14 DAY TRIAL // 
Beyond: Two Souls is a brave video game, an interesting attempt to do something new with the medium and push it out of the conventional space in which the biggest hits of the year exist, an experience that sometimes generates real emotion.
At the same time, the title, created at developer Quantic Dream by a team led by David Cage, can be infuriating, limp in the story department, lacking any solid mechanics, a movie that’s somehow stranded in a medium that it does not understand.
Playing Beyond: Two Souls raises the question of why we play video games: is it to experience lives that we would otherwise be unable to access, filled with wonder but also pain, or to just get away from the world and feel empowered?
Players who believe the first answer is right will find plenty to love in the new Quantic Dream experience and will praise David Cage for his efforts, while the second category is more likely to see the title as a failure with pretentions of greatness.
Story
The team at Quantic Dream is known for its attempts to make stories with important themes and a lot of emotion the centerpieces of the games they create and Beyond: Two Souls is no different, although the results are a little mixed.
Main character Jodie, based on the likeness and the voice of Ellen Page, is blessed or cursed with a connection to a supernatural entity known as Aiden, who has the power to affect the physical world in some pretty impressive ways.
The game follows them via a number of scenes, which are presented out of order, but chart a sort of evolution that’s supposed to offer meaningful commentary on issues like life, death, free choices and responsibility.
The fragmentation is the biggest problem for me and the fact that I have never managed to see a real connection between the most important characters, even if both Ellen Page and Willem Defoe deliver solid performances as actors.
The narrative sequences that gamers experience can be very mundane, like simply cleaning an apartment as the protagonist expects a big event, or very dramatic, like a raid sponsored by the Central Intelligence Agency to take out a high value target.
Some scenes are truly engaging, while some feel overwritten and, at the end of the 13-hour story, they all link up to create a bigger picture, but the team struggles to give players reasons to care once the initial surprise about Aiden and Jodie wears off.
I mostly enjoyed the sequences that do not feature any combat or conflict and focus more on how everyday life is for the girl and the entity, because here, the development team has really managed to create something interesting that no other title has to offer.
The story of Beyond: Two Souls is not great and the writing has some soap opera moments, but I still appreciate those scenes when the David Cage’s vision comes together and I actually feel close to a video game protagonist.
Gameplay
The right stick is the most important element of the controller for those who play Beyond because it will be used in order to take Jodie from one action to another and push the flow of the game forward.
Those who are expecting traditional mechanics will be disappointed because Quantic Dream has created an experience that is low on action and gives players time to look at the world and the characters and evaluate what they want to do.
QTEs are widely used, Jodie moves without requiring much input from the player and the only moments of freedom are those when the entity is selected and proceeds to move through walls and interact with a variety of highlighted objects.
The choice will certainly be controversial and, as a long-time gamer, I feel somehow cheated when things happen in Beyond: Two Souls without any significant input coming from me.
A little more interactivity would have made the experience more engaging, but I can understand why Quantic Dream has built the game like an interactive move rather than a traditional game.
Graphics and audio
Beyond: Two Souls might be one of the best-looking games for the PlayStation 3, a clear sign that this generation of hardware still has a little life left in it and can deliver some impressive sights.
The main characters all have detailed faces and smooth animations, moving with a grace rarely seen in the world of video games thanks to the new and improved motion capture that’s used, even if there are some moments when the illusion of realism breaks up because of some minor texture artifact.
Quantic Dream has paid attention to all the details of each scene and has made sure that they all look if not close to real, then certainly cinematic, with the kind of glossy sheen that the best directors use.
The fact that Quantic Dream has included moments when time slows down as the player is required to act is welcomed, because it gives fans a chance to experience the beauty of the world they are exploring.
Given the quality of Beyond: Two Souls, it will certainly be interesting to see what the same team can deliver using the extra hardware power of the PlayStation 4.
The sound department also offers plenty of quality, especially when it comes to the voice work done by the two Hollywood actors, who capture the emotions of every scene they appear in and elevate the story with their performance.
The supporting cast hits some false notes, but they are mostly solid and the subtle music does a good job of complementing the presentation of Beyond: Two Souls.
The above phrase contains ideas that no other AAA title in the last few years has tried to include and for that alone, Quantic Dream is worthy of recognition and applause from the industry. The game is also beautiful and shows off what very good actors and extreme care with motion capture can achieve even with the hardware of the current generation. Unfortunately, the story struggles at times to remain interesting, even if the scenes themselves are well put together. The limited gameplay can also make Beyond seem too restricted for its own good and some might struggle to call it a game. I still believe that the experience is worth the time and money of players because of its emotional elements, the performance of Ellen Page and its exotic nature, but this is a title that will prove highly divisive.
The Good
The Bad
Conclusion
