Beyond Two Souls

Beyond two souls is a game developed by Quantic Dream, the creators of the game Heavy Rain which received many mixed reviews for its very new and ground breaking style of gameplay. The game stars Ellen Page and Willem Dafoe, I agree that it sounds weird to introduce a game by naming the stars in it but this game is quite a strange turn on other traditional styles of gaming as anyone who has ever played Heavy Rain will agree.

The gameplay shown in this game is very limited when you consider this to be a game, and so I believe it should be reviewed as an "Interactive Story" which is what this game has been affectionately titled. This is because the actual gameplay is very small because it is more about quick button reactions and holding down buttons in order to activate certain cutscene areas. There is a small element within the game and that is the areas in which you can walk around and interact with the world around you the progress through the game. As I said this is limited and the camera angles are very odd in the sense that it will give you very awkward angles to see from and this can be detrimental to your game.

The sound used in the game is very interesting because it uses alot of orchestral music which builds up tension in many of the games key moments which is a BIG bonus! The sound FX are nothing special they are all well timed and realistic which is what this game is aiming for.

Graphics are where this game really hits its stride, as it is very focused on making this game as graphically pleasing to the user as possible. This was their original goal with Heavy rain also (Apologies for the constant reference to Heavy rain) and it served them very well. With this game there was a big hype over them using motion capture to capture the true likeness of the stars Ellen Page and Willem Dafoe which worked to the favour of them and it created a graphically pleasing experience for everyone.

The story is very interesting and in-depth. You play as Jodie (Played by Ellen Page), a girl who is "possessed" by an angry spirit who is only referred to as Aiden. Due to her strange connection with this spirit she is taken away from her parents to a military base under the care of Dr Nathan Dawkins (Played by Willem Dafoe). The game is not in a regular linear storyline, but it has many key points throughout Jodie's life which it changes to and they are not in order, one mission she will be 18 and the next she could be 8, This is a technique used by finding key moments that relate to areas further on in her life (or previous) and this will lead to the next scene in the story.

Replay-ability This game does not feature a multiplayer section which could be a good point considering the nature of the game, it wouldn't necessarily suit having a multiplayer without ruining the storymode slightly. So you must be incredibly interested in the actual storymode to want to be involved in buying the game for real! The only real replay-ability that this game offers is that it gives several different endings for the player to try out. This may kind of seem a very small point and not very attractive to many players but to some this is a great opportunity to explore into the game with a lot more depth.

And so, This leaves us with the "Fun-factor" i would rate this game highly for its ability to swap into the evil spirit, Aiden. This vengeful spirit has fun "messing with people" by throwing furniture around and passing through them making the room feel all of a sudden very chilly! This is incredibly fun to see the reactions of the people around you as you continue throwing things in their direction and scaring them as much you can!

Finally i rate this game an impressive

4.5/5

"Buyable"