Reviews are all over the place

And here's an NY Times review with no score that people seem to be into.

Honestly, this makes me more excited to play the game than not. Love it when scores are all over the place; it means a game that's not predictable in nature, or at least causes many different reactions based on one's unique tastes.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-10-08-beyond-two-souls-review 6/10

I'm not going to read any of the reviews, but I am already fairly completely certain that the huge discrepancies in review scores boil down to the reviewer's opinion on narrative‐heavy games.

Either way, the game doesn't really interest me and I can't stand Ellen Page.

If I recall, Jim Sterling didn't like Heavy Rain much either, and I loved it. So I'll take his opinion with a grain of salt.

Very interesting, I know that some people are probably gonna respond pretty negatively to this, though it wasn't that long ago a topic propped up where it seemed like a fairly significant segment of our community felt that Heavy Rain may have been overrated(I would need to dig up the topic to doublecheck that). Seems like these releases always fall on multiple ends of a critics spectrum. I haven't had an opportunity to read these reviews you posted as of yet, but I have no doubt that as more gamers start playing this game some of these outlets are probably gonna get some blowback concerning their scores. Similary to the overreaction that the internet kids had to the escapists 7/10 for GTA5.

You know what? That's exactly what I expected.

I still want to play it, as I kind of liked Heavy Rain and I love Ellen Page.

Gameinformer gave it a 7.75. I haven't read the review but that particular reviewer is pretty fair. That's probably a pretty accurate score. Basically I got the impression from what I skimmed that he feels it is memorable but flawed. Sounds like Heavy Rain to me.

It's very interesting to see. Also I'm glad we have legit polarizing reviews, instead of that meaning some people gave it 7-8. Also there seems to be a lot of swings, people who liked Heavy Rain seem down on this while others who hated Heavy Rain like it, which is probably the most bizarre thing of all.

Nothing about this changes anything for me though, I'll still pick it up, I just find this fascinating.

Good, then this is definitely another one of these games that I want to play.

Quantic Dream's games often have this sort of reaction. If you're going by reviews, the best option is to find sites or more specifically reviewers that share similar tastes as yourself.

If theres no gameplay reason to praise or criticize a game, it falls to the narrative to do it. I always find it difficult to decide on narrative heavy games from reviews as a result. Same reason I never read movie reviews. But of course, a movie is less of an investment than an at-release video game.

In spite of their assorted issues, I still kinda liked Heavy Rain and Indigo Prophecy, but I could definitely understand why some people really didn't care for them. It sounds like Beyond is probably a similar sort of experience, so the wide range of reactions makes sense.

@recspec:

Exactly, it's not every day that a game releases with this much of a divide in the scores, we aren't talking just one outlet with a potential shock score, these are a variety of reviewers from different backgrounds and sources with some truly different interpretations of what this game is. To me, that makes it worth talking about.

Indeed. I think it's so weird when people scroll down to the score and be like 5/10? Yep. It sucks. Without having having played it themselves, even games with an avarage score can turn out way more enjoyable than an high scored game. Lollipop chainsaw is a good example for me, I really enjoyed that despite most people disliking that one.

Yeah, sounds about right.

@wolfgame: I'm one of those who think Heavy Rain was hugely overrated by critics. But I expected this: David Cage's games will always be divisive.

Based on what I played of the demo that Destructoid review is right on with what I thought it would be.

Its an adventure game.

I like different types of games other than run right, shoot everything in sight.

I will play when its reduced in price.

Why Alex is reviewing this game [shaking head] ill never know.

As i have seen a lot did not know Alex was reviewing i wanted to clarify my reason for my comment though his review has no impact on my decison, as does anyone elses. My comment was based on his own comments for his distaste for David Cage and his creativity along with an attitude that he doesnt seem to care for the genre or anything about the game itself. Comments he made during the am show last week(i think). IMO, Alex should stick to wrestling, movies, music and platformers. Nothing personal, thats just how i think his main intrests lie and wont progress beyond.

He is? Well, that'll make for a predictable GB score, heh.

Someone wake Alex up. Hearing him talk about the game on bombin in the am has me interested to read his opinion

This doesn't look like it is doing anything more than Heavy Rain. And the quick time even-story telling would be ok if that if that's not all they stuck to doing. Plus I don't trust that the story will fair to well considering Heavy Rains story has such huge conflicting plot hole.

I love these "it is not a game review XD So predictable^^

Yeah, I'd imagine it depends on the reviewers opinions of this genre. Personally I'm excited to play - but then, I play visual novels, so I love narrative heavy games.

Saints Row 4 was a 6/10 game for me, but I still think it was ok despite it's flaws. Seeing IGN give something a 6/10 really worries me since you automatically deduct 3 from their scores anyway.

@naru_joe93 He's working on the review. It should be up soon.

@nekroskop: I know, I was just foolin around :)

I was curious as to what Alex thought of this game as well. I have an idea of how he will score it, but I'm wondering he is going to surprise us.

Jim Sterling didn't like the game? I'll make sure to check it out then.

Outside of Giant Bomb, Rev3 and Polygon are the other two major places whose review's I really take into account. So I'm waiting to hear what Alex says, but couple that with my love of Heavy Rain and I'll probably be picking it up.

@aviar: He happens to follow a friend of mine on Twitter and was tweeting back and forth with her about it and says he liked it. I'm guessing three or four stars. Hopefully we'll know for sure later this afternoon.

That makes the game seem way more interesting to me too. Hoping for a PS4 version though since my PS3 is bricked.

Yeah, I agree seems like Alex will make the call for me. I normally don't trust everyone at Polygon but Justin McElroy is normally reliable. I wasn't into Heavy Rain, but the demo for Beyond was quite interesting.

I'm amazed Polygon gave it such a high score, I think that's the highest they've ever scored a Sony exclusive.

I bought it this morning, picked up the last copy they had.

Seems like the places which value story over raw game mechanics scored it higher

@me3639: Alex is the main reviewer for the site, so not really surprising. And why not have him review the game?

This is honestly the most interesting batch of reviews I've seen In awhile. So entirely varied.

sooo.. should i be playing the game on ez just for the story? (a la Last of Us - about 50% in I switched to easy mode.. the combat was not fun... not at all... )

Alex says he "kinda liked it," so it should be a somewhat positive review. Looks like the writing is still terrible, though.

The combat is not supposed to be fun in the last of us anyway.

I tried the demo, hated it. I get that the tech is the impressive part, but the characters in Uncharted emote better than this. My main issue with the demo was that it just seemed very boring and Aiden was murder to control accurately.

Ben Kuchera at Penny Arcade Report hated the game so much that he didn't even finish it and says as much in his write-up. Whether that says more about the game or Kuchera's abilities as a reviewer, it's hard to say.

Huh... weird.

Looks like Europe has the better taste XD

Game Revolution 8/10

http://www.gamerevolution.com/review/beyond-two-souls

Everyeye.it 8/10

http://www.everyeye.it/ps3/articoli/...censione_20748

IGN Italia 8.5

http://it.ign.com/recensione/9312/l-...yond-due-anime

Multiplayer.it 9/10

http://multiplayer.it/recensioni/124...ncrociati.html

Eurogamer Portugal 9/10

http://www.eurogamer.pt/articles/201...-almas-analise

Not supposed to fun? I combat in the Last of Us wasn't fun but I doubt Naughty Dog intended it to be that way.

I'm thinking 4/5 from Alex.

The combat wanted to be intense and very stressful. You can especially see that because everything has weight into it. Every action you do be it meele or shooting and getting shot at. At least that was it for me on hard.

This totally looks like another game that everyone will be way into for a week, and I'll be the only one that still likes it a year later. I don't know if it's backlash or collective amnesia, but I still think Heavy Rain was dope as fuck.

I have like zero interest in that game, looks like another of Cage's digital puppet uncanny valley nightmare "drama"

noup, thanks.

I don't think that says anything besides Ben Kuchera doesn't like Beyond. I'm no fan of his but in a way, I can respect him saying "fuck this game, I'm done" as long as he explains why.

@darji said:

I enjoyed it immensely. In fact I think that if I had played it on anything lower than Hard I would have only hampered my own enjoyment. I feel strongly that this game, more than many others, can be played in the wrong way. I also don't think it's a game that can be fully enjoyed by certain people, either because they never click on how to play it correctly, or they haven't got the skills/dexterity to play it in a way that allows for the gameplay to be enjoyable. That's probably a controversial thing to say, but I'm certain that there are people who will never be able to fully enjoy certain games because, in terms of skill, they simply haven't got what it takes to allow for themselves to enjoy it. Of course no one ever wants to admit that this may be the case. It's much easier and more comforting to fault the game than to fault oneself.

I'm curious, have any of you guys read the full reviews? I'm at work so I can't. But I'm curious if the reviewers are complaining of the same problems just that some reviewers were more bothered by those issues then others.

I like the Forbes review because the text itself seems completely unrelated to the final score. The author describes how Beyond is not really game and it's completely linear and there's not really any choice you get as a player and it's just a long cutscene and the story is kind of meh... but anyway, 9 out of 10!