Post by Steve Farrelly @ 11:28am 17/08/15 | 9 Comments
Presented in both written and video review form, Joab's breakdown of what's broken down in The Chinese Room's Everybody's Gone to the Rapture is in-depth and damning, and bloody entertaining to read and watch.
Here's a snippet:
Walking simulator as a term started as a dismissive joke, and Everybody's Gone to the Rapture is the punchline, a shaggy dog effort determined to mock the idea that games need players. It's not meta. It's not clever. It's banal and tedious and if your narrative focused do-nothing game wouldn't work as a halfway interesting short story, then it won't be better just because you force people to walk slowly around a wholly un-interactive game space while you drip-feed them unconnected plot points.Click here for his full Everybody's Gone to the Rapture review.
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Posted 08:33pm 17/8/15
Rapture is different but that doesn't make it bad, or in my view anything like a 2.5 score. For what it does, it does brilliantly. The story concept had me guessing right up until the end and to be honest, still guessing as there are many un-answered questions...but that is cool too. it leaves something for the imagination.
Personally, I adored Rapture. It is creative and steps outside the all too beaten to death gaming square we are all too familiar with. I respect your score and review as it is a reflection of your experience however I see personally disagree. For what Rapture IS (not what its not)...its one of the most memorable 6 hours in gaming Ive had.
Posted 09:58pm 17/8/15
I'm glad you enjoyed it, even if I didn't. It's clearly a very divisive game (based on reviews I've seen anyway).
Posted 10:27pm 17/8/15
Youre right, I love Souls games, some people hate them. I love D3, some hate it. Opinion is healthy and a good thing. Life would be pretty boring if we all liked the same things.
Im not a fanboy of Rapture, nor would I get defensive if people bag it. I just thought it was brave, different and an intruiging 6 hours. Likewise, Im its a shame you didnt enjoy it mate then have to sit through 6 hours that probably felt like 60.
Again, I respect you review and opinion mate. Now the big question...MGS5 or Madmax? :)
Posted 11:54pm 17/8/15
Maybe its like you said and I'm trying to compare it as a game to other games, maybe these sorts of things shouldn't be considered games and should live separately as their own medium so people aren't walking into them with the expectation of getting a game when all you're really getting is a self-directed tour through some art and writing. It looks like really pretty art for sure, and some good writing, but if I was going to experience it, it almost feels like its something I'd rather just watch someone else play. I don't want to engage and interact with a game that isn't going to make any effort to engage with me.
Posted 04:32am 18/8/15
Is your gripe that Rapture fails on those parts, in addition to being a walking simulator? Or just that it's a walking simulator? As the above three mentioned games got a lot of hate for that, despite also being critically acclaimed as narrative experiences.
Posted 07:24am 18/8/15
At least we can agree on Souls games, and D3 after the 2.0 patch. I think MGS TPP is going to be something special, but I'm a Kojima diehard. I worry that Mad Max will feel too empty, which is a problem for open world games that aren't set in massive empty wastelands, let alone one that is.
I enjoyed Gone Home until about the last 15-20 minutes, when I felt it pussied out and went for the hollywood ending. Did not enjoy Dear Esther, although I felt it was better than Rapture. Haven't played The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, but I've seen heaps of people suggest it as an alternative to this.
Rapture, in my opinion, fails on a fundamental level. With Gone Home and Dear Esther, a camera on rails would have been not quite a lateral move to replace the player. There was a sense of discovery involved which I felt was necessary to what made both of those games require the player. I felt that Rapture lacked even that basic component, because when you stray from the path set out for you by the glowing orb thing you can and will miss important story elements. Your existence in the game world is a hindrance it can't solve. A camera on rails wouldn't be a lateral, equal move to the player -- it would be a net positive. I'd never trigger a scene and then look the wrong way, I'd never completely skip the ending sequence for one of the players. I wouldn't feel frustrated when the game took control from me at random. I don't accept the idea that Walking Simulators aren't games, but in the case of Rapture, I believe it fails to do the few things that games are supposed to do. If it was on purpose it would almost be brilliant, but not worth the price of admission. It's not on purpose though.
I lean on this too much, but Alan Moore spent a lot of time rejecting the idea of making a The Watchmen movie solely because he felt that he'd used comics because they were capable of something movies were not. He is an avid believer in the idea of using a medium's strengths, and he felt that cinema wouldn't deliver the experience he was aiming for. Maybe, like with Watchmen, the un-player concept of Rapture will work conceptually. But for now I think games need players more than players need games.
Posted 11:41am 18/8/15
Perhaps you went into this with the completely wrong mindset?
Posted 03:19pm 18/8/15
Still would be keen to play it.
Posted 04:27pm 18/8/15
you can run. the devs forgot to label it on the controls screen.