Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture is a little known game in development over at thechineseroom. Although it is considered a spiritual successor to their first title, Dear Esther, this game plans to deviate in some clever ways.
Rapture is being created as a fully open world, story focused game. Unlike its predecessor, it will be implementing more interactive elements, allowing you to involve yourself in the lives of six characters who inhabit the game’s world. It is planned for a PC release sometime next year and is being built with CryEngine 3.
Aside from some basic information, Rapture has been mysterious up until now. A recent article over at Beefjack has shed some new light on the game. I’ll talk a bit about what caught my attention. Hit the link at the bottom for the full story and some great screenshots.
The time limitation means you’ll only see a fraction of the world on each playthrough, and your presence in the world – and the ways you interact with it – shape the events that take place.
What interests me the most about this game is its length. It is limited to play sessions of 60 minutes. It’s about living out your final moments in the game. Essentially the story will roll out based on your interaction with the six characters. It sounds like you can influence them in various ways, but they will live out their lives with or without your input.
I couldn’t help being reminded of Majora’s Mask with the overall concept. While I doubt I can play the inverted song of time to extend my stay in Rapture’s world, I am looking forward to the idea of replaying it to see new sides of the story.
It may not be the pure horror experience of their other title in the works – Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs – but thechineseroom seems to have something eerie planned for the summer of 2013.
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