ratamero: I mean, people mostly seem to mean "engagement" when they say fun, like Jeff said in the video. That's not a specific emotion of joy, excitement, sadness, fear or anything really, it's just a state of mind where you're interested in something. Some people have obviously never cried at a video game, just because people behave differently with both games and their own emotions. When I said I thought it looked boring, I didn't specifically mean "Why isn't this making me feel excited and happy?".

From all the Giant Bomb crew Jeff and Dan are by far the worst choice to quick look this game. Was expecting and hoping it would be played by GBeast guys. :(

I really like playing this game, makes me somewhat relaxed after all the shooting in space, chopping off heads and flying down buildings into a batmobile.

I live in Shropshire so was cool to see it as a setting.

Don't know why people are suggesting who should do Quicklook's now. It works both ways as based on their previous output I'm not sure I would find what GBeast has to say on this game all that useful. So really just let whoever decides to a quicklook get on with it.

Downloaded it yesterday, I can certainly see how the "runspeed" can get tedious. Still looking forward to it though.

Oh well, at least its a bit more colourful than Dear Esther.

the name of the town in the game is Shropshire

@tajasaurus: Shropshire is not a town, it's a county which stretches from the industrial English midlands to the border with Wales. It's pronounced "Shrop-sheer" by the locals. Probably most famous for Charles Darwin.

Oh right, the chinese room, the ones who ruined amnesia.

Well I like these types of games so I bought it anyway. Dear Esther was great.

I suppose I was in a snarky mood yesterday when I made that comment - but it really felt like people were coming into this thread simply to trash a whole genre and call it bad, not because it was bad but because they didn't like it, or thought it was 'pretentious'. As you mention in other comments here, MOBAs often get the same treatment. I have caught myself thinking that way in the past as well. I don't really like MOBAs, but I have to remind myself - they arent 'bad'. Millions play and love them, and I recognize that the problem isn't with them, it's on my end - or more correctly, isn't a problem, just that they don't line up with what I want to play.

Also, I feel like I owe the thread a comment on the game. After seeing the QL, I felt like this game has an interesting story, but really does get bogged down by the slow movement - another downside would be the lack of interaction with the world. I think one of Gone Home's great strengths was hiding things to find in nooks and crannies, even when not necessarily part of the main story arc. I remember tearing the house apart looking for notes and things, even after finishing it.

The one great advantage video games have over other mediums, is the ability to explore a setting. You can show multiple threads happening at once, and these don't necessarily have to happen every time you play, even if you are holding to a linear story. I think this game has a great setting and from what i've seen, the story doesnt feel familiar to me - which is a good thing when this industry has such a huge habit of repackaging cliches. That is largely why this game has interested me.

Simmer down. All I said is that I was disappointed at what it turned out to be. There are two things you should allow for the possibility of:

1. Not everyone who heard about and took an interest in this game played Dear Esther
2. That someone could be disappointed in the product regardless of the form. What I was hoping for was that its narrative hooks would be more interesting. The fact that as it turns out I don't find its narrative interesting is nobody's fault, it's simply a fact. Which is why all I said was that it was disappointing.

I'm an intellectual, pretentious, artsy liberal SJW type and find this game to be look weak. There is no sense of weight or pacing.

The fact that this can be seen as a failure doesn't invalidate the existence and continued push into this gaming space though. There will continue to be plenty of crazy, action-packed, FUN games out there. One group pushing the boundaries will not suddenly cause everyone refining games within the existing boundaries to disappear. And it's to be expected that there are failures along the way to creating truly new experiences. For every genuinely great art film there are a dozen stinkers. Making an art piece that resonates broadly is really hard. There's a reason we have the phrase "starving artist" in the cultural lexicon. So I don't fault them for trying.

So calm down people. Cripes.

I'm really enjoying my run (walk? crawl?) through this, but I appreciate it's not for everyone.

This QL is pretty hard to watch, though, as he heads back to the previous area at the start (marked by the change in daytime that Jeff comments on) and spends almost half the video there. Because all the "scenes" had already been triggered, it makes an already very empty environment look even emptier.

Not that it's entirely Dan's fault for not knowing a stile when he sees one, though, he should really have got over that fence on the first go. There's one you can use in the first area, but that's optional, so I guess he missed it.

seems to me that it moves faster during the day..

conjecture: slow moving and no jumping in great britain.. i think there is a strong possibility that you are a dalek

Shropshire is a county not a town. And Dan is pronouncing it correctly. It's pronounced sheer not shire even though it's spelled that way.

Unless you are saying Dan says Rapture weird. I didn't notice that.

I imagine the issue that most people have with "walking simulators," though they may not be actively aware of it, is that the stories in these games are frequently better communicated through alternative mediums. If you aren't taking advantage of the video or audio in a video game it's just a slower book. These games make an effort to immerse you in a world through the video and audio to take advantage of those avenues, but as soon as you feel like you're stuck on a rail without any ability to explore on your own, you're just watching a movie. A movie that somebody made out of the world's slowest book. Maybe that book is amazing, but maybe it isn't, and if the story isn't absolutely fantastic, and you feel like you're trapped on rails (or there just isn't anything else worth exploring), it starts to feel like you're just going through the motions desperate for interaction.

'Valis' Observatory?

'Attempting to communicate'?

C'mon.

I'll take the PC version with MODDED WALKING SPEED! Christ....

I really don't get the walking speed. I mean even if it's going for realism or whatever, no one, except maybe some 90-year-old with very serious walking issues, goes around that slow. It makes no fucking sense.

The run looks like it should be the default speed and there should be a "real" run button too. Also 8 seconds to accelerate? What?

And don't get me wrong, I will play this, but fuck.

@sessh: Actually, people do walk that slow. You are just used to walking at 30mph in videogames so it feels very slow.

@brad3000: I realize that you always move a lot faster in most games than you would in real life, but that's still not true. No average person walks like that. The speed in the game seems to me like it would be about 1 m/ph, maybe 1,5, which is sloooow.

This pretty much sums up this comment section so far :p