The awkwardly titled Beyond: Two Souls is a poorly written interactive movie, with quicktime events and button prompts in the place of gameplay. It features characters who don't behave like actual people and lots and lots of melodrama. In other words it's a typical Quantic Dream game, 'directed' and written by David Cage*. It differs from QD's previous title, Heavy Rain in terms of the films Cage is ripping off* and in the fact that Cage has managed to bag some Hollywood talent (Ellen Page* & Willem Defoe) to voice and mo-cop his poorly written characters.

You'd think that having Page and Defoe in leading roles would bring a certain level of quality to even the very worst dialogue, but it mostly just draws attention to how beneath them this is and how awkward, and alien the writing is. They also both phone in their performances, especially Page, and that's an issue when they're the character you'll be playing as for most of the game. The rest of the time you play as her disembodied invisible ghost pal, because Cage has gone for more of a sci-fi thriller the time around. Said ghost is called Aiden and he is connected to Page's character, Jodie, by some kind of psychic link.

I couldn't really tell you the plot of B:TS because it has several different plot-lines that all seem to carry equal weight, although some are introduced and then dropped forever in the space of a single chapter*. I guess the backbone of the story is the relationship between Jodie and Aiden, but it also features Jodie joining the FBI (CIA?), Jodie working on a ranch with some hunky native Americans, Jodie going on an assassination mission for the CIA (or is it the FBI?), Jodie on the run from the law, Jodie spending some time with the homeless*, Jodie fighting demons from another dimension, Jodie being abandoned by her foster parents, Jodie searching for her real mother, Jodie being experimented on, Jodie being sexually assaulted, Jodie having a dinner date and Jodie going to a birthday party with some of the meanest kids since Carrie*.

What makes this all even more incoherent is the fact that Cage has decided to tell these stories in a none linear fashion, possibly because he saw that in a film once. So we go from Jodie on a mission with her hunky CIA handler, to Jodie as a six year old, then back to older Jodie on the run from the FBI/CIA. It's such an incoherent mess and a truly awful way to tell a story. The none linear structure also messes with the character relationships and the development of characters in general. As an example there's one chapter where you're pulled from your current home by a hunky CIA agent who treats you like total ♥♥♥♥ and behaves like an absolute prick, only for the next chapter with the both of them in it to be a date. In a way it's quite a clever move by Cage because it means he doesn't have to write naturally developing relationships between normal human beings. Oh, and you can't skip dialogue or cutscenes and this is a game where you might want to try a chapter again to see the different outcomes. This would be annoying in a game with good writing, so here it's a massive pain in the arse.

As to Jodie, a good chunk of the game she's in tears and when she's not crying she's looking sad, sweating and/or kissing hunky boys. There's this one 'scene' where page is being packed off to military camp and you have to control her sobbing body lurching around her room picking up things to take. The crying is presumably on a loop and it's very funny, made all the more so by the bad acting and piss poor controls.

Speaking of controls, the game dictates how you move when playing as Jodie. Mostly they walk incredibly slowly and sway and lurch about like they're drunk, no matter how much of a straight line you try to steer them in. If the camera remained steady and under your control then this would be fine, but B:TS likes to use it's own camera angles and ties movement controls to the camera. This just adds to the disorientation and frustration you get in the simple act of just trying to walk across a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ room. One of the camera's favourite tricks is to zoom right in so you can barely see to manuever. Playing as Aiden is first person and he moves at a much faster pace, which is a relief after controlling Jodie for any length of time.

As is typical of QD 'games' there's very little gameplay in this game. As Jodie you're mostly walking about and looking at things, or doing QTE action scenes, or doing button prompts for dialogue. There's also pseudo action and stealth gameplay in a couple of chapters but essentially you're just holding a button to move to cover or pressing a button to shoot someone. There's no aiming and the stealth is linear, it's all unengaging and feels like a wasted opportunity. As Aiden you can move things (usually to distract people or scare them), murder people and also possess some, either to have them open doors or murder their friends and themselves*. This again is very linear with the game deciding who you can kill or possess, and so playing as Aiden is mostly tedious busy work. I will say that occasionally flinging stuff around to scare people can be entertaining initially, but you're limited in what objects you can interact with and it's an done with a few control gestures. There's less 'complex' control gestures in B:TS, and they all tend to work, in contrast to Heavy Rain where it could take half an hour of frustrating controller jiggling just to open a cupboard.

Overall though I think this is even worse than HR. The writing and story are a step down and player choice seems to only really effect what ending you get. There's nothing like the harrowing limb removal scene in B:TS and it's mostly just melodrama and dumb, clichéd dialogue. Gameplay feels less involving too, despite the addition of a controllable ghost, and what with all the crying and the faux serious tone it's less fun to laugh at*. Ultimately I think I'm just getting tired with Quantic Dream's ♥♥♥♥. It certainly doesn't succeed as a work of cinema and it utterly fails as a video game. To call it an interactive story would be fairer but there's so much better out there in terms of writing and gameplay. Avoid.

*Presumably other writers were involved but I don't think I'd want a writing credit on BTS

*Carrie and Poltergeist are obvious ones but he's obviously a fan of the training scene from Silence of the Lambs, and any number of 90s thrillers

*Now Elliot

*Of course this pretentious drivel has chapters

*Cage's rather patronising view of the homeless is similar to mother Theresa's. A sort of dignity and goodness in being poor.

*Morally the game is all over the place

*The daft assassination chapter and subsequent helicopter argument between Page and her hunky CIA bf is pretty funny though, and ends with page leaping out of the moving helicopter.

The awkwardly titled Beyond: Two Souls is a poorly written interactive movie, with quicktime events and button prompts in the place of gameplay. It features characters who don't behave like actual people and lots and lots of melodrama. In other words it's a typical Quantic Dream game, 'directed' and written by David Cage*. It differs from QD's previous title, Heavy Rain in terms of the films Cage is ripping off* and in the fact that Cage has managed to bag some Hollywood talent (Ellen Page* & Willem Defoe) to voice and mo-cop his poorly written characters. You'd think that having Page and Defoe in leading roles would bring a certain level of quality to even the very worst dialogue, but it mostly just draws attention to how beneath them this is and how awkward, and alien the writing is. They also both phone in their performances, especially Page, and that's an issue when they're the character you'll be playing as for most of the game. The rest of the time you play as her disembodied invisible ghost pal, because Cage has gone for more of a sci-fi thriller the time around. Said ghost is called Aiden and he is connected to Page's character, Jodie, by some kind of psychic link. I couldn't really tell you the plot of B:TS because it has several different plot-lines that all seem to carry equal weight, although some are introduced and then dropped forever in the space of a single chapter*. I guess the backbone of the story is the relationship between Jodie and Aiden, but it also features Jodie joining the FBI (CIA?), Jodie working on a ranch with some hunky native Americans, Jodie going on an assassination mission for the CIA (or is it the FBI?), Jodie on the run from the law, Jodie spending some time with the homeless*, Jodie fighting demons from another dimension, Jodie being abandoned by her foster parents, Jodie searching for her real mother, Jodie being experimented on, Jodie being sexually assaulted, Jodie having a dinner date and Jodie going to a birthday party with some of the meanest kids since Carrie*. What makes this all even more incoherent is the fact that Cage has decided to tell these stories in a none linear fashion, possibly because he saw that in a film once. So we go from Jodie on a mission with her hunky CIA handler, to Jodie as a six year old, then back to older Jodie on the run from the FBI/CIA. It's such an incoherent mess and a truly awful way to tell a story. The none linear structure also messes with the character relationships and the development of characters in general. As an example there's one chapter where you're pulled from your current home by a hunky CIA agent who treats you like total shit and behaves like an absolute prick, only for the next chapter with the both of them in it to be a date. In a way it's quite a clever move by Cage because it means he doesn't have to write naturally developing relationships between normal human beings. Oh, and you can't skip dialogue or cutscenes and this is a game where you might want to try a chapter again to see the different outcomes. This would be annoying in a game with good writing, so here it's a massive pain in the arse. As to Jodie, a good chunk of the game she's in tears and when she's not crying she's looking sad, sweating and/or kissing hunky boys. There's this one 'scene' where page is being packed off to military camp and you have to control her sobbing body lurching around her room picking up things to take. The crying is presumably on a loop and it's very funny, made all the more so by the bad acting and piss poor controls. Speaking of controls, the game dictates how you move when playing as Jodie. Mostly they walk incredibly slowly and sway and lurch about like they're drunk, no matter how much of a straight line you try to steer them in. If the camera remained steady and under your control then this would be fine, but B:TS likes to use it's own camera angles and ties movement controls to the camera. This just adds to the disorientation and frustration you get in the simple act of just trying to walk across a fucking room. One of the camera's favourite tricks is to zoom right in so you can barely see to manuever. Playing as Aiden is first person and he moves at a much faster pace, which is a relief after controlling Jodie for any length of time. As is typical of QD 'games' there's very little gameplay in this game. As Jodie you're mostly walking about and looking at things, or doing QTE action scenes, or doing button prompts for dialogue. There's also pseudo action and stealth gameplay in a couple of chapters but essentially you're just holding a button to move to cover or pressing a button to shoot someone. There's no aiming and the stealth is linear, it's all unengaging and feels like a wasted opportunity. As Aiden you can move things (usually to distract people or scare them), murder people and also possess some, either to have them open doors or murder their friends and themselves*. This again is very linear with the game deciding who you can kill or possess, and so playing as Aiden is mostly tedious busy work. I will say that occasionally flinging stuff around to scare people can be entertaining initially, but you're limited in what objects you can interact with and it's an done with a few control gestures. There's less 'complex' control gestures in B:TS, and they all tend to work, in contrast to Heavy Rain where it could take half an hour of frustrating controller jiggling just to open a cupboard. Overall though I think this is even worse than HR. The writing and story are a step down and player choice seems to only really effect what ending you get. There's nothing like the harrowing limb removal scene in B:TS and it's mostly just melodrama and dumb, clichéd dialogue. Gameplay feels less involving too, despite the addition of a controllable ghost, and what with all the crying and the faux serious tone it's less fun to laugh at*. Ultimately I think I'm just getting tired with Quantic Dream's shit. It certainly doesn't succeed as a work of cinema and it utterly fails as a video game. To call it an interactive story would be fairer but there's so much better out there in terms of writing and gameplay. Avoid. *Presumably other writers were involved but I don't think I'd want a writing credit on BTS *Carrie and Poltergeist are obvious ones but he's obviously a fan of the training scene from Silence of the Lambs, and any number of 90s thrillers *Now Elliot *Of course this pretentious drivel has chapters *Cage's rather patronising view of the homeless is similar to mother Theresa's. A sort of dignity and goodness in being poor. *Morally the game is all over the place *The daft assassination chapter and subsequent helicopter argument between Page and her hunky CIA bf is pretty funny though, and ends with page leaping out of the moving helicopter.