Beyond Two Souls Review

Beyond Two Souls Review | January 21, 2014
PlayStation Exclusive Title

Beyond Two Souls is a 3rd person action game but it is more like telling a story about someone’s life. Jodie voiced acted by Ellen Page has what some may call a gift and others may call an attachment. An entity named Aiden is always with her every second of everyday. The entity is connected to her and cannot leave Jodie side if it wanted to. At a very young age her foster parents not knowing how to deal with her powers gave her over to a government organization and later she is forced to join the CIA. The whole time everybody is trying to find out what Aiden is? Why is it connected to Jodie?

This game is a graphical powerhouse, it looks stunning! It takes place in a modern times but it jumps back and forth in the timeline over a 25 year period of Jodie’s life. This is not just a 3rd person action game. Many times and for large portions you must use the entity Aiden to help solve puzzles and at times save Jodie and other people with her in combat situations. Aiden can take over someone’s body, move things around and if needed take a person out. You don’t get to decide which tactic to use, the game makes that decision for you mostly. With Aiden, Jodie can touch things and see what happen and even touch someone who died and see their final memories.

The controls are pretty good and they have to be since you use the Duel Shock controller in almost every way. There are times where you use the sixaxis to perform tasks. The analog stick is the only way to use Aiden both in moving around and in combat situations. Beyond Two Souls also uses a new bullet time gesture system using the right analog stick and not quick time events. If Jodie is running and she needs to go right then you have to move the analog stick right. If she needs to block a punch then upper cut then you have to move the analog stick left then push it up to attack. It works very well and is pretty forgiving it you are a little off. We had no control or aiming issues.

The big thing that makes this game so different is the story of Jodie’s life. It shows her struggle and how much she is only looking for some kind of acceptance. She was given up at birth, then her foster parents gave her to a government organization because they did not know how to deal with Aiden and finally taken away from the only people in her life and forced to join the CIA. She was either used, taken away from or abandoned by everyone she has ever met. You root for her, you want her to succeed and you hope she finds her way. You have some say in this. You get to decided directions she takes in her life and how much she trusts people. You also want to find out more about Aiden and why Jodie? Storylines and plot points make huge changes in her life that you just have to figure out on your own. Jumping forward and backward in the timeline you find out how she ended up in a town after you have already escaped the town and the people that chased her. You also never know when your are at the end of the game and we kind of liked this idea. Jumping between her being a kid, to an adult and then to a teenager keeps the game interesting.

We only wished that there were not so many time consuming load screens and many times the game just moves to slow. We don’t need to hit the X button to get someone out of bed or spend a 30 minutes having a tea party or playing outside in the snow or packing a suitcase. The camera has some problems when you are controlling Aiden and some with Jodie too, plus many times in the game you don’t know that you are making a choice that will change how the story progresses. Most of Beyond Two Souls is good but there are way too many points in the game where you are just doing nothing. It took us 12 hours to get through everything the first time and you do get some replay value because you want to try different choices and might want to be mean to everyone or nice to everyone depending on you previous choice. Keep you price under $40.00. We wanted to give Beyond Two Souls a higher score because of the great story and the combat but there was not enough action and takes too long to get going at times.

8.0 out of 10
Good Game

8.0 out of 10
Good Game

Rated
M for Mature

Rated
PEGI 18