If Beyond: Two Souls could be described in a few words it would be disconnected and confused. David Cage seems unsure whether he wants to create a heart-touching story about human drama, or an adrenaline pumping action game and the result is a product that is the worst of both worlds. It is unsure of whether it wants to be a video-game or a movie as it manifests some of the poorest examples of reactivity and interactivity that this industry has to offer. Lastly, Beyond: Two Souls fails to utilise more than its sense of drama and status as a videogame but also misuses its actors, its most advertised assets to their potential.
The plot in Beyond: Two Souls is a muddled mess and is arranged in such a way that it impedes the emotional connection that it strives to build. The story in Beyond: Two souls is told through a series of vignettes. These vignettes are arranged out of sequence in such a way that any sort of empathy is hard won if won at all. Often we are left to watch as a pre-determined rail road takes us from one moment where Jodie suffers from hardship to another, but getting to know Jodie aside from her occasional yells to Aiden for help (who she insists in pronouncing in such a way that half way through the game I started calling him Ivan) is impossible as conversations are few and far between: despite being a cornerstone of David Cage's normal presentations.
The drama is undermined further by David Cage casting Ellen Page as a sort of John McClean sort of figure; except now John McClane has magic powers. Playing Beyond: Two Souls, one hardly ever feel powerless. The QTEs are easy and you mostly have to try to fail them. Add this on top of Jodie's ability to fight her way out of groups of cops in a way that John McClean would have ever tried to take on at one time and you have a character that rarely seems vulnerable. Vulnerability is an important part of forming a connection with people and human drama, but Cage seems to have forgotten that as he opts for a special effects porn production that might wow movie-goers, but bores videogamers. Gone are the quite introspection and agonising over choices of Heavy Rain and Fahrenheit, and instead Cage decided to take the last bit of Fahrenheit-- the bit with flying people that everybody hated-- and turn it up to 11, with Jodie using Aiden to defect bullets and turn over armoured cars in a scene strikingly similar to super-powered running down the road in Saint's Row 4.
This wouldn't be an issue if Beyond: Two Souls brought something to the table in terms of being an action game, but the game often leaves the player unsure of what they are doing or why they are doing it. The controls are muddled to say the least and sometimes have the player responding to prompts about objects not visible on the screen. Furthermore, the prompt required it not always the one intuited on the screen. A good rule of thumb is to run away from the camera at all times and press towards your attacker's torso-- whether or not the attack is coming from above or below. The gameplay, like the plot, feels uninspired, like it was a hindrance to putting in more CGI. Without clear objectives, the gameplay is a huge reason for the feeling of disconnect that pervades Beyond: Two Souls.
Playing Beyond: Two Souls makes one feel as if they are simply observing a lengthy, and not too interesting, film. Simply put, what little input you get has little effect on what is transpiring on screen. One question reverberated in my mind as I walked along the pre-determined path to its pre-determined end: what am I doing here? Beyond: Two Souls is an example of the worst cases of reactivity the industry has to offer. It gives the player choices, and yet every one of these choices is ultimately meaningless. Even the choice to intentionally fail at a scene seems to have very little consequence, and the only reason not to is to collect the most trophies. This almost complete lack of failure states makes the game feel as if the player was completely without consequence and non-essential to the continuation of the game. This is a shame, because the opening scene to Fahrenheit was that sort of rich degree of reactive behaviour. Ultimately, the diner scenes had little effect on the ultimate end to Lucas' story, but it was a good effort to draw the players in and make them consider their actions carefully, when that same murder scene which Lucas franticly cleans up, is the one which Carla and Tyler are investigating in the next scene.
The world of Beyond: Two Souls is empty and lifeless. It's very detailed and often visually stunning, but leaves the player only interacting with the single object required to advance the plot further. Jodie is stuck walking through rooms of people she cannot talk to and objects she cannot use. Gone are even the introspective narration as we hear the protagonist's thoughts on various objects. Without the distractions, the heavy handed dragging of the player towards its conclusion becomes obvious and tedious. We are never really allowed to explore the world of Beyond: Two Souls and the game suffers for it.
The actors in Beyond: Two Souls are misused and their performances suffer from poor writing. The dialogue comes sparingly and sometimes the only person Jodie talks to in an entire scene is Aiden as she shouts for help. Ellen Page's performances, like most child-actors, falls flat and unconvincing. Her voice acting is often seems out of place for the situation she is placed in and none of her strengths can be brought to bear. Ellen Page's successes have traditionally coincided with playing well-written characters in edgy pieces; The Tracey Fragments and Hard Candy come to mind. Jodie is reminiscent of many of her lighter roles, but that's not entirely suitable for a story of this scope as she is playing an action hero. Her performance and the performances of many of the cast members are further paled by the excellent performance of Willem Dafoe. Dafoe's appearance, as infrequent as it is, almost harms the game by reminding us what is missing in the performances of the rest of the cast. Had the rest of the actors had the richness of Dafoe's performance, Beyond: Two Souls would have been a very different game.
Beyond: Two Souls is not an unpleasant experience. It is tedious and without challenge and never makes that connection it tries to form. This leaves the player with a vague disinterest rather than dislike for the experience. Cage clearly didn't learn from his past outings as a game designer and the results are painfully clear. Beyond: Two Souls does have a ghost, and it's not Ivan. It's the spectre of wasted potential. I would play this game if you are interested, but I wouldn't invest too much of my own money in it.