PS4 exclusive Everybody's Gone to the Rapture removes time restriction

Dear Esther and Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs developer The Chinese Room revealed that its upcoming PlayStation 4-exclusive open-world adventure game Everybody's Gone to the Rapture will no longer require multiple playthroughs before players can see its ending.

Previously, Everybody's Gone to the Rapture was locked to hour-long playthroughs, encouraging players to take alternate approaches to in-game events, a la the film Groundhog Day. After an hour of playtime, the game would start over from the beginning, challenging players to explore as much as possible in the limited time they had.

"Imagine reading a novel and you're really into it, and 30 pages before the end someone comes up and takes it out of your hand and goes, 'I'm afraid that's it. Your time's up,'" writer Dan Pinchbeck explained in a recent interview with Eurogamer. "It's an artificial conceit that doesn't necessarily produce a good player experience."

Pinchbeck notes that time still plays a "fairly central role" in the experience, and assures that the removal of the time limit does not change the game's focus or storyline. A release date for Everybody's Gone to the Rapture has not been announced.