Beyond: Two Souls is the latest game from Quantic Dream. The team that brought us the 2010's game Heavy Rain which instantly received a warm welcome from the gaming community and recognition of being a truly unique experience.
But what is Beyond: Two Souls really like?
I'll be blunt. Beyond is a game with great potential. However, it's been clouded over by major problems, inconsistencies and a main lack of consequence and threat.
Beyond tells the story of Jodie and Aiden, both linked by a mysterious cause to which both are tethered together. Her story is told in a non-linear order (the ending explains why). By doing this it makes the story extremely muddled up.. I should say however that it does put the chapters in the right order when you complete the game. Having it jumbled up makes certain events appear near the end of the game, that were from Jodie's childhood. When it would have been more relevant to be played near the start of the game, allowing the players to know fully what Jodie has been through. Some of these events should have been played at the start because they give the story it's meaning and it's direction. Without them (for the first two thirds of the game) the story misses key information, leaving players in the dark.
The game features twenty something chapters, some of the plot points are silly, some are predictable, whereas some drift away from the main story and try to pull focus. Instead these ones drag on, become dull and leaving you wonder what was the main reason for it.
Despite this some of the chapters are highly emotional, deep and some will question your morals and ethics. It will put you in terrible positions and await your response. Make you look at certain things in your own life at a new angle. Become sad. Become angry. Become scared. When it comes to changeling emotion this game is brilliant at it.
One of the games features is player choices. You are free to choose different ways to tackle a problem, however your choices do not have a major impact on the story as you would expect it to. The effects of these choices last for one cut-scene or one new brief game area. Some choices don't make any impact whatsoever. For example some segments of the game may involve Jodie and security cameras. Whether you disable the cameras or don't (and get caught by them) nothing will happen differently, they will both play out the exact same way. Doing this does hider some portions pointless and makes you wonder why they were added if they weren't significant in any way shape or form.
Jodie interacting with NPC's gives you conversational choices. Choices will appear giving you options. You better read them fast, know what they mean and select one. Otherwise one will be selected for you (unless you pause it, thus breaking the game's flow). Having these timed can be a pain, while most are easy to tell what they mean and select it no bother, there is some choices that are too bleak to get a grasp of what will be said.
Being tethered together is an acceptable reason as to why Aiden can only venture so far from Jodie. However it is not clear how far he can travel before being yanked back. Some times he can go about 20-30 meters away from Jodie before being pulled. Sometimes -in the same chapter- he can only go 10-15 meters away. This inconsistency does make the game a pain as you'll constantly be unsure of how far you can go. Resulting in you having to test the limits every now and then.
Other things about Aiden that make no to little sense is the possession/killing abilities . Everyone glows to Aiden this indicates if the person can be possessed, killed or can't be interacted with. It makes no sense why Aiden can kill some people yet it only applies to specific people. It's a small inconsistency but is still relevant as it raises a massive what if? and why? question.
Making a re-appearance from Heavy Rain is the QTE (quick time events). Unlike Heavy Rain however, these don't possess much of a challenge or come with much of a risk -there is no risk actually-. If you fail multiple times, you won't die (or if you did it's okay cause this game has no game over what-so-ever). Aiden will automatically fix the problem for you, a cut-scene will occur, or Jodie will react without your commands. This means you can fail all the QTE and the game will still be playable hindering the QTE as no challenge, threat or important.
There is another kind of QTE that was not present in it's former. Jodie will attempt to complete an action. Time will slow down and the colour will fade. You only get a second or two to look at her movements, anticipate it, then complete it. For example. You're about to punch someone. Time slows down and you see her fist moving to the right. Push right and it's all okay. Some of these however are very difficult to interpreter and carry out. You may be confused if you have to block an attack, parry it, or move away. Taking all the options in and deducing what one to carry out within a few seconds is frustrating and will often have you failing them (but it's all okay, it's not like you'll get a game over or anything).
In all the game does feel like two games in a way. Playing as child Jodie and adult Jodie, they both feel and sometimes play different. Maybe there is a chapter or two in there where it links both play-styles, evolves it in a sense making the transition more smoother but because it's told in a muddle-up order it's difficult to say if there is a link there or not.
With a spectacular performance from Ellen Page and Willem Dafoe, and amazing voice-overs. Beyond: Two Souls -while it does have faults and hiccups- is a game people should play at least once. It is a unique experience with great use of emotion, where you will never forget the first time you played as Aiden.
Rating
+ Highly emotional
+ Excellent use of voice
+ Unique experience
- Lack of consequence and threat
- Lack of challenge
- Choice have little impact overall
- Some chapters are a bit of a grind
7/10
Catherine is a 2011 video game developed by Atlus Persona Team. This psychological horror yet romantic video game is comprised of both puzzles and dating like format it is this unique combination that helps give this game it's uniqueness and is guaranteed to be a game like no other.
Story
Catherine begins with a framing device. It starts off with a woman named Trisha introducing us to a TV show called the "Golden Playhouse" in which we follow our character Vincent Brooks, once introduced we then follow him through the TV screen and take control of him.
Vincent is surrounded in a neighborhood where residents die in their sleep due to some sort of curse, this curse only targets young men, this then spreads as rumors, as people say that those who died fell in their dreams and did not wake up before they landed, and as a result they died both in their dreams and in reality.
Vincent meets up with his girlfriend of five years Katherine McBride who drops hints that they should get married but he tries to put it off, it then fast forwards to him at the bar when a new comer named Catherine comes in and starts talking to Vincent, Catherine turns out to be his type of girl, after the gap we see that Catherine somehow got together with Vincent as she lies in bed with him.
After these incidences Vincent begins to experience rather strange nightmares that he cannot remember in the morning, it is these nightmares that he believes are the same ones all those who have died have also had, however he is not alone in this world as people from the real world have also gotten into this dimension but they all appear as sheep and think they are the only human ones present.
This is all I can really say about the story without ruining it, but even the first half an hour that I have explained is very unique and is enticing you to know more, the story for Catherine does not lose it's grasp on you, once the plot has became interesting to you it will stay like that until you have completed the game.
Gameplay
There are two main parts of this game, the nightmare stages and the bar. When Vincent is in the nightmare it consists of various floors, each floor requires Vincent to reach the top, whereas the final floor for that night will consist of a boss, but it will still involve climbing.
To climb in this part of the game players will have to push, pull and slide blocks to create a stairway to reach higher parts of the tower, however players cannot take all the time they want as the floor breaks and falls away one block layer at a time, the speed of which they fall varies on what stage you're at, some stages will have the floor fall fast while others move much more slowly, the boss is pretty much the same but you will have to out climb them, the bosses will be a lot bigger than you and will attack you doing various things, some bosses require you to stand under shelter, while others may only change blocks to make some unmovable. In between each floor in each night, you will be at a sanctuary where you can talk to the other humans/sheep there, by doing this you can learn new techniques and save some of the people's life's, after this you will go into a confessional room where you will be asked a question and you will have to answer, such questions are:
you're naked what do you do: quick hide/ i have nothing to hide
you're partner is into baby play how do you feel: I'll try anything once/that's a deal breaker
what's more cheating: an emotional tryst/one night stand
you're answer to these questions will have an effect on the bar that appears at the bottom of the screen, this bar will determine what ending you get.
The second area in this game is the bar named "The Stray Sheep", from here you can get drunk, talk to the other customers and have a choice in how you'd respond to them, play an arcade game which is like the nightmare stages only alot harder and the stage doesn't fall so you can take as long as you need, and also reply to texts, every now and then you'll get a text from both Katherine and Catherine, you can reply to these by simply pressing the action button to get a line of text, if you like it press the action button again to get another line, if not then press back and press action again for a different line, usually you'll have three different options which will chose where the needle moves to on the bar, once you're done at the bar simple leave and move onto the nightmare stages again.
The game also comes with two other modes, Babel and Colosseum, Babel is consisted of four stages, each stage requires you to climb to a certain level however it will always be randomly laid out so you could keep on playing this and it'll be different each time, this can be played solo, or co-op, Colosseum is a mode for two players, it is every stage in the game and is a race to see which player gets to the top first.
Presentation
The cutscenes for Catherine vary in length some only a few minutes while others can be twenty minutes, either way you will hang onto every word that is being said. The game has two styles for cutscenes, the cinematic cutscenes have gone for an anime style of animation and will seem more like an actual anime than a video game (not that that's a bad thing), this style is very rarely used in video games and is really bold to go with it, as for the in game cutscene it uses the same style as the one gameplay uses with 3d characters and environments.
Rating
+ great story
+ innovative combination of gameplay
+ brilliant soundtrack
+ can play babel again and it will be different
- lacks a creation kit to make your own towers
9/10
