Beyond: Two Souls

Hi everyone,

I just finished playing Beyond and I though about having a little discussion about it. I have been reading reviews and opinions vary a lot. I think that's worth talking about. In my case, I loved it. Probably one of the best games I played this year, or watched lol, but I can't say yet, not after I play Ni No Kuni. I played it in co-op with my brother and it was such a great experience, we where fighting and arguing all the time when we had to make a decision, but at the end we agreed for the same ending. I don't have much to say now but I want to know who played it and what do you think about it. We can talk about the story if you want and the ending  

Astor M wrote:Hi everyone,

I just finished playing Beyond and I though about having a little discussion about it. I have been reading reviews and opinions vary a lot. I think that's worth talking about. In my case, I loved it. Probably one of the best games I played this year, or watched lol, but I can't say yet, not after I play Ni No Kuni. I played it in co-op with my brother and it was such a great experience, we where fighting and arguing all the time when we had to make a decision, but at the end we agreed for the same ending. I don't have much to say now but I want to know who played it and what do you think about it. We can talk about the story if you want and the ending  

Aw, let's not talk about the ending - after all, don't want to spoil such a great game for people.

But I am glad you enjoyed the game! I thought it was brilliant as I'm sure you got from my review. I'm a little disappointed that it did get such a "bad" writeup by some other critics. Why do people insist on attacking things that are different from what they're used to, rather than judging it for what it is?

LOL - only just read the beginning sentence and skimmed - I'll ignore this thread for now. I just got it as a loaner from a friend, so hoping to play through it and be able to actually converse about it next week.

Matt - Yeah, your review is what convinced me to go get it. Yeah let's leave the ending for another time.

But I agree, some critics where a bit unfair with the game. I can understand some of the complains but it is far from being a bad game. My brother was "Heavy Rain did this and did that" all the time and I think is not fair to compare them so much. I feel like Beyond had a better story than Heavy Rain. What made Heavy Rain so great was how you could make so many decisions and shape the story however you wanted but the story wasn't anything special, it was the interaction and the many choices that made it so good. On the other hand, Beyond is a bit more straight forward and it manege to tell a better story "for me at least".

Funny story - Last week I sat down with a friend who was playing Beyond and I saw a little of the story and I have already seen some trailers and such but no spoilers. The thing is that I kind of though about the story for a moment and I made a prediction for the ending of beyond and I told my friend about it. He immediately was like "no, that would never happen". After he finished the game he approached me and told me that he finished it and that I was an asshole, but I didn't knew what he meant by that. Then I finished the game last night and I realized that my prediction was perfect! My friend thinks that I told him what happen at the end because I wanted to tell him a spoiler. He didn't knew I was just guessing the ending and he still doesn't believe me. I don't blame him, I was so accurate I don't even believe it myself, is like I really knew lol.

Man, after playing through this, then Rain in the span of a week, I keep getting reminded why Sony ends up dominating my play time - its commitment to a vast range of experiences is compelling, to say the least.

So, I finally got through this one. I'll likely toss up my own review on my own blog - but I will say I enjoyed it overall, despite some flaws here and there. It's hard not to make the Heavy Rain comparison because these two games are similar, come from the same studio and are markedly different from most others.

I will say however, Astor, that I wound up guessing major parts of the ending as well. Just my initial theory on a few things that wound up panning out. Thankfully there was a twist or two that I didn't quite guess. My son watched me playing the game - and he has never been excited for this one. He saw all the harsh reviews, and he himself just never thought it looked all that fun. He watched me play about 80% of it and finally said it was fun to watch, but he didn't think it would be all that fun to play.

Well, I happened to come across a "Let's Play" YouTube video and... it seems to be one of the most accurate mass-media portrayals snapshots of "Native Americans" I've witnessed. That's all I can say.

Haha, that sequence weirded me out.

Man, Just reading through this thread I want to play this game gain... and try to make different decisions this time.

*nods @ Matt* I liked how the decisions in Heavy Rain made a big impact on the story (right down to whether or not some 'chapters' even happen). Not sure if you get the same level of impact from your decisions in this game or not, but that was something I was wondering.

Chalgyr wrote:*nods @ Matt*  I liked how the decisions in Heavy Rain made a big impact on the story (right down to whether or not some 'chapters' even happen). Not sure if you get the same level of impact from your decisions in this game or not, but that was something I was wondering.

It does... it's just not as obvious that your actions are impacting on the direction of the narrative.

One of the complaints that I've heard from some quarters is that it's *too* subtle. Because it doesn't feel like what you're doing has impact on the narrative, a lot of people think that they're not impacting on the narrative, and it becomes just another cinema piece to them.

Interesting concept, that. When interactivity isn't obviously affecting what's going on on the screen, people feel like they're not really interacting with the experience.

It sort of reminds me of Walking Dead, which I played through a couple of weeks ago fully for the first time. The choices you make obviously have SOME impact, but in the end, most of what is going to happen happens anyway. The same people die in the end, the plot still drives forward in the same way but sometimes it is one of two different mechanisms doing so. It's interesting because it gives the illusion of impact without really impacting, if that makes sense? I enjoyed it thoroughly, don't get me wrong, but once I beat the game I looked some stuff up and realized that everyone was going to meet their fates one way or the other, it was just a matter of when/how it happened.