Beyond Two Souls Review (Spoilers)
Hello ug welcome sa ToriJ sa Video Game Reviews. In a time where more and more people are making more story driven games we're brought to this piece of hardware, “Beyond Two Souls.” This game came out around the same time as another story heavy game which also featured a female lead who looked similar to Ellen Page. Oops. Let's divulge deeper into the game that served as part of the exclamation point on the PlayStation 3's life.
Beyond stars Jodie Holmes (any relation to Sherlock?), a young girl telepathically linked to a mysterious entity from the other side known only by Aiden. A shadowy creature attached to Jodie by a cord rendering him unable to leave her sight even if he wanted to, and believe me does he want to! They're under the care of researcher Nathan Dawkin (played by Willem Dafoe) and his partner Cole Freeman (Kadeem Hardison). So Dwayne graduated from Hillman to become a scientist? Actually, no. That makes sense.
Now, I got this game back in December for Christmas and already beat it once, so right off the bat I just have one minor nitpick to get off my chest. THERE ISN'T A NEW GAME PLUS! If you want to start a new game you have to delete your ENTIRE save file from the previous playthrough! You can replay individual chapters in any order that you want, but if you want to so much as save at a checkpoint during any of them the whole file is gone. Am I surprised by this? No. David Cage, the director, even gone on record in saying that he doesn't want anyone to replay the game because it ruins the experience for them, as if to say “We have no replay value whatsoever!” Come on, guys, even “The Walking Dead” gave us three slots to choose from, they aren't any better at replay value than you. What is the point of making a game where your choices affect the gameplay if you're not supposed to replay it TO SEE WHAT THE OTHER CHOICES ARE?!
And scene.
We open up to narration made by Jodie before cutting to a police station where she's being questioned. They're then interrupted by the arrival of the SWAT team looking to take Jodie captive. This comes back to bite them in the ass as they're all killed and Nathan arrives in disbelief after having failed to warm them about the danger. Why do we never listen to the scientist? After this we go to our first playable chapter that introduces us to Jodie as a kid.
You alternate between Jodie and Aiden in order to complete your objective, unless you're playing co-op in which case one plays as Jodie and the other as Aiden. With the exception of Aiden, it plays mostly like your standard point and click, but some times you need to move the ENTIRE controller to perform a task. I nearly took out my own arms shaking them up and down. I'm not complaining. That actually provided a deeper immersion when trout hit the fan and even had my heart racing a couple of times.
The relationship between Jodie and Aiden is pretty well done. They go from not being able to stand being stuck together, to not being able to stand being driven apart. A close brother-sister bond without even knowing they're brother and sister. The abilities that form through their bond is fun to utilize, too. Aiden can interact with the world through telekinesis, Jodie can see visions of the past through touch, generate a force field to protect her, possess people, and even communicate with the dead. Move over, Jennifer Love Hewitt, there's a new Ghost Whisperer in town.
Due to Jodie's memories being scrambled the narrative jumps from one random point in time to the next, giving you the sense of a woman trying to rediscover her identity and put her life back together piece by piece. It can be daunting at times because one minute you're a kid, the next you're working for the CIA, then you're a rebellious teenager, so it has potential to be off- putting, but at the same time it works in its favor.
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I guess I was wrong. I just don't belong. But then, I've been there before. And everything is alright I'll just say goodnight. And I'll show myself to the door. I didn't mean to cause a big scene. Just wait 'til I finish this glass. Then sweet little lady I'll head back to the bar. And you can kiss my ass!
As you can expect the chapters can be rather hit or miss. Some go on too long, and others stop just when they get going. An example of one chapter that goes on forever is the Navajo chapter. I enjoy Native American culture as much as the next person, but this is too much of the same thing we've seen in various other forms of media with the land, and the evil spirits that haunts it. There just isn't anything new or exciting to hold your attention. The Mission can get pretty long too, but if you enjoy stealth games like Metal Gear Solid it can be rather enjoyable.
One of the chapters that stands out the most to me is the Condenser chapter. It has just the right level of action and suspense while dealing with entities that work in the same way as Aiden. Only less than friendly. Another one that stands out is Homeless, where as the title would suggest you're absolutely homeless. The chapter is less about Aiden and more about Jodie as she's on the run and has nowhere to turn to. At least nowhere she wants to turn to. She meets a small group of strangers who take her out of the cold and share what little they have and Jodie goes on to save one guy from being beaten up and getting the rest out of a burning building. It's actually pretty heartwarming. Makes me want to be sure I have some spare change on me the next time I go out.
Then there's the Hunted chapter. There isn't anything necessarily relevant to the plot in this chapter, you just get to be involved in a police chase and crash a helicopter. David Cage himself has gone on record in saying that some times he just adds in stuff he thinks is cool instead of whether or not it would fit and this is one of the times we love him for it. The only thing I don't particularly like about this chapter is the part where you're in the woods and dogs are coming after you, but that's a minor complaint next to everything else that happens.
Despite all the fights and dangerous situations you get into, I don't know if there is a way to die in this game. Whenever I miss a cue the game just goes on and I'm getting my ass kicked. Even in The Walking Dead there were times where you could trigger a game over if you messed up, but here? I think you really have to go out of your way to find it. This may be the easiest game I ever played and I played Barney Hide and Seek. Yes, that is a real game I didn't just make it up. Google it!
Don't get me wrong, the game can be frustrating. The CIA training stage will just repeat the practice fight over and over again until you finally get the movements down. Some times your finger slips on a button and it screws you up. But don't worry, if you mess up you can just try again. And again. And again. And again, and again, and again until you go smurfing insane! There's one scene where Jodie is being smothered by a snowball and you can just sit there doing nothing and the game won't do anything until you stop it. If there's a way to get a game over in this game I can't find it. Good if you're just in it for the story (which is kind of the point) but not the game for you if a challenge is what you're looking for.
Near the end of the game you get the option to cross over to the other side, or go back to Earth and live out the rest of your days. Let's see, life or death? Living or dying? Assemble or dissemble? Hm, tough choice. You know what? I'm just going to stick with living. Now to be fair there's merit in choosing either option and it all ties down to your own experience, which makes these games fun to begin with, but if I'm going to be faced with a choice to live or to die I'm going to pick life every time. That's not even a question for me. Being dead sucks. Maybe not so much in this game, but in general it kind of stinks.
To wrap things up, Beyond is a fun game to just pick up and play. The story features a lot of things we've seen to death, but the main cast is enjoyable and interacting with Aiden can be a lot of fun. I'm ToriJ and until next time, keep that hair short.
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