Beyond: Two Souls at first glance

Beyond: Two Souls, Quantic Dream's latest movie-game thriller and successor to Heavy Rain, has been released into the wild and was promptly met with mixed reactions from critics world-wide. Let's see what we can piece together from the various impressions.

The story...

To give a brief summary, Beyond's plot concerns a girl named Jodie and the spiritual entity bound to her from birth. The reasons for this unnatural bond and the various events of their supernatural journey together is what the game set out to explore this October. With a high budget and top-tier actors Ellen Page and Willem Dafoe at the helm, seemingly nothing could go wrong. However, many critics seem to disagree.

Jim Sterling of Destructoid criticizes David Cage's direction, writing: “[The game] demonstrates, beyond doubt, that Hollywood actors, cutting edge-visual technology, and a decent budget mean nothing, if it's all being piled onto a ship with an unsuitable captain.” More criticism was issued towards the narrative technique employed by Beyond. Jodie's story is not presented in a chronological order, but rather in disjointed segments that ultimately add little value and characterization to the narrative: “while the shuffled timeline makes for a satisfying flow of action beats and sensitive drama, there’s little narrative justification for such skittish regard for chronology, and some transitions feel arbitrary” - notes the reviewer of Edge.

Beyond: Two SoulsPlatform: PS3Genre: Action-adventureDeveloper: Quantic DreamPublisher: Sony Computer EntertainmentRelease: 10/08/2013The result is a tale that attempts to be monumental, but fails to deliver characters that the player can come to care about, even with writing that appears to be somewhat of a step up from the predecessor. Characters come and go in quick succession, giving the title a very confusing and awkward atmosphere – there is simply “nobody to root for”, Sterling writes. Eurogamer in particular points out how most characters in Beyond are “underwritten” and hardly compelling, bringing to the surface Cage's lack of genuine talent as a scriptwriter and noting games such as Telltale's The Walking Dead, To the Moon or Gone Home as better examples of interactive drama.

...and beyond...

Critics found equally disappointing the complete illusion of choices and lack of player agency in Beyond, as opposed to Heavy Rain, where mistakes could have fatal consequences. While Beyond seemingly has the common courtesy to present options and button prompts to its players, all cutscenes and conversations proceed to play out on their own, even if every single quick-time event is failed. Bluntly put, choices are anything but meaningful, reviewers explain. On the flip side, it was noted that controlling the spiritual entity Aidan managed to give them a level of control unexpected in a Quantic Dream title.

Praise has been leveled on the technology behind Beyond, both in terms of capturing the facial expressions of the main stars, as well as the graphical quality brought to life by Quantic. Game Informer made mention of Page's excellent performance as an experienced actress, someone who “isn’t afraid to underplay a scene” in a game as “overblown” as Beyond. The game, as reviewers explained, has a fair number of emotional scenes, backed and enhanced by a stellar soundtrack.

In the end, many critics seem to agree that despite being a highly ambitious title -as one would expect from a game headed by Cage- Beyond: Two Souls is a flawed epic at best, a complete disappointment at worst; a fairly dull and often disjointed adventure that, despite its apparent strong points, fails to tell a coherent and well-crafted story.

Destructoid 5/10
Edge 5/10
Game Informer 7.75/10
IGN 6/10
Eurogamer 6/10
Joystiq 2.5/5