Secondhand Opinions: Everybody's Gone to the Rapture

Never has the end of the world been so...dryly British.

I wrote about a little about The Chinese Room's newest game Everybody's Gone to the Rapture last week and I was planning on getting it for a proper review. However, I am light on money and would rather save up for other games I'm more interested in. So I instead decided to watch a Let's Play of Everybody's Gone to the Rapture and the first thing I thought was "I'm glad I didn't decide to buy that at full price." Now I didn't hate the game, but I honestly felt that watching a Let's Play was enough to get the full experience and that is not a good thing. Sadly, Everybody's Gone to the Rapture suffers from the same issues as The Chinese Room's older games in that it simply doesn't value the player's presence in the game world. The player is a passive observer that simply walks around a gorgeously realized 1980s British countryside finding pieces of a very well written story with lots of deep and interesting characters dealing with the end of the world. All while listening to some of the most beautiful music I have ever heard in a video game. But the player is really nothing more than a glorified cameraman, witnessing interesting events while at the same time not really being part of it. The Chinese Room really need to craft something that more deeply involves the player. I know they have the talent to do it I'm just getting tired of waiting. I'm still going to pick up Everybody's Gone to the Rapture when I have some cash, but I'm going to wait for a sale. Because $20.00 for a 5 to 6 hour with no replayability is not what I would consider a smart investment.