By Luke Kirby
Beyond: Two Souls is Quantic Dream’s successor to the critically acclaimed Heavy Rain, for the PlayStation 3. You find yourself playing the life of Jodie Holmes, portrayed by Ellen Page, in a psychological/supernatural action thriller alongside Willem Dafoe.
Beyond: Two Souls is Quantic Dream’s successor to the critically acclaimed Heavy Rain, for the PlayStation 3. You find yourself playing the life of Jodie Holmes, portrayed by Ellen Page, in a psychological/supernatural action thriller alongside Willem Dafoe.
One thing that is immediately apparent about the game is the exquisite graphics, considering we’re not far from “next-gen” consoles. Beyond looks amazing and really allows the player to be drawn in to the experience.
Being a Quantic Dream title, people should be aware that this is essentially an interactive story, so for claims of it being a somewhat passive experience you should be aware what you’re getting yourself into when buying into an interactive story. While it does seem more of a passive experience than Heavy Rain I found the story engaging and interesting enough to make me keep playing, resulting in me completing my first run through in just two sittings. If I'm honest, it would have only been one if my PS3 hadn't crashed during a cut scene...
I find the main reason for this more passive feel, at least for me, is the removal of being able to hear your characters thoughts, which I found an enjoyable mechanic in Heavy Rain as I was able to feel more involved and committed to the character by hearing their personal thoughts and feelings. Unlike most games I've played this game does not take a chronological approach when telling Jodie’s story, which I found interesting as jumping from her being a child to grown up in completing different scenarios left me wondering how she managed to get here and kept it interesting. Everyone may not like the darting back and forth between different stages of her life but if it really bothers you after you complete the game all the chapters are unlocked and you can easily play the according to the timeline.
Jodie is linked to an entity known as Aiden, who can be controlled by Jodie to perform certain actions that Jodie is unable to do which can range from opening doors or taking out enemies. While this introduces an interesting mechanic to the game I feel like there could have been more to it; while Aiden is useful in certain scenarios, there are other times when his functions are very limited. For example one of Aiden's main uses is that he can go through walls and traverse to places Jodie can't, however there are also invisible walls present that stop him from travelling too far from his intended function.
The only other mechanic that I can find faults in, kind of, is the combat system. The way it works is that you move the control stick according to where Jodie is moving to block attacks or counter, but due to the camera angle it’s not always so easy to get a correct read on where to direct the controller, meaning more often than not Jodie takes a beating. Even when you fail in the combat sequences, however, Aiden always comes to the rescue, meaning there is no real sense of danger.
While this may not seem like the most positive reflection on the game I want to point out that I thoroughly enjoyed it. While at times it did feel somewhat like I didn't have much choice over what was happening, I would then be thrown into having to respond and make a choice that would alter how the game panned out. More often than not I would pause the game before I made my choice to think about the possible ramifications and this is what I felt the game was about; you’re presented with situations, you react based on your own thoughts and how you think the character should feel so you take time in confirming your choice and progressing along the story.
Overall I found it an enjoyable game and those who are fans of Quantic Dream will most likely feel the same way, but for those who are new to this genre then maybe some thought should go into whether you think you should play this game. For me however it makes a nice change to have a game where your choices have an effect on what happens in the game and how you play.
Being a Quantic Dream title, people should be aware that this is essentially an interactive story, so for claims of it being a somewhat passive experience you should be aware what you’re getting yourself into when buying into an interactive story. While it does seem more of a passive experience than Heavy Rain I found the story engaging and interesting enough to make me keep playing, resulting in me completing my first run through in just two sittings. If I'm honest, it would have only been one if my PS3 hadn't crashed during a cut scene...
I find the main reason for this more passive feel, at least for me, is the removal of being able to hear your characters thoughts, which I found an enjoyable mechanic in Heavy Rain as I was able to feel more involved and committed to the character by hearing their personal thoughts and feelings. Unlike most games I've played this game does not take a chronological approach when telling Jodie’s story, which I found interesting as jumping from her being a child to grown up in completing different scenarios left me wondering how she managed to get here and kept it interesting. Everyone may not like the darting back and forth between different stages of her life but if it really bothers you after you complete the game all the chapters are unlocked and you can easily play the according to the timeline.
Jodie is linked to an entity known as Aiden, who can be controlled by Jodie to perform certain actions that Jodie is unable to do which can range from opening doors or taking out enemies. While this introduces an interesting mechanic to the game I feel like there could have been more to it; while Aiden is useful in certain scenarios, there are other times when his functions are very limited. For example one of Aiden's main uses is that he can go through walls and traverse to places Jodie can't, however there are also invisible walls present that stop him from travelling too far from his intended function.
The only other mechanic that I can find faults in, kind of, is the combat system. The way it works is that you move the control stick according to where Jodie is moving to block attacks or counter, but due to the camera angle it’s not always so easy to get a correct read on where to direct the controller, meaning more often than not Jodie takes a beating. Even when you fail in the combat sequences, however, Aiden always comes to the rescue, meaning there is no real sense of danger.
While this may not seem like the most positive reflection on the game I want to point out that I thoroughly enjoyed it. While at times it did feel somewhat like I didn't have much choice over what was happening, I would then be thrown into having to respond and make a choice that would alter how the game panned out. More often than not I would pause the game before I made my choice to think about the possible ramifications and this is what I felt the game was about; you’re presented with situations, you react based on your own thoughts and how you think the character should feel so you take time in confirming your choice and progressing along the story.
Overall I found it an enjoyable game and those who are fans of Quantic Dream will most likely feel the same way, but for those who are new to this genre then maybe some thought should go into whether you think you should play this game. For me however it makes a nice change to have a game where your choices have an effect on what happens in the game and how you play.
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