For at least the last year, it's felt like the world is just on the brink of ending for good. Fitting, then, that The Rapture Is Here And You Will Be Forcibly Removed From Your Home creator Connor Sherlock has brought his brief apocalypse back with a surprise release on Itch this week.
Now, we covered the Rapture when it first struck back in 2014, in awe of its 22-minutes of absolute helplessness in the face of the end. Today, Sherlock released a long-dormant updated version of the game on Itch, ahead of a more substantial re-release next year.
It is, admittedly, a slight update. Developed a few months after the original's Gamejolt release, the new edition has gone unreleased for years. It boasts new voiceover recordings, a new skybox, some bug fixes, remade assets, and trees.
"It's still janky and weird," writes Sherlock, "but it runs at 10000 frames per second."
What's really excited me, however, is the prospect of a brand new apocalypse. On the Itch page, Sherlock notes that a "completely rebuilt version" created over the past few months will arrive as part of the Walking Simulator A Month Club: Complete Edition next year.
See, Sherlock runs a Patreon for creating volumes of these massive, open spaces with nothing to do but walk around, taking in the vibes. They're harrowing in their scale, often oppressive with complex architecture or intimidating in their sheer emptiness. They're also some of my favourite spaces simply "inhabit" for a short time—lights dimmed and headphones cranked up to really get the goosebumps going.
There'll be over 40 of these gargantuan spaces arriving in next year's complete edition. Perfect company for the Rapture, I reckon.
