Beyond: Two Souls - Some positive thoughts

One day someone’s going to get it spot on. Someone’s going to realise the sheer mechanical potential of gaming and mix it perfectly with stunning production values and first-rate, cinematic story telling. Beyond: Two Souls is not that game, and it was never going to be. It’s far too much of a gameplay-deprived, oddly-presented piece to do that. But at some point - perhaps even in the next generation - someone will finally crack the code of AAA story telling of this level meeting the genius of a game like Dark Souls or Spelunky. For now, Beyond is a sample of what could be, a window shopping experience for a new age of interaction. And, for my money, it’s a pretty interesting experiment.

Believe me; I’m more surprised than anyone. I don’t like to use this term often, but I despised Heavy Rain. It was a game that asked you to respect it as a serious piece of drama despite its comical voice acting, inconsistent visuals, glaring plot holes and willingness to lie to players to conceal its secrets. Worst of all? It got away with it. There are those that think of Heavy Rain as an intelligent, well-written piece of storytelling, despite issues that not even the trashiest Hollywood fluff would dare commit.

But, ever the optimist, I convinced myself to look forward to Beyond, and hoped that the team at Quantic Dream could deliver on previous promises.

And you know what? I think they did.

Beyond kept me engaged from start to finish. I’m well aware that it has issues, and deprives itself of much of what gaming is – in my opinion – really about. But as I get older and my free time diminishes, my attention is not something I give away freely. Beyond caught it and, somehow, kept it.

It wasn’t thanks to the game’s action scenes, I’ll say that much. The complete lack of punishment in Beyond is easily its biggest flaw. Any intensity is sucked right out of the action sequences, and moments designed to shock and scare fall flat. In fact it often falls just short of the emotional punches that the team is undoubtedly gunning for.

But, elsewhere, the game really delivers in ways its predecessors couldn’t. The supernatural story makes Cage’s quirky script writing far more natural. Your disbelief is suspended before you even start Beyond, and that’s crucial to forgiving some of the game’s cheesier moments. Ellen Paige’s brilliant turn as Jodie also lends serious credibility to each and every scene (or at least the one’s that she’s in). The same goes for Willem Defoe, though he does feel underused.

Crucially, Jodie has a fascinating hook. The gift/curse of her link to Aiden makes every scene dynamic. It’s not like other Cage-characters that are bloated with unconvincing issues like drug addictions and irrational fears to try and breathe some life into them. Jodie is honestly one of the most interesting protagonists to hit gaming in a while, constantly at odds with her entity but always somewhat dependent on him, changed by him, and desperate to hide those changes at every turn. Quantic really sell you on the tough life she’s had to lead.

Then there’s the stunning visuals that are, for my money, the best to be had this generation. Beyond is leaps and bounds ahead of the competition when it comes to character models, so much so that it’s the first game to convince me of the importance of life-like visuals. I couldn’t relate with Ethan Mars almost entirely because of his vacant, dead stare. Here Jodie’s face twitches and responds to every tiny development, and it opens up a whole new way to connect protagonist to player, something you don’t even think of when watching TV and movies.

Most importantly, Beyond feels like a game that wants to be part of the industry, and not try to veer it off in a pretentious, potentially damaging route. Perhaps it has recent successes like The Walking Dead to thank for that, or perhaps it’s a PR campaign that hasn’t had half as many outlandish statements from interviews with its director. But as a much more modest, albeit bigger-budgeted experiment than its predecessor, Beyond just feels like it finds a place in gaming much more comfortably.

I’ve heard plenty a reviewer state that Beyond is a hard game to review, and I couldn’t agree more. Even trying to piece a few thoughts together here is an exercise in virtual tongue-tying. But that’s a great thing, and it’s a great thing that some people hate this game and it’s a great thing that some people love it.