Couldn’t find a thread, so this is it. This is out today, and has been reviewed positively by Eurogamer:
I really loved Dear Esther, and their work on A Machine For Pigs. I’ve bought Rapture (20% discount for PS+ subscribers), downloading now.
This looks really interesting, and a must-have for explorer-types like me. I’ve seen it mentioned that the game probably takes 4-6 hours to play, which is a LOT better than Submerged, which focused on a similar type of game (Exploration as narrative), but only took 1-1½ hour to complete.
I disliked Dear Ester immensely, but I think this is has a lot more to offer, as the Eurogamer article expands on. Purchasing it as soon as I get home!
I want this, but it would be very expensive , seeing as I do not own a PS4 yet.
Gonna play it soon as I finish Submerged, which if Razgon is correct, won’t take long. :)
I think we might expect the actual rapture to occur before this finishes downloading from PSN.
Public Service Announcement, since it was a criticism in some reviews, but you can actually run with the R2 button. The player’s pace will pick up slowly. They added it at the last minute and forgot to include it on the control listing in-game apparently.
This one sounds really interesting, but I guess I’ll never get to play it as I don’t own a PS4. I did find this review over at The Onion’s A.V. Clubkind of funny, but I would still be interested in hearing impressions from those of you who do play it, just so I can vicariously enjoy the game through you.
I’m tempted to try it out, but Sony has also conditioned me to never buy indie games because they’ll be free PS+ games eventually.
Put about 3hrs in so far. It’s very cool and absolutely gorgeous. It’s a bit more involved than Dear Esther, but not much more. You have limited interaction with things this time (doors, gates, the odd radio or computer) but it’s still essentially on rails even though it gives the impression of being more open. The story is classic sci-fi a la Wyndham. It’s like walking round The Archers except everybody’s dead. Very creepy.
Best. Archers episode. Ever.
Is this a timed PS4 exclusive; will it even come to the PC?
Dear Esther was one of my favorite gaming experiences ever. It has lived with me more than most games; on a deep emotional level.
Also, Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture is one of the best videogame titles ever conceived.
-Todd
I hope there is a PC release eventually. :)
Probably not as it was co-developed by Sony Santa Monica.
Yeah, everything I’ve read has weirdly over-stressed the point that NO ANNOUNCEMENT REGARDING PC AVAILABILITY HAS BEEN MADE REPEAT THERE IS NO INDICATION WHATSOEVER THAT THIS WILL EVER HIT THE PC.
Of course, I guess that’s not so different from the high-volume, low-content crowing of games companies at E3 struggling to not directly reveal their console exclusivity is timed.
Except Sony co-developed and published this game. The Chinese Room stated that they would not have been able to make the game without Sony’s money.
They aren’t just leveraging Sony as free PR, and I would say the chances of it coming out on the PC are pretty slim because money.
Angrily shakes fist at sky
-Todd
I’ve finished this twice now. I stayed up until 4am to finish it the first time, and just completed it a second time, because I realised that I’d fucked up on my first go and missed a bunch of important stuff. This is a masterpiece of interactive storytelling. It’s ultimately a story of the relationships between the characters you “meet” but the way it’s delivered it beautiful and heartbreaking. It’s also an excellent work of sci-fi horror by any measure. It is well worth taking your time to see everything you can. The ending is a little abstract but much clearer than Dear Esther or A Machine For Pigs, and as long as you’ve paid attention along the way, the end will make sense but still leave plenty of food for thought.
Strongly recommended. I hope it gets a PC port as it absolutely needs a wider audience.
Oh boy. Jessica Curry, the co-head of The Chinese Room is leaving primarily due to her illness, but she also cites some other issues in her goodbye post.
On publishers:
This is a tough one to write because I don’t want to negatively affect the company – there are lots of amazing people who rely on The Chinese Room for their livelihood. So I’ll tread carefully and please be aware that I’m speaking entirely on my own behalf now. Working with a publisher made me extremely unhappy and very ill. In the end I didn’t even recognize myself anymore- I had turned from a joyful, fun-loving, creative, silly, funny person into a short-tempered, paranoid, unhappy, negative heap. So much of the stress that I experienced was caused by what I see as the desperately toxic relationship that I was in. I can’t go into detail here for the reasons above but what I can say is that I look back at the way we were treated and it still makes me shake my head with disbelief. Big business and the creation of art have always been extremely uncomfortable bedfellows and making Rapture proved to be no exception for me. I don’t want to do this anymore- in fact I can’t do it. I want to surround myself with honest, open people whom I can trust. I’ve heard so many people say, “well, this is just the way publishers are” and “this is just what the games industry is like.” What I would say to that is while we all keep accepting this, while we are so afraid to challenge this behaviour then it won’t change and we all deserve nothing but the meager crumbs we are thrown.
Regarding sexism in the industry:
On a personal level I look back at my huge contribution to the games that we’ve made and I have had to watch Dan get the credit time and time again. I’ve had journalists assuming I’m Dan’s PA, I have been referenced as “Dan Pinchbeck’s wife” in articles, publishers on first meeting have automatically assumed that my producer is my boss just because he’s a man, one magazine would only feature Dan as Studio Head and wouldn’t include me. When Dan has said “Jess is the brains of the operation” people have knowingly chuckled and cooed that it’s nice of a husband to be so kind about his wife. I don’t have enough paper to write down all of the indignities that I’ve faced. Partly it was my fault. I don’t like doing talks, Dan loves them and he naturally became the public face of the studio. People assumed that he was the creative force behind the company and I didn’t want to seem like an egotist so I let them carry on thinking that. Last year I had a beautiful idea for Rapture. Dan went to LA and while he was there he told Sony about it. When he returned I said “what did they think of my idea?” He admitted that he’d ascribed the idea to one of our team members, not me. He was genuinely bewildered by my anger and asked “but why does it matter who gets the credit?” My reply: “It only doesn’t matter who gets the credit when you’re the person who always gets the credit!” There is a famous quote that behind every successful man there is a strong woman. Well sod that. I’ve realized that the only way I’m going to get credit for the work that I do is if I take a step away from Dan. I love Dan so, so much. He is a talented, intelligent, shining-souled man. This is not a rejection of him but of the society that still can’t cope with the fact that a woman might just be as talented as the man she shares her life with.
That’s great news, I’ll probably buy it again. This was my second favourite game last year, behind Witcher 3. It totally deserves a wider audience than it got on the PS4, and the machine definitely struggled when there were lots of effects associated with The Pattern on-screen.
Steam page is up, and April 14th release date! :O