Everybody's Gone to the Rapture

Noopti

Played a number of hours last night. This isn't the sort of game I usually play, however I was really drawn into the experience. It is visually stunning and extremely well crafted. I really want to find out what has happened to all those people, and it has hooked me.

Anyone who says this is simply a "tech demo" is talking through their arse and obviously hasn't given it a chance.

Generic Dreadhead

Noopti wrote: »

Anyone who says this is simply a "tech demo" is talking through their arse and obviously hasn't given it a chance.

So you played past the point of unlocking the Shotgun i take it?

gizmo

If we start calling every game built in the latest iteration of CryEngine (or Unreal Engine 4 for that matter) that has decent art direction a tech demo it's going to be a long ass generation.

wandatowell

How long is the game??

heebusjeebus

wandatowell wrote: »

How long is the game??

4-6 hours has been mentioned.
Personally I'm 4 hours in but I dont know how much is left.

Also, there is some replayability from what I hear as there is extra info you can glean by going off the beaten track.

Xenji

For people who are not interested in the game and just want to see the ending, there are a few 11 minute completed speedruns of it on Youtube popping up now, although you would be missing out on a great experience if you went this route.

strelok

gizmo wrote: »

If we start calling every game built in the latest iteration of CryEngine (or Unreal Engine 4 for that matter) that has decent art direction a tech demo it's going to be a long ass generation.

presumably most games will have challenges to overcome or some form of competition.

heebusjeebus

strelok wrote: »

presumably most games will have challenges to overcome or some form of competition.

Most would alright. Not all.

K.O.Kiki

Noopti wrote: »

Played a number of hours last night. This isn't the sort of game I usually play, however I was really drawn into the experience. It is visually stunning and extremely well crafted. I really want to find out what has happened to all those people, and it has hooked me.

Anyone who says this is simply a "tech demo" is talking through their arse and obviously hasn't given it a chance.

Sorry, I already played through games set in a world forgotten by time, full of artistic merit, stunning architecture and challenge.

johnny_ultimate

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

Sorry, I already played through games set in a world forgotten by time, full of artistic merit, stunning architecture and challenge.

So you haven't played Everybody has Gone to the Rapture then? Ico is one of my favourite games ever made. Still adore this though.

Xenji

For anyone who wants a challenge when they have finished the game 11.08 is the time to beat, obvious spoilers in video.

Generic Dreadhead

^ Sounds like a pointless challenge...... could we submit it for Big Brother next year?

Xenji

Cormac... wrote: »

^ Sounds like a pointless challenge...... could we submit it for Big Brother next year?

Some people like speedruns when they have finished a game.

Noopti

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

Sorry, I already played through games set in a world forgotten by time, full of artistic merit, stunning architecture and challenge.

And?

Peist2007

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

Sorry, I already played through games set in a world forgotten by time, full of artistic merit, stunning architecture and challenge.

So you played a game you enjoyed and, that's that folks, my gaming is done.

For the rest of us, this is an excellent game. Very enjoyable.

Generic Dreadhead

Xenji wrote: »

Some people like speedruns when they have finished a game.

Sounds like the anthisises of a "Speed Run" game or "Challenge" for that matter though is my point.

gizmo

strelok wrote: »

presumably most games will have challenges to overcome or some form of competition.

Quite true, most games will which is what makes those titles without such typical attributes so intriguing if done well.

An absence of these things, however, doesn't make a game a tech demo. Especially one whose technical prowess is almost solely based around CryEngine's excellent renderer being shown off with some pretty art direction.

Generic Dreadhead

We need RichieMcDermot back to solve this one folks!

tok9

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

Sorry, I already played through games set in a world forgotten by time, full of artistic merit, stunning architecture and challenge.

Are you actually saying the reason you're not getting this is because you already played a game you think is similar and thought was great so why play another similar game?

I've seen some ridiculous logic on boards before but this is definitely up there with the most non sensical posts.

Doge

I would love to see this get Project Morpheus support in the future. Would be a nice way to spend a Sunday exploring in that beautiful environment.

johnny_ultimate

Doge wrote: »

I would love to see this get Project Morpheus support in the future. Would be a nice way to spend a Sunday exploring in that beautiful environment.

Given this game just about pushes 30 FPS at the best of times, I think I can live without the ~15FPS Morpheus version. And the associated vomiting. PS5 remaster, maybe

Doge

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

Given this game just about pushes 30 FPS at the best of times, I think I can live without the ~15FPS Morpheus version. And the associated vomiting. PS5 remaster, maybe

It really seems that Morpheus will be seriously limited to certain less demanding games when you think about it which hinders its success during the ps4 lifecycle.

Unless Playstation can come up with some magic I cant see it doing too well.

Its going to be interpolated to double the perceived frame rate, but still will have issues pushing a resolution hugher than 1920x1080.

cloud493

Cormac... wrote: »

We need RichieMcDermot back to solve this one folks!

He's busy playing sonic adventure to compensate for sonic boom.

Captain Chaos

Just finished this last night, fantastic game and great story without shovel feeding every little bit to you. It's the implied events and the parts you fill in for yourself that really make it.

I actually got shivers down my spine at a few certain points when I found things lying around and realised what happened before finding the event logs confirming what went down.

This game actually says more by saying less, brilliant.

heebusjeebus

Captain Chaos wrote: »

Just finished this last night, fantastic game and great story without shovel feeding every little bit to you. It's the implied events and the parts you fill in for yourself that really make it.

I actually got shivers down my spine at a few certain points when I found things lying around and realised what happened before finding the event logs confirming what went down.

This game actually says more by saying less, brilliant.

I agree with all this. I was in awe at some parts, helped a lot by the incredible score.
Will need a second play through as it took me a while to figure out what to do so early chapters were left unfinished as I got lost in the countryside.

Great experience though, would recommend.

biggebruv

so torn on if I want to buy this

but im leaning towards waiting till a sale price

Captain Chaos

biggebruv wrote: »

so torn on if I want to buy this

but im leaning towards waiting till a sale price

It is on sale if you are Plus member, there is €4 off that's 20%. I've played through it twice thinking I covered most of it the first time but I found loads of little short cuts and more story parts by going through again. Also little things I didn't pick up on the first time made a bit more sense the second time through.

Probably the best €16 I've spent on PSN.

johnny_ultimate

Having finished it the other day, what's really sticking with me is the balance the Chinese Room managed to achieve between beauty and melancholy. Games are traditionally not always the most suitable medium for dealing with themes of mortality - given how key the concept of 'extra lives' have been to its history - but this tackles the 'big issue' and really manages to explore it very articulately.

The game is, naturally enough, absolutely stunning throughout, but especially in the 'transition' sequences that bookend each major section of the game the mood is perfected. All these apparitions, once upon a time people, you encounter all deal with impending doom in their own way - some are frightened, others stubborn, others again desperate, a few even hopeful. Each character - while often painted in fairly broad strokes, which IMO is absolutely necessary given the approach The Chinese Room have taken - manages to add a new riff on these ideas, and the eventual 'dissolve' is always heartbreaking, lonely and mysterious in its own way. The visuals in those sequences are never less than stunning, but the mood is much more complicated, permeated by a deep sadness even when some of the characters achieve something of a personal resolution. And the locations, while full of detail and signs of the people who lived there, are also eerily quiet and abandoned. The vibrant vegetation and almost watercolour-palette (best gaming magic hour ever!) contrast sharply with all those deserted interiors.

The soundtrack adds a lot to this I thought. Again, many of the compositions are simply gorgeous, right out of a Terence Malick film rather than your usual video game effort. But throughout there's something endlessly eerie and uneasy about them too. I've always felt choir music and hymns are, well, sort of creepy underneath all the songs of praise, and Curry I think plays with that dynamic vividly from beginning to end - which feeds in quite wonderfully with what's happening visually and thematically:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AS6n9XVDv0

Right Turn Clyde

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

what's really sticking with me is the balance the Chinese Room managed to achieve between beauty and melancholy.

Within minutes of starting the game I found myself standing beside a field and staring at a tractor. I done a bit of rambling around but then I came back to stare at the tractor again.

There was something so sad about it. It got me thinking about all of the inanimate objects mankind has brought into the world. No, they don't have any feelings, but it's sad when things are simply discarded. I've always felt that way about old cars, etc. Those old Toyota's you used to see down the country in people's side gardens, with weeds growing up and out through the bumper.

Of course in the game the tractor wasn't old. It was in the fullness of 'life', but with nobody there to work it. It had no meaning anymore. Imagine the toys in Toy Story if all the children disappeared!

Anyway, an unusual thought to be having, but how great that a videogame has me thinking about stuff like that.

5uspect

I'm really enjoying this. It doesn't have the immediacy of Dear Esther's shorter more poetic approach but it's a fine follow up.

I made a quick video of me back tracking across the country side.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIXNcDyR-KM

Noopti

Enjoyed it, but roughly 50% through it starts to wear thin and the ending

explained pretty much nothing about what actually was happening. I get it, it is all mysterious and arty - but for me there was no pay off at the end

.

It was a good experience, but it turned into one of those games where I was just wanted to finish it. Which isn't great.

CiDeRmAn

I am really enjoying this.
My better half, who hates videogames, was watching me play it last night, and letting me know the plants that were growing here and there, and also admiring the gardens!
I think I have a handle on whats going on, but don't want to spoil it for myself by checking if I'm right.
Just finished the first chapter though and the atmosphere reminded me of nothing other than Shadow of the Colossus, that same feeling of despair and sadness, brilliant.

tok9

I'm a little bit confused about this game.

I really love it. It's a beautiful game with some great performances so far.

My only issue is I've no idea if they want me to actually explore or not. In the first area I just explored the whole thing, every so often I would bump into the light roaming around but in general I wanted to check the whole area and follow it afterwards. After doing so I went looking for the light and got to see some conversations with it but I went to areas which I felt clearly were important with the light nearby. E.g

The Church

and yet I didn't get anything. So after a while I couldn't find it anymore and after a lot of searching I thought grand, I've seen everything. Time to move on.

However I came across a bug today I think so I checked a video to see if I had to do something (it was a bug) but I noticed I'd missed stuff in the first area that the light led to even though I was there.

So with the game, are you just meant to follow the light and leave exploration till afterwards? I'm a little cautious to actually explore now in case I miss some major story points.

johnny_ultimate

To me the whole point of the game is to explore everywhere you can, dig out the secrets and mysteries. Almost everywhere you go will unveil some sort of new information or subtle narrative development.

The actual core narrative sections are unlocked by finding all the 'manually' unlocked lights in any given section (the motion controlled ones). There's usually around four or five of them. There's always an in-world prompt or change of some kind to let you know you've found them all. I went to the church early, but the game made it very clear when I was meant to go back. I paid little heed to the wandering lights, but as far as I can gather they do subtly guide you to points of interest. You're definitely not getting the whole experience by just following it though.

tok9

So in that case I must have missed one of the lights I needed to interact with as I definitely missed conversations in areas that I was in.

Also I'm wrong on saying the above was a bug as it's happened again in another part of the area I'm in. The light just stops moving. I'm not really sure what if that is supposed to mean something but I've just decided to carry on now anyway.

jimbob_jones

Hi Tok9 I missed out on a few conversations along the way with one of the characters and the light was waiting in a particular spot for me to interact with it. However because I had not seen all of that characters storyline it would not let me use the motion controls to see the final sequence for that character.

In fact I had gone through about three of the characters before I realised that I had missed a whole load of the conversations and therefore not fully completed that characters story arc

tok9

Yup, I'm not sure if the light just staying there is a sign for anything to be honest. As that happened to me twice in the second "chapter" yet the light wasn't in a place that was helpful on either occasion. It was just in an area were I had a conversation so I went off and it was fine completed the rest.

I've now properly completed 3 chapters and after doing so I'm even more gutted I missed out on the conclusion to the 1st chapter. The conclusions are incredible. They really are beautiful visually and the walk to the next area is just so pleasant.

I might see if I can get back to the first area easily now as I'm in the 5th area at the moment.

If you like your story driven games, this one is a no brainer.

K.O.Kiki

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2015-vs-everybodys-gone-to-the-rapture

Can't even run at a fluid 1080p30 :pac:

johnny_ultimate

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

Can't even run at a fluid 1080p30 :pac:

No, it can't, has been mentioned throughout the thread. Still looks absolutely stunning though thanks to its impeccable lighting, consistently strong art design, and the sheer detail of its world building.

So, have you played the game yet?

K.O.Kiki

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

No, it can't, has been mentioned throughout the thread. Still looks absolutely stunning though thanks to its impeccable lighting, consistently strong art design, and the sheer detail of its world building.

So, have you played the game yet?

What game?

johnny_ultimate

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

What game?

If you have nothing productive to say - which you clearly don't - then please stop posting in this thread as you are clearly trolling. Thanks.

Retr0gamer

This game reminds me a lot of fragile dreams on the wii. That had you as a boy exploring a world where everyone had disappeared and you uncover stories about how they coped with the coming apocalypse. The gameplay in that game was kind of... well terrible and then in the end they went and tried to explain the how the apocalypse came about which kind of left the game going out on a sour note since the explanation was stupid, far better to leave it up to the players imagination. I hope this doesn't disappoint in the end like Fragile Dreams did because up to that point it was excellent.

tok9

Frame rate really isn't that important for a game like this.

K.O.Kiki

tok9 wrote: »

Frame rate really isn't that important for a game like this.

Agreed, but it is mystifying how a game with NO AI/NPCs or other CPU-bound tasks can't be made to run at a steady frame rate.

Doge

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

Agreed, but it is mystifying how a game with NO AI/NPCs or other CPU-bound tasks can't be made to run at a steady frame rate.

I reckon the game is more GPU heavy if anything which would make the issue it less mystifying.

Its probably the best looking game on ps4 in terms of detail.

tok9

Found a shortcut from area 5 to 3 so I decided I had to head back. Got the 1st area's conclusion.

Onwards now, I'll probably finish up tonight.

Generic Dreadhead

Temptation Rising....

jimbob_jones

Finished this last night and really enjoyed it.

I thought the section with Frank's story was amazing and all the sadder when you realise that

Frank and Wendy were on opposite sides of the valley as the planes dropped the nerve gas

And the section that gave me chills was the camp site especially the hall with

Rachael holding the baby singing the lullaby as the planes start their bombing run

also

Lizzie's last phone call to Stephen

Looking forward to what The Chinese Room come up with next. Personally I would love to see a game with the production values of this but set in the Cthulhu mythos

tok9

I finished it too and completely agree. The Frank and Wendy scenes were incredible I thought. Beautiful sad scenes.

I think we all get the gist of the story but there is a hell of a lot left up for interpretation. I think I'm going to have to do a bit of reading.

Throughout the whole game, I just couldn't stop thinking about how amazing this would be with Morpheus. I'll be shocked if it isn't supported when it comes out.

johnny_ultimate

There were times I felt the game almost offered us a little too much information about 'the event' and in some cases the characters too. But that is not to say there is no room for interpretation, because there's lots. A lot of the character history is developed through offhand remarks and mentions spread over the course of the game. The player is trusted to piece it together through the lingering fragments, and more info emerges organically as you explore the world. What I also loved was the emotional and thematic ambiguity present throughout. The characters' responses were always more complex because of what we knew and they didn't, and

Kate came across as a decidedly unreliable narrator, especially during the conclusion

. There are few, if any, unconditionally 'happy' endings for the characters in Rapture. As I said earlier, there's a pervasive melancholy and sadness about the game, where even those few moments of joy and relief are tempered by some other detail we learned, or the inherent hopelessness of the overall situation.

I'm not his biggest fan, but I stumbled across Jim Sterling's video about 'walking simulators', where he proposes that Rapture fails as a narrative because it takes place after the fact, and would be more interesting if we saw it play out in front of us. I couldn't disagree more - the core of the game is that it takes place after the fact! That eerie atmosphere, the loneliness, and the stories that emerge through the items and environments you discover through exploration are the essential elements, the beating heart here, that helps differentiate it from the norm. It's a more abstract and experimental sort of storytelling (albeit with plenty of conventional elements within the structure), and it's the sort of thing that could only really work in a video game where the player is free to dig around themselves. As 'passive' as it is, I'd also put forward it makes better use of the medium's storytelling uniqueness than many other games with more ostensibly active narratives or indeed more complex gameplay systems.

tok9 wrote: »

Frame rate really isn't that important for a game like this.

It does matter when its inconsistent There are several sections in the game where the frame rate noticeably shudders (indoor sections are a particular offender), and I agree with Digital Foundry that a capped 30 FPS would have been a wiser move overall. At the same time, the detail of the world is simply staggering for a tiny studio, and the decision to go with visual fidelity over, say, a 60 FPS target was totally the right one when dealing with the hardware and taking into account the sedate pace of the game anyway. Both performance and detail would be nice wherever possible, naturally enough, and suffice to say the focus on the latter will make the proposed Morpheus version a very, very difficult proposition indeed.