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Everybody's Gone to the Rapture |OT| A Cosy Catastrophe

ElTorro

I wanted to dominate the living room. Then I took an ESRAM in the knee.
Welp, finally done.

Total playtime: 3:10:00hrs

Thoughts:


  • It's a well-presented story but not a good story. I expected a pseudo-religious mystery but it ended up being
    mad scientist makes contact with aliens
    . Unless, of course, I've missed the point.
  • Walking speed is too slow, even with R2

I agree. The story isn't very satisfying and at the end bit "pseudo-poetic". Reminded me a bit of the impression I got from watching LOST.
Apparently, the core message is that everyone's existence lives on forever in the patterns of light that everyone emits into the universe. How does that fit with that alien light pattern? Does it mean that every light that we emit carries memories/consciousness? Doesn't make much sense to me.
It was also a bit cumbersome to try to arrange the short events into a coherent timeline, but that's part of the game's design, I guess.

The music was great and the attention to visual detail astonishing. I enjoyed exploring every little part of the world, even if it took me probably over six hours to complete the game. Nevertheless, the game might have tried to be a little less 'full of itself' and allow the player to move faster. I don't need to move at the speed of a snail to appreciate the atmosphere. And ultra slow motion with exploding music in itself doesn't make me feel more emotional.

Still had a good time. Would give the game a 7/10. I want more of that kind, just a tiny little faster and a little bit more intelligible.
 

SDCowboy

Member
I gotta say, the game is starting to drag a bit, IMO. Love the visuals, the setting and the story is interesting. However, I wish there was a bit more meat to the game than just wandering around. Some form of item collecting and some puzzles would have gone a long way, IMO.
 

JTripper

Member
I'm liking it.
Just got to Stephen's area, which I assume is the final area
. I think the trophies are a bit too vague, thus making the sacred platinum a trudge, which I dislike. I like the presentation of the story, but sometimes I get confused about who's talking during each story segment, mandatory or not, when there are different voices. And the soundtrack is fucking beautiful.

I probably won't give it another playthrough sadly, but I appreciate the storytelling and visuals.

#inconclusionBioshockstilldoesenvironmentalstorytellingbest
 

ElTorro

I wanted to dominate the living room. Then I took an ESRAM in the knee.
I like the presentation of the story, but sometimes I get confused about who's talking during each story segment, mandatory or not, when there are different voices.

Turn on subtitles to see who's speaking.
 

JonnyKong

Member
I find it quite intriguing that one person can complete it in 3 hours and then the next person 6. I can only assume the 6 hour person spent 2 hours trying to moonwalk for 50 seconds.
 

ElTorro

I wanted to dominate the living room. Then I took an ESRAM in the knee.
I find it quite intriguing that one person can complete it in 3 hours and then the next person 6. I can only assume the 6 hour person spent 2 hours trying to moonwalk for 50 seconds.

I tried to find all radios and didn't follow the balls of light directly.
 

Kule

Member
Just finished it! I thought the beginning was a bit slow but that was due to me exploring every little piece of the map. From the second area onwards I just kept to the guide and that gave a much better flow. Great game overall but I still feel Dear Esther was a tighter experience.
 

KORNdoggy

Member
I tried to find all radios and didn't follow the balls of light directly.

Exactly. If you wander off the guided path (kind of the point if you want to see all conversations and radio chatter) its a pretty long game. Follow the light like some moth and it's 3 hours tops.
 

vladdamad

Member
Finished. That was good but not as fantastic as initial impressions suggested. The second last area should have been cut, as there were in my opinion
too many reused assets that not even a purple filter could disguise, even though it had my favourite story moment (Lizzy in the train station).
I suppose what I will say is that this is The Chinese Room's biggest and most technically proficient game, where they've finally decided on how to efficiently deliver story (an area where they've previously struggled, arguably) at the expense of an unambitious, though still interesting, narrative.

Here's the problem - ambiguity in TCR's previous games, Dear Esther and Korsakovia in particular, comes from creating a tension in the narrative where you don't know what exactly is happening, as there are several radically different things that could be going on. In this game, there is (ENDING SPOILERS)
only one possible interpretation of the story that you could have, really. Everything is pretty much entirely laid out for you and there is one solution for each of the mini-stories in the game. The only truly ambiguous part of the narrative is the ending, and even that isn't that controversial - you can pretty much assume that Kate merged with the Pattern and the Pattern is walking around seeing human stories and teaching her about 'togetherness'. This means that ambiguity is now not an exciting storytelling device like in, say, Dear Esther, where you are constantly wondering if you are the wife of the narrator, or the wife is dead and you are the narrator, or maybe this is a man who went insane after contracting an STD, and all these interesting variations fitting into the main themes of loss and melancholy, but instead you have a fairly straightforward sci-fi story in a novel setting for the genre deliberately obfuscated for no reason.

Maybe all this is due to the fact that the game was reworked since its inception - I remember reading how the game was originally going to be the main character walking through the village with the apocalypse happening a certain period of time after the start of the game, so you would only have been able to do a limited set of things during each run - that sounds like a much more ambitious game than what we finally got, although obviously the concept was probably too difficult to implement.

The ending is where the story finally reaches for brilliance, and visually it really does reach the same peaks as TCR's earlier work, but it ends far too soon, unfortunately. That's not to say I didn't like the game, as it is visually gorgeous, aside from one area it constantly keeps the art direction fresh and original, and the narrative is extremely human and grounded in a way that the previous games weren't - it just doesn't feel as ground-breaking. It's not GOTY for me like I thought it would be during the first hour of the game but it is still a worthy addition to their earlier work.
 
Need some help, I'm at Wendy

theres an orb of light on a set of stairs by the train but I can't interact with it and when I go to Stephens house there's an orb in his garden but although I can interact with it it won't activate a conversation.
 

Egg0

Banned
I've played at least an hour and change so far, but the story is not grabbing me. I've never played one of these games before, but I was hoping for a bit more interactivity. Picking up things and looking at them, like in Gone Home.

All I've been doing is following the light, opening doors and turning on the radio/phone/recordings. Movement speed, like everyone has mentioned is super slow. The run is barely noticeable.

I'm probably going to stop the side exploration and just follow the light just to get to end. I think the setting is at least interesting and I'm looking forward to see if my theory about what's going on is true or not.
 

Udder

Neo Member
Beat the game a bit ago.

The game is full of feels and I teared up at a few parts. Overall I agree with the reviewers that the waking speed could of been a little faster.
 

vladdamad

Member
Need some help, I'm at Wendy

theres an orb of light on a set of stairs by the train but I can't interact with it and when I go to Stephens house there's an orb in his garden but although I can interact with it it won't activate a conversation.

For some of the orbs, you have to tilt the controller at just the right angle in order to trigger the conversation, it takes a couple tries sometimes. In case you get stuck later, the ending of the Wendy chapter is near
the top of a hill overlooking the river, beside a stone cross and two benches.
 

truly101

I got grudge sucked!
I'm going to give this a shot. I feel like games like this, Ethan Carter, Ether 1 etc are the new Myst. I want to like them but sometimes they crawl at a glacial pace
 
For some of the orbs, you have to tilt the controller at just the right angle in order to trigger the conversation, it takes a couple tries sometimes. In case you get stuck later, the ending of the Wendy chapter is near
the top of a hill overlooking the river, beside a stone cross and two benches.
Just finished her chapter, couldn't get anything to happen with the orb by the train guessing it was just a marker or something:/

You were right about the angle, this one had to be really accurate.
 

Dan

No longer boycotting the Wolfenstein franchise
Shit, got stuck in the forest surrounded by impassable bushes and had to quit. This game really should be saving every time you do something of note.
 

King_Moc

Banned
Just finished, took about 6 hours, but I did trigger what must have been very nearly all cutscenes.
I got the dark ending with the lights for every area. I agree with what others have said that the story lacked alternative ways to interpret it, it was a little bit spoon fed. I did enjoy it though.

And they really need to fix the saving.
 

Ledhead

Member
Just started. I think I will save this game for when i'm in the right mindset. I want to take my time with it, explore as much as possible
 

iMax

Member
Just finished, took about 6 hours, but I did trigger what must have been very nearly all cutscenes.
I got the dark ending with the lights for every area. I agree with what others have said that the story lacked alternative ways to interpret it, it was a little bit spoon fed. I did enjoy it though.

And they really need to fix the saving.

Wait there are different endings?
 
Just started. I think I will save this game for when i'm in the right mindset. I want to take my time with it, explore as much as possible

Same. I played for a bit, and it seems really interesting, but I'm just too tired right now. I'll probably put in a good chunk of time when the weekend comes around.
 

sn00zer

Member
Finished the first chapter....fucking amazing....a loooooot of people will hate this game.

Literally teared up at
the woman whose husband took their children upstairs

If you think you will like this game, you will love it. If these type of things arent your thing, youre going to hate it.
 
About an hour in. Really enjoying it so far.

There are a couple things that would be nice to have patched in - a slightly brisker R2 walk, framerate improvements/cap, manual saving (I hate having to break my "looking at everything" pattern just to get to the next save point so I can quit and play Rocket League) - but I feel like everyone is overlooking the most crucial problem with the game: It fails the Max Payne Memorial Interactive Piano Test.

CMK4qJKUAAA5YLG.jpg
 

MattyG

Banned
So has any one figured out what
the numbers at the end of the credits mean? Feels like there is a message in those numbers.
“In the wake of a human being’s death, what survives is a set of afterglows, some brighter and some dimmer, in the collective brains of those dearest to them. There is, in those who remain, a collective corona that still glows – Douglas Hofstadter”
 

def sim

Member
I had trouble keeping interest, but it's starting to grow on me. I only wish the story beats were more densely placed in the map, the walk speed were significantly faster, and the framerate held up more consistently.
 

Xion385

Member
I got question. I bought this game, but Kate's voice through the radio had triggered my dormant fears of P.T.'s radio voice. Does this game get scary? I feel like there might be a jumpscare that I'm not ready for while I'm wandering through these empty houses.
I had trouble keeping interest, but it's starting to grow on me. I only wish the story beats were more densely placed in the map, the walk speed were significantly faster, and the framerate held up more consistently.
Hold R2. It speeds up walking.
 

Karak

Member
Really wasn't impressed at all. As someone who found things like Ethan Carter a true delight this was just frigging horridly boring. It lacks a cohesive feel to presenting the experience it attempts to portray which doesn't seem like it should be possible.

Most likely a great deal of that is tied into the spaced out story separations and insane walk speed(though sprint is there...or always was) and gfx issues. A game where you travel half a mile an hour shouldn't have FPS issues. Luckily I didn't get ill but my god forums are rife with people reporting getting sick from the fps I guess?
 

Elios83

Member
Played a hour or so.

So far:

+Great graphics and atmosphere
+Interesting (but predictable in the mysterious element) story

- Slow walking speed and no run is seriously hurting gameplay (and no R2 doesn't change anything in a meaningful way)
- Slow speed and camera movement is also motion sickness inducing
- Game is really slow paced with really barebone gameplay

So far this is a 7/10 to me and I expected more.
Honestly I'm considering to stop playing it and wait for the inevitable ''enable run'' patch.
 
So I think I encountered a glitched

putting in spoiler tags. can someone help.

I got to the final spirit thing of Frank, however i cannot interact with it. I went around everywhere. he is just sitting in the road, will not allow me to interact. I reloaded and same thing occured. Can anyone help?
 

Fury451

Banned
I love thechineseroom, but I really don't like any of their games.

No spoilers, but marked anyways just to preserve any impressions for those that haven't finished it yet.

It's not the style, or the minimal (arguably no) gameplay... It's that the craft such lovingly rendered and detailed worlds, have fantastic acting and such intriguing premises but all of their stories ultimately seem to fall flat at the end. I thought the same about Machine for Pigs, but I'm kinder to that one upon reflection just for being so dang weird, but really the pay off here is pretty blatant from the start. I don't mind a good bit of science fiction, but instead of teasing it little by little and revealing that maybe it was or wasn't religious event, and toying with that premise, it pretty much punched me right in the face as to what the actual ending would entail I thought.

It's sad because they have so much talent, but they seem to fumble such intriguing premises when it comes to the actual fulfillment of the delivery.
 
I played about an hour and a half and loved everything about it. The writing is pretty good, the acting is excellent, the graphics are flawless and the whole world is filled with interesting puzzles. I wish it ran just a little better but right now I feel the same way about it that I felt about Gone Home: I want more of this. Intelligent, beautiful, wondrous and mysterious.

I'm in love with this game. It's my thing 100%.
 

Karak

Member
Played a hour or so.

So far:

+Great graphics and atmosphere
+Interesting (but predictable in the mysterious element) story

- Slow walking speed and no run is seriously hurting gameplay (and no R2 doesn't change anything in a meaningful way)
- Slow speed and camera movement is also motion sickness inducing
- Game is really slow paced with really barebone gameplay

So far this is a 7/10 to me and I expected more.
Honestly I'm considering to stop playing it and wait for the inevitable ''enable run'' patch.

7/10 is totally fair but I would keep playing to be honest. Just do it in one good. Seems like thats the way it should be...played, walked...whatever
 
Gameplay wise this is a complete bore. Luckily the excellent voice work, beautiful graphics, and amazing ost make it worth going through once.
 

angrygnat

Member
I didn't learn about R2 being the "run" button until about halfway through but the walking pace wasn't bothering me. Slow just felt natural. I played it in one sitting, which I think made it all that more immersive. Took a little under 5 hours. I don't know how they would manage it but I would love to have the characters get fleshed out a bit more. I'm very curious about what exactly happened between them
 

mattiewheels

And then the LORD David Bowie saith to his Son, Jonny Depp: 'Go, and spread my image amongst the cosmos. For every living thing is in anguish and only the LIGHT shall give them reprieve.'
Are there easter eggs that are really easy to miss? Like, ones that I'd kick myself for not looking up during a play through because they're really neat? Spoil me if there's ones that I'd have no clue about finding.
 

Fury451

Banned
Are there easter eggs that are really easy to miss? Like, ones that I'd kick myself for not looking up during a play through because they're really meat? Spoil me if there's ones that is have no clue about finding.

There's quite a few trophies to unlock via specific conditions, but I'm not sure they're Easter eggs per se.
 
I'm maybe a half hour. Going in blind, I expected to feel the total isolation I felt with dear Esther or gone home. Instead, it seems so far like every 5 feet there's a golden ball glowing with characters. I enjoy the acting and writing so far, but wasn't what I expected. I feel quite the opposite of abandoned.

I'm enjoying exploring the town but am a bit lost as to where to go. Should have taken a pic of the map at the beginning.

Also, slow walking speed - trying to drag the game out longer?
 

Elios83

Member
7/10 is totally fair but I would keep playing to be honest. Just do it in one good. Seems like thats the way it should be...played, walked...whatever

Unfortunately as I said for me not only the slow speed is dragging down gameplay during outside exploration which is a bit frustrating (if you want to check something far from you you're in for a long wait until you reach it and it's just discouraging) but it's also motion sickness inducing especially during lateral movements.
So yeah since the game doesn't last so much (now I'm on the Wendy chapter) I'm probably gonna finish it anyway but with a patch I'd enjoy it much more.
Still the slow walking speed was a bad decision on their part, while I see that they wanted the player to feel as if he was walking in the village it's clearly not really functional....and not to be cynical but imo they were also trying to make up for the fact that it's really short...at normal speed they would lose at least a hour in length...but I prefer better gameplay.
 

Karak

Member
Unfortunately as I said for me not only the slow speed is dragging down gameplay during outside exploration which is a bit frustrating (if you want to check something far from you you're in for a long wait until you reach it and it's just discouraging) but it's also motion sickness inducing especially during lateral movements.
So yeah since the game doesn't last so much (now I'm on the Wendy chapter) I'm probably gonna finish it anyway but with a patch I'd enjoy it much more.
Still the slow walking speed was a bad decision on their part, while I see that they wanted the player to feel as if he was walking in the village it's clearly not really functional....and not to be cynical but imo they were also trying to make up for the fact that it's really short...at normal speed they would lose at least a hour in length...but I prefer better gameplay.

Darn ya. THat sucks bro.
 
Totally see myself rating this a 6 out of 10 for the site. I'm just completely bored with the mechanics in this game. The Order 1886 had more involved gameplay then this... what a pity. Graphically it's ace and the ost is wonderful.
 

Karak

Member
Are there easter eggs that are really easy to miss? Like, ones that I'd kick myself for not looking up during a play through because they're really neat? Spoil me if there's ones that I'd have no clue about finding.

Not really easter eggs like that.
 
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