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Aggregating review websites [[GameRankings]] and [[Metacritic]] rated the game 72.92% and 72/100, respectively.<ref name="GR"/><ref name="MC"/> Reviewers praised [[Ellen Page]]'s character portrayal of Jodie Holmes, many of the other actors, and the amount of details in the game's animations and graphics.
Aggregating review websites [[GameRankings]] and [[Metacritic]] rated the game 72.92% and 72/100, respectively.<ref name="GR"/><ref name="MC"/> Reviewers praised [[Ellen Page]]'s character portrayal of Jodie Holmes, many of the other actors, and the amount of details in the game's animations and graphics.


[[IGN]] criticized the game for making the gaming experience too passive and unrewarding, and its plot too muddy and unfocused.<ref name="IGN"/> [[Joystiq]] criticized its lack of solid character interaction and unbelievable plot, noting its unintended silliness.<ref name="Joystiq"/>
[[IGN]] criticized the game for making the gaming experience too passive and unrewarding, and its plot too muddy and unfocused.<ref name="IGN"/> [[Joystiq]] criticized its lack of solid character interaction and unbelievable plot, noting its unintended silliness.<ref name="Joystiq"/> [[Destructoid]] criticized the game's thin character presentation and and frequent narrative dead ends.<ref name="Destructoid"/>


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Revision as of 11:35, 19 October 2013

Beyond: Two Souls
Developer(s)Quantic Dream
Publisher(s)Sony Computer Entertainment
Director(s)David Cage
Producer(s)Guillaume de Fondaumiere
Artist(s)François Baranger
Benoit Godde
Writer(s)David Cage
Composer(s)Normand Corbeil
Lorne Balfe
Platform(s)PlayStation 3
Genre(s)Interactive drama, action-adventure
Mode(s)Single-player

Beyond: Two Souls is an interactive drama action-adventure video game for the PlayStation 3 console, developed by French developer Quantic Dream. It stars actors Ellen Page and Willem Dafoe, and was released on 8 October 2013 in North America,[1] 9 October 2013 in Australia,[2] 11 October 2013 in Europe[3] and 17 October 2013 in Japan.[4]

Gameplay

Plot

The game is told in a nonlinear narrative, skipping back and forth between three points in the main character's life. This plot summary is the story in chronological order.

Eight year old Jodie Holmes (Caroline Wolfson) lives on a military base with her foster parents, Philip and Susan. Since birth, Jodie has had a strange psychic connection with a mysterious entity named Aiden, through whom she can perform many strange and often frightening telepathic acts, such as possessing peoples' minds, strangling them to death, and manipulating certain objects. After an incident with some neighborhood kids results in Aiden almost killing one of them, Jodie's parents seek psychiatric help for her condition. This leads them to doctors Nathan Dawkins (Willem Dafoe) and Cole Freeman (Kadeem Hardison) of the Department of Paranormal Activity with whom they leave her indefinitely.

Under the two doctors' care, Jodie slowly learns to control Aiden and the powers they share. During this time, Nathan learns that his wife and daughter were killed in a car accident, which leaves him depressed. In trying to comfort him, Jodie discovers that she can channel spirits of the dead to help them talk to the living through a psychic link caused by physical contact with the living. Being able to talk to his family brings Nathan comfort. As the years pass, Jodie (Ellen Page) seeks her independence, both from the doctors and from Aiden, and tries several times to live a normal life. Each attempt ends in disaster and results in her having to be saved by Aiden.

At one point, Nathan is informed by his superiors that their condenser, a portal which connects the world of the living with the world of the dead, called the Infraworld, is going haywire and they ask for Jodie's help. After braving many hostile entities, Jodie manages to shut the condenser down and warns Nathan not to let them build another. This gets the attention of the CIA, who send agent Ryan Clayton (Eric Winter) to recruit Jodie. Though she says no at first, she isn't given a choice and reluctantly goes with him. After weeks of training, she passes and is made an agent. She goes on multiple missions, often with Ryan, whom she slowly becomes attracted to. Depending on the player's choice, Jodie can enter a romantic relationship with Ryan.

Eventually, Jodie is sent to an African country to assassinate a warlord. With the help of Aiden and a young boy named Salim, she succeeds. One of the casualties of the attack is revealed to be Salim's father, turning him on her just as she is picked up by Ryan. On a plane back to base, Jodie is enraged to hear on the news that the man she killed wasn't a warlord but the country's benign president. Despite Ryan's pleas, she flees in digust. Branded a traitor, she flees across the country from CIA forces, whom she has to fight many times. Along the way, she befriends a group of homeless people, one of whom she helps give birth to a baby girl named Zoey, and a family of Native Americans whom she saves from a malevolent entity.

Eventually, she contacts Cole, who she asks to find her real mother. He manages to find her mother, Norah Gray, in a mental hospital, where she's been catatonic since Jodie's birth. Upon linking with her, Jodie learns that Norah had a similar link to an entity which the CIA feared made her a danger to both herself and Jodie. So after she had her, she was injected with a serum that left her catatonic. Upset by this, Jodie reluctantly has Aiden euthanize Norah. To make matters worse, she's promptly captured by the CIA right after.

The CIA hands Jodie over to Nathan, who is now the executive director of the DPA. He reveals to Jodie that the CIA is willing to let her go and live her life if they do them one last favor. After a briefing, it is revealed that a Chinese military facility has built their own condenser. Desperate to keep the condenser technology exclusive to the CIA and its allies, the CIA sends Jodie to destroy the condenser. Ryan and her old colleagues at the CIA are sent in as her support team, where tensions are still present. Trekking across heavily snowing fields, the team manages to follow a convoy to the facility, where Jodie and Ryan, disguised in the uniforms of two deceased soldiers, take a pilfered submarine to the base, only to be captured. To make matters worse, Aiden is separated from Jodie by a containment field meant to keep entities away from the living. Luckily, he manages to deactivate the containment field, unleashing the other entities on the soldiers, and frees Jodie and Ryan. Jodie destroys the condenser and they make their escape.

Back at the CIA, Jodie is seemingly let go and given a new identity. However, before she leaves, Nathan reveals a miniaturized condenser he built to speak exclusively to his family. Unfortunately, when he and Jodie perform the psychic link, she realizes that his actions are making them suffer and leaves him to consider this. When she tries to leave, however, she's recaptured by the CIA. CIA head General McGrath informs her that she's been deemed too dangerous and they're going to do to her what they did to her mother. To make matters worse, Nathan soon appears and informs Jodie that he's decided to shut down the containment field to the DPA's newest condenser, merging the two worlds together and making death meaningless. Too weak to free Jodie, Aiden contacts Ryan and Cole and leads them to her. After Nathan succeeds in shutting down the containment field, the three chase after him into the heart of the condenser, codenamed the Black Sun, with the intent of destroying it.

During the trek towards the Black Sun, Cole is injured by entities and Ryan sacrifices his own safety to keep Jodie going. Eventually, she confronts Nathan near the Black Sun, resulting in one of three possible outcomes. Either Jodie talks sense into Nathan, causing him to commit suicide or fails that and has Nathan turn a gun on her, leading to either Aiden killing him or Nathan and Ryan killing each other. Either way, Nathan reunites with his family and points Jodie forward. As Jodie shuts down the control to the condenser, she has a series of visions which makes her realize who Aiden is: her stillborn twin brother. After turning off the machine, Jodie ends up in a corridor, where she (and the player) has a choice: to go back to the world of the living, or to go on to the Beyond. If the player fails to destroy the Black Sun, entities overwhelm Jodie and kill her, and Jodie's soul is guilt stricken after the living world is destroyed by the Infraworld.

If the player chooses to return, Jodie survives the explosion of the condenser, but she loses her psychic connection with Aiden. Depending on prior choices, Cole and Ryan can also survive the explosion. Finally left alone, Jodie's memories of the past slowly become scrambled and she decides to start a whole new life. At this point, the player chooses whether Jodie's new life is alone, with her homeless friends (who are no longer homeless), with the Native Americans, or with Ryan. Choosing to be alone, with the Native Americans or Ryan reveals that Aiden is still watching over Jodie even though their link has been severed. After discovering Aiden's presence, Jodie reveals her dreams of a possible post-apocalyptic future where she alone stands between the Infraworld and humanity. Choosing her formerly homeless friends results in Jodie facing that future with Zoey at her side. Choosing the Infraworld results in Ryan, Cole (assuming they have survived) or the military discovering Jodie's corpse. Jodie keeps watch over her living loved ones while maintaining a psychic connection with Zoey (the scrambled memories here being the result of Zoey having difficulty understanding what she sees), whom she prepares to face the possible post-apocalyptic future alone.

Development

Quantic Dream CEO David Cage first announced Beyond: Two Souls at Sony's press conference during the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2012. A debut trailer featuring in-game graphics was released during the press conference. Unlike Quantic Dream's previous game Heavy Rain, Beyond: Two Souls will not be PlayStation Move compatible.[5] Actress Ellen Page noted that the script for the game is around 2000 pages long.[6]

Beyond: Two Souls was the final project of composer Normand Corbeil, who died of pancreatic cancer on 25 January 2013.[7] Composer Lorne Balfe, who composed the soundtrack for Assassin's Creed III, replaced Corbeil as the game's composer, after Corbeil's death.[8] Balfe's long-time collaborator Hans Zimmer joined him as producer in August 2013.[9]

On 27 April 2013, a new trailer released, and 35 minutes of the game were screened at the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival with both Page and Cage in attendance. This marks the second time a video game has been recognized by the film festival, the first time being 2011's L.A. Noire.[10]

Release

On 5 September 2013 it was announced via the PlayStation Blog that a demo for Beyond: Two Souls will be released 1 October 2013 in the United States, 2 October for Europe and 3 October for Japan. Despite the demo's official release, a few users of the paid subscription service PlayStation Plus got the demo earlier than the expected release date which is 24 September 2013. GameStop gave a limited number of beta keys out on 24 September 2013 to let gamers play the demo before its official release.[11][12][13][14] The European version of the game is censored to keep the PEGI rating at 16 instead of 18. Two changes were made to the version, amounting to 5-10 seconds of gameplay.[15]

Reception

Aggregating review websites GameRankings and Metacritic rated the game 72.92% and 72/100, respectively.[16][17] Reviewers praised Ellen Page's character portrayal of Jodie Holmes, many of the other actors, and the amount of details in the game's animations and graphics.

IGN criticized the game for making the gaming experience too passive and unrewarding, and its plot too muddy and unfocused.[29] Joystiq criticized its lack of solid character interaction and unbelievable plot, noting its unintended silliness.[30] Destructoid criticized the game's thin character presentation and and frequent narrative dead ends.[34]

References

  1. ^ a b Osgood, Derek (1 March 2013). "Willem Dafoe, Ellen Page Star in BEYOND: Two Souls October 8th". Playstation.com. Retrieved 25 June 2013.
  2. ^ a b Roberts, Brendan (4 June 2013). "Beyond: Two Souls Release Date Announced". Progress Bar. Retrieved 27 June 2013.
  3. ^ a b Ivan, Tom (3 June 2013). "Beyond: Two Souls UK release date confirmed". GamesRadar. Retrieved 27 June 2013.
  4. ^ a b "BEYOND: Two Souls Release On 17 October In Japan". Senpai Gamer. 1 August 2013. Retrieved 31 August 2013.
  5. ^ "Heavy Rain dev confirms work on PS4 game has begun". Eurogamer.net. 21 March 2013. Retrieved 21 March 2013.
  6. ^ Pham, Alex (19 July 2012). "Ellen Page is 'Beyond' real in 'emotional and subversive' game". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 29 August 2012.
  7. ^ "Heavy Rain Composer Normand Corbeil Passes Away, Age 56". Joystiq. 28 January 2013. Retrieved 16 April 2013.
  8. ^ "Lorne Balfe to score the video game BEYOND – TWO SOULS". Hans-Zimmer.com. 14 April 2013. Retrieved 25 June 2013.
  9. ^ Conditt, Jessica (22 August 2013). "Beyond: Two Souls soundtrack from Hans Zimmer and Lorne Balfe". Joystiq. Retrieved 23 August 2013.
  10. ^ Pinsof, Allistair (28 April 2013). "Beyond: Two Souls Tribeca trailer + 35 minutes of footage". Destructoid. Retrieved 25 June 2013.
  11. ^ "Beyond: Two Souls Demo Coming October 1st – PlayStation.Blog". Blog.us.playstation.com. Retrieved 25 September 2013.
  12. ^ Meitzler, Ryan (12 September 2013). "Beyond: Two Souls Demo Giving Early Access to PS+ Subscribers Later This Month". DualShockers. Retrieved 3 October 2013.
  13. ^ "PlayStation Store update: FIFA 14, Ratchet Gladiator, Lone Survivor, more". PlyaStation Blog. 25 September 2013. Retrieved 25 September 2013.
  14. ^ Makuch, Eddie (24 September 2013). "GameStop now offering Beyond: Two Souls beta keys". GameSpot.com. Retrieved 25 September 2013.
  15. ^ Yin-Poole, Wesley (1 October 2013). "Sony confirms Beyond censored in Europe". Eurogamer. Gamer Network. Retrieved 1 October 2013.
  16. ^ a b "Beyond: Two Souls for PlayStation 3". GameRankings. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 8 October 2013.
  17. ^ a b "Beyond: Two Souls for PlayStation 3 Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 8 October 2013.
  18. ^ "Beyond: Two Souls review". Edge. Future plc. 8 October 2013. Retrieved 8 October 2013.
  19. ^ Harmon, Josh (8 October 2013). "EGM Review: Beyond: Two Souls". Electronic Gaming Monthly. Retrieved 8 October 2013.
  20. ^ Welsh, Oli (8 October 2013). "A Flawed Epic – Beyond: Two Souls review". Eurogamer. Eurogamer Network. Retrieved 8 October 2013.
  21. ^ Helgeson, Matt (8 October 2013). "Beyond: Two Souls". Game Informer. GameStop. Retrieved 8 October 2013.
  22. ^ Tan, Nick (8 October 2013). "Beyond: Two Souls Review". Game Revolution. Retrieved 8 October 2013.
  23. ^ McShea, Tom (8 October 2013). "Beyond: Two Souls Review". GameSpot. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 8 October 2013.
  24. ^ Betka, Zach (8 October 2013). "Beyond: Two Souls". GamesRadar. Future plc. Retrieved 8 October 2013.
  25. ^ "Beyond: Two Souls Review". GamesTM. 8 October 2013. Retrieved 8 October 2013.
  26. ^ "Beyond: Two Souls Review Text". GameTrailers. 8 October 2013. Retrieved 8 October 2013.
  27. ^ Liebl, Matt (8 October 2013). "Beyond: Two Souls Review: A captivating story with shallow gameplay". GameZone. Retrieved 8 October 2013.
  28. ^ Navarro, Alex (8 October 2013). "Beyond: Two Souls Review". Giant Bomb. Retrieved 8 October 2013.
  29. ^ a b O'Brien, Lucy (8 October 2013). "Beyond: Two Souls for PlayStation 3 Reviews". IGN. Ziff Davis. Retrieved 8 October 2013.
  30. ^ a b Kietzmann, Ludwig (8 October 2013). "Beyond: Two Souls review: Ever Tethered". Joystiq. AOL. Retrieved 8 October 2013.
  31. ^ Iwaniuk, Phil (8 October 2013). "Beyond: Two Souls review – an essential purchase for interactive-drama fans". PlayStation Official Magazine. Future plc. Retrieved 8 October 2013.
  32. ^ McElroy, Justin (8 October 2013). "Beyond: Two Souls review: hand in hand". Polygon. Vox Media. Retrieved 8 October 2013.
  33. ^ Burns, Steven (8 October 2013). "Beyond: Two Souls Review". VideoGamer.com. Retrieved 8 October 2013.
  34. ^ a b Sterling, Jim (8 October 2013). "Review: Beyond: Two Souls". Destructoid. Retrieved 8 October 2013.
  35. ^ Langshaw, Mark (8 October 2013). "'Beyond: Two Souls' review (PS3): Breathtakingly cinematic". Digital Spy. Retrieved 8 October 2013.
  36. ^ Tassi, Paul (8 October 2013). "'Beyond: Two Souls' Review: Paranormal Interactivity". Forbes. Retrieved 8 October 2013.
  37. ^ "Beyond: Two Souls review – Heavy Rain part 2". Metro. 8 October 2013. Retrieved 8 October 2013.
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