BEYOND: Two Souls Review
I have been waiting for QuanticDream to release their next video game, after playing Heavy Rain I just had an itch that could only be scratch by the right type of game. So Beyond Two Souls came out just a little bit ago, in this game you're going to play the part of a girl named Jody. Now she's a very unique individual as she has, for some "unknown" reason, a spirit tethered to her soul, which allows her the ability to do many things that a normal person can't do. You will find that in this game you will be travelling all over Jody's memory, almost in random order to discover how she became who she is.
Graphically I am once again awe-struck. This game looks amazing, the different locals from a snowy childhood house to a government facility, to mansions and onto the streets of a city, there's not one place in this game that felt neglected by the artists' full vision. The NPCs and characters that you interact with were also top-notch especially those that had big name talent voicing them. I did, however, have a couple of issues with the graphics. First off there was no option to correct the Gamma for the game, my TV + my PlayStation 3 has notoriously made things SUPER dark, so not being able to set the Gamma a little bit up really hurt parts of my experience. The other issue is the camera, to be honest there is something seriously wrong with the camera. I felt like the game developers were afraid to allow the player the ability to pan the camera completely around the character, or perhaps it was the simple fact that they turned on the collision with objects for the camera so that it could never get behind an part of the current area, the unfortunate thing was that it made for some really awkward angles to try to get things accomplished in levels.
The voice acting was phenominal, and it doesn't really come as that big of a surprise when you have the likes of William Dafoe and Ellen Page as your top talent. The music and sounds in the game also helped make the game that much more immersive.
The controls are setup just like in Heavy Rain, you are going to be looking for visual cues for what button to push and what type of action it is looking for. If memory serves me correctly a square means to hold the button, and a circle is to tap the button as fast as you can.
So you are playing the part of Jody, you're going to be able able to see a ton of her life up to the point that the credits roll, but leave a chance for a sequel WIDE OPEN, and to be honest I would LOVE to play that game. You're going to be getting the story in chunks that are never in order you're going to take on a memory of childhood, and then the next thing you know you're doing something for the government, and then after that you're back to being a teenager, and so on a so forth. I understand the want to do something a little along the lines of Memento, but there are scenes that felt like they were thrown in there hastily, and then there are scenes that have a lot of depth to it. So I have to say right off the bat that the playable parts are uneven. Now I do have to say that I don't actually know for sure what I'm about to say, but I'm going to make an assumption based off of previous experience with games by QuanticDreams, and that is that the game changes based on your actions that you take in the game, so I'm almost 100% sure that my experience through the game is going to be slightly different that anyone else's. The reason I say that is that the ending definitely falls into that arena, so perhaps there won't be a sequel just like in Heavy Rain where I felt there could have been a continuation, but there has yet to be one.
Let's just get down to it, this is a great game that you're going to lose yourself in because you're going to want to know about what the hell is going on, and you also want to see Jody to safety. Now I'm not 100% sure about this either, but I never died in the game, so it appears that coming close to death might also trigger a change in story, but it will continue. There are definitely issues with this game especially when it comes to the combat portion of the game and trying to figure out the direction that the game wants you to go, but not knowing for sure because of the angle, but if you can get through that and the wonky camera, I think you'll find that you are in for quite a treat. Now I wish I could give this game something in the 9 range because there were parts that were that good, but having to review the game as a whole I've got to give this game a 7.8 out of 10.
