Everybody's Gone to the Rapture

This open world is surprisingly vast, wonderfully detailed, and brimming with objects and items that help tell an impressive story. Filled with a huge array of characters -- all presented as golden balls of light floating in the air -- it paints a picture of a quiet town composed of families, a pastor, gossips, lovers, tourists, and other people whose lives are quickly torn apart when a calamity they can't comprehend befalls them. How they react and their discussions about its meaning make for compelling viewing. This is a game that doesn't often tell players what to think but instead presents events and conversations that need to be digested and interpreted. Once the credits begin to roll, no two players are likely to completely agree on what it all means.

Unfortunately, one glaring interface issue threatens to derail much of this fine work: movement speed. The player's character crawls forward at a default speed. You can speed the pace up a bit by holding down the R2 button for about five seconds, but even this barely qualifies as a light jog. Depending on the player's disposition, this slow movement speed has the potential to make exploration painfully slow -- especially when you're doubling back over previously covered territory, which happens a lot. But if you can get past this deliberately snail-like pacing, Everybody's Gone to the Rapture makes for an engaging and thought-provoking story-driven adventure.