|OT| Beyond: Two Souls

[WickedLiquid]

Damn, it's good to be a gamer right now. Anyone pulling themseleves away from GTA to play as juno and the green goblin in an epic thriller? Heavy Rain was one of my favourite games of 2010, some of the finest story telling in a game right up there with The Walking Dead.

In Nick Tan's review he mentions that the controls have been improved which is great since holding R2 to walk was just wrong. And i'm assuming this time they won't cut out important plot points like they did in Heavy Rain. Although to be honest i enjoyed the mystery before quantic dream explained it to all the naggers. It was very David Lynch.

 

[Bretimus_v2]

This will probably be something I play down the line but not for a bit.

 

[Green_Lantern]

The only reason I would play this game is Ellen Page.

 

[Kakulukia]

I liked the game enough to finish it in one sitting, but I don't think I'll play it again, unless they add a function to play the story chronologically. The time skipping is just too annoying for me to go through it again. I'll wait a couple weeks and replay through the cooler scenes, and if they don't patch that in, I'm trading it in.

Heavy Rain was one of my favourite games of 2010, some of the finest story telling in a game right up there with The Walking Dead.

Pff...fft...f..fwahahaHAHAHA.
Sorry about that.
While I agree HR was a really fine game (I platinumed the damned thing), the fact that half of the story is based on a GIGANTIC plot hole (and little ones too) disqualifies it from being called "fine storytelling"

(Explanation in white below, highlight to read)
The only "evidence" Blake has against Ethan is Grace's testimony that he "saw drowning kids" during his blackouts and the origami dog he dropped at his shrink's office (the one he woke up with after said blackout), yet the game never explains those blackouts or how Ethan got the origami dog in the first place. The actual reason for this is that QD changed the story mere weeks before the game was released. Originally there was supposed to be a psychic link between Shelby and Ethan since Jason's death, and Ethan's blackouts happened at the same time as Shelby's victims died, and he made an origami dog at the same time Shelby made one for his victim. They took that out because the supernatural element added nothing to the story, but kept the red herrings without ever explaining them, which is a storytelling crime.(Source: http://youtu.be/jxpdGB6Gbac)
Add to that Madison gasping in horror when discovering the killer's identity despite having never met the guy, Jayden knowing the exact model and year of the killer's car only by the tire tracks (yeah right), Shelby calling the cops on himself after killing Manfred, and more generally the remedial dialogue, characterization and acting and you got yourself a storytelling mess. A very entertaining mess, of course, but a mess nonetheless.

That said, Beyond's story was much better, even though the aforementioned time skipping is kind of ruining it for me.

 

[WickedLiquid]

Yeah I knew all that already. Some people like things left open to interpretation. Take a game like Silent Hill, it didn't make any friggin sense when it came out but that's what people liked about it. Of course later on things were explained that were once left mysterious and frustratingly vague.

But like I said I agree it was dumb to cut out pieces of the puzzle that solved these nagging questions. But you have to ask yourself was that Quantic Dream or David Cage? I doubt the writer and director would cut these elements out but instead was forced to by the studio. I never looked that up so I dunno. But he didn't write a giant plot hole, his full story just didn't make the cut.

When I tell people I loved Heavy Rain I usually get the same reaction when I tell people I loved the finale to LOST. To which I just say I liked using my brain.

 

[Master_Craig]

Is Beyond Two Souls worth getting? I'm tempted to get it as, despite Heavy Rain's flaws, I enjoyed Heavy Rain... but I've heard mixed views about Beyond Two Souls.

Also, someone fill me in. What's the deal with David Cage?

 

[Kakulukia]

Is Beyond Two Souls worth getting? I'm tempted to get it as, despite Heavy Rain's flaws, I enjoyed Heavy Rain... but I've heard mixed views about Beyond Two Souls.

Also, someone fill me in. What's the deal with David Cage?

It's worth playing, but not worth $60 to me. If you have access to Gamefly or something like that, that would be the best way to play it. The story is enjoyable, but you as a player barely have to do anything. You can literally not pick up the controller during the QTE sequences and even some of the dialogue and everything will play out largely the same, and the paltry choices you're given have very little impact as well.

(tl;dr: Unless you really, really can't wait, either wait for a price drop or rent it. It's good, but not $60 good.)