I’ve always been a defender of games with overpowered narratives. When people got mad at the Metal Gear Solid series for becoming increasingly cutscene-laden, or chastised Heavy Rain for just being a series of quick time events I was there on the defense. When people said the last quarter of Fahrenheit was a disastrous mess, well, there’s only so much defending one man can do.
Beyond: Two Souls is studio Quantic Dream’s followup to 2010’s Heavy Rain. The game follows a formula very similar to past Quantic Dream titles in that it primarily focuses on a heavily scripted plotline you are able to manipulate rather than a lot of action packed gameplay. The closest thing to compare it to is a traditional adventure game but there aren’t really any puzzles to speak of. There is however, plenty of Ellen Page.
The game actually has a few genuinely creepy moments. Atmosphere usually gives way to over the top silliness though.
Beyond follows Ellen’s character, Jodie Holmes, a child who exhibits paranormal abilities, telekinesis, that sort of thing. At least that’s how it seems. In reality Jodie has very little by way of psychic power, most of her abilities can be attributed to a spirit or entity that has been mysteriously linked to her from birth. This spirit named Aiden doesn’t particiularly want to be bound to Jodie, he just finds himself unable to leave her vicinity. Aiden doesn’t speak but he has a personality all of his own. When Jodie does something he doesn’t like, he has no trouble showing her by trashing her room or breaking her computer etc. Although the two of them always have a slight adversarial relationship throughout the game, they also feel close together despite being in a situation neither of them wants.
As you play the game you’ll generally be allowed to switch to Aiden with the press of a button and explore the world. This is how you will solve most “puzzles” if you can call them that. Aiden has a slew of abilities at his disposal. Areas that he can interact with will glow and you can manipulate most of them by holding down L1 and using the analog sticks.
Aiden can only control some people’s minds which keeps the puzzle solving fairly linear.
Abilities range anywhere from knocking objects around, to eliminating weaker enemies, to controlling other people’s minds. What abilities you can tap into are always locked to the environment, if you see an enemy glowing orange then you can use mind control on them, otherwise you’re out of luck. This means that most situations wind up only having one path through them. See a guy highlighted in red? Not much to do aside from use Aiden to snuff him out.
The controls in Beyond are simplified when compared to past Quantic Dream titles but not always in a positive way. For the most part interaction is controlled with the right analog stick. The problem is that this is the same stick you’ll be using to move the camera around as you try to guide the tank that is Jodie Holmes from place to place. Very frequently I would find myself trying to get a better look in a direction and instead picking up an item or opening a door etc.
Action sequences look great but sometimes it’s hard to figure out what they expect from you.
Quick time events don’t fare much better. You’ll spend most of the fight sequences using nothing but the right analog stick. You’re supposed to watch the way Jodie is moving and move the stick in the same direction as her momentum but a lot of times your natural instincts will mess that up. For example when someone takes a swing at you your first instinct will be to press away to dodge their attack, but a lot of the time you’re actually supposed to press into it so Jodie can block and counter. Sometimes moves can’t be countered and there were several points where I had a hard time figuring out exactly which direction the game was expecting me to move in.
The game’s focus on choice is undercut frequently by how it presents itself. There were a lot of points in the game where I did something that I didn’t want to do but couldn’t see any other way to push the narrative forward. At one point in the midst of a bunch of action I accidentally let a character die by not speaking to them before resolving the situation. I had no idea the character would die, and in the heat of the moment I didn’t feel like I had time to talk to them. It basically felt like the game pushed and prodded me along and then slapped me on the wrists for not taking my time and being more thorough.
The motion capture, graphics, and performances from most of the actors involved are all astounding. Page accompanied by Willem Dafoe, do an excellent job bringing their characters to life and making the best out of some of David Cage’s sometimes awkward script. The game occasionally gets outlandish but its leads do a pretty good job of never making it feel too cornball.
My wife made sure to remind me as I played that I paid sixty dollars to “play with dolls”.
Beyond’s story is told entirely out of order. I assume this is an attempt to address one of Heavy Rain’s failings which was its rather slow opening sequence. If breaking the story up into random pieces was an attempt to fix pacing problems then it’s pretty safe to say it didn’t work. Heavy Rain may have had a slow first hour or two but once things got going they stayed going and never stopped. Conversely Beyond will have you fighting police on top of a speeding train one minute to playing with dolls before bedtime the next. Because of this the main storyline never completely gets off the ground.
Pacing issues aside Beyond manages to mostly pull things together in its final act. The story never reaches the mind mindbogglingly stupid ending of Fahrenheit nor does it suffer from the gaping plotholes that poisoned Heavy Rain’s well. Your custom tailored ending sequence is long and fairly satisfying. I do have to admit to letting out a guffaw at the final few seconds of the game though.
Although the game pulled me in a bit towards the end I was ultimately unable to forget all the weird choices and control issues I’d suffered along the way. I think some day David Cage is going to figure this formula out and make something truly incredible, but it’s too difficult to look past the issues riddling Beyond: Two Souls and proclaim that we’re there yet.
