Beyond: Two Souls - Analysis/Review: Beyond Movies And Games

David Cage is the director and studio head Quantico Dreams. For over a decade he has experimented with new ways of telling stories and interactive tools to leverage video games provide. His most recognized titles include Indigo Prophecy and Heavy Rain, both acclaimed by putting the player in difficult situations where there is no right or wrong decisions. All your projects are so focused on the characters of the story and the techniques used blur the line between movies and video games that surprises yet cool. This year brings us his last great adventure for this generation of PlayStation with Beyond: Two Souls as discussed below.

Not all games are about shooting things or get the highest score.

The story focuses on Jodie, a girl who was born spiritually attached to a supernatural being called Aiden. Implicitly we placed the question of who is this ghost, where it comes from and why this child is attached. Beyond takes us to see 15 years of the life of Jodie and presents them through a disordered line while we relive key points of the star. The journey leads her to make an important decision at the end of the experience and up to you to decide your destiny having gone through the whole adventure.

The narrative techniques have improved over Heavy Rain and the way in which you present the options are more fluid. However, beyond the story he wants to tell is not as intriguing as the previous game. The premise of “discovering what lies beyond “is much less tangible than finding the” murderer origami”. While, despite the chronological disorder has worked in movies like Memento and Pulp Fiction, does not apply so well to Beyond. Different scenes work individually, but not articulated each other when trying to connect the dots. Rather than creating mystery, this has generated confusion among players.

The story is so random that can confuse players.

 One thing that stands out is the powerful performance of Ellen Page. His reactions to situations like a party teen or attempted rape in a pub are themes that had never played video games. Scenes on paper may not sound as good are saved by the convincing performance of the actress.

Although William Dafoe, also has some good scenes, its contrasts too much with the role of the protagonist and fully finished in the background. The same happens with the other characters. Beyond acting ability I think was due to the way they are structured dialogues.

Ellen Page’s performance falls short of the nominees for the Golden Globes

 Graphically I think there is not much to discuss. Beyond is the best game with facial detail that has been seen in this generation of consoles. The new motion capture technology ensures that every detail of the actors translate the game and really feel like you’re watching Ellen Page and not to an artificial model. Similarly note are the beautiful sceneries that come your way and awesome effects hair and water that really blew me speechless.

Supplement excellent soundtrack composed by Lorne Balfe and supervised by the great Hans Zimmer, who also worked on hit films like Inception and The Dark Knight.

The graphics are so good that sometimes do not know if I was watching a video or playing a video game.

Controls mainly focus on Jodie who traditionally controls the joystick. The novelties are the scenes where you have to complete their movement in mini events in slow motion. But the animation of these parts is sometimes not very clear and finishes the game by mistake. The other mechanism that is introduced Aiden is able to control the ghost. This frees you up and puts you in control of a floating camera that can perform certain actions depending on the scenario. You can move objects, choking enemies and possess certain individuals. Despite being one of the most fun elements of the game, I feel that I could make much better between the duo Jodie and Aiden stop create better puzzles.

No Game Over in this game. If you fail a move or choose a different option the only thing that happens is that your characters takes a different path, but always arrive at the same destination. Unfortunately this takes challenge to the game and makes you feel more like a spectator, rather than the person controlling the experience. It will take about 8 or 9 hours to finish the story, but are likely to return to see the alternate endings.

Beyond: Two Souls - Analysis/Review: Beyond Movies And Games