Rating of
4/5
Let There Be Light
Chris Kavan - wrote on 07/12/25
Before becoming a full-fledged developer, the British-based The Chinese Room began life as a small team modding Half-Life 2. One of these mods, Dear Esther, developed a cult following and in 2012 was released as its own game and gained a fair bit of acclaim itself. Although many may dismiss "walking simulators" as a poor-mans attempt at gaming, Everybody's Gone to the Rapture is far from boring. While it may not take the hours upon hours that modern AAA titles demand, the game makes up for its short run time by delivering an impact that will resonate long after the credits have rolled.
Looks and Stuff: Taking place in a small countryside village (the fictional Yaughton in Shropshire) and surrounding areas, Everybody's Gone to the Rapture seems to perfectly encapsulate the English look and feel of village life. From local pubs to a small campsite, a railway, town church, doctor's office and farms - each area and even individual houses serve to bring this hamlet to life - even if you never interact with a single (living) person. This is truly a "walking" simulator, however, and you'll have plenty of time to enjoy the scenery as you never move much faster than a jog, if that. Besides looking like a true English village, it sounds like on too - with a fine voice cast including Jonathan Bailey (prolific actor in everything from the recent Jurassic World: Rebirth to Wicked to Bridgerton and Broadchurch) Merle Dandridge (Alyx Vance in Half-Life 2 and more recently Marlene in The Last of Us game and the HBO adaptation), Susan Brown (Septa Mordane from Game of Thrones), Simon Chandler (who has been in the game a long time having voiced Merry in the 1978 animated Lord of the Rings and more recently appearing in The King's Speech, The Old Guard and House of the Dragon) and many more talented people who are either long-time voice actors, big/small screen actors or both. In fact, I have no problem listing this as one of the best "casted" games in recent memory. There is genuine emotion here and the cast truly brings it to life.
If the voices don't move you then the soundtrack surely will do that instead. Composer Jessica Curry won a BAFTA (aka the British Oscar) in 2016 for her work on this game and it is truly deserved. While her time with The Chinese Room was rather short-lived, she has given us a memorable score, one that fits the game perfectly - as haunting and ethereal as the story. As for bugs encountered, I didn't run into a few I read about - though at one time I did get stuck in the environment. As the game doesn't natively support manual saves, I had to rely on its infrequent auto save but luckily didn't lose much time.
Story: The games takes place in the small English village of Yaughton in Shropshire where an "event" has taken place. No living person (or animal for that matter) remain and you experience the story through balls of light, radio communication, telephone conversations and just your general surroundings. The lights represent people - interacting with them lets you experience events from the past - and the tale of what happened and how people responded to said event are conveyed via short or longer interactions. Each area in the game follows one specific person - though you get many different smaller interactions scattered around. The main "characters" if you will are Kate Collins (Dandridge) and Stephen Appleton (Oliver Dimsdale). Appleton grew up in Yaughton and is a physicist and his new wife, Kate, also a scientist has decided to move back to his home - though the insular community is not exactly the most welcoming. It doesn't help that Steven still seems to carry a torch for his ex Lizzie Graves (Lu Corfield) who helps run the local camp. When Kate discovers a phenomena at the observatory she and Stephen both work at she is convinced this new life is trying to communicate with us - even as it begins to kill things like birds and cows. Stephen, seeing the danger, tries to cut off Yaughton from the outside world - buying time by saying an outbreak of the Spanish Flu is why people are suddenly having constant nose bleeds. But when people begin to disappear - even turning into light and leaving behind only a lingering smell of ash - he realizes that this entity is far more dangerous than he could anticipate. As Kate locker herself away, Stephen rushes to contain - but once started it appears not even nerve gas will contain it. While Stephen and Kate are the main characters, the game presents multiple stories - from a busy-body widow to a young couple (shades of Romeo and Juliet) who dream of running off together to a priest having a conflict of faith - each chapter may focus on one person but you get the full story in due time and it's one that leaves a mark.
Gameplay: As I said, though "walking simulator" may get a bad rap, this is essentially an adventure game. You interact with a few objects - radios, TVs, telephones, gates and the lights - but mainly you walk around. While there is some sandbox aspect, you can still only go in one direction. There may be side stories to explore (and explore you should for missing them means missing out on some great mini-stories) but you can only go one way and there is only one ending. It has aspects of both a visual novel and traditional point-and-click gameplay (though without the obtuse puzzles thankfully). Many of the achievements are unintuitive but not too hard to get once you look them up. It's one of the few examples of a game you experience as much as you play.
Replay value: Although the story won't change, there are certain achievements you can get only with a second go - and also the story is really good and knowing how things end certainly can change your outlook on earlier events should you want to revisit them.
Final Verdict: Short, simple and emotionally devastating.
Presentation: 5/5
Story: 5/5
Gameplay: 3/5
Replay: 3/5
Overall (not an average): 4/5
Hours Played: 7.4
Cheevos: 66% (12/18)
