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The Mary Celeste remains one of history's greatest and most endearing mysteries. The ship's entire crew apparently disappeared, the ship itself being found with uneaten food on the table, signs that whatever happened to the crew didn't give them time to finish their meals. Everybody's Go To The Rapture seeks to emulate the sense of mystery surrounding that event, by placing you slap bang in the middle of an abandoned village, every single inhabitant having apparently disappeared. Unfortunately, it fails rather badly both as a mystery and a game.
Rapture - as I'll be calling it from now on in - is what some people would call a 'walking simulator'. What this means is that there are no enemies to speak of, or no puzzles to solve. Instead, you just wander around the village and surrounding locations, looking at the pretty graphics and seeing flashbacks of the events that caused the disappearances. Actually, 'events' isn't the right word - you get to witness conversations between the village inhabitants, depicted as figures made of light.
That, however, isn't a recipe for a terrible game. I could have happily wandered around Fallout's post-apocalyptic environments, without seeing a single soul and still be entertained. And there's no denying that Rapture's graphics are excellent, as are the sound effects and music. So what is it that makes Rapture disappointing. It's dull. Dull, dull, dull, dull.
You have the freedom to wander around the village as you wish, and can go in some of the houses and encounter the aforementioned glowing flashback/conversations. But none of the houses look at all lived in. It's like the designer just plonked down some houses, added the odd book, sofa and so forth. There's no sign that anyone's really been living there at all. Not good. Nor can you read books, look at diaries etc.
That also has the knock on effect of making the characters themselves dull. The games designers have attempted to give them some brief backstory - eg, one character had a wife who died, one was having an affair, but that's as far as they go. The 'cause' for the apocalypse is also revealed quite early on, so you're just trudging around listening to the details. And I do mean trudging. You can hold down R2 to marginally increase your character's walking speed, but they plod along at a tedious pace.
The idea behind Rapture was a great one - sniffing around a post-apocalyptic location, putting the truth together. But the game fails to delivery. It's a boring, overpriced game - £15.99 for what amounts to three house of gameplay. PC and X-Box owners aren't missing anything. If anything needs to disappear, it's this game.
Score: 3 out of 10.
Pros:
The graphics are good.
Cons:
It's very dull.
The environments don't look lived in.
You walk really slowly.
It's overpriced.
Rapture - as I'll be calling it from now on in - is what some people would call a 'walking simulator'. What this means is that there are no enemies to speak of, or no puzzles to solve. Instead, you just wander around the village and surrounding locations, looking at the pretty graphics and seeing flashbacks of the events that caused the disappearances. Actually, 'events' isn't the right word - you get to witness conversations between the village inhabitants, depicted as figures made of light.
That, however, isn't a recipe for a terrible game. I could have happily wandered around Fallout's post-apocalyptic environments, without seeing a single soul and still be entertained. And there's no denying that Rapture's graphics are excellent, as are the sound effects and music. So what is it that makes Rapture disappointing. It's dull. Dull, dull, dull, dull.
You have the freedom to wander around the village as you wish, and can go in some of the houses and encounter the aforementioned glowing flashback/conversations. But none of the houses look at all lived in. It's like the designer just plonked down some houses, added the odd book, sofa and so forth. There's no sign that anyone's really been living there at all. Not good. Nor can you read books, look at diaries etc.
That also has the knock on effect of making the characters themselves dull. The games designers have attempted to give them some brief backstory - eg, one character had a wife who died, one was having an affair, but that's as far as they go. The 'cause' for the apocalypse is also revealed quite early on, so you're just trudging around listening to the details. And I do mean trudging. You can hold down R2 to marginally increase your character's walking speed, but they plod along at a tedious pace.
The idea behind Rapture was a great one - sniffing around a post-apocalyptic location, putting the truth together. But the game fails to delivery. It's a boring, overpriced game - £15.99 for what amounts to three house of gameplay. PC and X-Box owners aren't missing anything. If anything needs to disappear, it's this game.
Score: 3 out of 10.
Pros:
The graphics are good.
Cons:
It's very dull.
The environments don't look lived in.
You walk really slowly.
It's overpriced.
Butch wrote:
Sounds very similar to 'Gone Home' which I got in a Humble Bundle a while back. The main issue I had with that game was that once you had completed it, there was no incentive to go back, more an 'interactive story' than a game.
I assume this is similar? If so, the cost sounds way too high for that type of experience.
There are trophies to unlock after you complete the game once and you'll probably not find all the conversations and hidden areas in the first play through.
It really depends on how much you like and buy in to the characters and plot, really. It's quite an emotional story, but as with all of these type of stories it won't be for everyone.
For me, it was well worth the £12 odd that it cost me on PS+
Anyway, read my very different take on the game in my review...
Sounds very similar to 'Gone Home' which I got in a Humble Bundle a while back. The main issue I had with that game was that once you had completed it, there was no incentive to go back, more an 'interactive story' than a game.
I assume this is similar? If so, the cost sounds way too high for that type of experience.
There are trophies to unlock after you complete the game once and you'll probably not find all the conversations and hidden areas in the first play through.
It really depends on how much you like and buy in to the characters and plot, really. It's quite an emotional story, but as with all of these type of stories it won't be for everyone.
For me, it was well worth the £12 odd that it cost me on PS+
Anyway, read my very different take on the game in my review...
Sounds very similar to 'Gone Home' which I got in a Humble Bundle a while back. The main issue I had with that game was that once you had completed it, there was no incentive to go back, more an 'interactive story' than a game.
I assume this is similar? If so, the cost sounds way too high for that type of experience.
I assume this is similar? If so, the cost sounds way too high for that type of experience.
I'm the opposite, absolutely loved it and it's quite a long game if you replay for the trophies. Reminded me of a mix of Tales of the Unexpected crossed with Midsummer Murders and the old 70s British sci-fi/horror films.
I guess it resonates with me as the village is similar to many around here.
I guess it resonates with me as the village is similar to many around here.
The Mary Celeste remains one of history's greatest and most endearing mysteries. The ship's entire crew apparently disappeared, the ship itself being found with uneaten food on the table, signs that whatever happened to the crew didn't give them time to finish their meals. Everybody's Go To The Rapture seeks to emulate the sense of mystery surrounding that event, by placing you slap bang in the middle of an abandoned village, every single inhabitant having apparently disappeared. Unfortunately, it fails rather badly both as a mystery and a game.
Rapture - as I'll be calling it from now on in - is what some people would call a 'walking simulator'. What this means is that there are no enemies to speak of, or no puzzles to solve. Instead, you just wander around the village and surrounding locations, looking at the pretty graphics and seeing flashbacks of the events that caused the disappearances. Actually, 'events' isn't the right word - you get to witness conversations between the village inhabitants, depicted as figures made of light.
That, however, isn't a recipe for a terrible game. I could have happily wandered around Fallout's post-apocalyptic environments, without seeing a single soul and still be entertained. And there's no denying that Rapture's graphics are excellent, as are the sound effects and music. So what is it that makes Rapture disappointing. It's dull. Dull, dull, dull, dull.
You have the freedom to wander around the village as you wish, and can go in some of the houses and encounter the aforementioned glowing flashback/conversations. But none of the houses look at all lived in. It's like the designer just plonked down some houses, added the odd book, sofa and so forth. There's no sign that anyone's really been living there at all. Not good. Nor can you read books, look at diaries etc.
That also has the knock on effect of making the characters themselves dull. The games designers have attempted to give them some brief backstory - eg, one character had a wife who died, one was having an affair, but that's as far as they go. The 'cause' for the apocalypse is also revealed quite early on, so you're just trudging around listening to the details. And I do mean trudging. You can hold down R2 to marginally increase your character's walking speed, but they plod along at a tedious pace.
The idea behind Rapture was a great one - sniffing around a post-apocalyptic location, putting the truth together. But the game fails to delivery. It's a boring, overpriced game - £15.99 for what amounts to three house of gameplay. PC and X-Box owners aren't missing anything. If anything needs to disappear, it's this game.
Score: 3 out of 10.
Pros:
The graphics are good.
Cons:
It's very dull.
The environments don't look lived in.
You walk really slowly.
It's overpriced.
Rapture - as I'll be calling it from now on in - is what some people would call a 'walking simulator'. What this means is that there are no enemies to speak of, or no puzzles to solve. Instead, you just wander around the village and surrounding locations, looking at the pretty graphics and seeing flashbacks of the events that caused the disappearances. Actually, 'events' isn't the right word - you get to witness conversations between the village inhabitants, depicted as figures made of light.
That, however, isn't a recipe for a terrible game. I could have happily wandered around Fallout's post-apocalyptic environments, without seeing a single soul and still be entertained. And there's no denying that Rapture's graphics are excellent, as are the sound effects and music. So what is it that makes Rapture disappointing. It's dull. Dull, dull, dull, dull.
You have the freedom to wander around the village as you wish, and can go in some of the houses and encounter the aforementioned glowing flashback/conversations. But none of the houses look at all lived in. It's like the designer just plonked down some houses, added the odd book, sofa and so forth. There's no sign that anyone's really been living there at all. Not good. Nor can you read books, look at diaries etc.
That also has the knock on effect of making the characters themselves dull. The games designers have attempted to give them some brief backstory - eg, one character had a wife who died, one was having an affair, but that's as far as they go. The 'cause' for the apocalypse is also revealed quite early on, so you're just trudging around listening to the details. And I do mean trudging. You can hold down R2 to marginally increase your character's walking speed, but they plod along at a tedious pace.
The idea behind Rapture was a great one - sniffing around a post-apocalyptic location, putting the truth together. But the game fails to delivery. It's a boring, overpriced game - £15.99 for what amounts to three house of gameplay. PC and X-Box owners aren't missing anything. If anything needs to disappear, it's this game.
Score: 3 out of 10.
Pros:
The graphics are good.
Cons:
It's very dull.
The environments don't look lived in.
You walk really slowly.
It's overpriced.