Everybody's Gone to the Rapture

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.

gizmo

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.

Not really. Folk often forget that there can be a high CPU cost involved when it comes to rendering complex and varied scenes.

heebusjeebus

Played through it again last night for the Completionist trophy.
Missed so much from the first run through. Great story and well put together.
The scenes between chapters are incredible and really emotional.

sweetie

Got this in the flash sale at the weekend. I loved Dear Ester, Gone Home and Stanley but not sure about this yet. From reading above it seems I have missed a few major things despite making it to the campsite. The score is indeed terrific and I'm sure a replay will reveal all.

da gamer

€12 on the psn Halloween sale. Worth it for 4 hours gameplay or is it likely to be a ps plus free game in the future?

sweetie

da gamer wrote:

€12 on the psn Halloween sale. Worth it for 4 hours gameplay or is it likely to be a ps plus free game in the future?

I paid about 5.50 from Canada flash sale last weekend. It was OK but lacked a but I thought. Some puzzles would have been good. I'd wait for psplus or cheaper price tbh.

da gamer

Got this as a Christmas present after and have to say it's the most beautiful game I've ever played. It's probably the best looking game ive ever played, along with the most beautiful, haunting music ever in a game. If I had one criticism it's that there should be a run/sprint button available as the walking can be very slow and tedious at times. Call it a walking simulator or whatever you want, but it's a game like none I've ever played before.

Retr0gamer

I probably found this the worst of the games from the Chinese Room. I liked it at the start but there's one big problem, it's too damn long. These games I feel work much better as shorter experiences such as gone home or dear Esther. As for the story it's initially interesting but by the end it had devolved into sci Fi nonsense and I couldn't connect with any of the characters. It's a shame because it could have been a lot better as a more focuses experience.

sweetie

Supposedly there is a sprint button

CiDeRmAn

I loved the game, I loved the plot and found the town and it's surroundings completely immersive.
The music is sublime and as you reach the end of each "chapter" it can be genuinely moving as well.
Also, as you explore off the beaten track, in houses and offices, community halls and caravans, you see details that reinforce the tragic nature of the event.
At times it felt more like a radio play, you really need your ears open in this one, and the quality of the voice acting makes even the likes of Uncharted seem like a 2 dimensional effort in comparison.
No puzzles, a vague run function and a lack of a "game" makes it poor to many but, instead, I say it's an experience, an experiment in story telling on consoles that we really haven't seen much of outside of the quieter moments of the likes of Half Life and it's sequels.

da gamer

sweetie wrote: »

Supposedly there is a sprint button

There is, but he sprints like a 90 year old woman with arthritis

brady12

It's brilliant .one my favourites of the year

CiDeRmAn

da gamer wrote: »

There is, but he sprints like a 90 year old woman with arthritis

Smells less of werthers and wee though

Links234

Interestingly, it looks like this might be coming to PC. Not the first Playstation exclusive to see a PC release, as Helldivers was recently ported.

Vojera

Links234 wrote: »

Interestingly, it looks like this might be coming to PC. Not the first Playstation exclusive to see a PC release, as Helldivers was recently ported.

I really really hope it does. I want to play this so much. I was considering borrowing a PS4 to get to play it.

Corholio

A wonderful game. It's amazing to play a game and see thing develop in it without you contributing anything to the progression but yet not taking away absolutely anything from the enjoyment. It's also got a great use of sound throughout, from the haunting flashback images to the simple clicks of the radio, it's just wonderful use of audio. One of my favourite game experiences from last year.

Am I playing it wrong or is the story told in a nonlinear fashion?

The walking speed is far too slow for the size of the area.

I'm bored of this game. One of the glowing ball things, which I've been following previously, got stuck behind a pole and there's no way for me to move it, so I tried wandering around, but kept getting lost and/or circling around without realizing. There's no clear path, it's basically a rather pretty walking simulator. Everything seems to be nonlinear, which makes it hard to get engaged in the storyline. Soundtrack is great and the bits of the story that I've grasped are good(ish), but I'm damn glad I didn't spend €20 on it. The €9 I did pay is a bit of a stretch, in fairness. If the soundtrack was included in the purchase, then that'd be great.

Will probably try finishing it off some other time.

jimbob_jones

Deleted User wrote: »

Am I playing it wrong or is the story told in a nonlinear fashion?

The walking speed is far too slow for the size of the area.

Will probably try finishing it off some other time.

From what I remember from my playthrough it is told in a nonlinear fashion but it can be quite easy to miss out certain sections of characters story. When I had finished it the first time I had missed two parts of the vicars story and two parts of the uncles story.

You can kind of sprint by holding R2, but it's more of a fast walk than a run.

As for the stuck glowing orb sometimes if you move on to the next section of story and back track it can become unstuck

Done that and it's still stuck. Did at least three circles around and it can't get out of the place it is in.

K.O.Kiki

Deleted User wrote: »

Am I playing it wrong or is the story told in a nonlinear fashion?

The walking speed is far too slow for the size of the area.

I'm bored of this game. One of the glowing ball things, which I've been following previously, got stuck behind a pole and there's no way for me to move it, so I tried wandering around, but kept getting lost and/or circling around without realizing. There's no clear path, it's basically a rather pretty walking simulator. Everything seems to be nonlinear, which makes it hard to get engaged in the storyline. Soundtrack is great and the bits of the story that I've grasped are good(ish), but I'm damn glad I didn't spend €20 on it. The €9 I did pay is a bit of a stretch, in fairness. If the soundtrack was included in the purchase, then that'd be great.

Will probably try finishing it off some other time.

No, I'm pretty sure you're "playing" it right :pac:

Player 2

Santa Clause was very good to me this year, and I unexpectedly got a PS4.
Aside from the bundled games, this was my first purchase / digital download. As someone noted above, I'd been looking forward to trying this on PC, so was lucky I could try it out sooner than an eventual PC release.

It took me two sittings to complete it, and that was a week ago, so, the initial "wow" factor has worn off slightly.

All-in-all, I'd have to rate it as something that's worth a purchase / play.
Perhaps I'm just a sucker for the "walking simulator" genre, but, it's not the new pinnacle of what can be done.

1. CryEngine / Art-Direction = brilliant.
2. Soundtrack = excellent.
3. Voice-acting = Overall very strong, with the occasional hammy turn.
4. Dialogue = Tied with the above, the script is delivered well, with some believable interactions between the characters.
5. Story = Hmmm, not so much...

In terms of the overarching plot I can't honestly say that it had a major impact on me; and, not only that,
it didn't feel like it was as creative as Gone Home or The Stanley Parable, for example.

I actually think it doesn't compare favourably to Dear Esther, their previous game, as it's not as bold a step in a new direction as that was at the time.

Again though, I do recommend a playthrough though if you're like me an interested in the variety of games with a different pace every now and again. (Or, the occasional "walking simulator"!)