It's a beautiful game by The Chinese Room, and released on only the Playstation 4. I knew as soon as I watched the trailer for it forever ago that I would want to own it. Unfortunately, before now, the fact that I didn't own a PS4 sort of presented a fairly big road block to not getting the game I wanted.
But that was okay. It was one game, and I couldn't justify buying an entire system for just a single game. But Christmas came, and I was surprised by a shiny new Destiny white PS4 gaming console underneath my Christmas tree. While I also got other fantastic looking games, this was the one I wanted to try first. And I'm glad I did.
As for the gameplay, I was underwhelmed, and actually put down the controller to do other things multiple times just because it was so frustrating. And the frustration didn't come from complicated button pressing, or complex puzzles or anything like that. The frustration came from the simple fact that you walk, through an entire, very large town. No running, only walking.
For the patient, I'm sure this doesn't matter very much. But when I have an entire open world area to explore, I want to explore everything to make sure I didn't miss anything. But when I have to walk around, I get very impatient and when I get impatient, I just want to get things done. So I know I missed plenty of side stuff. It was frustrating, but I dealt with it.
(And by dealt with it, I mean I maybe sort of whined until the boyfriend, Zach, decided to take the controller and walk everywhere for me.)
But it wasn't the gameplay that made the game so drawing. Even though I hated playing through it, I loved watching it, and listening to it. I knew the PS4 had fantastic graphics. I've been hearing it from Sony fans constantly as they put me down for preferring the Xbox One to the Playstation 4. But it wasn't until I experienced it first hand that I realized what they meant.
The world is beautiful. I've never been so drawn into a game just because of how it looks before. I wanted to be there. Even as the story around you begins talking about the horrible series of events from a sentient...thing called the Pattern. That story was fascinating and terrifying. (This is not a horror game, but I'd be lying if I said it didn't keep me awake for a long time that night just the same.)
And the music... This game had by far the most beautiful soundtrack I have ever heard in a video game. I thought the music of Bioshock Infinite was wonderful, but it has nothing on this game.
I have been a huge Xbox fan since the Xbox 360 came out, but I'm okay with giving PS4 a chance to win me over now. I've had a taste of what it can do, and I look forward to seeing much more.
If you own a PS4 and don't mind a slow pace, I highly suggest giving Everybody's Gone to the Rapture a try. The entire game is based around exploring a town and the lives of the residents within, and the events that have most recently happened to them. It has no action or puzzles or anything like that. It's basically a story that you explore for yourself. Simple, but beautiful.
Which video game would you rank as the prettiest game you've played?
