So we know that David Cage is either a narrative mastermind or a nut job that needs locked up, but either way his new vision is now out in the public eye and it is indeed, Beyond: Two Souls. Beyond takes a drastic new approach to storytelling in video games that we are accustomed to and even as a David Cage fan, I found the storytelling to be sub-par.
Now when I say the storytelling is sub-par, I don't mean that the story is bad. On the contrary, I believe that Beyond's story is definitely it's strongest point. But the way in which the story is presented to the player is disorientating and confusing. At several points throughout the game, I found myself confused and just following the games objectives with no context or knowledge of the objectives at hand. In a game about player choice and player interaction, you really need to have the context to ensure you're making the right choices for the playthrough that you are trying to achieve. I felt that I was making uninformed choices with no knowledge of the consequences. Nearer the end of the game when you get reminded of Jodies life and previous choices it is incredibly hard to remember these characters and the choices you made with them purely because you had met them hours ago and it's just hard to remember when there's a lot happening within the story.
One good example of this is when at the beginning of the game you break into a palace with Ryan to get some confidential documents then you jump back to when Jodie has to leave the lab for the CIA and at that point you feel that Jodie hates Ryan and in turn, the player feels the same emotional attachment to Nathan as Jodie. In the next scene, Jodie gets a phone call from Ryan asking her on a date, this is emotional derailment at it's finest form. The narrative makes us feel several emotions at the same time about this character and at any point it could change again. It was around this point that I was so enthralled by the story that I wanted to believe in this emotional connection but I was constantly interrupted by the narrative being so topsy-turvy.
At the end of the game it is revealed that Jodie is losing her mind and all the memories that remain are playing endlessly in her head. And that is the plot device for the jumpy narrative but it feels tacked on at the end because they knew that the player could feel disorientated by the end of the story. But overall the story experience is a memorable one and one that must be played. If you have a PS3 and want to play in a movie, The story is alone to sell this game to me.
Aside from the story, there is gameplay in this game that needs to be analysed aswell. Quantic Dream have been known to create repetitive mechanics that can be used throughout a whole narrative for a wide selection of activities, Beyond is no different in this regard. The game uses the most minimalistic UI to showcase your selection of Interactions on the game screen with the representation of a little white dot. You must then use the right thumbstick in the direction of the dot to interact with that object. This also occurs for combat, when the game reaches a combat climax, the game will slow down as Jodie is performing an action, you must then move the right thumbstick in the direction that Jodie is moving. While on paper this may seem like a complex and minimalistic approach to a combat mechanic, within the game it doesn't work quite so well as half the time it's hard to see what Jodie is doing or what direction she is moving in.
As a final verdict, Beyond: Two Souls presents a fine tuned presentation with a heavy emphasis on interactive narrative and while being an extremely sad, dark and strong story the way that it is presentated to the player is complicated and easy to lose track of. While the gameplay mechanics are strong and not hard to get the hang of, I couldn't help but feel the game wasn't very difficult at all as I was never presented an end game state at all throughout my 15 hour playthrough. Even with these strengths and flaws, Beyond: Two Souls is a very competent and strong story that waves the Playstation 3 into the sunset with style!
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