Although they have been around since 1997, Quantic Dream has only made a handful of titles, the latest being this year's Detroit: Become Human. They have been around in Sony's corner the last eight years with the first being Heavy Rain. The second of the group, Beyond: Two Souls, came around in the fall of 2013 as a late release on PlayStation 3 and a few years later on PlayStation 4, which is what I am playing it on. As far as this release was, it stayed in that David Cage style of being a cinematic movie while having it still be a video game.
You are Jodie Holmes and you experience a lot of her life from when she was a kid up to her 20s. She's no ordinary person as she has an entity beside her. This entity, Aiden, causes a lot of stuff for her that sets off a lot of events and a lot of analysis. Without getting too much into explaining the story, it's an interesting sci-fi plot and you make the choice of doing right and wrong. It's up to you how things go and they also pull in some good surprises and twists.
Two Souls has you playing as both Jodie and Aiden. This is a single player game, but can be a two player one, which was not tried at the time of this review. As Jodie, you can perform various actions when prompted. There is some freedom with her, but a lot of what you do comes from pressing certain buttons, quick time events, and a few other knick knacks. Switching to Aiden is simple. This entity can do a few things to people and even Jodie herself. They vary a little bit and they do a good job of not going overboard with what can be done during the game.
Graphically, it's surprisingly excellent. Whatever Quantic Dream did, they did a great job capturing the characters and areas. It seems very real and authentic. One of the selling points was in its audio, mainly voice acting. I'm not huge on Ellen Page and think she's overrated, but she held her own as Jodie. Add in Willem Dafoe as Professor Nathan Dawkins and a few others portraying other characters, and the voicing is not half bad. Given what the developers intentions are, it's a Hollywood type production, but in video game form.
There's not much else really to say. It's a little over 20 chapters. You can replay them any way you want it and there are options to play either chronologically or what they intended through specific parts of Jodie's life first. As I said, you make the choice of doing right and wrong. A lot of the trophies are earned in a specific way and then you can come back for the other option. There are a lot of endings. Overall, it's a decent balance between being a video game and being an interactive film. My only complaint is some of the quick time events. Some of the moments come off a little rushed and almost require you to have your decision half a second before you press what you think should work. It's trial and error, but still.
With that aside, Beyond: Two Souls is pretty good. An interesting story with above average audio and stunning graphics, it plays fine without any huge bugs or glitches. Out of the two at the time, I would play this over Heavy Rain, though that one isn't that bad.
Score: 8 out of 10.
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