Beyond: Two Souls Reviews
Beyond: Two Souls is an interactive drama action-adventure with painfully inept writing. Ellen Page's top-notch acting can only carry it so far until it falls apart in a terminally inane climax.
The visuals still impress, but for a game obsessed with storytelling at all costs the dopey plot and underwritten characters in no way make up for the lack of gameplay.
If you’re a fan of Beyond: Two Souls and want to revisit its world, this is easily the best way to do it. The visuals look superb and the new additions are welcome. However, age hasn’t been kind to Beyond: Two Souls’ story. Without the innovative glean that made this game so unique, Beyond is a poorly written experience that lacks player engrossment. It feels like David Cage’s attempt at directing a movie and, sadly, a tacky one at that.
A heavily uneven story, with generally fine performances, and a perfectly serviceable set of mechanics to go with some pretty damn fine visuals. Beyond is often meandering and lunk-headed, but it has moments of magic that make it an enjoyable enough way to spend a few hours if you can persevere through its failings.
Beyond: Two Souls starts off incredibly well. Realistic visuals, great voice acting and a plot that really sinks a hook into you. Unfortunately, the story takes various tangents that constantly distract from the main plot. Even the tangents have tangents. By the end of the game the story has gotten so convoluted that you can barely make sense of what any of this stuff had to do with the supernatural stuff. Even if you enjoy the tangents, the controls are really difficult to work with. For a game that is based on the ability to make decisions, the controls take a lot of this away from you.
Whether choosing to play it in random or chronological order, neither of these options make it a compelling story.
The original Beyond: Two Souls was an interactive drama with a severely inconsistent level of quality when it came to gameplay and storytelling, and completely consistent when it came to its stunning audio-visuals. This new version, is still an interactive drama with a severely inconsistent level of quality when it comes to gameplay and storytelling, and even better in regards to how it looks and sounds. Any reason to try it out now? Only if you haven't done so before, as the remaster is a bit of a poor one to warrant a second purchase.
Everything adds up to what could have been.
Overall, for gamers who are thirsty for an experience that focuses on the story it is telling, Beyond: Two Souls has a tale worthy of your time. On the other hand, if you are someone who is looking for challenging a gameplay experience, all you'll find is a very basic set of gameplay mechanics that leave a lot to be desired.
Beyond: Two Souls comes to PC, but a change of platform does not hide the game's wider issues with its restrictive gameplay and overall narrative.
Beyond: Two Souls is strange game that isn't quite sure what it wants to be. There are moments where the title pushes boundaries and attempts things that most developers wouldn't even care to try, but the plotting is uneven and the more touching sequences are undone by prolonged periods of outright idiocy. Ellen Page is excellent throughout and the presentation is staggering on the PS4 – it's just best to know what you're getting into before venturing headfirst into the Infraworld.
The PC port stands as the definitive way to experience Beyond: Two Souls, boasting a higher frame cap, solid keyboard & mouse controls, and a remix mode. These additions, however, do nothing to remedy the poorly-aged, cliché-ridden script and inconsistent chapters you may remember, but do highlight the game's strong visuals and emphasis on variety.
Heavy Rain is perfect game as a PlayStation 3 classic. And now PC port looks good and works smoothly.
Review in Turkish | Read full review
Despite being a game of ambitious proportions with the visual appeal and an intriguing plot, Beyond: Two Souls falls short of fully living up to the expectations with unintuitive gameplay segments, anti-climatic choices and some poorly developed characters that don't fully relate to players.
Parents do not buy Beyond: Two Souls for your children and youth. It is also not for adults who have strong moral standards and who have any conditions of mental health wellness.
When I finished the game I can happily say I was satisfied with the story and liked how different endings are depending on choices, the game ended up taking me around 10 hours to complete which isn't that long but again I was satisfied with what I got in the end. I also thought the voice and graphics were of high quality. I did have a few problems with the game but I still think that Beyond is worth trying maybe when it drops down in price or give it a rental.
Beyond Two Souls is a mixed game, with many elements of the story amounting to binary choices, some aspects of the narrative being poorly fleshed out and gameplay regularly amounting to choosing whether to be terrible or not. At the same time though, there are enough satisfying moments that provoke empathy for Paige's character and moral quandary to intrigue and entertain those drawn to coming of age stories and tales of the supernatural.
A deft remastering of what was arguably the PS3's technical swansong, Beyond: Two Souls finds new life and an attractive home on PS4, with some extra features thrown in to sweeten the deal.
Beyond: Two Souls would've fared a lot better if it had even more visual detail, other control options and extra content to make it more like a director's cut. As it stands, though, it's a great conversion of a pretty good Quantic Dream development, mind its storytelling issues and quick-time event gameplay.