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. CSReviews
    Nov 8, 2013
    6
    SHORT REVIEW Looks great but arguably that's the only good thing about it. Characters look real but NPC's don't look as impressive. Buildings, rooms and surrounding environment look well but with few texture bugs. The story is non interesting and choices rarely matter and honestly directed and written badly. During QTE scenes it doesn't matter if you press a button or not the game playsSHORT REVIEW Looks great but arguably that's the only good thing about it. Characters look real but NPC's don't look as impressive. Buildings, rooms and surrounding environment look well but with few texture bugs. The story is non interesting and choices rarely matter and honestly directed and written badly. During QTE scenes it doesn't matter if you press a button or not the game plays them out for you, like a movie. Apart from that gameplay is short and feels clunky and awkward, it's press this then hold down this. Cutscenes are played out whether or not you press this button when told. Playing as Aiden can be fun at times when messing up a room and scaring NPC's but that lasts less than 10 minutes and the effect moves rather quickly. Most environments are intractable but nothing really happens when you interact with them.

    Characters are okay and well written but NPC's aren't programmed well in the playable environment, NPC's will just stand there doing nothing if you stand there and watch them. They look great especially Ellen Page and Williem Dafoe's characters. To have characters so life like on eight year old hardware is impressive.

    Not the best game I've ever played but not the worst either, I wouldn't highly recommend it to anyone as the plot is unimpressive and it feels like a movie. Definitely a 6/10 shouldn't be any higher, unlike Telltale's The Walking Dead it may only be good through it's character and story, Beyond: Two Souls get's both wrong.

    Good Points
    Looks good
    Main Characters are well written
    Well Acted

    Bad Points
    Uninteresting Story
    QTEs Don't Matter
    Some NPCs feel like cardboard cut outs.    … Expand
  2. KennyP
    Jan 5, 2014
    6
    Beyond: Two Souls is a mixed affair. On the one hand I was incredibly engrossed in the story telling and fabulous visuals. On the other hand the illusion was often shattered by incredibly irritating controls and camera angles.

    When it's telling the story, it is brilliant. When it's trying to be a game, it's dull, restrictive, and often downright irritating.
  3. Mbonaventura85
    Mar 7, 2014
    6
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. The gameplay is quite easy and that makes it kind of boring. Graphic detalis are Awsome, and the story has a deep messege.It also drives you to variated environments. Thats a positive point. Its more like a movie than any other action game any of us had played.
    Is it worth to play it.    … Expand
  4. RedRyan18
    May 22, 2014
    6
    Beyond: Two Souls is very a very disappointing follow-up to Heavy Rain. The story this time around is a cluttered mess, the gameplay is not as compelling, and the characters are boring. You know you're game is in trouble when the best part is the musical score.
  5. HTGamer
    May 13, 2018
    6
    Beyond: Two Souls is a great but flawed and under-rated adventure sci-fi game. A great concept in theory which was badly executed.

    Beyond: Two Souls is a choice-based, narrative-driven adventure game, where your choices affect the story and lead to multiple endings, just like all those Traveller's Tales games (The Walking Dead, The Wolf Among Us, etc.). Some people will call it an    Beyond: Two Souls is a great but flawed and under-rated adventure sci-fi game. A great concept in theory which was badly executed.

    Beyond: Two Souls is a choice-based, narrative-driven adventure game, where your choices affect the story and lead to multiple endings, just like all those Traveller's Tales games (The Walking Dead, The Wolf Among Us, etc.). Some people will call it an "interactive movie" but they'd be wrong. This game is intended to be experienced by both gamers and non-gamers, so it lacks any real challenge or traditional videogame action.

    The game tells the life story of protagonist Jodie Holmes (portrayed by Ellen Page), who's a really likeable and sympathetic character. Jodie has suffered a hard life because she has been linked with a ghost named Aiden since birth, which is both a gift and a curse. She has been raised by professor Nathan Dawkins (Willem Dafoe) and then her life journey becomes a crazy roller coaster. The story is presented in a non-linear way. The plot has twists and turns, as well as high and low points, but I think David Cage (the game's writer and director) should have kept it more down to Earth. The "Homeless" chapter is beautiful and emotional, but when Jodie blowed a town up or was made to fight against supernatural beings, the script went the BS route. The overall plot is a sci-fi mess with many unrelated chapters being linked together with little or no transitioning, unfortunately.

    Gameplay is simplified compared to most games out there and QTEs are nothing like the mess of the developer's previous game Heavy Rain. Interactivity with the surroundings is severely limited though. Controls and the camera are problematic, but the game is slowly paced so the problem is almost non-existent. The ghost named Aiden provides some meaningful ways to interact with the environment and solve some light puzzles, but he's a lost opportunity because he's under-utilised by David Cage. Also Aiden's capabilities are very inconsistent, on one instance he can pass through walls and choke people, and on another it's not possible to do so, all due to the script. At least the game can be played in 2 player co-op, with one controlling Jodie and the other Aiden.

    Production values are very high for an adventure game like this, with Hollywood stars Ellen Page and Willem Dafoe starring in the lead roles. All the characters are rendered beautifully, at the expense of the environments though which feature noticeably low polygon counts and shadow pop-ins. The soundtrack is very good.

    All in all, Beyond: Two Souls was a failed experiment for David Cage and Quantic Dream. It proved to be a big mis-step after the success of Heavy Rain, but hopefully they have learnt from their mistakes since then.    … Expand
  6. JavierUzumaki
    Oct 2, 2016
    6
    A mi los juegos de David Cage no me gustan mucho,pero bueno es otra pelicula interactiva mas ,la historia esta mas o menos pero esto lo hacen en pelicula sin ser un juego ni nada y no sacan ni un puto duro pero como es una pelicula interactiva y exclusiva de playstation sacan un monton de dinero. Ah y me gusto mas la precuela:Heavy Rain
  7. Satanski
    Jul 7, 2018
    6
    The game would be really good, if it allowed more control over main character's decisions. It was really annoying, watching her get emotionally involved with **** who took her by force to serve agancy, and then kept manipulating her. Seriously, not every gamer is 18 yo inexperienced girl.
  8. BrianDavid94
    Aug 25, 2022
    6
    Quick background on me the reviewer, I tend to like single player games that is heavy on narrative the most. I also play a lot of racing games and use to play multiplayer games in my high school days but now that it's hard for me and my friends to find a good time to link up so now I hardly play any. Up to try any genre of games and sometimes I find something new that I didn't think I'dQuick background on me the reviewer, I tend to like single player games that is heavy on narrative the most. I also play a lot of racing games and use to play multiplayer games in my high school days but now that it's hard for me and my friends to find a good time to link up so now I hardly play any. Up to try any genre of games and sometimes I find something new that I didn't think I'd like. I play on every platform but prefer PlayStation.

    Story has potential but the director was drunk on the outline and decided it was better to jump backward, forward, left and right with the timeline.    … Expand
  9. timmytime
    Jan 17, 2014
    5
    Wanted to like it more than I actually did, especially because Heavy Rain is one of my favourite games of all time. But the non-linear storyline is weak and you feel as though your choices don't matter - the player is robbed of what makes games unique - agency - as they're just trying to get to the next scene. The QTE "flick the stick" is too streamlined and unsatisfying as well.
  10. BearzYo
    Nov 16, 2013
    5
    This... interactive movie... isn't bad, it just isn't that good either. I guess it's supposed to be about story but you really lose the immersion every time you commit any action, because every action you commit has the TV basically screaming at you 'YOU ARE IN A VIDEO GAME SO MASH THE CORRESPONDING BUTTON QUICKLY WITHIN THE TIMEFRAME OR YOU WILL PROBABLY NOT REALLY GET PUNISHED AT ALL'.This... interactive movie... isn't bad, it just isn't that good either. I guess it's supposed to be about story but you really lose the immersion every time you commit any action, because every action you commit has the TV basically screaming at you 'YOU ARE IN A VIDEO GAME SO MASH THE CORRESPONDING BUTTON QUICKLY WITHIN THE TIMEFRAME OR YOU WILL PROBABLY NOT REALLY GET PUNISHED AT ALL'.

    For me it completely ends any immersion and it's becoming all to common in video games. Rely on your gameplay to create spectacular moments!

    Anyway, like I said, it isn't bad, the story is relatively interesting in it's own way, though I doubt it will stick with you for long, it certainly didn't me.

    It doesn't help that for me, and other I know, this game followed on from The Last of Us.    … Expand
  11. UltimateCD
    Oct 21, 2013
    5
    Pros
    Excellent graphics
    Ellen Page turns in a good performance The homeless scene isn’t bad cons Incredibly restrictive gameplay Very little in the way of actual choice or influence on the game world Phenomenally tedious and dull nearly all the way through The QTE-driven action sequences are impossibly boring If you think about most plot elements for even a few seconds, they’re    Pros
    Excellent graphics
    Ellen Page turns in a good performance
    The homeless scene isn’t bad

    cons
    Incredibly restrictive gameplay
    Very little in the way of actual choice or influence on the game world
    Phenomenally tedious and dull nearly all the way through
    The QTE-driven action sequences are impossibly boring
    If you think about most plot elements for even a few seconds, they’re utter nonsense
    The disjointed structure just doesn’t work
    Troubling depictions of other races, and an ugly attitude towards humanity in general    … Expand
  12. GildaTheGriffin
    Oct 11, 2013
    5
    When it comes to some games some do make enticing and amazing stories. But when it comes to Beyond Two Souls it's a bit like Heavy Rain but with less of an objective in mind. It's bland, confusing, and characters are robotic with drop of life. Beyond's gameplay is even boring and lifeless, as the controls either have you just pressing in on the sticks or pulling them out. This game hadWhen it comes to some games some do make enticing and amazing stories. But when it comes to Beyond Two Souls it's a bit like Heavy Rain but with less of an objective in mind. It's bland, confusing, and characters are robotic with drop of life. Beyond's gameplay is even boring and lifeless, as the controls either have you just pressing in on the sticks or pulling them out. This game had real potential, but it fell flat as it was boring and not interesting.… Expand
  13. gyigyo2
    Oct 9, 2013
    5
    Positive:Graphics even better than crysis3 pc version overall especially the characters,cloth...
    facial emotions/technology is amazing!,music is pretty good,Aiden.Page,Dafoe Story is pretty interesting.
    Hungarian language! little jodie/homless/broken chapter! was my favorite the homless people was so friendly to jodie its like jodie real friends/parents.And the little jodie was veeeery    Positive:Graphics even better than crysis3 pc version overall especially the characters,cloth...
    facial emotions/technology is amazing!,music is pretty good,Aiden.Page,Dafoe Story is pretty interesting.
    Hungarian language! little jodie/homless/broken chapter! was my favorite the homless people was so friendly to jodie its like jodie real friends/parents.And the little jodie was veeeery cute i loved her.
    Negative:Something is very forced in the game, even if you doing the missions "differently" the outcome is pretty same or a little change. Romance plots is forced its prety ugly for me im a guy so i don't wanna watch a videogame character guys ass front of me its disgusting if i want to watch something like that i go and watch porn.Ryan is the worst charater he always "love" me even if i told him to back off and im not "love you" the story is too linear... and confusing,too short.so overall Heavy Rain was better.But still a masterpiece thats for sure!.    … Expand
  14. Raiden94
    Oct 8, 2013
    5
    It's pretty sad that the game has no critic reviews.
    Anyway, here's the deal. The game is okay, but the developers showed way too much footage and spoiled way too many scenes in all the trailers they released. We ended up with a story that we know 80% of what happens in it. For a game that strives on story, it sucks that there wasn't much story to be told. By now i've used the word    It's pretty sad that the game has no critic reviews.
    Anyway, here's the deal. The game is okay, but the developers showed way too much footage and spoiled way too many scenes in all the trailers they released. We ended up with a story that we know 80% of what happens in it. For a game that strives on story, it sucks that there wasn't much story to be told. By now i've used the word "story" quite a lot, but that's just what Beyond is: A story. An interactive one.
    It is way too linear. None of your choices influence any outcomes, unlike Heavy Rain, where every decision you made created a difference.    … Expand
  15. pmkiller
    Oct 9, 2013
    5
    Good graphics for a ps3 game,good story but no real decision making which makes the game suffer very much.Also the price point is too high for a interactive novel that with downgraded graphics would do a excellent ios/android game.
  16. morrae
    Oct 10, 2013
    5
    Graphics are fantastic and sometimes you forget it's a game, everything looks so real and attention to details is amazing. Story starts out just great and really intriguing. That is for the first 4-5 hours or so. And then plot collapses on itself, plot holes grow in numbers in every scene. It's just sad that Cage is not a writer but continues to try and inevitably fails every time. EveryGraphics are fantastic and sometimes you forget it's a game, everything looks so real and attention to details is amazing. Story starts out just great and really intriguing. That is for the first 4-5 hours or so. And then plot collapses on itself, plot holes grow in numbers in every scene. It's just sad that Cage is not a writer but continues to try and inevitably fails every time. Every story he writes sacrifices compelling story for the sake of plot twist. Every time he tries to surprise player and screw ups his characters (that are without their flaws in the first place), destroys story, creates dozens of plot holes along the way and ultimately the game itself suffers. It happened with Indigo Prophecy, it happened with Heavy Rain (not so much though) and it absolutely destroyed that game. It's a pity he can't just give his story for read proof or something to the actual writers.
    This was a decent game in first couple of hours, I would've given it 8 or 9.
    Then it kinda went off, action scenes are unnecessary and boring, with broken controls, you start to notice some plot holes and dumb characters decisions, and it might deserve 5-6.
    But then the ending comes and oh my god that is terrible. Last scenes are just pathetic. You watch it like a TV movie, it's so bad, it's characters are laughable (like CIA general, it's like he is from looney tunes or something, he is so evil and nasty and just cartoon villain), it's like ending was done in 1 week by a bunch of 8 years old. Who wrote that stuff? It's really bad even for FPS action shoot-em-up game. For a game that focuses on the plot it's atrocious! The ending is for 1-2 score AT MOST.

    So it combines to 4-5 for me, but given the pretty graphics and nice technological achivement I'm giving this game 5 out 10. The ending ruined this game. Everything that happens at CIA building is just awful and people that are responsible for it should not try to write anything at all.    … Expand
  17. Flipvan
    Oct 12, 2013
    5
    I was very disappointed, couldn't wait for it to end. Pros -Ellen Page's acting, thats about it. Graphics were ok, I don't understand why they paid so much attention to detail when max resolution is 720p, seems pointless. Cons story was very erratic, jumping from all different ages, I couldn't keep what point i was at in her life straight. Controls were terrible, had a hard timeI was very disappointed, couldn't wait for it to end. Pros -Ellen Page's acting, thats about it. Graphics were ok, I don't understand why they paid so much attention to detail when max resolution is 720p, seems pointless. Cons story was very erratic, jumping from all different ages, I couldn't keep what point i was at in her life straight. Controls were terrible, had a hard time determining what direction i was supposed to push the analog stick in during slow motion attack/defense sequences. Camera angles for third person seemed to be a constant irritation. I thought the story was full of lots of tacky cliches that seemed to just never end one after another.

    Overall, I'm trading it in as soon as possible before the game companies realize they have an influx of these used and only give you a dollar credit.    … Expand
  18. J4MESOX4D
    Oct 26, 2013
    5
    A major let-down compared to Heavy Rain;- one of Quantic Dream's finest hours. Beyond: Two Souls fails to match the spirit and style and instead is a disjointed mess that is lacking in narrative and gameplay elements. Heavy Rain was incredibly unique with a stunning atmosphere and engrossing story. The interactive elements were neatly implemented as was the depth behind decisions andA major let-down compared to Heavy Rain;- one of Quantic Dream's finest hours. Beyond: Two Souls fails to match the spirit and style and instead is a disjointed mess that is lacking in narrative and gameplay elements. Heavy Rain was incredibly unique with a stunning atmosphere and engrossing story. The interactive elements were neatly implemented as was the depth behind decisions and actions. Two Souls strips all the positives of Heavy Rain and delivers a disappointing interactive movie with minimal gameplay activity and an uninspiring story. If you can appreciate the sheer effort in the product as demonstrated; you may enjoy it more but for those looking for a game with a thrilling story should look elsewhere. Disappointing to say the least.… Expand
  19. YoutubeTGW
    Jun 7, 2014
    5
    The graphics are nothing to complain about and the story has some lags where I lose interest. Some things I don't like Limited Gameplay as Jodie. The walking controls for Jodie aren't great. Playing as Aiden was fun for a short time but it quickly gets boring. And when you play as Jodie (should of picked another name for her considering the Jodie murder trials) there is VERY little you canThe graphics are nothing to complain about and the story has some lags where I lose interest. Some things I don't like Limited Gameplay as Jodie. The walking controls for Jodie aren't great. Playing as Aiden was fun for a short time but it quickly gets boring. And when you play as Jodie (should of picked another name for her considering the Jodie murder trials) there is VERY little you can do with her so you mostly play as Aiden like I said before gets boring really quick. I couldn't finish the game because I quickly lost interest.… Expand
  20. BlueBuffalo
    Jun 13, 2014
    5
    Beyond: Two Souls is at its best a two-star interactive movie. If you were expecting a game like Heavy Rain, you would be dead wrong. The game gives little to no control to the player during gameplay. Some good descriptions for this game would be "Walking Simulator" or "The QTE Game." The narrative miserably tries to persuade that you have some control over the story several times and whenBeyond: Two Souls is at its best a two-star interactive movie. If you were expecting a game like Heavy Rain, you would be dead wrong. The game gives little to no control to the player during gameplay. Some good descriptions for this game would be "Walking Simulator" or "The QTE Game." The narrative miserably tries to persuade that you have some control over the story several times and when you try to do something different and dramatic, the game just goes "NOPE, you can't do that!" The story itself is super fragmented and doesn't seem to have any single point, goal, theme or anything. Audiovisually, this game really is impressive, the voice acting's great, the faces look amazing, etc. etc. But the actual gameplay isn't worth your money.… Expand
  21. mortal312
    Jun 14, 2014
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Ok honestly this game is being heavily overrated by fans and i'm suprised there are so many 10/10s.

    Beyond two souls has great graphics that improve over quantic dreams previous game, heavy rain. The voice acting is also done better with at least Jodie being a well developed character. That's where i think it ends. Comparing to heavy rain the combat is worse being to confusing and often you wont know what to do. It doesn't matter however if you don't get all of the moves right( you can literally put the controller on your lap and still win), using Aiden is extremely linear and gets old fast, The stealth section was absolutely terrible. The one stealth mission in the game is scripted so you don't have choice at how you can do the mission, it's all scripted which is not how you do stealth. Choices don't have consequences and alot of the levels in the game do not have anything to do with the overall plot, making the game have too much filler. All characters besides Jodie are executed poorly. William Dafoe's character forcefully goes through changes which comes out of no where and some people suddenly go from being an **** to being nice and friendly, literally out of no where. The main story is good but only a quarter of the missions in the game actually connect to the overall plot which is painful to go through all the other useless missions. The game is just too linear in most aspects. You cannot change the outcome of future events because the game does not go in order, you play back and for between adult Jodie and kid Jodie and she cannot die no matter what. Aiden like i said is also too linear. Some enemies you can kill and some you can only mind control or can't even touch at all with no explanation. There is too much action in the game and it feels boring because of the terrible controls and the fact that it really wont matter in the final outcome. Another reason why the action sucks is because Aiden can protect jodie at all times with his magic so when shes in trouble we always know that Aiden can use his powers to create a force field or choke them to death making me want to skip the action entirely.

    Overall Beyond Two Souls is too linear with a linear story that has very few and small consequences, unlike heavy rain. it has linear and boring gameplay and a story full of filler with a ton of boring characters that are forcefully done except Jodie. The game has taken a step back from heavy rain in story and gameplay with only an increase in things such as voice acting and the graphics. Hopefully quantic dreams next game can have less action and be more like heavy rain or farenheit.

    5/10-Worth a rental. Do not buy this game, it is not worth its price tag and is lacking in overall content.    … Expand
  22. rainbowsparkle
    Feb 20, 2014
    5
    OMG is still don't understand why everyone gives this game 10. Yes, the graphics are good and yes theres a female lead but the storys absurd and I was laughing unintentionally so many times. Also the game treats the audience dumb - do I need to remind you of the flashback scene??? People who say this is goty are dumb because they havnt played TLoU.
  23. Gector
    Oct 13, 2014
    5
    Beautiful graphics and some interesting decisions, but very boring gameplay and pretty flat story.
    To me it is way worse than Heavy Rain in all terms except graphics.
  24. rrafemi
    Jul 24, 2016
    5
    Too simple game, nothing interesting.

    El juego es excesivamente simple, carece por completo de la coordinación y rapidez requerida en Heavy Rain. Apenas hay que apretar dos botones en cada misión. No es un juego emocionante.

    La parte "sin techo" es tediosa.
  25. roadwarrior234
    Nov 11, 2015
    5
    I loved Heavy Rain but this was just meh. I liked the concept and the character design was beautiful. It was a little to long and the emotional core to the story was all over the place. But in the end nothing is really that memorable.
  26. res0nancer
    Jul 24, 2023
    5
    Ради этой игры и The Last of Us в свое время была куплена PS3 и первое впечатление было сильнее, чем от второй названной мной игры. Анимации, качество будто кино, Эллен Пейдж (которая нравилась в те времена), Дефо. Из того, что я назвал понятно, что история не стояла на первом месте как и геймплей. Игра на один раз, и этот раз должен быть не позже выхода Detroit Become Human.
    P.S.    Ради этой игры и The Last of Us в свое время была куплена PS3 и первое впечатление было сильнее, чем от второй названной мной игры. Анимации, качество будто кино, Эллен Пейдж (которая нравилась в те времена), Дефо. Из того, что я назвал понятно, что история не стояла на первом месте как и геймплей. Игра на один раз, и этот раз должен быть не позже выхода Detroit Become Human.
    P.S. Послевкусие у игры просто исчезло по сравнению с The Last of Us, которая просто поселилась в сердце, чего эта игра не смогла, несмотря на первое впечатление.    … Expand
  27. Misza123
    Apr 9, 2019
    5
    Definetly worse than Heavy Rain. Once again choices that often don't matter, but also once again beautiful graphic and great acting. I've got a problem with story. Good idea for plot, but execution isn't very good. I feel like they, after Heavy Rain, wanted to add to much to one game. Few chapters are not very interesting, some of them are mediocre and a few are a little gems (chapter withDefinetly worse than Heavy Rain. Once again choices that often don't matter, but also once again beautiful graphic and great acting. I've got a problem with story. Good idea for plot, but execution isn't very good. I feel like they, after Heavy Rain, wanted to add to much to one game. Few chapters are not very interesting, some of them are mediocre and a few are a little gems (chapter with homelessnes people really got me). Nonetheless... I don't know, I have real problem with Beyond: Two Souls. I really don't like the motive with no game over screen here. In Heavy Rain if you made a mistake or your character died that's your problem. Plot continues. In Beyond you can f*cked up all QTE and a ghost (Aiden) will rescue you no matter what, so action sequences aren't so exciting like in Heavy Rain. Worth a shot, but I recommend you Heavy Rain.… Expand
  28. Dnische
    Aug 30, 2021
    5
    This game was doomed from the very begging of the development. Main concept about a girl with supernatural telepathic abilities capable to talk with dead men is extremely trivial, characters and dialogs are dull and unremarkable however, so they don't help the situation. But the absolute lack of significance of the choices makes B2S truly one of the most worthless games ever. The actingThis game was doomed from the very begging of the development. Main concept about a girl with supernatural telepathic abilities capable to talk with dead men is extremely trivial, characters and dialogs are dull and unremarkable however, so they don't help the situation. But the absolute lack of significance of the choices makes B2S truly one of the most worthless games ever. The acting is good though.
    So 5/10    … Expand
  29. 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
  30. 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.
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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

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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.
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