Beyond: Two Souls

 PlayStation 3
User Score
8.1

Generally favorable reviews- based on 2884 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2,210 out of 2884
  2. Mixed: 324 out of 2884
  3. Negative: 350 out of 2884
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  1. KarthXLR
    Mar 24, 2014
    4
    What is there left to say about the games of David Cage? He's obviously passionate about games as an art form, but much like Ed Wood, he fails to understand what makes his medium truly great.

    Interactivity is the whole basis of video games. You're not being told a story, you're LIVING that story. It can provide extremely interesting situations for players and add lots of replayability.    What is there left to say about the games of David Cage? He's obviously passionate about games as an art form, but much like Ed Wood, he fails to understand what makes his medium truly great.

    Interactivity is the whole basis of video games. You're not being told a story, you're LIVING that story. It can provide extremely interesting situations for players and add lots of replayability. This is where all of Quantic Dreams' efforts fail. These stories are very linear, with Beyond leading the pack as the most linear of all of them.

    Jodie Holmes is the star of the story, possessing strange paranormal powers. We follow her through her life and explore what led her to where she is today. With the help of htis paranormal entity known as "Aiden", Jodie is thrust into adventure and drama as she tries to live her life. Beyond is another of the "Your choices matter" type of games that have been plaguing the industry ever since Mass Effect and Bioshock popularized the concept. In this, though, your choices never really feel like they impact the story. It always seems like Cage is more concerned with telling you his narrative than letting you discover your own.

    Jodie's character is never really built-up because the game can't decide where to go with its story. It's almost laughable just how silly it is to see Jodie trying to speak to a native kid over in Syria (or wherever they were). It's a shame because there are very good sequences in the game, such as the homeless section, that actually say a lot by staying silent. Other sequences, however, are just the worst they can come. In-particular, the war sequence, the birthday party, many of the child sequences, and the rape are just cringe-worthy writing that even the most exploitative of works don't attempt.

    The chronology of Beyond is strange, as it's told out of sequence for no apparent reason. All it seems to use this for is to place important plot information in a flashback right before the level where you need said information. Seems like an afterthought more than a narrative tool.

    And lastly, the gameplay of Beyond. Largely consisting of QTE's and occasional (and I do mean occasional) ghost segments, there's not much else to talk about. There are very few times where you can actually fail the mission objectives. As a matter of fact, the game crashed more than I lost on the normal difficulty, a total of three times. The game is restrictive rather than limited with its gameplay segments and once again makes me wonder why these elements aren't used in a budget game that could be produced faster and cheaper and still retain the same quality apart from graphics.

    For the third time in a row, Cage has made an uninteresting mess of game that has the foundation of potential surrounding it. If he would just listen to his critics instead of shoehorning his ideas wherever he sees fit, he may just be able to make a truly great and unforgettable game. For now, Beyond doesn't succeed at a single thing it attempts aside from graphics.

    Want games with branching pathlines and choices that matter? Try Fallout: New Vegas or Virtues Last Reward.

    Want games with excellent stories and good dialogue? Try Deus Ex or Spec Ops: The Line.

    Want a game with QTE's and not much else? Try Beyond: Two Souls.    … Expand
  2. InformedGamer
    Oct 9, 2013
    4
    1. This is NOT a game. This is an interactive movie.
    2. TERRIBLE Controls. Far from intuitive.
    3. Nice graphics. Characters are lifelike.
    4. Strange story. Starts off confusing and is not that engaging.

    I would not recommend a purchase. This is a rental at best. I was deeply disappointed.
  3. Esfar
    Oct 26, 2013
    4
    What can I say about this game? Well first of all it's not a game at all..It never feels like a game rather like poor animated film with bad story .Good graphics alone can not save this game cause there are other element like game play story ,control music and many other factors that have to be considered and in this case quality regarding this factors are just too poor.
  4. Kuse
    Oct 9, 2013
    4
    Beautiful graphics but just a terrible derivative story, long winded and contrite at times. The sequeuences through out the game are just repetitive and almost forced most of the time. Fragmented and lost in a sea of cliches and predictable storylines it tries to be something more than what it could have been....Very dissapointed as I loved Heavy Rain...
  5. MalcomGTX
    Oct 11, 2013
    4
    It started strong, was intriguing and held my interest. I played it two player with my wife and we had fun, but as the story developed it started to show how poorly written it was. Small details at first followed by odd reactions (apparently suicide is a-ok?) leading up to a frustratingly dumb ending and reveal. We rented it with the intention of buying if it was good to add to ourIt started strong, was intriguing and held my interest. I played it two player with my wife and we had fun, but as the story developed it started to show how poorly written it was. Small details at first followed by odd reactions (apparently suicide is a-ok?) leading up to a frustratingly dumb ending and reveal. We rented it with the intention of buying if it was good to add to our collection, this will not make it. Long story short, it wasn't worth the rental price to us.… Expand
  6. SKELETOR420
    Oct 9, 2013
    4
    Played a few hours with the missus last night. She had great fun picking apart the horrible writing scene by scene. There is nothing fresh, it’s all lifted from horror/paranormal movies. It’s really just Heavy Rain with a faster pace, and ALL the dialogue plot holes (ever). Ellen Page hams it up and a lot of lines just aren’t delivered well. Whole thing plays like a tutorial, so clearlyPlayed a few hours with the missus last night. She had great fun picking apart the horrible writing scene by scene. There is nothing fresh, it’s all lifted from horror/paranormal movies. It’s really just Heavy Rain with a faster pace, and ALL the dialogue plot holes (ever). Ellen Page hams it up and a lot of lines just aren’t delivered well. Whole thing plays like a tutorial, so clearly Quantic Dream have learned nothing gameplay wise. That’s always been an issue with their games most interactions are devoid of context so there really isn’t gameplay or challenge. The controller icon is forever there to tell you what to do because you’re not going to know! The Last of Us showed the future, not this interactive movie tripe. It achieved all the “emotion” and was still a highly engaging game. With that, imagine the possibilities if Telltale had this budget. David Cage needs to play The Walking Dead and understand that it’s got the right amount of interactivity for this kind of thing down.

    Oh, and visually it isn't a patch on TLOU or GTA5.    … Expand
  7. Brutalitops1
    Oct 8, 2013
    4
    David Cage captures emotions and graphically it's fine, However the story/plot is horrible and he must of realised at last second he needed to chuck a game somewhere in it. For a game so focused on story it just did nothing for me. 1/3 ain't bad?
  8. jamess
    Oct 15, 2013
    4
    In trying to redefine what a videogaming experience can be, Beyond stumbles where Heavy Rain before it, excelled. Take for instance the homeless chapter. In the sequence, you walk down a short street where the following happens. You enter a restaurant where you're told to beat it and eff off, you jimmy a newspaper machine for a few coins, get propositioned and escape from an alleyway, thenIn trying to redefine what a videogaming experience can be, Beyond stumbles where Heavy Rain before it, excelled. Take for instance the homeless chapter. In the sequence, you walk down a short street where the following happens. You enter a restaurant where you're told to beat it and eff off, you jimmy a newspaper machine for a few coins, get propositioned and escape from an alleyway, then come across another homeless person with a guitar, where you play a lovely tune for some money, which you end up beating up some young adults for after its taken. What a random, jarring series of events. Is that supposed to reflect the randomness of life? And the fight mechanics can be hard to control because of camera angles. But what does it matter, since you can't die? So matter how well or badly you react, there's no reason to do better. The motion capture and acting of Ellen Page is very well done, and it helps us get over the more "non-interactive" moments. But as far as a gaming experience, I'll take Heavy Rain over this.… Expand
  9. Riskyreview
    Oct 8, 2013
    4
    Beyond two souls is a beautiful game and sadly that's the only good thing you can say about this "game".
    When i sat down with beyond two souls in my hand i did not expect ending up so disappointed as i did this is nothing but a movie since the choices you make does not matter at all and gameplay wise it's dreadful!
    If this was a 15$ game i would have been happy but for 60$ AAA game i    Beyond two souls is a beautiful game and sadly that's the only good thing you can say about this "game".
    When i sat down with beyond two souls in my hand i did not expect ending up so disappointed as i did this is nothing but a movie since the choices you make does not matter at all and gameplay wise it's dreadful!
    If this was a 15$ game i would have been happy but for 60$ AAA game i expected more then 9 hours of cutscene for a story that is dull and has been done in many movies before!    … Expand
  10. ChrisBirdmanRev
    Oct 12, 2013
    4
    It's basically a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG movie whilst fiddling the the sticks every now and again and im sorry if you like this game but its just not for me i cant support a game that just isnt a game
  11. denhoffi
    Nov 5, 2013
    4
    A huge step down from Heavy Rain. This is actually the most accurate thing I can say about this game.

    First the positive things, the visuals are amazing, from simply a graphics view this is the best game on any console ever. It probably is the best-looking console game we will see on this generation of consoles and with next-gen looming around the corner I am intrigued to see what    A huge step down from Heavy Rain. This is actually the most accurate thing I can say about this game.

    First the positive things, the visuals are amazing, from simply a graphics view this is the best game on any console ever. It probably is the best-looking console game we will see on this generation of consoles and with next-gen looming around the corner I am intrigued to see what Quantic Dream can do with better hardware. But that is the most positive thing that can be said about the game.

    The story and characters are a weird mix of intriguing and disappointing. The characters seem interesting and engaging at first but the character development is hindered by the disrupting timeline which makes it hard to connect with the characters. The acting in this game is topnotch which isn't a surprise seeing as the main characters are portrayed by Ellen Page and Willem Dafoe, but at the same time I can't see them as characters of the game but I just see Ellen Page or Willem Dafoe as actors in different situations and that doesn't speak for the writing. The writing is actually one of the main problems with the game, it fails to set the tone for the great actors they got for the game and fails to make them compelling which again is probably due to the in-consequent timeline presented for the first half of the game. The story is also lacking the drive that Heavy Rain showed us, everything is riding on the main character, Ellen Page, the writers threw her in various situations that were supposed to get the gamer involved and care about here but those situations felt random and just unrealistic. For example did she seem to get only involved in very bad situations, a birthday party where the kids just randomly picked on her, after being nice to her at first or a bar where three men just decided to try to rape the under-aged girl that came in, I'm not saying that this can't happen or hasn't unfortunately happened to some people but here it just feels like filler and just a bad try to add to a weak story. The writers don't even fear to throw in the often-used and borderline insulting ....Native American family that just knows about some spirits and that guide the main character.

    The biggest problem about this game is the gameplay though, there is none. It boils down to pushing some buttons that don't matter and have no real effect on the game itself. Here we can draw a comparison to Heavy Rain or similar games like The Walking Dead and The Wolf Among Us, these games work well because not just the story and characters are more engaging but also because your choices matter and change the outcome of the game. In Heavy Rain for example, people die if you make the wrong decisions or it will have some other consequences but in Beyond:Two Souls you can't even fail the game, the game will find some way to not let you fail or cut to another scene where you then can escape with a few button-pushes. This takes away the urgency that you felt in Heavy Rain and just dumbs the game down.

    Beyond: Two Souls is a major disappointment, it's an incoherent sample of scenes that you can move forward by pushing some buttons but in the end it doesn't even come close to the experiences that were Heavy Rain(Quantic Dream) or similar games like The Walking Dead(Telltale).    … Expand
  12. bfoore90
    Feb 24, 2014
    4
    I was interested in purchasing this game after seeing the first trailer and seeing it was done by the same studio who made Heavy Rain. Overall, graphic-wise its Beautiful to look at with great voice acting performances from Ellen Page and William Defoe but it is ultimately undone by an all-over-the-place and downright silly plot and weird controls that even a casual gamer like me couldn'tI was interested in purchasing this game after seeing the first trailer and seeing it was done by the same studio who made Heavy Rain. Overall, graphic-wise its Beautiful to look at with great voice acting performances from Ellen Page and William Defoe but it is ultimately undone by an all-over-the-place and downright silly plot and weird controls that even a casual gamer like me couldn't get over. But to each his own I guess… Expand
  13. BOWi
    Jul 5, 2014
    4
    I you played Heavy Rain and liked it only a little bit, I suggest you to rent Beyond: Two Souls first. I bought the game and finished it in three sessions (took around 12 hours, I guess). I think the game is at least three hours too long. Without spoiling farther than the trailers, I think all the Special Forces missions are irrelevant and boring.

    The chapters are presented in a mixed    I you played Heavy Rain and liked it only a little bit, I suggest you to rent Beyond: Two Souls first. I bought the game and finished it in three sessions (took around 12 hours, I guess). I think the game is at least three hours too long. Without spoiling farther than the trailers, I think all the Special Forces missions are irrelevant and boring.

    The chapters are presented in a mixed order. You'll end up playing scenes at the age of 9 after some at 20-something, going back to 15 y.o., etc.. At some point, the whole chronology became unclear to me and I thought the introduction sequence would be the last scene.

    Seriously, what I'm trying to say is that the story AND the storytelling are a mess. It's an experiment, but as Kotaku wrote, "You'll probably dislike Beyond: Two Souls if you wish Heavy Rain had been more experimental, not less." I feel like the military sequences and and the Special Forces storyline were pushed only for marketing purposes.

    Nah... I can't believe I spent bucks and time on this game. I'll never buy a QuanticDream game without renting it first again...    … Expand
  14. skulltulainahat
    Dec 6, 2014
    4
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I'll admit the graphics are nice and the voice acting is good, while the animations are fair. Though these are the only three 'okay' things about Beyond: Two Souls. And that's just because this is not a good game. I am aware the memories are scrambled for a reason, but the jumbled memory structure just doesn't work well for this game. You go from helping a homeless woman deliver her baby to being involved with spirits in the Navajo desert. It makes me believe that the writers just had a bunch of cool ideas and then just mixed them together and the result was a mess. The story is quite lackluster, the game is quite painful to complete, and I will ignore the lack of gameplay as I don't mind the little gameplay there is, seeing as I think Heavy Rain is a great game. Beyond though, is not. Though there are some interesting environments, and the game sounds good on paper, the execution is poor. All in all, this is a sub-par game.… Expand
  15. rickyrb
    May 21, 2014
    3
    I like to start this is from the same makers that made heavy rain, one of the little few games that really made me cry, it was a good and driven story.
    When i heard they are making another one, i was hoping it was even better or as good as the previous masterpiece..... I was wrong...
    While the visuals and scenes are amazingly implemented, its alive, and very well done, The story was    I like to start this is from the same makers that made heavy rain, one of the little few games that really made me cry, it was a good and driven story.
    When i heard they are making another one, i was hoping it was even better or as good as the previous masterpiece..... I was wrong...

    While the visuals and scenes are amazingly implemented, its alive, and very well done, The story was one big mess, it wasn't that emotional as it supposed to be, it was a great story, but the order its been told was plain wrong, horrible, and disappointing, it was more confusing, then it would suppose to suck you in, live and feel what the character is going trough, but with each new chapter, its like trowing your emotions in the bin, and start over.

    The visuals are amazing, the concept stunning, but the implementation, the order from kid to teenager to adult, was a deal breaking, it was disappointing, and confusing, and it never made it the stage of me crying of the story (what normally tells its a job well done, as i barely cry)

    They need to step it up, more game, less movie, and for the sake of future games, make the episodes blend in well... the order is a mess..

    4/10

    Pros: Good graphics, very detailed, its good story.
    Cons: The order of the chapters makes the story disappointing, boring, and frustrating, the emotions would be there if it was played in a better balanced way.    … Expand
  16. Agarwel
    Oct 10, 2013
    3
    Very weak title. For a game there is basically no gameplay. For a movie, it is too slow and story not interesting. For a interactiv movie, there is not much of interactivity. (this is caused by the story structure, where you actually play the future parts before you can play the parts before them, that could affect them without linear structure the interactivity is really not working).Very weak title. For a game there is basically no gameplay. For a movie, it is too slow and story not interesting. For a interactiv movie, there is not much of interactivity. (this is caused by the story structure, where you actually play the future parts before you can play the parts before them, that could affect them without linear structure the interactivity is really not working). And as a tech-demo, there are texture pop-ups and framedrops including some short (0,5 1sec) freezes caused by the background loadings.
    I really liked the Heavy Rain. But the Beyond has basically all the bad aspect of the Heavy Rain. But unfortunately it is missing to parts that were great in Heavy Rain (interesting story and interactivity that could affect story few scenes later.)    … Expand
  17. Wesker500
    Oct 9, 2013
    3
    I really really wanted to like this game, but I was very disappointed with how poorly this games story was handled and how weak the gameplay was.
    The way the story was broken up into different pieces and mixed up made everything so confusing for me to follow and the gameplay was just not good, I made so many mistakes with the slow mo segments with Jodie because I could not read her    I really really wanted to like this game, but I was very disappointed with how poorly this games story was handled and how weak the gameplay was.
    The way the story was broken up into different pieces and mixed up made everything so confusing for me to follow and the gameplay was just not good, I made so many mistakes with the slow mo segments with Jodie because I could not read her movements half the time.
    Most of the other characters were weak and I had less options to that of Heavy Rain.
    One of the most negative things about the game for me was that the game just wouldn't work anymore, I stopped playing last night and got up this to morning to play and the game just would not load the level I left off at, I restarted the game and still would not work. The game was broken for me.
    The only positive things about this game for me was the performance of Ellen Page and of course the great visuals of the game.
    I'm sad to say this is likely my final PS3 Exclusive game I'll play before I get a PS4 and I have already returned it for a full refund.
    I hate to say this but Beyond Two Souls is on my Most Disappointing Games of 2013 list.    … Expand
  18. StarlessBB
    Oct 8, 2013
    3
    For all of David Cage's attempts to make games into movies, why can he not write, and why are the controls so goddamn obnoxious and horrible?

    This game has lovely visuals and pretty good acting performances, but GODDAMN the controls are absolutely horrendous in ways they shouldn't be. Just moving your character feels like the most disgusting thing ever due to how poor the controls are.
  19. Tubey
    Oct 22, 2013
    3
    This isn't really a game, let's be honest. This is the same kind of thing that existed when the SEGACD was in vogue and suddenly you could produce interactive movies and the public would gasp and applaud at the technological marvel of it all.

    Beyond: Two Souls is exactly that; an interactive movie. That's not necessarily a bad thing, and to be fair it doesn't pretend to be anything    This isn't really a game, let's be honest. This is the same kind of thing that existed when the SEGACD was in vogue and suddenly you could produce interactive movies and the public would gasp and applaud at the technological marvel of it all.

    Beyond: Two Souls is exactly that; an interactive movie. That's not necessarily a bad thing, and to be fair it doesn't pretend to be anything other than an interactive movie. But it isn't a game. There's no element of challenge or dynamism about the title. This is painting by numbers, the PS3 version.

    The reason they market this as a game where you occasionally press X to plod the movie along is because as a standalone movie it wouldn't sell (because of the shoddy story and poor presentation more than anything else!), so they're relying on gamers to think that by pressing the odd button every five minutes that they're involved some how.

    And that's why you're getting people using descriptions such as "masterpiece", "beautiful", "emotional" etc. because they've been conned into thinking they've played through something meaningful.

    I've heard people say that "it's a good change of pace", that somehow doing next to nothing is a GOOD thing, but you know what you could do if you wanted such a change of place? Watch an actual movie and one with a much, much better storyline than this to boot. Heavy Rain had a bit of substance, so you could arguably get drawn in to the 'whodunnit' aspect of it.

    Graphically it is lacklustre to say the least. The controls for the limited amount of "gameplay" here are a jumbled, confused afterthought.

    Beyond: Two Souls is 'game' that should be getting poor reviews on Rotten Tomatoes rather than any gaming website. It is ultimately uninspired; full of pretence and very little substance. This review will get hammered by most who have 'played' the game, because they'll be indoctrinated by the pretence on show here, but make no mistake, this is a stinker of a title that you should avoid at all costs.    … Expand
  20. Nobilis1984
    Oct 13, 2013
    3
    More movie like game

    Heavy Rain certainly had not only good sides but it was a lot better as this game. What bothers me is that it must specifically I am only in a movie, and the only player to push off and a few buttons. Even without this end the actions always good. The game offers a lot to see but it still is for me a game and the way it should be played. Conclusion: Too much    More movie like game

    Heavy Rain certainly had not only good sides but it was a lot better as this game.
    What bothers me is that it must specifically I am only in a movie, and the only player to push off and a few buttons. Even without this end the actions always good.
    The game offers a lot to see but it still is for me a game and the way it should be played.

    Conclusion: Too much film and very little gameplay elements.    … Expand
  21. benHaskett
    Oct 9, 2013
    3
    When playing Beyond, I couldn't help but recall an interview I read with Amy Hennig in which she explained that the writing for the Uncharted games started with first developing their exciting, standout events, and then contriving links to tie them all together. The funny thing about Beyond, is that it kind of does the same thing, except A), the events aren't always exciting or memorable,When playing Beyond, I couldn't help but recall an interview I read with Amy Hennig in which she explained that the writing for the Uncharted games started with first developing their exciting, standout events, and then contriving links to tie them all together. The funny thing about Beyond, is that it kind of does the same thing, except A), the events aren't always exciting or memorable, and B), the writers didn't bother to create any links to tie the story together. Instead, Beyond is made up of a bunch of tiny scenes that merey fade in, fade out, and move on to the next. These scenes can last anywhere between 5 and 30 minutes.

    During these scenes, there's a very thinly-veiled notion that you're directing the outcome of the story, much like in Telltale's The Walking Dead; however, no matter what you do, everything turns out exactly the same in the end. A perfect example of this occurs very early on in the game where you're given the opportunity to wreak havoc in an office building--at first, you’re prompted by the game to ruffle some papers and knock over some blocks, which scares someone in the room. At that point, you’re given the option to continue messing with stuff in the room, for the sole purpose of freaking this person out even more. I opted not to, because, well, it would have been mean to do so. So I just sat there, and for the next minute or so, the music continued to swell and the panicking individual continued to panic. Finally, the scene ended when some people burst into the room to relieve the main character, who was... sobbing?! Why? She ruffled some papers, and knocked over some blocks. Clearly the writers assumed that all players would go to town on everything in the room, and did not bother writing an alternative; EVERYTHING in the game is predetermined.

    Worse, even the best scenes are rarely original. It’s mostly tried-and-true movie tropes designed to evoke emotional responses from the audience. The problem is that that they’e so disconnected from each other that it amounts to nothing.

    In the end, Beyond is a collection of low-hanging fruit tropes, cut up nice and neat into tiny, bite-sized vignettes.    … Expand
  22. bioreview
    Oct 30, 2013
    3
    The game has a very interesting history but i cant say this is game,is a very large movie .The mecanics of the "game" are very poor ,also the combat.,its better see the gameplay on youtube instead buy it
  23. InstantReplay
    Apr 22, 2014
    3
    First off, the characters are flat and boring. There is so little realistic interaction between the characters that you are left with no reason to actually care about anyone in this game. We have no sense of who Jodie is as a person and she doesn't undergo any kind of character arc.

    Second, there is no plot. It is a jumbled sequence of events with no more to connect them together than    First off, the characters are flat and boring. There is so little realistic interaction between the characters that you are left with no reason to actually care about anyone in this game. We have no sense of who Jodie is as a person and she doesn't undergo any kind of character arc.

    Second, there is no plot. It is a jumbled sequence of events with no more to connect them together than the fact that each scene has the same character.    … Expand
  24. Shorak
    Mar 11, 2014
    3
    This game is "Beyond" horrible. For everyone saying that David Cage is a genius and half the gaming population can't understand what a "masterpiece" his work is, please, take a look again.

    Here's a true review: First of all, none of the choices you make in the game have much of an impact. I've watched multiple playthroughs with people trying out different options, and they all lead    This game is "Beyond" horrible. For everyone saying that David Cage is a genius and half the gaming population can't understand what a "masterpiece" his work is, please, take a look again.

    Here's a true review:

    First of all, none of the choices you make in the game have much of an impact. I've watched multiple playthroughs with people trying out different options, and they all lead to the same scene in the end of the chapter! So no, whoever says this game is worth the money is lying. Why spend $60 for a game built like a movie out of chronological order? Especially when halfway through the "game", it goes downhill like a rocket ship entering Earth's atmosphere again.

    Speaking of game, there's barely any gameplay. You can move around and interact with objects, but jeeeeeeez, the most gameplay I've gotten out of it was with the sneaking. And even then, whenever I tried to fail every single prompt to see if I could get a different outcome from things--because, mind you, according to David Cage, the point of an interactive game is to have your actions NOT determine the outcome of your future events--the game just handled it for me like a guiding hand.

    Second, everyone calls her a witch like it's the new thing. We're supposed to feel for her, but most of the time I just groaned and slapped my forehead. Seriously, who the hell uses that word for unexplained occurrences anymore? This isn't the Crucible! Of course, though, everything bad that happens can always be justified with the term "witch." And every time something happened, the blame would instantly be put on her too.
    According to David Cage, "Witches are a failure of the game designer."

    All the emotional scenes are forced on Jodie for the sake of her herself, not the stupidly wonderful storyline. I spent most of my time yelling out, "Oh, come ON! There's no way something that stupid would happen in real life!!"
    I mean, really!? She gets the option to kiss almost every guy she meets because she's a slut (and yes, I chose to kiss them all for the giggles), and even then, when most of them are such **** to her in the first place, everyone thinks it's a sweet, romantic moment.

    So apparently, just because she has this supernatural entity following her, we should feel sorry for the girl? Damn, I've met people with sadder stories about dying dogs and missing out on in-town events. This, just....this game does a horrendous way of making you feel sorry for her. One moment when you actually start to get into it, it goes back to her childhood or another part of her life.

    Don't let me get started on how horribly done the order of her life is..... Chronological would have made the game better, but not to the point of saving it.

    I could go oooon about all the stereotypes he puts in there. Hell, most of this game just yells out, "Hey, look! The white race is superior, so let's have our white girl solve a thousand year old prophecy, make an old lady who hasn't talked for years suddenly speak, and take down a warlord!! And then, after all of that happens, let's bring in more feels so the gamers can empathize with her!"
    Most of the time all the tension died down because one knew Aiden would save them no matter what happened -_ -

    I've written a short story once--a lot of people say it's the most original and creative idea they've ever heard of--and the death of my main characters sister actually made my friends cry and feel depressed, and that was only in the fifth chapter of the book. I didn't need a supernatural entity following her to make the other characters treat her bad because of her being a "witch", nor did I have the need to randomly skip to "tragic" scenes of her past to make them feel for her.
    No, I built it all up from beginning to end; she only appeared in Chapter Two before appearing again in Chapter Five. She wasn't even a main character either. That's how you make a great character, not this Beyond Two Craps that forces you to sympathize with a girl who spreads her legs for every possible guy she meets, randomly time skipped sequences and her constant yelling at Aiden, wanting his help, yelling again before wanting him to help her out again. Give the guy a rest, damn!

    I admit though, I got more laughs out of this game than intended when playing with my friends XD So I guess that's one reason to buy it.

    Trust me, if you look Beyond the so-called storyline and dwell into it, you'll see all the flaws everyone is ignoring. Take a look at all the good reviews. All they talk about is the storyline, the graphics and character personalities of the game right? Well yeah, because that's all they freaking focused on.

    This game is more racist than AC3, more jumbled up than a bunch of hyper-active kids at a birthday party, yells out "White power!" to the point that it's hilarious, slaps everything in your face to make you feel "bad", and brings out all sorts of clichés like it's a festival. Apparently, that's what this generation deems a "masterpiece".    … Expand
  25. darkecofreak1
    Apr 7, 2014
    3
    The only reason this game gets a 3 is because it had great graphics. EVERYTHING else SUCKS! Jodie was boring as Hell, the game in general was boring as Hell. Easily one of the worst games I have ever played. It was such a let down.
  26. TheHonestOne
    May 22, 2014
    3
    When I saw the beyond two souls trailer I actually got pretty excited, I like stealth games and it seemed to play like a splinter cell with a super natural element, but then I saw his name, David Cage. From that moment on wards I knew it would be full of quick time events and have a 2 year old excuse of a story, aka heavy rain or just be the definition of bad, aka Two Worlds, and you knowWhen I saw the beyond two souls trailer I actually got pretty excited, I like stealth games and it seemed to play like a splinter cell with a super natural element, but then I saw his name, David Cage. From that moment on wards I knew it would be full of quick time events and have a 2 year old excuse of a story, aka heavy rain or just be the definition of bad, aka Two Worlds, and you know what, I was absolutely RIGHT. Not for one of those factors but for both of them.

    OK I’ll will start with the good for once. The presentation and acting is an improvement from Heavy Rain but that's not saying much (just to avoid hate I don’t think heavy rain is BAD it is ok). That's it that is the only good I can find in this game. The first thing you will notice is that this movie sorry I meant “game” is trying so hard to be a movie, David Cage has this strange obsession with bringing the cinematic experience to the game industry, one has to be VERY careful with this otherwise you get a game that's actually a movie. Beyond has fell for this trap, everything thing is done for you, the game play and action is nothing but quick time events and moral choices that have no effect on the story what so ever and most of the time make no sense.

    Let’s talk about the combat, what combat? When you're about to be hit jerk the joystick in that direction and you win. You're fellow ghost friend is a nice idea but he actually removes the fun for two reasons. One, when you kill enemy's the game decides what you can or cannot do to them, you may what to possess them but the game will just decide you can only kill them FOR NO REASON. He also acts as the guy that does the blight of the modern triple a game stuff, like pressing buttons to proceed. Two, he removes all tension from the combat. You see he can make some sort of ghost shield thing around Jodie that makes her immune to everything, so she now super women and you now have no tension in the combat whatsoever, not that it matters because the combat is easy and uninvolving as humanly possible.

    Ok Ok I will stop ranting and look at beyond in a story perspective…..it’s bad. The game revolves around Jodie from a child to teens and her being a CIA agent, in no chronological order, yeah it’s one of those stories. I didn’t understand anything about the CIA carer but it’s mainly Jodie trying to be accepted for what she is…huh for David that isn’t bad. HOW DOES HE RUIN IT? Well I will explain it with this one piece of story. Well the other half of the story that isn’t being mopey and depressed (though I do feel she has great acting at times) she is chasing after hunky boys. One guy who was being REAL bully to her earlier goes on a date with him, Jodie then tells her ghost friend not to kill him because she is falling in love with him. I’m sorry but THAT DOES NOT WORK! YOU DON’T HATE SOMEONE THEN LOVE SOMEONE IT MAKES NO SENCE. Also Jodie spends a lot of time wearing nothing but her underwear, it made me feel awkward.

    Overall we must all forget that this game exists, when I saw that this game scored decently I was horribly shocked, all of my friends and that metacritics i know agree with me, so why is it scoring so high? One would think that after making so many games that are movies David would at least get better at it but no he’s getting WORSE. For one he has got a really strange view of poverty, with self -control and standing as one. Maybe he is trying to not alienate the people he will have to live with if he keeps making games like this one. Thank you zero punctuation (go check that guy out he’s awesome)    … Expand
  27. Nathaniel224
    Jul 9, 2022
    3
    At the end of the day this is a cinematic movie and not a game but i buy games to play games. This was not enjoyable other than the immersive cinematics and decision system the game was boring. Also there was slow tedious movements, annoying mechanics, lack of actual gameplay control, too many quick time events, and too many moments where i felt loss. If you want a good playstation 3At the end of the day this is a cinematic movie and not a game but i buy games to play games. This was not enjoyable other than the immersive cinematics and decision system the game was boring. Also there was slow tedious movements, annoying mechanics, lack of actual gameplay control, too many quick time events, and too many moments where i felt loss. If you want a good playstation 3 exclusive play god of war 3, infamous 2, last of us 1, uncharted 3, resistance 3, the list goes on and on. Avoid beyond 2 souls… Expand
  28. Mogwai76
    Oct 11, 2013
    2
    Visually this is a massive step forward. But the story (which seems to be it's main part) falls flat, the characters are shallow and there virtually is no gameplay. I definitely can't recommend this "game". It feels like the creative leads behind this really want to work in films, but somehow chose the wrong medium to bring their vision across. I got bored and irriated enough to not evenVisually this is a massive step forward. But the story (which seems to be it's main part) falls flat, the characters are shallow and there virtually is no gameplay. I definitely can't recommend this "game". It feels like the creative leads behind this really want to work in films, but somehow chose the wrong medium to bring their vision across. I got bored and irriated enough to not even finish half the game.… Expand
  29. Penther
    Oct 31, 2013
    2
    Is Beyond: Two Souls in the right category Is it a game or a movie I don't really care, in both cases it has the same defects and qualities.

    Let's start with the qualities : - The pitch is nice, with a great potential for storytelling and character development. - The character is lovable - Graphics are mostly really nice, I say mostly because some facial animations seemed very    Is Beyond: Two Souls in the right category Is it a game or a movie I don't really care, in both cases it has the same defects and qualities.

    Let's start with the qualities :
    - The pitch is nice, with a great potential for storytelling and character development.
    - The character is lovable
    - Graphics are mostly really nice, I say mostly because some facial animations seemed very unnatural to me

    And... that's it... let's check what I didn't like
    - The idea of playing scenes in a random order. even though it's "explained" later, it was pointless, and very irritating in the beginning, giving me the sensation that I was given random stories to play for a short time, before jumping to another.
    - It is soooo looonngggg... not in the good way. I have to walk through that corridor Why does everyone walks faster than me It simply makes the scenes longer (and boring), and breaks the rhythm.
    - It's often predictable, It uses schemes already seen, again and again, in too many movies,
    - Same thing for the characters, a lot of them are very cliché. Behind Jodie, most of the characters are transparent and/or irritating.
    - It's supposed to be an interactive movie, but the interactions are only pressing the button that the "game" asks you to press. Some games, behind a gameplay, manage to tell a story while giving some real choices to the player, with consequences on the scenario. Here, nothing, only a few different endings, with the choice just before, making it completely artificial.

    In the end, even with it's encouraging concept, this game/movie is disappointing.
    It is a bad movie, a succession of cliché with no rhythm.
    it is a bad game, as the player has no role at all in the story.

    Honestly, I think that is someone decides to capture a walkthrough, and makes a good montage of it, cutting boring parts etc., It might become a decent movie... with a lot of cliché, but decent.
    In it's current/official state, it's not worth playing/watching    … Expand
  30. miszbreesz54
    Oct 8, 2013
    2
    I really wanted to like this game, but couldn't. I wanted to play a game not a movie. I didn't like the controls, the gameplay, this game bored me so much I couldn't even follow the story I was falling asleep, and I didn't like how one minute you're a kid and then the next you're a teenager with no explanation for it. I also thought I was going to like the entity, but I didn't like itI really wanted to like this game, but couldn't. I wanted to play a game not a movie. I didn't like the controls, the gameplay, this game bored me so much I couldn't even follow the story I was falling asleep, and I didn't like how one minute you're a kid and then the next you're a teenager with no explanation for it. I also thought I was going to like the entity, but I didn't like it either. I just expected a whole lot more out of this game. I was told the person who made this made Heavy Rain and I heard that game was good, but since I didn't like this one I most likely won't like that one. This is just my opinion on this there are a lot of mixed reviews about it. If you want to know how it is you have to give it a try yourself. This is definitely no 10/10.… Expand
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Awards & Rankings

92
#92 Best PS3 Game of 2013
3
#3 Most Discussed PS3 Game of 2013
5
#5 Most Shared PS3 Game of 2013

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
70

Mixed or average reviews - based on 98 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 52 out of 98
  2. Mixed: 38 out of 98
  3. Negative: 8 out of 98
  1. Hyper Magazine
    Dec 28, 2013
    50
    There doesn't ever seem to be any real impact of the player's decisions, actions or failures. [Jan 2014, p.76]
  2. Level7.nu
    Dec 12, 2013
    40
    Beyond: Two Souls is a capital failure as both a story and as a game. The adventure plays itself and the player is left to push the right buttons in the right order. The story you are rewarded with is a mess of odd writing and poor directing choices from a game creator that obviously wants to create great art but seems to be incapable of doing so. Even fans of Fahrenheit and Heavy Rain should prepare for what is unfortunately a monumental disappointment.
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  3. RPG Fan
    Nov 24, 2013
    88
    A story every Playstation owner should experience.
    Read full review
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