Beyond: Two Souls Demo Impressions – Mixed Signals

Eyebrows begin to rise when you hear the name David Cage. Eyes widen when you think back from playing Heavy Rain or Indigo Prophecy. Or what about E3 when Kara was shown to the world, only to find out it was nothing more than a tech demo. It is still today is spoken of when people begin to mention the A-List company known as Quantic Dream.

October 8^th is Sony’s next big day for gamers. Some are dead center in Grand Theft Auto V’s campaign, others can protest to Naughty Dog’s brilliance in The Last of Us, but everyone can also talk up Ellen Paige and William DaFoe’s mark in the gaming world with the upcoming blockbuster launch, Beyond: Two Souls.

Just a short window from release the demo is here, but now we have to ask, does it live up to its predecessors? The very first thing that will blow your mind away is the graphics. It’s such an amazing game to look at, knowing well that Quantic Dream wouldn’t have it any other way.

The demo allows you to play two different objectives: one is The Experiment, the other is Hunted. The Experiment kicks off with Jodie as a little girl learning how to use Aiden (her entity that follows her) when needed. It’s small simple task like picking cards and moving blocks, but what it becomes grows on you more than you’d expect. Not just Jodie’s character but you as Aiden as well.  I have to admit, playing as Aiden in the spirit form was a bit fun, but it also at times harms the wellbeing of Jodie.

Not so much can be said however when playing Jodie. In a combat training session, all of Jodie’s responses were based on her initial movement and the use of “only” the right thumb stick. It was an uncomfortable transition going from “that was awesome” to “what in the hell!”

While the story does captivate you, it still felt a lot more QTE driven then Heavy Rain’s story. I guess the differencce sticks out more with all of the interaction leaving the d-pad and moving over towards the right thumbstick.

Aiden seems to be an interesting character that will definitely drive the story quite well. I also noticed though during the demo multiple times where I made mistakes based on the sometimes awkward camera angles, I never lost a fight. The Heroine of the story “must live” concept felt like the direction of Beyond: Two Souls is certainly shooting for.

I mentioned earlier the awkwardness of some of the camera angles; at the same time, some camera angles make the game’s presentation look phenomenal, specifically the motorcycle scene. It was one of the two most memorable portions of the demo (other than playing as the young Jodie).

So far it was a split right down the middle for me with Beyond feeling more subpar in comparison to both of its previous releases. Then again who knows, maybe they’re holding back a lot to arouse our expectations.