My predictions for Beyond: Two Souls's reception

Well, David Cage is still being allowed to write and direct video games!

Beyond is right around the corner, and I've decided that I'm going to call how this whole thing will play out.

The game will be praised by critics and 95% of the players for the first month, guaranteed (It's all story, so pretty unique, resulting in blind praise). The remaining 5% will hate it, they'll hate it so much that they'll replay it over and over to find every single awful plot hole. (If you haven't guessed by now, I'll be part of that 5%)

The minority will be brushed off with "You just don''t get it" and "Your stupid, this game is great" for weeks and weeks until they forget that the game even exists. Then the minority will stand at the top of the David Cage Hate Throne.

Then the next David Cage will come out in a couple years and the cycle will begin again.

It happened with Indigo Prophecy and Heavy Rain, now it'll happen with Beyond.

I'm sorry you potentially do not like the game. I don't think that qualifies for someone saying you don't get it/you're stupid. You're more than entitled to your opinion.

I loved the demo, though.

Who do you think you are, the last? Go home.

Er... alright?

I have a feeling that this game will be a lot more popular than some might anticipate. I haven't been following it closely after it was first revealed, so I'm not sure what I'll think of it even though I'm going to play it on day 1.

Didnt cage put that one Sony guy to sleep that time?

@the_laughing_man: To be fair, Yoshida had been flying all around the world over the prior 3 days to that event, so he had probably like 24 hours of jetlag.

Regardless of how the actual game turns out, I don't think people are looking forward to this one as much as they were for Heavy Rain (not like that was highly anticipated, either). People have adjusted their expectations since the last game.

A few will like anything Cage puts out, but there doesn't seem to be a ton of talk about Beyond. I bet a lot of people do not even realize it comes out next week.

What about those who don't love it or hate it? I'm more of a middle of the road type guy. I'll think it's okay, but acknowledge the plot holes. I'll be able to enjoy it for what it is. A flawed game that tried to do something different, even if that something different will be the same thing that Heavy Rain and Indigo Prophecy did. Will we be in even a smaller minority than the haters?

this was a few days ago for a panel of the game in Paris XD

And people who already finished it and are not under review embargo saying that this is a GOTY contender an the best what cage ever did. SO I think you are wrong^^

You do realize you are already bashing reviewers and "95% of people that will play it" for their "blind praise" (which doesn't exist yet), all the while basically saying you hate the game before you've even played.

So hating something with no first hand experience makes you better than people who will potentially like it after actually playing it? Last time I checked an uninformed opinion is much less valid than an informed opinion based on personal experience.

A final note, if you know you're going to hate it, why bother even buying it? So you can play it multiple times to "prove" how bad David Cage is? I say let go of the hate, don't buy the game, forget David Cage exists and go play something else (preferably something you actually like).

EDIT: I also find it kind of ironic that you are anticipating people not respecting your opinion of disliking the game by saying "you just don't get", and then basically implying anyone that likes it just doesn't get how bad it is.

You're stupid, not your stupid, stupid.

This is some edgy shit... seriously, you're like the Louie CK of gaming! Stick it to the man buddy!! Yeah!!!! YEAAHHH!!!!!

Also, what if it's good and you actually like it?

@wickedsickdanceattack: I happen to like Indigo Prophecy and Heavy Rain and guess what its totally OK if you don't, but if you think the game is going to be bad going in then why are you buying it. In fact why are you even wasting your time talking about it?

Also shouldn't this kind of thing be in a blog not a forum post? Seems like flame bate to me.

That was everything I needed to know. So you are one of those people, which you also admitted, that will just play through the game to find "mistakes" because you are butthurt about his success of something. I get that you don't like his games, but what do you achieve by playing through a game you don't like, only to point out every little thing that bugs you?

I honestly think it's pathetic. But hey you really showed him, by buying his game so you can complain about it.

No, no that won't happen. You see OP has already made up his mind: THIS GAEM GOING TO SUCK BALLS!1!1!11! lololol yolo swag

You forgot xXxH3Ad5ho1420xXx, There should also be a FFVII or DBZ reference in there somewhere but I am too lazy to think of one.

Defoe and Ellie oh i mean Ellen should make this game interesting. I liked heavy rain very much.

I was not a big fan of Indigo Prophecy but I liked Heavy Rain despite it's flaws. My expectations for Beyond are not very high so hopefully I will be pleasantly surprised.

Anyone that would replay a game they don't enjoy over and over again to find plot holes is clinically un-well to put it mildly.

Well, nice to see that you are going in with a perfectly open mind.

WickedSickPredictionBro

I think it will be criticized more then Heavy Rain was because many games have innovated on the "cinematic gaming experience" without feeling like tedious dreck with QTEs every 10 seconds.

Also the new "first person" gameplay sucks too because the game pauses while it waits for you to do your thing. It was incredibly awkward when SWAT forces surrounding Page literately waited for her to kill them all with her psychic power (slowly) instead of just charging her. The "gameplay" breaks the cinematic experience.

I think the reviews will be "good story, but only buy if you can tolerate QTes and little else for gameplay".

This is how I feel, though I did like Fahrenheit (as it's known in the UK) up until those god awful stealth sections. Never did complete it, but then I could possibly consider myself lucky that I didn't have to suffer all of the sci-fi mumbo jumbo stuff that follows.

Hehe, yes Mcfart. The whole police/swat chase was weird.

I did however really like that the spirit can take control over some enemies and make them do stuff. I just wish that it was player-controlled.

The various actions are color-coded and you can't control who you want to control, who to choke out etc ; that's a bummer. Nice idea though.

Oh I hope this game also has bugs, Mayans, aliens, angels, snowstorms, Matrix magic, metaphysics expert hobos, undead people, AIs and other bullshit. I can't wait.

@pandabear: Then David Cage has grown as a writer, and I'll admit it and be happy. Hell, I'd kinda love it if David Cage proves me wrong.

@castiel: Oh, it'll be a used copy.

It's funny how you kind of paint people who find plotholes and issues in David Cage narratives as having to search hard for them. I played Indigo Prophesy and Heavy Rain once each and found plenty of issues and beyond that, found them very amateurish feeling and with very little restraint. In particular Indigo Prophesy, which went from interesting supernatural (yet grounded) mystery to Matrix "you're the one" Aztec prophesy robot war. And you say it's a minority that says these things... am I missing his other games being giant sellers with humongous fan bases?

I expect this game, like the other two, will start out promising for me and the story will go off the deep end again (all the commando stuff clearly tipping the hat for me). But it'll have it's fans, like his other games do.

EDIT: I guess I misread you as a big fan rather than a hater... either way I guess I'm not getting this thread. But oh well, I see nothing here to change up how David Cage operates. As the joke goes, just make movies dude.

You are vastly exaggerating the broad appeal of David Cage games. It'll probably review okay, the people that enjoyed Indigo Prophecy and Heavy Rain will buy it, and most everybody else will ignore it.

I'm just hoping for some hilariously bad voice acting that Vinny can mock on the Bombcast.

A lot of people will scrutinize the game for violence against the main character, any sexualization of the main character, any negative personality traits of the main character, because the character exists only to make statements about the social group to which it belongs.

And then people will say "why is the strange imaginary friend entity given a male name? Is David Cage saying women need men to help them survive? Why can't the strange entity be a female?"

I like Quantic Dream games. I like them because they are their own things and follow their own world view. David Cage games don't pay like other games, they don't handle the subjects that games often try to handle in the same way, and his games are actually thought provoking is way most games shy away from.

I loved Heavy Rain, it was deeply flawed, but I loved it. And, it has taken me awhile but I have come to like David Cages refusal to just crank-out another Heavy Rain game too. I'm not even sure I will like or enjoy Beyond, but that is liberating too. I even like how Quantic Dream has gone about showing Beyond. People were so sure they had figured out teh general plot only to be shown more that went against expectations. People were so on board with their ideas about the game being about some drifter girl, that when they were shown she was some sort of spy/weapon they were angry. They were just angry they didn't figure out the whole thing from one video seen two years ago like gamers can with every other game.

That is amazing because I think it is super healthy for gamers to be told, "Nope." I think it is super healthy for this medium to have games when you see it you think you know the path that game will follow, but then game goes down another path. We need more games where gamers get lost about what a game means or what the story will say.

@brodehouse: "And then people will say "why is the strange imaginary friend entity given a male name? Is David Cage saying women need men to help them survive? Why can't the strange entity be a female?""

I wonder who would say that???????????? Hummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm??

From what I've played of it Defoe seems to be phoning it in quite a bit. Also, like any of Cage's other game, the children have hilariously terrible voice acting.

@wickedsickdanceattack: In your situation the only one negatively affected is you. Maybe don't play it and everyone can be happy?

Plot holes don't make or break a story.

Wow, this reminds me when Heavy Rain came out and everyone on the Internet was bashing it. Yeah, the game has issues, but seriously, it's not that bad. It's a fun story to get invested in and reach a happy conclusion, not to mention the soundtrack in Heavy Rain was absolutely fantastic. Hell, I could name a LOT of plot holes that annoyed the shit out of me. The whole plot point regarding Ethan waking up with the origami being dropped half way through the game was a major one that nearly ruined the game for me, but I was able to work pass it and enjoy it. I also didn't like how there was one scene earlier where Ethan grabs the gun from the box and pockets it, but later he does it AGAIN - come on, have a little consistency here! There is also the bit where he has sex with Madison when HIS SON IS FUCKING DYING!!!!!

But you know what? I still like it despite that, because it's actually possible to like a game AND acknowledge that it has a lot of technical faults.

Though why bother playing a game if you dislike it? Why bother telling us? It would be like if I played Skyrim constantly and bitched about how much I hated it all the time on this forum. I didn't enjoy it, but a LOT of people did and I accept that. I COULD list out all of the bugs and glitches I encountered (and trust me, there's a lot), but why should I bother? Plus, I'm not going to torture myself playing a game I don't enjoy.

@brodehouse: can you really complain about sexism in games if you bring it up more than anyone else?

I think you guys just got trolled.

Yeah Itfeels more sarcastic^^

Beyond is a game many females will play that is for sure. Not because of the Protagonist but because of the gameplay design. Heavy rain was also a favorite game for female players.

So you already know you'll hate it and yet you'll play it over and over again.

Some people might say that this is pretty stupid.

It's because the video game industry has a lot of growing up to do.

Or so I am constantly reminded, because it's these social issues that highlight the industries' immaturity, and not the plethora of games that thrive on juvenile humor or absurdly exaggerated violence or a number of other issues that make it terribly immature and have absolutely no impact on the fun you have while playing said games.

@wickedsickdanceattack: You forgot about the percentage that just plain doesn't care about David Cage games.

Why would you replay a game over and over just to get on the internet and hate on it? Isn't that pretty fucking pathetic? Why don't you go enjoy something?

@humanity: But the Industry can not grow more mature if you shame everything they do. For example accusing a Last of Us or even heavy rain is not going to help this cause. I would love to have better writing for every characters they write. Even a Ellie or Joel or in this case a Jody (Ellen Page)

There will be probably terrible stuff this female character has to endure. Maybe some sexual violence who knows but please look at all this in the context of the story and not call this game out if the runs around in her underwear or is in a shower.

@humanity: @darji: The second part ('why isn't the entity female') is absurd and sarcastic. Even I don't expect that.

However, there is nothing crazy about expecting a big, dramatic, conspicuous overreaction regarding absolutely anything that involves Jodie. Maybe her grunts of pain or exhaustion will sound too sexual. Maybe at some point she'll be in a cold area and won't be wearing a parka. Maybe some antagonistic character will threaten to strike her, 'thus normalizing violence against women'.

Cage tends to make his violence more cinematic and melodramatic rather than brutal and shocking, so I maybe don't expect the violence thing. Then again, if I pulled a list of the most ridiculous I've heard from the last year it would make you crazy. Like a coconut.

Actually wait, this story takes place in the Middle East at some point, right? She's like a government operative. Maybe she gets captured by whatever opfor is, maybe she gets tortured (and ghost friend gets her out). In the current environment of overblown slacktivism, how could one not expect a major reaction to a scene such as that? We've discussed practically every negative experience suffered by and every remotely controversial depiction of major female characters in games for the last year or more. Even the girl from Remember Me, which is amazing because like 4 people bought that game.

Or how about people who like it will do so because it's actually good? Why do you automatically assume any good thing about it is "blind praise?"

Oh, you're irrationally hating a game before it's even out. Carry on, then.

I'm probably not making any friends (well, mayda I dunno) but my main problem with Beyond is:

Cage has up to this point completely failed to tell a single halfway decent story. The best Quantic Dreams story was probably Omikron and well....let's not talk about Omikron (cause I didn't finish it). Fahrenheit had a good story for about 50% of the game and then turned into.....I don't even know. Floating pink AIs trying to take over the world? What? And Heavy Rain....I know some people liked the story in HR but....no...sorry. I'm not one of them. About 40-50% through I knew who the murderer was and that's just not good story telling. I don't know what it is but I found the stories in QD's games absolutely terrible so far. Maybe it's just not "my style" I dunno.

If you want to make a game purely about story: Fine. A lot of people do that nowadays. But at least tell a good story then. Maybe Beyond's story will be good, I don't know and at this point I don't care about the game. I hope it's good but frankly I don't trust the guy.

That still doesn't answer my original question: What do you gain from playing a game with the intention of finding plot holes? That doesn't really sound that fun.

I imagine you do this when fantasizing about it: