Beyond two souls. Was it judged too harshly

[Autumnflame]

After my initial play through which I enjoyed.

I went back and replayed it this week.

And I still very much enjoyed the experience of living Jodie and Aiden's life.

Yes the game play was minimal. Yes there were some Wtf is happening here. But if you had played the games previously released by the developers you knew what you were in for.


I enjoyed the story. I loved the differences I could make depending on who i wanted Jodie or Aiden to be.

Too many people heard an unfavourable review and decided to not play it. myself and quite a few of my friends don't regret playing it through to the end . It may just surprise you.

For those of you that did play would you give it another shot?

 

[The_Scrivener]

I don't mind games like this in theory. I just loathe that Cage thinks he's some sort of new thinker, some sort of visionary. You don't get the benefit of the doubt on your experiment when you don't know what a test tube looks like.

David Cage can't, on a fundamental level, write cohesive stories. He is a slave to the Donald Kauffman way of thinking: that twists are so necessary that they negate the entire logic of the story that cradles them. He weaves exposition with all the grace and discipline of a rich entitled child slamming his hands into thousand-dollar fingerpaints and calling it priceless art.

 

[josemlopes]

If David Cage wasnt so full of himself claiming that this game was miles ahead of anything else then yeah, it would have been judged too harshly but since thats not what happened I think it got what it deserved.

Its kind of like the Fez guy, if he wasnt so full of himself maybe people wouldnt have a reason to be so harsh on him, there would still be some (as it is with anything) but Im sure there would be a lot less people then what it is now since most even only have a problem with him rather then the game.

 

[Clowndoe]

David Cage can't, on a fundamental level, write cohesive stories.

That's all that needs to be said. Pretty much everything in the game seemed designed to take me out of the story (I'm not talking about gameplay). I mean, the flashbacks could have been ok, but they were so poorly implemented, taking you back and forth either to drop you somewhere without sufficient exposition (the hobo section), or ruining a genuinely emotional moment by escaping to a time where it's irrelevent (when Ryan takes Jodie away and the very next scene she's gushing over him). Also, there are a ton of inconsistencies, little flubbers, big flubbers, and moments that just leave you scratching your head as to why they're doing this.

Also, Ryan is such a God damn dirtbag, why does David Cage keep insisting you like him?

 

[The Wykydtron]

David Cage was in charge. That's it, i'm done here. There's nothing more to be said.

Ok fine, it's kind of enjoyable in a really bad way. Like how you would watch a shitty film with some friends for the lolz. Actually *exactly* what you should do with BTS thinking about it.

Putting the (shit) story aside, the game is singlehandedly carried by its great voice acting, Willem Dafoe especially.

I genuinely think the game could be sued for copyright because David Cage rips off everything. From Terminator, a bizarre sequence where he rips off Dead Space and KOTOR at the same time, Carrie and that's just off the top of my head.

Oh and honestly I would not be surprised if he was "inspired" by Attack on Titan for the belts towards the end. No it's (probably) not my AoT marathon talking.

Finally, pls DC... Stop throwing every female character ever into creepy attempted rape scenes every time you get the chance. God.

I still can't get over Madison in Heavy Rain...

 

[The Crispy Tiger]

I can't say, because I haven't actually played the game.

BUT

From a storytelling aspect. It is not very good, at all. Just look up ProJared's review. He can explain it a thousand times better then I can.

 

[scorptatious]

From what I've seen in The Sw1tcher's playthrough of it, the game had some interesting ideas, but it fell flat on the execution and then some.

Also, the little quote Cage made at the end of the credits was kinda disgusting.

 

[KiramidHead]

I actually quite enjoyed the game for most of its length. It lost me towards the end, though, when it became all about the evil government espionage stuff and way overdid it. We get it Cage, you think the CIA and the US military are evilllllllllll. No need to keep repeating yourself over and over again. The game was far better when covering smaller, more human subjects, IMO.

 

[Aeonknight]

I try not to let game politics or what some idiot says skew my perception of the end result (the game), but in Cage's case where story is the main focus of the game, and knowing the story was created with that pompous attitude... it discolors my perception. It makes it feel so damn artificial.

I liked Heavy Rain. I still do. But knowing what Cage is like (bought the game blind, no idea who he was) and what he was trying to do instead of what was done ruins it for me. Can't give Beyond: Two Souls (or any Cage game) a fair shake anymore knowing that it's some washed out prick's attempt at intentionally creating "art", as opposed to games that just are "art" all on their own (Shadow of the Colossus, Chrono Trigger, etc.)

.... "you must have this many polygons to properly convey emoshunz".... get the fuck out.

 

[BrotherRool]

Too many people heard an unfavourable review and decided to not play it. myself and quite a few of my friends don't regret playing it through to the end . It may just surprise you.

For those of you that did play would you give it another shot?

Could you give me some quick context in terms of Heavy Rain and Indigo Prophecy. Because I love this style of game and genuinely loved those other two games but I've heard from people I trust that Beyond Two Souls is something of a step-back from Heavy Rain. In particular (maybe in response to QTE criticism) the button presses weren't as well designed as before. Instead of somehow really giving you the feeling of what you were doing with what your hands were doing I heard that Beyond Two Souls is more about choosing directions with the analogue sticks and that isn't very clear?

Also I'm aware the story in all David Cage games is something of a mess (I really, really wish that he would direct and design the games but have someone else do the writing) but how does it compare to the other two?

 

[Compatriot Block]

It is perhaps the worst example of a nonlinear narrative that I've ever seen. Some scenes that could have otherwise been dramatic or effective were entirely ruined by having either too much or too little information from earlier in the story.

Non-chronological stories are fine, but when you write the story in a straight "line" and then just chop it up and shuffle them, it's terrible.

And David Cage's creepy obsession with rape scenarios is disgusting.

Willem Dafoe did an amazing job, I won't deny that.

Remember everyone. "Game overs are a failure of the game designer."

 

[Fireaxe]

If I wanted to watch a film pausing occasionally I have probably 40 DVDs with better movies where I could do this, and if I wanted a game with choices and meaningful interaction I'd play one of the many RPGs out there with some actual gameplay in it as well.

So despite not having played it, I'm also not very interested in doing so and think reviews have been pretty fair given the low content of actual gameplay said to be in the game.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Considering it has a 70 on metacritic I'd say it wasn't judged harshly enough.

The not only is the plot an uninspired piece of dreck that constantly lifted ideas from better media, it was also presented in a confusing and nonsensical way for absolutely no reason. And considering there isn't actually any gameplay in this game the plot had the entire job of carrying everything on its shoulders, which it failed spectacularly at there is absolutely no reason that anyone should ever play this game, unless they're interested in learned all the mistakes to avoid in making a piece of interactive media.

The only thing that was at all worth while in this game was the acting, and even there I think that Dafoe was criminally underused.

 

[Chester Rabbit]

No, I think it and David Cage got the flogging they deserved.

 

[Voulan]

The actual acting in those scenes were really well done, but because of the jarring plot holes and inconsistent storylines there's just no way you can expect the player to have any emotional investment in what the characters are doing. If we're seeing Jodie crying over something that happened but have no idea why or what over, no matter how well it's being portrayed, there's no attachment being formed. And since Cage's whole philosophy is about emotions and he fails completely because of this, then the game is terrible.

If your narrative-driven game has a convoluted and illogical narrative, then clearly you're doing something wrong.

 

[Seracen]

As an experience, B2S was better than average.

As a game, and in terms of gameplay elements, it was sorely lacking.

Consequently, as a full-priced title, it was still a rip off. Which is sad, b/c I WANTED to like it more.

And as much as I enjoyed the branching nature of the narrative, none of it was what I would call "surprising," and most of it was pretty well telegraphed (or poorly copied from Carrie).

Now, if they could turn in into a proper adventure game, I think it has potential. The DLC (don't get me started on that mess), and the Middle East level were indicative of true gameplay, and should have been capitalized on. However, it simply wasn't, and that is its biggest failure.

At the end of my experience with B2S, I was grateful that I'd played it, but I was more grateful that I hadn't paid full price. It's worth $20-30, and considering the effort and funds put in, it shouldn't be.

 

[Zhukov]

I thought a few of the scenes, taken by themselves, were pretty effective.

Sadly a whole lot more of the scenes were cliche-ridden pap and the game as a whole was just a great big mess.

 

[lunavixen]

It was judged very harshly, but did deserve some of the stick it got. The story is too disjointed because of the manner in which it is told, it would have been better if it played out sequentially through Jodies life instead of jumping back and forth. The story itself had a decent premise, but because of the manner in which it was played out, it made it very hard to get invested in the story. the loading times were really bad, the 'action' parts were vague when it came to the direction you had to press to pass the QTEs. Some of the facial acting falls into the uncanny valley and seems wooden a lot of the time. It wasn't a bad game, but it wasn't good.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Now, if they could turn in into a proper adventure game, I think it has potential. The DLC (don't get me started on that mess), and the Middle East level were indicative of true gameplay, and should have been capitalized on. However, it simply wasn't, and that is its biggest failure.

The problem with the level in Africa (and it was Africa, not the middle east) is that David Cage thinks that "game over is a failure of the game designer" meaning that nothing you did during that gameplay mattered. It didn't matter if you broke stealth and got spotted, it didn't matter if you fought the militia, none of it mattered because you couldn't lose. If the game is designed so that you can't lose then what's the point of playing? It completely removes any sense of danger and drama from the sequence.

 

[Compatriot Block]

I thought a few of the scenes, taken by themselves, were pretty effective.

That's one of the bigger problems with David Cage games, I think. Viewed individually, it's very hard to understand how nonsensical the overall story is. So if anyone hears about the game and looks up a scene, they might be confused about all the criticism the games get, because individual scenes can be carried by performances like Willem Dafoe's. You have to see a couple scenes in a row to understand that they don't form anything resembling a cohesive whole.