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‘Everybody’s Gone To The Rapture’ Scores Most BAFTA Nominations

By Cal Jeffrey
Published on: 07:57 PST, Mar 10, 2016

The PlayStation 4 game Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture has been nominated for 10 British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) awards. This is three more nominations than any other title. Her Story and Witcher 3 each received seven nominations. Coming in third is Batman: Arkham Knight, Life is Strange, and Rocket League, which each have five nominations.

Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture stands to win awards in the following categories, according to EuroGamer.

  • Artistic Achievement
  • Audio Achievement
  • British Game
  • Game Innovation
  • Music
  • Original Property
  • Story
  • Two Performer awards
  • Best Game

Scoring this many nominations with BAFTA is “incredible,” says Videogamer, but Best Game is the big one. Rapture’s up against Fallout 4, Life is Strange, Metal Gear Solid 5, Rocket League, and The Witcher 3. Fallout 4 and Witcher 3 both performed exceptionally well from a sales standpoint, with Fallout selling $750 million on launch day (via Forbes) and over two million units within 10 days on the PC alone. As of April 23, 2015, Witcher 3 had sold over six million units (via Polygon) out-performing expectations. While revenue and unit numbers are hard to find for Rapture, the game has received positive reviews and was the number one selling game in the PlayStation Store last September according to PlayStation Blog.

Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture is a story-based, first-person adventure. One of the most striking features of the title is its photo-realistic scenes that are reminiscent of the Myst franchise. These beautifully rendered scenes are certainly the reason for its nomination in Artistic Achievement.

The story, which is also up for a BAFTA award, begins with the player discovering that they are the only person left in a deserted town. The objective is to find out what happened to everybody.

The gameplay in Rapture revolves around exploration. The story unfolds as the player interacts with the environment. Usually, it is electronic devices that move the story forward, but major plot points are revealed by interacting with glowing orbs of light that float and dart around. Interacting with these orbs and watching the scene that takes place uncovers important developments in the history of the town. These clues are used to piece together what happened.

The developers of Rapture, The Chinese Room, won Best Creative Gameplay at the TIGA Awards earlier this year, according to the developer’s blog. The creative story and gameplay are likely what led to the BAFTA Best Story and Game Innovation nominations.

Another category that Rapture may win is in Music.

IGN states, “Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture is trying promote the important [sic] of story and character within a game, and one of the ways in which it’s hoping to achieve this ambition is recognising the power of music as a narrative tool.”

In an interview with IGN, Rapture’s score composer, Jessica Curry, explains that the game uses a procedural algorithm to insert pieces of her original score within the game. While some of the music is played on cue, the traveling music is randomized to some extent.

Curry said that “you’re never going to get the same musical journey twice.”

Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture’s musical composition is “beautiful and haunting.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKyoVQKnD4U

Rapture is the third full-fledged game created by the developers at The Chinese Room. The other two games are Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs and Dear Esther. Dear Esther, with its similar visual style and gameplay, is said to be Rapture’s spiritual predecessor.

The BAFTA Awards are going to be held on April 7 in London. The ceremony will take place at London’s Tobacco Dock. It will be interesting to see how many of the 10 nominations turn into awards for The Chinese Room and Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture.

[Image via Chloe from Reading, England (baftas)|Wikimedia Commons| CC BY-SA 2.0]

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