Beyond : Two Souls - Review

Beyond : Two Souls is an interactive action adventure games from "Quantic Dreams" , The same studio that brought to you "Heavy Rain" And "Indigo Prophecy" , which are  known for delivering amazing adventure games with top-notch storytelling , But is Quantic Dream's latest creation as good as their old games ??

So Beyond : Two Souls tells the story of "Jodie Holmes" a little girl born with a strange power (She calls it a curse) , Being connected with an entity called "Aiden" . 

So being with her all the times , they begin to develop this kind of relationship together , and throughout the game , you can really feel the character growth in the game , from the start of Jodie's Life , till the end if the game 

The game is told in what i would like to call a weird chronological order , it felt kinda random at the beginning , and it takes you out of the mood , sometimes when you're too much into a specific part of the story that is set in the future life of Jodie , and then in the next chapter it just takes you out of the mood because it'll be set in a past chapter in the story of Jodie's life , which was kinda annoying . 

Also the story Felt "Unfocused" At some parts of the game .

But the performance of all the characters really make up for the game's Weird Narrative , In terms of voice acting and motion capture , Not just Ellen Page (Jodie) And Willem Dafoe (Nathan) , But all the other characters that you will meet in the game , And as a result of their performance and top notch Writing  , They really deliver an Emotionally Engaging experience . 

One of the game's Powerful and emotional scenes 

One of the things that i really liked was the Musical score made by both "Hanz Zimmer" And "Lorne Balfe" , It was so moving and fit the tone of the game perfectly 

Jodie Holmes 

Let's talk about the gameplay now , Anyone who played Heavy rain before will probably have a good idea of how Quanitic Dream's games works and will probably have a good idea how Beyond works , but Here's the interesting part 

Beyond presents a new Innovative game Mechanic that i really liked , which is controlling Aiden  , and controlling aiden really felt  smart and Impressive , you can use him to help Jodie in specific sequences , and also to interact with the world from his Point of view . 

as for the rest parts of the gameplay , it's the usual Quanitc dream's gameplay , making choices that will affect the overall story , but here's the catch , Quantic dream tried to make a new game mechanic for the Action sequences , Which pushing the right direction in the controller same as the direction Jodie is going to move to or attack to or defend to , But it felt Kinda repetitive and Uninspired , also the game suffers from Meaningless QTE's at some points of the game , i don't want to spoil anything , but i'm pretty sure you will know it when you see it .

But i have to praise the Action Sequences that had both Jodie and aiden in the same time , they were very intense and awesome , i personally really loved it .

Back to the story , What i really liked about it , is the approach Quantic Dream took for the whole game , which was filled with supernatural stuff , which i really liked , Because they try to combine Both 2 aspects which are "Realism" And "Supernaturalism" . And it resulted in a story that had a problem in it's Narrative but had top notch writing , Emotionally Engaging Sequences , And an amazing ending that was perfect for the mood of the game .

Finallly i would like to talk about the Graphics and visuals of the game , and i gotta say , Good job Quantic dream ! , They really blew me away with the graphics and visuals , even at some particular scenes , the game feels like it's running on Next Gen Hardware , which is amazing , But the only thing that i didn't like was the Facial movement , which had some weirdness in it , the same problem Heavy rain had , But it really doesn't affect the Mindblowing overall graphics and visuals , Kudos to Quantic Dream !

So to end this Review , Beyond : Two souls is an amazing Interactive action adventure game , and another successful Quantic dream game , That delivers a well written story that is both captivating and smart 

But it's totally not for everyone .

VERDICT : 

PROS : 

+ An emotionally engaging story and ending

+Beautiful Graphics and performance 

+Amazing Soundtracks 

+Smart game mechanics 

Cons :

-A Weird chronological order that takes you out of the mood

-some very stupid QTE's 

-Action sequences could have been better (But there are some good ones)

Written By : Abdulmalik Zubailah