So,Im nearly done just over 3/4th the way through I think and Ill give a quick take on what I think overall.

•I think largely the acting and casting is spot on.

•The actual act of "playing" the game still isn't what Id call "fun" but there are some interesting stealth sections.

•Holy shit the script is just such....a David Cage script. Guy goes straight for the emotional jugular leaving no room to actually get attached to characters to have that emotional reaction.

•Presentation overall is FANTASTIC.

•...that being said how the story is given to you in random non-linear chunks is sort of weird and off-putting.

I'll most likely be back with more detailed and spoilery thoughts after I finish and Im not in my damned phone trying to type.

I think that if the story was told in a more conventional fashion, this game would be great. As is though, at least at the point that I'm at currently, 3hrs or so in, it just feels SO disjointed. It's literally like someone took a really good movie that was made in order and just edited it and mixed up the scenes. It's just a bunch of individual scenes with hard loads between each one.

The only time I was actually turned off by the disjointed story (so far) was when I was (2 1/2 hours in spoilers) fighting and presumably killing police officers and I didn't even know why I was being chased. The fighting and killing kept escalating and I had no context for what I did to cause all of these people to chase me down and try to kill me. I like the way the story is jumping all over the place but that particular scene needed some context I think.

It would be funny if you unlock "Chronological Mode" after you beat it. I agree the story doesn't need to jump around like it does, and the loading between scenes is jarring. Did anyone else get some stuttering during the game? It usually happened when the game was auto saving. But I agree OP the presentation is really really good. The main voice actors are great. Overall I like the game in the same way I liked Heavy Rain. Which might not be a good thing, but whatever. =P

As with any David Cage game I'm enjoying it. The acting is awesome and the characters are believable because of it (except of course for the obvious stuff that's way far out there but it fits the story). The writing is, as always, a bit of a mixed bag of "Not bad at all" to "wait, what?" but it's video games, that's how they all are and feels a little disjointed(but not worse than what movies are doing as well, so yeah). But yeah, totally enjoying my time with it and I'm like 3-4 hours in I guess (could look it up but I don't see the point)

My thoughts: I'm terribly hungry, I guess.

@kirathian: I've had a lot of stuttering.

@spraynardtatum: Rest assured there is context that perfectly explains it but that is my exact problem. You get that scene before the context leaving you mostly not caring because you're so confused to why that whole scene is taking place. David Cage writing is like a child who wants to eat his ice cream before the vegetables. The script seems so eager to hit you with emotional cliffhangers that you have no context to actually care about. The stuff near the end is starting to be more choherent and interesting though so Ill see how I feel at the end.

The jumping around is really strange in some places and I think it would have been better if it did not jump that much. It makes sense in the end but I still don't know if it really was a good idea to do so. As for the rest. Ellen does a fantastic job and a lot of these scenes are really great. But when you actually "play" the game it is when it becomes sometimes bad or boring. The Quicktime events are mostly done really really well and are intense but for the rest I did not really enjoy that. However the story kept me going and I am glad I played this game

I read someone describe the experience as eight hours of David Cage wanking to his own game, which is about right. You can tell the game is in love with its own narrative, which would be fine if the narrative weren't as hokey as it is. I stopped around the homeless pregnancy scene and kind of couldn't help but shake my head at the whole thing. For a guy who spews so much flowery verbiage as Cage does about the importance of narrative in games, and how incredibly cinematic and engaging his stories are (he should really go back and play Indigo Prophecy again), his games sure are full of a lot of stupid bullshit.

Beyond feels no different to me. Maybe it finds itself later on, but when I left off, the game clearly couldn't decide what kind of narrative it wanted to be. It kept going back and forth between hokey, melodramatic character drama and super dark mystery/thriller. I'm not saying you can't have both, but the swings in each scene are so hard that it felt super distracting and I couldn't take anything seriously. Ironically, I ended up finding the scenes with little Jodie the most well-realized and believable out of everything I played. And that's not because Ellen Page's performance as an older Jodie is bad; it's very, very good actually; it's just the setup for the scenes she finds herself in aren't as strong or as well-realized as the scenes with little Jodie.

Cage also has this infuriating tendency to throw a lot of unexplained, nonsensical bullcrap into his games out of left field and Beyond: Two Souls is no different. I don't want to go into detail, but suffice it to say, there's a supernatural plot element introduced into the game early on that somehow feels out of place in a game whose core conceit is an invisible ghost buddy who is tethered to Ellen Page at birth. Take that for what you will.

Narrative-issues aside, the gameplay also feels like it doesn't know what it wants to be. It's like a disjointed hybrid of Heavy Rain, Ghost Trick, and a low-budget 3rd person shooter? I guess?? I don't know; complaining about a Quantic Dream game's gameplay is an exercise in futility so I won't dwell on it much more. It just felt weirdly incoherent, which isn't something I've had a problem with in Cage's previous games. It could be argued those games really didn't have gameplay to begin with, but at least what was there felt cohesive.

It doesn't really need to be said, but the game obviously looks terrifc. It's probably the best looking game of this generation, something that is no doubt helped by the fact that the game is constantly in letterbox and thus has fewer pixels to render.

I don't know, you guys. I don't hate it, and I probably wouldn't even mind it, but it's so hard to take any of it even remotely seriously when paired with Cage's comments over the years. The dude is so in love with himself yet he hasn't once shown that he's as talented as he thinks he is when crafting a narrative.

I am only about 2 hours in so far (as I'm playing it with my wife and can't just sit down and barrel through it) but I am loving it. I was a little worried after the mixed reviews but I don't know why - Cage's games have always been love/hate affairs and I've usually been in the "love " column. Beyond is no different.

I don't know why the nonlinear storytelling is so bothersome to some people. I am actually finding the structure quite intriguing. Maybe it will wear on me after a few more hours, but so far I'm not having any problems keeping up or seeing how all the pieces fit together.

I do feel like interaction is even more limited than it was in Heavy Rain - which I thought had more gameplay than people gave it credit for - but so far it isn't hampering my fun.

I'm about 3 hours in, I don't like how the story is broken up in such short sections.

It's pretty easy so far.

I don't like moving around as Aiden, it's when you use the right stick to look around, the camera seems to go off axis so I'm always ending up looking sideways at something, I'm sure they did that on purpose, but it just makes me sick.

I played one level with the android tablet application, it just makes your tablet into a controller for the game, it works well, but it also makes the game easier if you can believe it, anywhere you get a prompt, you just tap, swipe or hold for extended press on the tablet. It would have been perfect if they had made a vita app, sticks and buttons and a touchscreen would have been perfect, hopefully people making Wii U games try this out, seems perfect for that platform too.

It's okay so far. I really liked the scene with Jodie at home, bored out of her mind. It reminded me of Heavy Rain, when you're at home with Shawn. The rest wasn't all that great, but I feel Quantic Dream is getting there, one game at a time. This one has good acting, which is pretty much a first for the studio, maybe the next one will have a good story.

I really hope so, because that's really the only thing lacking about their games to me.

Also, it looks incredible. This is a very cliché thing to say but I really can't believe this game is running on a PS3. Pretty mind blowing.

I think you share many of my few complaints with the game, otherwise i'm quite enjoying it myself. First and foremost the one thing i have the biggest issue with and so far is the only big complaint is the fighting control setup.

I understand the motivations behind streamlining the combat from heavy rain and i'm sure having companion apps/tablets was a motivation too. But moving the right stick in the direction of her hands gets confusing from time to time and i'm often making a mistake because i guessed wrong than lack of skill or know how. I much prefer how heavy rain did it and i liked how you had options as to what to do in a combat scene.

It is a bit jarring how you jump around in the story, nothing that's a big deal because i do like the unlocking the mystery bit by bit. But some scenes do feel out of nowhere or some emotions that you don't have contexts until later.

Lastly the script feels a little hammer fisted at times with things feeling forced to happen to get to an emotional point or story beat, which is not a big issue for me but it just does not feel natural at times.

I haven't played it but I might get it since I enjoyed heavy rain and indigo prophecy but this one seemed odd to me.

So for those who played it how would you guys rate it?

Gameplay:?

Visuals:?

Writing:?

Story:?

Presentation:?

I just finished it and overall i feel like the story really grabbed me emotionally. Of course the supernatural stuff was cliche(i guess David Cage has a stiffy for that kinda stuff) but atleast it's upfront about it and doesn't throw it at you near the end like Fahrenheit(IP).

I was kinda hoping that completing the story would unlock a Linear Story Mode but it seems the only way to do that is to back out to the menu and go to chapter select(when you replay a chapter it still jumps to the next scripted chapter after that one).

The ending was predictable and could've been seen from Mars but it was more about the emotional resonance of Jodi's story. My Ending: I chose Life and picked Ryan(didn't like him at first but warmed up to him later). Will probably go back and see what the "Beyond" ending looks like. Without getting into spoiler territory it definitely looks like David Cage may turn this into a trilogy.

5 Stars: I'm a sucker for games that evoke emotion and Ellen Page and Willem Dafoe both put on spectacular perfomances.

@spraynardtatum said:

The game(and my PS3) crashed on me TWICE. Both during The Mission sequence, aside from that i have had occasional hitches whenever the game saves but that's about it.

I wonder if Sony will port it to next-gen when the PS4 comes out. Would be awesome to see all those beautifully mo-capped faces with just a little more power and memory.

I kind of want to see what other nonsense the other endings have in store but I don't know I might just be good to throw this one on the shelf and be done. My take away is that I liked it the acting of Ellen Page and most of the main cast was fantastic , the music was great and the action actually was better than Heavy Rain or Indigo Prophecy. I just wish that someone else besides David Cage wrote this game because the concept it self is actually pretty fascinating. Its just such a narcissistic script that cage has written that really left me gritting my teeth and actively pausing the game to consider what non-sense I had just seen. My short take is Rent it. Experience it. Be done with it.

I can't help but feel that people simply don't get it. I haven't played the game but a lot of the complaints seem to be about the gameplay or the lack thereof. I look at these types of games more to that of a puzzle game or a modern take on the point and click adventure. Even TellTale's TWD and their other games are some what evolved from this yet why are people condemning it here and labeling it as an interactive movie while TWD won numerous GotY awards? I'm simply asking in terms of gameplay only here.

I enjoyed it.

The best chapters for me were definitely "Homeless" and the teenage angst chapter following it.

At first, the controls and non-linear storytelling were unpleasant, but in the end only the controls still felt weird to me as I started appreciating how the story was conveyed.

The story itself got rather cheesy by the end in particular, but I found myself liking how ridiculous the ending was regardless.

Ending spoilers: I chose life since I thought that she'd just end up 'Beyond' when she died anyways so why not live life to its fullest. Was bummed when I saw that returning to the world of the living was messing up her memory and when the chance to choose her fate occurred, I went with Zoey mostly out of curiosity since I wasn't certain what that would imply. I was glad what it involved was reuniting with the "Homeless" chapter characters living a stable life. It was also funny and rather compelling how it ends in a post-apocalypse with Jodie as a hero and a grown up Zoey as her apprentice or something.

I tried the "Alone" ending and it felt less satisfying to me, but it was cool to see that Aiden returns in that one and he apparently does as well in the Ryan ending?

The twist that Aiden was Jodie's brother was all too predictable. Actually, perhaps predictable is the wrong word for it since I hadn't convinced myself that that's what he was, but their relationship was too much like a brother and sister for me to be surprised when that's literally what they were.

Given how bad the core reason David Cage wants people to play his games is (the writing), I have zero interest in playing Beyond. I had enough of his self-satisfied tripe playing Heavy Rain.

@hailinel: I mean, I can't blame you man I really can't. I don't think I've ever had a reaction to a story in a game where I literally paused the game at several scenes and just blankly stared at the screen trying to even process how the hell cage thought that was a good idea. At the same time Ellen Page's performance was pretty damn great and the girl did wonders with the garbage she was given and the premise itself is actually pretty cool I think. Just man, David Cage.

After Heavy Rain - admittedly, not a masterpiece either - I just find it baffling how hard Beyond leans into the same blockbuster tropes that you can find in any other AAA console game. In this game, you assassinate a third world leader, fight cops atop a speeding train, sabotage an underwater fake-Chinese base, and stop mankind from destroying itself three times. Some of the shit that happens in Beyond is just nuts, especially given Cage's finger-wagging at the rest of the industry.

I like it, I don't like it, I love it, I don't even know. I'm certainly glad I played it.

David Cage's narcissistic comments about how he is the sole saviour of video game storytelling are obviously terrible, but he seems to be an okay director. There are some awesome performances in this game. I was already on board the Ellen Page train, but holy shit man. Seeing her act her ass off through the different stages of Jodie's life is just my jam. I was a little confused about Willem Defoe's casting. I don't think I've ever seen him play a sympathetic or soft character. After seeing the ending, it makes a little more sense to me.

The standouts for me were Homeless and almost everything with child Jodie. The birthday party also left a huge impression on me.

Oh yeah! The most important thing about this game: So many good hugs! When mopey child Jodie nagged her mom just to get a hug my heart broke so good. And I squeezed Mr. Bunny Gruff so tight. I'm glad she kept him all the way to the end.

Man, I don't know why people hate on the story so much. It's not the most amazingly written thing, but it's still miles ahead of 99.9% of the games out there. Granted, I'm only just past The Condenser, but I thought Indigo Prophecy and Heavy Rain were mostly a-OK as well so maybe I just have a blind spot to whatever it is that makes David Cage games the worst thing ever. I'm playing it co-op with my Beyoncé and I gotta admit, control-wise, some of the slo-mo prompts for Jodie seem really fucking ambiguous. I thought it would be easier for her to navigate using the iPad but surprisingly enough, she finds it more comfortable with the controller. It's fun playing as Aidan though, floating around being gleefully malevolent. I kinda miss the super specific controls for all the mundane shit like opening doors, but the White Dot system makes the game flow significantly better.

I'll probably end up playing through the game a second time solo, just to see how much can change. Maybe exclusively using the app just so I can fully appreciate the craziness of that game. Then I'll be able to get back to GTA.

@starvinggamer: How the hell does co-op even work? It can't be split screen can it? I wouldn't think the PS3 would be able to handle rendering everything in the game twice over.

I watched a Livestream of the game... I just wanted the story and I will say... it doesn't shit the bed, like Indigo did (toward the end) or have the holes that Heavy Rain did but MAAAAAAANNNNN thank baby Jesus for Ellen Page just killing it as Jodie. Her performance was good enough to hide some of the short comings (SOME), but once the ending(s) hit I was glad I didn't drop money for this game... Ghostpocalypse?

@onemanx: You should probably hide that spoiler at the end there.

True that. When people praise games like Tomb Raider or Far Cry 3 for being well writen, I find it weird that Quantic Dream gets so much hate, but then their games are 100% story-driven, so it's probably fair to be a bit more demanding, to a degree.

I just finished the game myself, and I thought they actually improved on the writing quite a bit. It's not completely nonsensical like Fahrenheit, it's not full of plot holes like Heavy Rain, and some of the dialog is actually not that bad. You still get a lot of embarrassingly bad lines and some of the more emotional moments felt unearned, but overall I enjoyed it.

I remain convinced that with a great story and better writing, Quantic Dream would make something truly unforgettable. Maybe next time.

People call Far Cry 3 well written?

@demoskinos: Second player uses either another dualshock, a move controller or a tablet/smartphone. And its all on the same screen. The second person controls Aiden only.

You can also play the game by yourself with a tablet or smartphone: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.quanticdream.beyondtouch

Also I about lost my shit when I just gave QTE commands to a little girl, so she could play with her barbies.

Yeah that's maybe not the best example, but yes some people will tell you it's well written. It was also nominated for a BAFTA, for its story. That was pretty funny.

I really enjoyed the time i put into it. Over the 10ish hours i was always eager to see what will come next and was never bored. I liked seeing the character interactions and loved Ellen Page and Willem Dafoe, to me all the characters were all well done enough. Over all i really like the presentation and story until a certain point [up until Jodie meets with her mother, every thing after that felt so different and out of place....like infraworld and needlessly high stakes], even after that point i liked it well enough. I also enjoyed the non-linear sequence of events, it made me more interested and its reasonably explained in the ending.

The only things i did not like was the "game part" and the ending. Granted I don't find these to be big faults and over all i think i really loved this game (might just be Ellen Page) but they are definitely ways to improve on this type of game that David Cage wants to make. If the ending would of taken a different direction and the more interactive parts were more interesting then this game would of been something amazing to me instead of great but flawed. I chose the Life/Zoey ending since Cole and Ryan died in mine and that last shot in the game was pretty terrible to me.....a what seemed to be a Jodie and Zoey in a post apocalyptic ifraword was a bit too much even if i can see what is ment by it.

Also on an end note I was really expecting to see something come from that freaky face in that Garage

]Edit* Also during the homeless part i really thought i was gonna make Ellen Page suck a dick for $10 and was mortified that i was making her do it.

I really enjoyed it (as I do with most david cage games), but I completely understand why other people will hate it.

Yeah. One player is Josie and one is Aidan. It works pretty much like the regular game, switch when you want to with Triangle or whenever the game switches you automatically. It's actually a pretty amazing split for what I imagine the typical couple playing the game would be, one gamer and one casual/non-gamer. The Josie stuff is all the QTE fail if you want to stuff and the 3rd person movement is fairly easy to wrap your head around. All the Aidan stuff is much more pass/fail task oriented and flying around as a disembodied spirit on two sticks can be a fucking nightmare for people who don't game regularly.

Yeah, but it's become a case of criticize your cake and eat it too. The people bashing the story are almost always bashing the gameplay as well, despite the fact that Beyond is a decidedly not gameplay-driven experience. It seems like such a disproportionate response that I have to imagine a number of the people bemoaning Beyond's gameplay were willing to give The Walking Dead a free pass last year.

I'm enjoying it immensely. The train scene near the beginning and the chase that followed it was gorgeous and cinematic and one of the tensest things I've played this year.

Can we all agree that the game sets the new high water mark for character models? Multiple times I thought is that real ellen page or cg ellen page

OK.

Now I just want them to make MORE Beyond-style games. Video Game experience of the year.

Just got past the Navajo chapter, and I am loving it. Have no idea why some people are being so hard on it story wise. I get that it isn't perfect, but man, it seems like people are amplifying every little flaw. I really think that if it keeps it up, I'll end up liking it even beter than Indigo Prophecy and Heavy Rain. The thing I've found most frustrating about most of the extreme criticism is that the same things can EASILY be applied to The Walking Dead, yet everyone treats that like the second coming. Way too much of a double standard. The Walking Dead isn't much more interactive, it's choices aren't much more consequential, the gameplay sections are not great at all(heck, I hated anytime I had to interact with TWD, whereas I actually enjoy the action scenes in Beyond), and on top of that, it's loaded with TONS of technical problems(which isn't actually a problem with Beyond). Don't get me wrong, I thought TWD was stellar, I'm just saying it's ridiculous that people weren't as hard on that as they were with Cage games. Also, fun Easter Egg spoiler...

In the Homeless chapter, you pass a guy early on that's reading a newspaper on a bench. If you either pull out as Aiden, or get the right camera angle with Jodie, you see that the paper has an article on the fact that the haven't caught the Origami Killer yet. So good.

Putting this into perspective for myself: I just recently played GTAV, an action packed, comedy game in a highly popular series I've been following since the beginning and I wasn't half as entertained as I was with Beyond: Two Souls. Who'da thunk it?

I think I felt bored with the drive to location A and do this and that, follow the GPS, drive to location B chores of the GTA game, and instead with Beyond it was like bam-bam-bam hitting you in the face with weird/funny/awesome situations to experience with good variety and pacing. Great acting too, for most part. But it was the ending I got that sealed it for me: I really liked Beyond and I want more.

The story driven game with the well written story gets universal acclaim while the story driven game with the poorly written story gets mixed reviews. Seems pretty straightforward to me.

@professoress:

not at all. think of the latest COD and Battlefield. Its the same thing over and over. Terrorist, nukes, team dies, kill everyone. Yet these games get massive sales and have 'universal acclaim'. Its just a story driven game is not as popular unfortunately so they are picked apart unless lol well throw some zombies in there and tie it to a 'universally acclaimed' title. anyways is sad considering how many people like to complain about just the SOS with FPS and rehashes of the same games and when we get new ground breaking material they are just like Mr. Magoo the professor with a red pen. bah is say! bah!

Oh man, I was gonna steer clear of anyone else's opinions and writing down any of my thoughts until I had finished the game, but I need to say something, anything about this game because I think it veers from being a collection of scenes where you go "Oh, Ok video game" to bordering on atrocious. When you look at it from the gameplay side of things Beyond is a bad game. The most you ever do is hold down two buttons (other than that one time where I held three) and the vast majority of the time you are pulling up on the stick and moving at unnaturally slow speeds. Even when the game seems like it's being urgent Jodie often just shuffles her way in the direction of the goal.

It hasn't all been bad though, when it veers into horror like the shutting off of the machine and the moments when Jodie as a child is dealing with the supernatural it works pretty well, but then it returns to the other stuff it is a game with overblown, out of place music and in your face emotional moments that is like CARE ABOUT THIS! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE! I just finished the Navajo sequence and I was prompted with two options for a character I barely knew... Hug or kiss. I chose kiss because I wanted to see if it just went into some awkward thing, but the game presented me with a romantic kiss (and a trophy, yo) This one prompt might as well have been the "Wanna fuck?" romance option from Saints Row IV... Just... I dunno *deep breath*

Game looks super pretty despite some graphical pops and weirdness here and there... I Liked Heavy Rain a lot.

@gunstarred:

hey spoiler tags you jerk! dont read gunstarred unless you want a hate filled mess of spoilers. anyways dont know why anyone would even want to read a review or visit the forums due to spoilers and that negative views have a way of ruining a game. to much positive on a game could be too much hype 2. anyways i know i saw a 3.5 star review on it on accident just the rating tag, and that alone ruined the very start and made me kept expecting something terrible about the game. because heavy rain did better across the board as reviews go. but no, guess i was lucky. i looooove this game. go shoot some people if you dont like interactive stories or spook tales. bah!

@lusence: I talked around anything important and a lot of stuff I mention was in promotional videos.

whoa i thought that homeless section was one of the most powerful story pieces in gaming history. so yah HUUUUUGE spoiler alert there... I dont even watch game trailers. takes them 3+ years to make a stinking game, and only one sec to spoil it all...i fact just me saying how much i like a certain section would be enough of a spoiler for me. thats why its always best to finish a good AAA game first before even looking into forums, trailers, opinions etc. draw your own conclusion first from scrat ch, then you can judge with a clear mind.

@gunstarred: Precisely my problem as well. I also think like Scoops and Alex said on today's morning show the times where he isn't leaning on goofy-ass sci-fi stuff and letting you do things like the example they gave of the scene with the date and just getting ready and choosing what you wear and what to fix for dinner. That stuff the quiet personal moments where he isn't trying to smack you over the head with un-earned emotional moments ARE the best moments in that game. I've got like three days off here coming up and one of those days I think I'm going to go through a second time and just make slightly different choices and see how much that tweaks my interest either way.

I just finished this today and for the most part I enjoyed it quite a bit. There were a few things I wasn't a big fan of but overall I think it's Quantic Dream's best game. I can understand why some people wouldn't like it and that's fine. All I know is I enjoyed the time I put into the game so it was worth playing to me.

This game is all over the place for me. I love it one minute. Then a few minutes later I am saying out loud what a terrible and shitty game it is. Then 20 minutes or so later I am telling myself how cool the game is. Then the cycle starts over.

@misogynist_the_klown: Pretty much my same experience. Haha.