Another flawed, enjoyable interactive movie from Quantic Dream.
As someone who rather enjoyed developer Quantic Dream’s previous game, Heavy Rain, I had high expectations for Beyond: Two Souls. I’m well aware of the litany of issues that many point to with regards to Heavy Rain. The awkward voice acting, frustrating controls, narrative with too many holes, and pressing X to Jason were often cited to disparage the game. Despite these issues I found enough in the game's mystery and attention to the mundane to have an enjoyable experience. Beyond suffers from most of these same issues. Protagonist Jodie Holmes is a girl who has difficulty walking around a room. Her movement never feels quite right, getting stuck on geometry or walking in an unintended direction. Her companion, the ethereal spirit Aiden, has some control issues of his own. Movement with Aiden is a loose, swimmy affair that can be hard to handle with any precision.
The story plays out like a playlist of Jodie’s early life, played on shuffle. Each chapter of the game is a randomly placed vignette of an important moment. These range from shorter scenes, such as an interview with adolescent Jodie, to complete side stories that are encapsulated within the larger narrative. The scattered nature of these scenes makes the early game less impactful, the events on screen don’t have any meaning until we get to know these characters. Ultimately I think the non-linear approach to the story works. They dish out information in an order that kept me intrigued throughout. I finished the game in three long sessions and I think the appeal of unfolding the story was a large reason why. The writing isn't always completely coherent and occasionally veers off in some odd directions but overall I didn't find anything offensively bad. The story is about a girl and her ghost, it’s bound to go to some strange places.
While the story functions well enough the biggest achievement of this game is the acting. Ellen Page, Willem Dafoe, and much of the supporting cast put on very convincing performances. Only occasionally will a character slip into the odd faux American accent found throughout Heavy Rain. The motion capture work, particularly the facial animations, really lend to the performances. Much like The Last of Us and Bioshock Infinite before it, the game is able to overcome some questionable and divisive gameplay mechanics by providing effective digital acting. I’m a sucker for a game that is telling a story, and good acting helps tell those stories immensely.
Watching all of this performance play out is Aiden. I often found myself curiously searching through buildings to discover what other characters were doing in Jodie’s absence. The game shows restraint in blatantly pointing you in these directions. This helps generate a feeling of voyeuristic discovery. As an optional way to fill in the story I found this made for a much more believable world, one that exists beyond the protagonist's presence.
Aiden’s interaction with the world is often sparse and minimal. There are plenty of moments where you can fling a table or open a door but this never amounts to more than using the analog sticks to pull two dots apart, or push them together. In combat sequences you do occasionally possess or kill an enemy soldier, but there is not much consistency to when this option is present. As with the rest of the game, the mechanics here aren't that interesting and are only occasionally satisfying.
There are moments when you have the chance to use Aiden to really cause some damage. When presented with an opportunity for revenge after Jodie had been mistreated, I was able to exact a little payback, scare the offenders, without hurting anyone. I enjoyed the ability to ramp things up but also apply the brakes before it spun too out of control. This level of gradation helped to prevent dissonance between what I want the characters to be and what the game makes them do.
Like Heavy Rain before it, the obfuscation of choice that occurs throughout the game helps make it special. Except for a few key moments I rarely found myself presented with anything binary. Every scene appears to have branching paths and many little choices present themselves not as “Game Decisions” but simply deviations of the path you are on. It's a credit to the game that the seams in the story are hidden well enough that it played out in very natural way. Never did I stop to second guess my actions.
Your enjoyment of the game will likely come down to whether you like Quantic Dream’s particular brand of interactive cinema or not. If you enjoyed Heavy Rain or Indigo Prophecy you will find plenty to enjoy in Beyond. David Cage and team have stuck to their guns and made another one of their games despite some of the criticism following Heavy Rain. If a decent narrative and strong acting is enough to keep your interest then these are games worth your time. If your enjoyment of games is more mechanically situated then you should probably look elsewhere. As I said before, I'm a sucker for a story, and I found enough to enjoy in this one.
