Beyond: Two Souls

It's a pretty-looking game with great voice-acting, an engaging plot and soundtrack. The primary reason I wanted this game was because I liked Heavy Rain, which allowed you to control four characters and solve a mystery, and by the end of the game, you might not even solve it. That illusion of choice made Heavy Rain exciting.

Beyond Two Souls misses that. It's certainly a great film, I'd love to sit down with family member, friend, or room mate and blast through the game's 2-player mode, heck, it's a great game for someone who isn't really a "gamer" (aka, has no intention of developing reflexes or dedication to learn the controls). But where Heavy Rain gave you a decent amount of liberty and allowed your characters to travel different roads, Beyond is a loose narrative that, while giving you choices, forces you along a straight path.

The plot is centered on Jodie and Aiden, and because of that, any life-threatening scenario is merely a red herring. At one point Jodie considers suicide, and I chose not to have her do it - I fully anticipated that this would be a bad ending. I decided to test this on my second playthrough, and the narrative prevents Jodie from doing it. It's still an emotional moment, but it reminds me that the plot can't continue without Jodie.

Heavy Rain had a mystery to solve, so while certain points in the gameplay became monotonous, walking around an office or a garage looking for a clue, I still wanted to progress the plot. Beyond Two Souls puts you at random points in Jodie's life, and if she's not being attacked by dark spirits that Aiden will quickly dissolve, she's struggling to live a normal life - this gets boring fast, particularly during the dreaded "down home on the ranch" chapter where we get to go through "Farm QT Es", like getting on a horse, lifting a bale of hay, etc. Exciting.

One thing that enticed me was the mention of multiple endings. Heavy Rain did this well, since certain characters could die and not make it to the end, but one part that bugged me was that characters "couldn't" die until a certain point. This isn't the Sims, and yes, game design requires a certain amount of linearity, but it bugged me. Beyond refuses to let Jodie die, so most of the plot points I thought would make a difference ended up not doing so. Most of the early choices in the game had zero impact on the ending. It boils down to "did you save this person? Well they cameo in the ending!" And then, like most "karmic systems", the game offers you a final choice at the end that outweighs everything Jodie has done up until that point. "Live or Die" to be frank. The ending was... hit-or-miss. It's kind of a sequel hook, the ending I chose at least (I chose the Die ending, because I felt that this was the entire point of the game - speaking of which).

The game advertises itself as "finding out what lies - BEYOND". Trust me, that's not where the story will go. You spend little time in the BEYOND (dubbed the "Infraworld" in-game) portion of the game. Most of that will be some creepy, sci-fi sections where Jodie and Aiden are forced to fend off dark spirits, but beyond that, little of the game is spent exploring the afterlife or the mysteries of death. Granted, that's a heavy subject to touch upon, but I walked into this game expecting some huge adventure about Jodie dealing with her own pet spirit, and spent most of my time controlling a young woman and destroying her sex life.

Time isn't a factor in Beyond. In Heavy Rain, time mattered - Ethan could be forced into a sinister test of character, Madison had to escape from an antagonist, Norman had to organize clues to find out the killer's identity. There is ONE instance of Beyond where time, I think, mattered. ONE. When Jodie is preparing dinner. This was an interesting level, because she has to prepare dinner, get clean and purdy, and clean up her mess of an apartment - you're forced to be Jodie and deal with Aiden who sabotages you at every turn.

Choices are hardly a factor. They apply some aesthetic changes to the narrative, you might hear a different conversation, or be a bit more violent, but your choices are often minimal. Early in the game, a younger Jodie is being tested for her connection to Aiden. When I first played, I decided to have Aiden rampage because I thought his relationship to Jodie would be unsteady at first, and gradually more cordial. The test was interrupted and the doctors raced in to protect Jodie. I was left with the assumption that I chose to be disruptive. My second time through, I had Aiden do EXACTLY what he was asked to do and tried to be as procedural as possible - and I got the SAME result. For doing NOTHING but what the plot asked of me - Jodie screams, the doctors panic and think Aiden's going out of control. I saw no other way to finish that chapter but to rampage as Aiden.

There's only one real plot twist in this game, and while it was a good one to me, it happened far too late in the game. There are four characters: Jodie, Nathan, Stan, and Cole, that are fleshed out and interesting. I truly felt for these three as the story progressed. The rest are all peripheral to Jodie and Aiden. It's funny how Heavy Rain managed to make me care about four characters and question all the rest (mystery), yet Beyond forces me to control two and only three others matter by the end.

It's a very pretty game. There was one portion of the game that made me tear up inside, and I'll spoil it for those still reading because I will say that this is the part of the game that truly makes me feel Jodie's character development. It's the "Homeless" chapter. If for nothing else, this is the level worth playing through, the one that offers a semblance of choice, emotion, struggle. Had the game ended on this level, I'd be content.

I think one of the greater disappointments about this game is Aiden. Once you find out what he is and how he's connected to Jodie, you'll appreciate him more, but the range of actions you can perform with him are rather limited. He's scripted, to be used when the plot deems him necessary. And Jodie will rely on him frequently, but in these scripted, cinematic moments that don't offer much variation.

Ultimately, the gameplay is nothing to write home about, subpar even. Action sequences aren't hard and if you want a very relaxed experience, it's great, but rarely more than pressing a button or moving a stick a few times. Coming off Heavy Rain, this is quite odd, because I remember the QT Es of that game being significantly more difficult. Jodie herself is a likable protagonist (depending on what decisions she makes) and while she does evolve, it's hard to say exactly how much influence on her you have. She could be a total brat as a child (hint at what my first playthrough was like), but she will still grow up to become an FBI agent (sorry spoilers, but you'll find this out very early in the game). The plot is essentially a straight line, despite the effort to slice up Jodie's life by making you jump between her childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. There weren't any awkward "sit on the toilet and pee" scenes like Heavy Rain, so that's a plus. There were a few shower scenes, so take that as you will.

I enjoyed it for what it was, but I don't know how I'll share this experience with anyone. There's nothing to do but go back through once you beat the game. The DLC is some "challenge map BS" based on Jodie's CIA training, doesn't really add anything to the plot. The bonus/collectibles are just concept porn (by that, I mean for people that like looking at sketches, making-ofs, galleries, and supplemental material).

My urge to play this game was due to claims of a "beautiful story", and it was in places, and its status as a spiritual successor to Heavy Rain. That game was supposed to involve supernatural elements, but ended up being a more realistic, mystery-driven story, hinting at some otherworldly element but never revealing it. Beyond Two Souls is the opposite, a supernatural story with a mystery that's never expounded on. HR's central conflict starts with one man, but entangles multiple others. BTS's conflict wraps around several people, but is shown through the lens of a single person.