Music is often one of the forgotten pieces of a game - usually an afterthought in analysis, yet Curry’s compositions remain at the forefront of Everybody’s Gone To The Rapture, rising and soaring with each story beat.Īnd whilst I’ve praised Everybody’s Gone To The Rapture, it is not without its faults. Jessica Curry’s score is heartbreakingly stunning, a mixture of voice, strings and piano create such a bursting and vibrant atmosphere that helps to revive Yaughton from a static rural village to a place bursting with intrigue. To me, Everybody’s Gone To The Rapture could be nearly as effective if you were reading subtitles in a badly textured world, as long as the music was still there. Yet the thing that holds Everybody’s Gone To The Rapture together, is the music. Expertly voice acted and written lines help to compliment the game’s stunning environments. So in its storytelling, Everybody’s Gone To The Rapture excels. Yet Wendy’s story also begins to wonderfully hint at the rapture and the larger story (in ways that are too spoilery to discuss). Yet, as we follow Wendy on her quest to find her son, you slowly begin empathise for her as simply a worried mother and sibling. Whilst she is the second story, we are first introduced to her in the first story, seeing her as an old lady that was particularly hard on the vicar. The best example of these sub plots is Wendy. They create believable characters, that perfectly slot into theses short stories, some of which are sadder than the main plot itself. And it’s in these sub plots that The Chinese Room’s writing truly shines. Yet, as all good stories should do, The Chinese Room use the main plot in order to work in smaller sub plots. Instead of simply following the main character, you begin by following the local vicar, Jeremy, as he deals with some of the beginnings of “the rapture”. What Everybody’s Gone To The Rapture does brilliantly is ease you into the tale. Guided by golden wisps, you watch different people’s reactions, working from the outside, in. Instead, you are given snippets of stories within the village. Much like Dear Esther - nothing is fully explicit when thinking about the larger story. Instead, you are simply a passive observer, watching from start to finish, trying to figure out what happened in Yaughton, Shropshire, that caused everyone to simply, disappear.
Yet, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, because in Everybody’s Gone To The Rapture, the story isn’t about you. The majority of your time inside of Everybody’s Gone To The Rapture will be spent walking. As Matt Lees put it over on Cool Ghosts, “What’s wrong with a walk?”. Yet, for me, this isn’t necessarily a problem. And yes, whilst Everybody’s Gone To The Rapture does slightly expand on this (instead of just walking, you can also open doors and click on radios and computers, woah!) it doesn’t do so in such a meaningful way to be significant. One of the main criticisms at the time of Dear Esther was that it lacked much interactivity. The question is, will The Chinese Room be able to beat, or even simply match Dear Esther? So when The Chinese Room announced Everybody’s Gone To The Rapture, as a “spiritual successor” to Dear Esther, I was very excited. For me, Dear Esther set the standard for all other art games to aspire to - something that was emotionally chilling, and yet technically astounding.
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