Everybody's Gone to the Rapture Review: a beautiful test of patience

Even as it draws you in with its central mystery, this game will frustrate you by being so damn slow

Rapture's apocalypse is unlike those in other games. While you don't initially know the cause, it's clear it was no nuclear bomb or zombie horde. The tiny English village looks almost exactly as you'd expect one to have done 30 years ago, except that, as the title suggests, everybody's gone.

Games such as Rapture (often dubbed "walking simulators" by those who look down on them for having fewer traditionally game-like elements) commonly exclude human characters to ensure a more immersive experience, as in Gone Home, and developer The Chinese Room's previous game Dear Esther. That raises the question here: what came first, the format or the story?