Beyond Two Souls

[Kdestiny]

This came out yesterday and I didn't see a thread so I figured I'd make one.

This game is by the Quantic Dream who also did Indigo Prophecy and Heavy Rain.

It really is a great game and is one that has more replay value than Heavy Rain did. The voice acting was loads better and I really did get immersed in the game. A very unique concept and it was pulled off very well.

Am I the only one who has played this?

[Psycho666Soldier]

I plan on buying it once I finally finish GTA V. I loved Heavy Rain so much that I couldn't possibly miss this game. So it's better than Heavy Rain? Did you BEAT IT already?!

[The Rick]

The reviews are much like Heavy Rain in that scores are all over the place. I want to pick it up and experience it, but that will probably have to wait until the holidays.

[GeezaTap]

I had this on pre-order. but I bottled it and cancelled after the review scores were all over the place.

I think with the sci-fi approach, it won't sell as well and I can get it cheap soon. Yeah i'm a cheapskate.

[Jay]

I've had it pre-ordered for months; I managed to bag the special edition for £30 from Amazon, but it isn't released until tomorrow here in the UK. I haven't been put off by the reviews at all as they've mostly been positive, plus as has been mentioned already, it was the case with Heavy Rain and that was a great game - I loved it. And for that, I just had to have this game on day one.

[Kdestiny]

I plan on buying it once I finally finish GTA V. I loved Heavy Rain so much that I couldn't possibly miss this game. So it's better than Heavy Rain? Did you BEAT IT already?!

It is not a long game, similar to Heavy Rain, but I definitely enjoyed it more

[Bad Collin]

It sounds like it is more like an interactive film than a game.

[The Rogerer]

I didn't see this through to the end. I really enjoyed Heavy Rain. This game was pretty similar in playstyle, but not as good an experience.

The story constantly jumps back and forward in time. I would say to David Cage, "Okay, jumping about in a story is going to make the viewer feel disconnected, what are you going to do to prevent that and weave it all together" and it appears the answer was nothing. I felt that even though the story of Heavy Rain doesn't bear scrutiny afterwards, it had a series of amazing moments. It seemed like jumping around the timeline was just an excuse to weave a bunch of setpiece ideas together without worrying about how they fit. I really enjoyed the homeless chapter, until it got hokey at the end, I felt that was the strength of the game in telling stories and giving you that empathy.

I think the problem with releasing this as a commercial game is the a) making sure the player has something gamey to do and b) it has to be at least 8-10 hours or people will feel ripped off. Then you get a story that really shouldn't be that long, and you're given gamey challenges to do which involves sections of bonking 10 ghosts on the nose. Going through the 'bases' of the game was a complete low point and felt like the most obligatory stuff in counter to the rest of the game.

There's also an issue where a lot of the game wasn't really fleshed out if you didn't want to go on a murderous rampage. I appreciate that you could just walk away from situations, but it just resulted in "Okay, that scene went absolutely nowhere".

The breaking point was the scene with the Navajo. Aside from the lazy implications of 'well they're native americans so they know about ghosts when no-one else does', that section of the game lasts for at least an hour. In the plot synopsis on wikipedia, it can be reduced to "She helps a navajo family with a ghost".

I know my 13 year old niece had the game and I can imagine from her perspective it was awesome. I'm not a 13 year old girl sadly. Even when Heavy Rain was silly, at least there was the constant pressure of saving the son, catching the killer, and preventing bad things happening. Most of Beyond was you reliving the 'past', so it doesn't matter as much what happens, and you won't get to see the aftermath anyway.