YMMV / Everybody's Gone to the Rapture

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • The town's general rejection of Kate falls under this, particularly Wendy's motivations. Did she really just think Lizzie and Stephen made a better couple? Or that Kate's scientific pursuits were the problem? Or was it, as Lizzie suspects, a racist reaction to an "outsider?"
  • The Pattern. Is it, as Stephen believes, an Eldritch Abomination bent on devouring humanity? Is it, as Kate believes, a lonely but benevolent entity that offers a heaven of sorts for those it "collects"? Or is it a Non-Malicious Monster that honestly doesn't know that it's hurting people, as Stephen later speculates? For good measure, it's implied that all three interpretations are coloured by either guilt or Psychological Projection, meaning that they could all be wrong.
• Awesome Music: Continuing the tradition from Dear Esther of receiving massive acclaim in spite of the contentious nature of the game; the soundtrack by Jessica Curry ranges from haunting chorals to solemn piano pieces to absolutely awe-inspiring choir/string orchestrations and was fairly unanimously hailed as outstanding.
• Broken Base: Like most Walking Simulator-type games, people are divided on whether this game is beautiful, haunting and engaging, or dull, tedious and not worth the effort.
• Cry for the Devil: A lot of the characters are deeply flawed and/or morally compromised in various ways. This doesn't make their eventual fates (death by nerve gas or infection by the Pattern) any less heart-wrenching to watch.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • You sometimes come upon rooms filled with dust-like motes of light which look quite pretty. It's heavily implied that this is the result of death by exposure to "the Pattern." Depending on how you interpret several manifestations, it's possible that victims literally disintegrate into light.
  • The Exposition Fairy in Lizzie's chapter has a mini-me following it around. Then you discover later on that Lizzie was pregnant when the bombs fell...
  • The residents of Shropshire being placed under quarantine and told to avoid making contact with different groups of people, while far from lighthearted to begin with, definitely qualifies as this in light of the modern-day coronavirus pandemic that's led to countries issuing the exact same orders, among others, to their citizens.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Aimee-Ffion Edwards, who voices Rachel Baker in this game, would go on to voice Ranni the Witch in Elden Ring, who opposes and fights against another Eldritch Abomination represented by a golden light.
• Jerkass Woobie: Pretty much everyone in the story. They've done things wrong but still come off as sympathetic. Of particular note is Wendy, who bullies her son into cheating on his wife with his (married) ex. Doesn't make her death any less heartbreaking, though.
• Scrappy Mechanic: Even once the player figures out how to increase their speed the game still moves at a snails pace, which isn't too bad in most areas, but makes exploring off the beaten path annoying, especially when the player comes to a dead end or has to make a loop back around to where they started.
• Tear Jerker: Most of the game, as all these people you're hearing about are gone.
  • Everyone's last scenes. Father Jeremy's is especially painful, as he has a complete breakdown over being the last one left.
  • Rachel spending her final moments trying to ease a baby to sleep by singing a lullaby, slowly but surely breaking down from the realization that their lives are about to come to an end.
  • Wendy remembering her husband and excitedly calling out to the planes, having no idea they're about to drop nerve gas on her.
  • Stephen self-immolating to deprive the Pattern of the chance to kill him, but seeing and tearfully reaching for a vision of Kate seconds before he drops the match.
• The Woobie: Kate, despite coming across as cold and uncaring to the village's opinions of her, displays signs of feeling lonely and out of place. Stephen's infidelity and eventual abandonment of Kate results in her ignoring his warnings and drives her into heedlessly working on The Pattern, thus qualifying her as a Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds.

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