Dear Esther and Everybody's Gone To The Rapture

[James]

Well, blow me down! While there's plenty of chat about it on the forums, there's no specific thread for Dear Esther. I have been derelict in my duties!

The Chinese Room, having in-between stepped into Frictional's Amnesia series, are following Dear Esther with Everybody's Gone To The Rapture. Dear Esther is a personal favourite of mine, so this has me all kinds of interested - despite purposefully not having seen, heard or read much about it at all.


Oh, did I mention? It's being released on PS4 tomorrow!

[RobC]

I was really interested in this when I saw it a month or so back, had no idea when the release was so realising yesterday was a nice surprise. Bought and kicked off the download before work today, I'm hoping to go through it completely fresh so must resist the urge to read anything today

[goatsnake]

Having really enjoyed Dear Esther, I've been looking forward to this ever since I heard about it. I was pleasantly surprised to see that it's out... but unpleasantly surprised to see that there is no PC version: I must've missed that detail.

[James]

Yeah, this week was the first I'd heard of the that change. Although, it seems like it was (albeit not widely) announced a couple of years ago...

https://twitter.com/ChineseRoom/status/ ... 2302220288

Hopefully it makes it onto PC at some point in the not too distant future.

[RobC]

A sensible read for anyone planning on playing this who hasn't started already... (no spoilers)

http://www.thechineseroom.co.uk/blog/bl ... on-landing

[Sean]

The only thing I imagine would prevent a PC release is SSM's involvement.

I think the only SCE-published games that ever made it to PC were the Pixel Junk games, so, it's not out of the realm of possibility, but, I'm not sure how likely it is.

[James]

Thanks Rob! Though I probably would have been perfectly happy slowly traversing and exploring, it's very useful info indeed.

[RobC]

Saying nothing about the rest of this game, I can't say how much I appreciate being able to explore such a quaint English setting. Coming from the country myself I've just never actually explored an environment that felt so real before.

[UtterBiblio]

Have to say, Rapture is an outstanding game. The setting is absorbing, the stories that intertwine are interesting and the slow progression allows you to be fully immersed in the concept. I finished it in one sitting (took about 3 hours) and I can't wait to play through it a few more times to fill in gaps in the story.

[James]

Unsurprisingly, I loved it!

I finished a (relatively) lengthy and thorough playthrough on Saturday and spent a decent chunk of yesterday in a New Game, exploring different ways of playing. Needless to say, it can be completed pretty quickly if you barrel for the endpoint. That said, my only criticism is the incredibly slow walk speed. I understand the desire to slow players down, but forcing that seems unwise to me. I'd have preferred to be allowed to move around faster and make my own decisions as to when to stop and smell the roses - something that I was naturally doing anyway. The story demanded I take my time to discover and process, and I was frequently stopping or backing up to enjoy the scenery or take in the score (one to add to the playlist I think!)

It's not like that lessened the experience for me, not really. The charm of Chinese Room's Shropshire setting, and the degree to which painstaking exploration was invited and rewarded, was everything I hoped for. There are many aspects of this game that will stick with me for some time to come.

[ratsoalbion]

I read that there was a run button: http://uk.ign.com/articles/2015/08/11/e ... run-button

[Thesnipergecko]

I finished my first play through of this at the weekend.

After playing Dear Esther and The Vanishing of Ethan Carter I had to give this a try and I'm glad I did. It's another fine example of how narrated games should be done.

The sound track is also bloody brilliant. I hope it makes it onto Sound of play at some point.

You can hold in R2 to run.

[James]

I read that there was a run button: http://uk.ign.com/articles/2015/08/11/e ... run-button

You can hold in R2 to run.

Oh, I know! The run speed is about what the walk speed should have been (in my opinion), with something quicker for running. Run also doesn't work indoors, so retracing steps back out of a building is a slow process. The video below is right at the beginning (so not too spoiler-y) and shows how slow the walk speed is (sorry, I can't embed a YT vid with a specific start point); I'd estimate the run speed as something around or less than 1.5x the walking speed.
https://youtu.be/T2yJL59FWxg?t=2m35s

Like I said, it's not a massive deal, and I don't want it to seem like this overshadows my love for the game.

[DomsBeard]

Anyone elses PS4 have an absolute fit whilst running this?. It's sounding very very loud the fans are going crazy.

[James]

I didn't have any fan issues, but the framerate was all over the place throughout my playthrough. Given your issues and what I've seen, my guess is that the PS4 struggles quite a bit with this game.

[DomsBeard]

Weirdly I think it might be my new tv unit. It's been like that with most games since I've moved it.

[Sean]

Been taking this one in small chunks over the last few days. Stunning to look at (when the frame rate isn't chugging).

[brutaldeluxe09]

I've just played through this in it's entirety over the last weekend and I really enjoyed it, I thought the multi dimensional nature to the narrative was really well strung together, it was quite loosely strung together but that was perfect for me, oh the soundtrack is superb.

Spoiler: show

Not sure if this is the done thing but does anybody have any thoughts about the conclusion to the narrative of this? I have a few thoughts and am curious to see what everyone else made of it! I'll understand if it shouldn't be something to be discussed for not wanting to ruin it for others.

[DomsBeard]

I've still not finished EGTTR, I don't want to google it to see any spoilers.

The last "light" bit I saw

Spoiler: show

Steven was in a warehouse stealing food and the guy was aggressively approaching so he hit him (there's blood on the floor)

Think I'm not far off

[Bakers_12]

I finished this today and really loved it, for some reason it reminds me of Bioshock but with out the shooty shooty stuff! I'm sadly not a fan of the ending but the journey to it was amazing.