Everybody's Gone to the Rapture brings Shropshire to video game world
Here's a view of Shropshire you have never seen before – as part of a multi-million pound video game that is set to become a world-wide sensation.
The game, Everybody's Gone to the Rapture, uses Shropshire as a backdrop to a game in which the apocalypse is approaching.
It has been tipped to be one of games of the year when it is released this summer and has images inspired by landmarks like the Severn Valley Railway.
Others show long, narrow country roads, similar to those that Shropshire residents might recognise from driving over Brown Clee. Another shows a dam, reminiscent of Lake Vyrnwy over the border in Mid-Wales.
The only aspect that gives it away as a dystopian future is an abandoned car in a woodland car park.
The game has been touted as a must-play when it is released later this year.
And it will put Shropshire on the map – albeit a strange version of the county as an abandoned landscape.
The story of the game starts with the beginning of the end of the world. Players can wander around their virtual map and explore before the apocalypse begins.
What users do during this time is up to them, but will need multiple plays to work out what's happening and discover the back stories of the various characters.
The game is one of scores of "story-led" releases that are expected to bring millions of pounds to the video game industry in 2014. They are far removed from the traditional arcade-type games like Pac-Man, Space Invaders or more modern hits like the violent Call of Duty or football game Fifa.
Everybody's Gone to the Rapture is produced by Portsmouth-based company The Chinese Room. It is a follow up to Dear Esther, a similar game in which players could investigate a Hebridean island revealing random fragments of letters to a woman called Esther, piecing together the story as they progressed.
This time the company was looking for an inland rural idyll – and chose to feature the rolling hills of Shropshire.
The Chinese Room says the game is still in development and will be released in the summer. And it remains tight-lipped about potential plot lines.
A company spokesman said: "It is vaguely based on Shropshire, that part of the world. But it purely a representation – it is not necessarily an Ordnance Survey map of the county."
The game will be based around six characters, each telling their own story of the apocalypse, and each connected to various landmarks in the world that develop as the game progresses.
It will be available exclusively on the PlayStation 4.
