Beyond Two Souls Review
Played on PlayStation 4 (base)
Developed by Quantic Dreams
Released 8th October 2013
Beyond Two Souls was praised long before it was even released. It garnered praises for modifying the general psychological thriller that Quantic Dreams usually do into an action spectacle consisting of a 2000-page script. Yet, after losing a vital member of the development team and exhausting 30-40 pages of filming per day, I can't help but think the overall quality was heavily affected.
Story
The story follows the troubled heroine, Jodie Holmes. Throughout the 10-hour experience, you'll follow Jodie as she matures with her spiritual partner, Aiden, the two struggling through CIA secrets and the horrors of the Infraworld. It truly is an intriguing concept, but unfortunately, it dissolves into a generic-feeling supernatural drama that feels native to American TV. Luckily I played this on the Remix setting, giving me a chronological order of chapters, but apparently, the game is an incoherent mess of events if played on the Original setting. With a great and interesting opening, and a climax brimming with poor pacing, I hoped the endings would be good, but they simply consisted of both conclusive and lacklustre approaches in storytelling.
Gameplay
The gameplay was a clunky, unenjoyable shamble. My favourite and possibly only positive view I have about the gameplay is the great dynamic between using Jodie and her Infraworld connection: Aiden. The switches between rational, choice-debating Jodie and the impulsive rampage of Aiden should not be able to mix this well together, and yet they do, offering a unique contrast in perspectives and gameplay options. Having said that, everything else is mind-numbing. Each flaw that is wedged into this game isn't terrible or a detriment to the overall quality, but the sheer number of these minute problems eventually becomes noticeable. Being a choice-based game, I expected a better presentation in this department, and I am displeased with what was on offer. The choices and actions feel incredibly inconsequential and at most affect the events within their respective chapters which would later be forgotten about in the following chapter.
In terms of the dialogue, well there barely is any. Instead of the orthodox player-selected speech like in other choice-tailored experiences, the game skips that and uses its own narrative cutscenes to present the experience, being a nice change of pace compared to other titles. Yet it removes an essential "personal" connection a player should have to the game. While outside of the story-centred gameplay, there are a couple of uncomfortable aspects. For example, the controlling of Jodie became very frustrating as her movement was stiff and at times felt uncontrollable, and the QTEs (Quick Time Events) were plain terrible as they required you to match Jodie's movement instead of displaying a guide, even though it felt like most actions didn't even match Jodie's true movements of left, right, up and down. One thing I can commend the game for doing is offering a switch up of genres throughout, from adventure thriller to heavy action and more. It doesn't do it well, but I can commend the effort.
Characters
The characters are a mixed bag. On one hand, you have every brilliant actor that was in this game: Elliot Page, Willem Dafoe, Eric Winter, Kadeem Hardison and more. They did a fantastic job of conveying and upholding narrative emotions. Then, on the other hand, you have the sub-par writing that presented some cliche dialogue and unlikeable personas to emerge, caused indirectly by the story.
Atmosphere
The atmosphere doesn't have much to comment on. The soundtracks are average and incredibly forgettable from as far as I can remember, while the sound effects packed enough of a wallop to not ruin the experience, but not enough to make them outstanding. For a 2013 game, it surely does have some nice graphics and textures but that is kind of ruined for me as it has a constant environment switch every chapter which is incredibly unnecessary and occasionally jarring as it's not an action game in need of consistent revitalising. The environments were quite cool though - a Kazirstan, underwater laboratory, a winter-cold, homeless hideout and more.
Story - 4.5/10
Gameplay - 2.5/10
Characters - 6/10
Atmosphere - 6/10
Bad
Possibly, and hopefully, the lowest quality Quantic Dreams will ever be at.
