Slick’s Quick Hits: Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture

The year is 1984; it bears much significance in my own life. Despite being the butt of many jokes, subject of countless satire and the target of much criticism, President Ronald Reagan was re-elected. I entered the fourth grade as Classics like The Cosby Show and The Transformers saw their first airings. Of course, one cannot mention the year without noting the George Orwell classic of the same name. Written in 1949, it depicted all that could go right or wrong in the future. In this spiritual successor to The Chinese Room’s Dear Esther, things have gone very wrong. On June 1, 1984, the end of the world started. The trailer says that the event ended just under an hour from the time the unseen character is typing commands on a computer. Attempts are being made to fix whatever has gone terribly wrong, but they are failing. The word rapture is a very frightening one in the biblical sense and the imagery in the trailer, showing birds having fallen from the sky, wrecks and fires everywhere points to the world really being over, at least in the town of Shropshire where the game takes place. When this PlayStation 4 exclusive debuts, players will experience the story of six characters who Chinese Room promises there will be more control over than in ‘Esther.’ The game is being published by Santa Monica Studio, most famous for the God of War franchise, but also known for games like Journey and FlOw. With that backing, I believe that Chinese Room will be able to properly give gamers the experience they wanted to in Dear Esther but were not able to. It will be powered by CryEngine 3, so expect visuals that will make full use of the PS4’s capabilities. Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture is said to be one of the PlayStation 4’s launch titles, but the only information we have for release thus far is that it will be out this year. Stay tuned for more information.