Video game developer The Chinese Room has been working on and promoting their latest game Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture for a couple years, but as the game has come closer to its release date, the level of promotion has increased. It’s one of the most hyped-about games of the year, and here are four reasons why I’m really excited about this game.
1. The Storytelling
From the first mention of the game, The Chinese Room has always promoted Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture as a story-driven game. As a lover of stories, this aspect of the game has always intrigued, but it’s the fact that Rapture is meant to tell a story that only a game can tell that really draws my interest. It’s an end-of-the-world game, but it’s one in which player discovery of the story and its many plot threads is vital to how the game comes across. The game’s non-linear structure means that players’ experience and understanding of the story will be different.
2. The Gameplay
The game’s story-driven nature goes hand-in-hand with its gameplay design. Players are tasked to explore an empty English countryside for clues to how the world ended. The main player action is discovery, which means a lot of walking and a lot of exploring. Pieces of the story are revealed and pieced together through this. While it’s not an adrenaline-laced action story, there’s still plenty to enjoy about exploring the visually stunning story world and finding clues and the strange white lights that you interact with throughout the game.
3. The Music and Sound Design
The orchestral score and sound design enhance the visual style of Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture. Jessica Curry, the game’s co-director and composer, has composed some beautiful music for the game that is haunting and somehow soothing. As she mentioned in a PlayStation blog post, knowing this game inside and out put her in the unique place to be able to translate her experience of the game in musical sound. The sound design gives the game an ethereal atmosphere.
4. The Website
Have you seen the website The Chinese Room developed for Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture? The website alone is great visually, but it’s also packed with important updates and some incredible behind-the-scenes stuff that only feeds your curiosity to know exactly what this game is about. All of the trailers for the game are available as well.
Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture will be released exclusively on PlayStation 4 on August 11, 2015.
Tom is a gamer, blogger, article writer, storyteller, and screenwriter who also teaches writing for a living as a high school English teacher.