Beyond Two Souls: A David Cage production

Official Release date: Out now
MetaCritic rating: Meh
Platform: The Triple

One thing that always bothered me about the Heavy Rains criticisms is that people would discard the game for having no gameplay, summarizing the experience as simply a movie, or more frankly, a bad movie. And while the writing could get sketchy, boarding on cringe worthy at times, the gameplay came in the form of decision making and successfully completing QTEs under duress with massive game altering consequences based on the outcome of those decisions/QTEs. To me that was an extremely refreshing experience in which I consider a valuable contribution to gaming as a whole.

In my ~7 hours with Beyond, those wonderful qualities seem to be diminished significantly.

This is a much more passive experience than Heavy Rain and it has negatively impacted my enjoyement of the game up until this point. As many have pointed out before, because this revolves around a singular character, Beyond doesn't have the same luxury of disposable characters that HR employed and that is fine. Death doesn't have to be the consequence of failed QTEs and bad decision making. However there should be some form of alteration in the story but as far as I can tell, the game doesn't diverge at all based on your actions.

There have been some really interesting scenerios that I would have liked to test out, and without spoiling it, I'll just say that going through with those choices would have led to massive implications in the story but I think they were simply an illusion of choice and someone or something would have interrupted the actions before they would be completed. That is the biggest fault with Beyond.

The game in spite of these issues is actually still relatively enjoyable and interesting. I've played two sessions lasting 3.5 hours each and for someone like me, that is a long time. The writing is far superior to Heavy Rains as well is the voice acting. Neither are perfect, but its a progression for Cage. You won't find any JASSSSSSSSSONNNNS in this game. Speaking of JASSSSSOOOOOOOOON, that is another thing HR did well, having the persistent ability to speak the characters thoughts with buttons just made the interactivity that much stronger. Its baffling that he abandoned all of these great ideas he had.

While the game starts out frantcially switching locations and time (flashbacks, flashforwards etc) it eventually settles into a nice rythm. The slower moments are much more interesting than the high octane, fast paced scenes and there is some great character development involving Jody (Ellen Page). The child sections are pretty heart tugging. I genuily felt bad for the poor kid. Usually kids in games are pure cheese but its really well acted and mocapped in this game, terrific job to whoever plays the girl.

I know I'm being harsh on the game overall, but that is only because I really loved what Heavy Rain did and this seems like a different approach to that game. There has been a bunch of surprisingly cool and noteworthy moments in the game, agiain without spoiling what they are, hopefully it continues to spice things up and build on that.

I put Cage on the same level as Molyneux. I've never played a game from either one of those men that I consider particularly good. In the case of Cage, I'm honestly hard pressed to call them games at all. I also just plain dislike Cage after he said people should only play his stuff once. Apparently someone forgot to tell him these "games" cost sixty dollars before he went on his fluffy pseudo intellectual rants about them.

Some more random thoughts:

I absolutely loved Heavy Rain conceptually, murder mystery grounded in reality made for a really tense experience dripping with atmosphere and style. Beyond lacks this.
Beyonds graphics are bordering on next gen at times. One thing in particular I love is contextual animations. That plus the cinematic camera angles really helped absorb me into the game, I would love to see more traditional games (TPS, RPGs etc) incorporate those things.

The sound is wonderful and crisp, coming off GTA5, its that much more apparent. Great use of 5.1.

Yep. Beyond is no Heavy Rain. Its like we're back in Mass Effect's pointless decisions territory.

The moment I played the demo or actually way before when I heard that the game wont have multiple characters and no restarts I knew it was going to be heavily flawed. Your impressions pretty much confirm my worse suspicions. THere is no tension because you cannot die. That was THE most interesting bit about Heavy Rain. Every QTE mattered.

The graphics in the demo blew me away. Glad to hear the full game is just as beautiful.

The developer has insisted (warning, link contains typical David Cage pseudo intellectual try hard nonsense) in a few articles that Jodie can die and the game can continue without her, not sure how that works or for how long, though.

This. Also, for a guy who insists that he doesn't like his games being called movies, he sure does go out of his way to make them appear to be movies, right down the packaging and marketing.

There are times playing this game where I wish for PS4's screen cap functionality. These certain moments where the lighting, animations and everything just come together and you're like, "wow. This is PS3?"

I'm really enjoying it, myself. I was hoping at some point the game would give me an entire chapter involving the mechanics you learn at the CIA compound, and it did.

I think a big part of the choice that is offered in this game is offered through Aidan. For example, there's this pretty significant choice that you can make at Saint John's that many players might never know they can make. I doubt it will affect anything in future chapters, but it's still very moving. And this comes up more than a few times where you can give personality to the otherwise faceless Aidan. It's no replacement for the control you can take over characters in Heavy Rain, but it's there.

For better or worse, I honestly believe Cage moved away from the sort of long term consequences we see in HR because of Beyond's narrative structure leaping around like it does. Making choices that affect future chapters isn't as easy to do, since you never really play anything in order. In fact, a lot of times these leaps are paired thematically, so, for example, you'll have a chapter as young Jodie where she is telling Dawkins about "the monsters," and then you go to the Condenser chapter, which is all about Jody's first dealing with a rift. It would be hard to maintain this juxtaposition if the player kept changing things. So, I mean, I can see why he did it this way, I just kinda would have preferred if he didn't.

Also, I don't care that I can't fail a QTE into a game over screen. I look at this game like I look at any adventure game - I'm not playing it for the challenge. With Cage's games in particular, I'm looking for the ability to choose. And that's what does bug me - that there doesn't seem to be much of any branching to the events.

I still find the game very much entertaining, I just crave more agency.

Been watching a full playthrough of the game on youtube, it's not quite the same as playing but at least I can see the game. Several hours into it is quite boring. The guy playing is trying to fail in many parts just for some damn excitement but it doesn't ever seem to matter. It also has gone back to indigo prophecy for levels of story stupidity. Can't believe how much of a step back from Heavy Rain this is.

Man HR was one of my favorite games all generation, this game is a mess though. You just aren't interested in what is going on because your character is a god, the story is dumb, and its poorly paced.

So far I'm enjoying it... whether I like it as much as Heavy Rain or not I'm not sure.

Not really excited for this game much, and I will be happy when the awful trailer stops getting aired on TV.

David Cage likes to blow smoke, not much else.

Where Cage tends to loose me is trying to make me care about characters to hook me, or get a reaction from me, when those characters are just so awful. Like Jason (JAAAAAASSSSSSSSOOOON!) from HR. That kid was a moron. The events surrounding him had the opposite of the intended effect on me, they made me happy. His brother is awful too, both of them were just god awful creepy dead eyed little THINGS to me. But hey, the game let me shave.

Some great photoshops and otherwise funny out of context screen shots of Beyond floating around.

Press X to show that turd whose boss.

Did you ever play Populous or Dungeon Keeper? Those games were pure awesome. He has been a crappy developer for some years now though.

Aren't those on PC? I've never been a PC gamer of any kind for some reason. If I ever get the damned Assistant Manager job and a decent PC, I'll look for those on one of the uber cheap digital storefronts and check them out. All i know of the work of Molyneux are the digital abortions he's been putting out from Fable on forward.

The Genesis version of Populous was nice (its the version I spent the most time with because I'm not much of a PC gamer either). I don't think there was ever a console port of Dungeon Keeper though.

Thanks for the impressions F1. I loved Heavy Rain despite its imperfections because it did some cool stuff really well, but it sounds like this time Cage has stumbled.

I'll give Beyond a shot down the line when its cheaper and I'm still interested in what Cage does next. As I stated in the other Beyond thread, I think it would be cool if he got away from the action bits so many games do (better than Cage does I might add) and focuses on lower octane stuff (such as playing a spy who seeks to obtain a secret by subverting someone with access to the secret).

The only part of HR I truly liked were the segments with Jayden. (I think that was his name) More stuff like that and less stuff like everything else would make for a decent enough David Cage game, so long as he stops charging sixty bucks for a game intended to only be played once. Also, never do a sex scene again. God, that was unbearably awful stuff.

Loved it. 9/10

I played the HELL out of Populous on the Genesis. I had so damn much fun with that game.

My god, yes, what was the deal with that? I mean, it would have been way out of place, but it did look awesome.

@Black_Knight_00:

***so, just learning this spoiler tag thing, and apparently if you have a spoiler block in a quote, then try to add another spoiler block in your main text, your message won't get posted (tried twice). Bug or?

I only played BTS demo but based on the gameplay I saw, I'm actually considering Heavy Rain since your choices actually have consequences. Plus Heavy Rain's story looks way more intense and interesting than BTS damsel in distress bullshit.

There is no damsel in distress in Beyond.

Your guess is as good as mine, Quantic Dream doesn't do sequels by explicit policy, so I really don't know what the deal with that could be. Mysterious, to be sure.

Unless you're referring to a different game with the same title. The BTS I'm talking about centers around a 'woe is me', wrongfully misunderstood in a cruel world, unfortunate named Jodie who is tethered to a supernatural spiritual entity named Aiden.

It would explain the mixed reviews, that there were two different BTSs floating around. But, honestly, Jody is nothing like what you're describing.

Woe =/= damsel in distress. She punches f*ckers in the soul the whole game

I'm about 3/4 through the game and I love it. This game is a flagship title for why Sony will lead the charge into the next generation -- flawed, but oh so brilliant. The sense of place, the little touches, the incredible cinematic presentation, and at times, movie-quality acting reveal quite plainly why Sony continues to be the industry leader to the progression of video games. I seriously can't wait for the Playstation 4. The flaws, which are many, don't matter -- this is a brilliant work that would NEVER EVER EVER EVER appear on a Microsoft platform.

It's good to see a variety of exclusives on the PS3. I'm sure Jodie evolves from a picked on misunderstood to a psychic bad ass at some point conflicted with love, hate, death, betrayal and revelation. I was merely saying Heavy Rain's story appeals to me more.

OK, but, again, you're mischaracterizing, and for the sake of people on the fence about giving it a shot, let's get this right.

Jody is not Carrie. She's more like that kid from Sixth Sense, in that she can see ghosts and speak with them, but she can't move things with her mind or anything. Jody is a girl linked to a ghost that can choose whether or not to listen to her and decide how it wants to help her if it wants to help her at all. This is the interesting thing, because BTS allows you to have control over the ghost's personality, and there are many trophies based on this control (such as the one you get for being an "evil" ghost).

Jody is not emo. You see her as a young girl and in her teens, but her conflicts are very typical at that age (such as getting pissed off with Dawkins and throwing a tantrum when he won't let her go out one night). But she knows who she is and came to terms with her unique situation when she was a little girl. Her central conflict is the same one everyone will experience in life - just trying to find her path. For people like you and me, that means college, a job, etc, but for someone like Jody, her situation leads to more interesting opportunities like the CIA.

Initially, the story seemed to me like it was going to be very far-fetched, but once you get by the ghosts, Jody's story is actually a very grounded narrative set in very exceptional circumstances.