No one with Quantic Dream’s resources or technological know-how is trying to push the boundaries of the medium like this. Ultimately, I don’t know if I agree with every creative decision in Beyond-or even most of them-but I can’t help but respect its audacity.
Deliberately fluffing your inputs in the hope of triggering a narrative shift that may not become apparent for several hours doesn’t, however, make for much of a videogame. Some of the bigger action sequences will simply end early, and failure may affect the story – there are two dozen endings this time, the branches better hidden by simple virtue of there being no threat of protagonist death. Sometimes failure means capture, and a brief interlude before you escape and are put back on the narrative track. Lose a fight and your assailants will be scared off by a police siren. Mess up most combat QTEs and Holmes will take the hit before putting a foe down automatically. Beyond, by contrast, is a game that is almost impossible to fail. Heavy Rain made up for its teeth-brushing and rape-escaping stick flicks with a central mystery and the knowledge that a botched QTE could have fatal ramifications. Plot and cinematics are its greatest strengths, but when you factor in some of the finest graphics ever seen on the PS3 and the level of originality on offer, Quantic Dream's masterpiece is worthy of superlatives.īEYOND: Two Souls, however flawed, is one of the most unique journeys you’ll ever experience in gaming today, taking you through science fiction and the supernatural, to miles above ground and miles below the surface of the sea, from the physical world into the spiritual world, and, of course, beyond. Nothing but a pantomime.īeyond: Two Souls is one of the most poignant and enthralling stories we have encountered in a video game, capable of stirring up the same depth of emotion as great works from the mediums of film and literature. A childish play at being a meaningful journey, a vapid illusion of passion and poignancy. Its characters can smile, and cry, and tell us they're feeling all of these feelings, but their paper-thin presentation and the frequent narrative dead ends prevent any of their pantomime from becoming too convincing.Īnd that's all Beyond: Two Souls is - a pantomime. Like a sociopath, Beyond: Two Souls knows how to act like it has a heart, while providing nothing of the emotional depth required to connect with an audience. For all the complaints that can be leveled at Beyond - and they can be leveled in feckless abundance - the overwhelming problem with it is that it's just plain boring.
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