So let's start off with what everyone loves about this game, the performances by Ellen Page & Willem Dafoe. There is no denying that these two are giving their all in these roles and honestly they are fantastic performances, without a doubt they are the best part about the game. Another element that people love is the story, it is interesting, complex and has a lot of themes to explore in the game, including facing death, free will and the unknown. Really, it is a fantastic story with some very strong performances behind it, so for nothing else, Beyond does make for a great movie. But as a videogame?
The gameplay is where people have the majority of problems with the game, firstly the use of quick time events. Any gamer you speak to will always say quick time events are terrible, they're just a cheap & easy way to beat a boss or a level and generally are disliked by people. Now at first I thought this game used quick time events quite cleverly, instead of just pressing a button, you have to look at the way Jodie's body is moving and then move accordingly, adding a level of challenge to an aspect that is very hard to renovate, however I quickly realised that while a good idea, was not executed very well, as often it is hard to tell where Jodie's body is going to move, leading to the press of the wrong button and you screwing up; or at least it would be if it wasn't for the fact that it is literally impossible to fail a quick time section, even if you were to put your controller down and just watch your character miss a quick time event again and again, the level will never reset and you never lose, the story will just continue either way. This went from the best use of quick time events to the worst ever, there are no consequences for failing which utterly makes it pointless.
Apart from the quick time events, the gameplay is full of problems, let's start with Jodie & Aiden. Throughout the game you are given the option to switch between playing as Jodie or Aiden whenever you wish, Aiden being a spirit is invisible, able to phase through walls, can interact with objects and can control or even kill enemies; what sounds like a great idea has terrible execution. First of all, if Aiden travels too far then it will cause pain to him and Jodie, now this is fair enough, the problem is the distance you can travel is constantly changing. Sometimes you can travel to the other side of a city and other times you can't even leave to room; this inconsistency takes away a lot of the fun of playing as Aiden. More importantly, all of those skills that I listed earlier, you can't always do them, you can only do them when the game says you can, you're faced with an enemy and it will tell you whether you can control him, kill him or distract him but you're never given a reason why you can only do one thing instead of being given the option. This takes away a great element of strategy that the game could have had, where you have a group of enemies and you use Aiden's multiple abilities to beat them. There are multiple points in the game where this could have been innovated yet the game keeps on you this very linear path.
And that's the biggest problem with the gameplay, it is far too linear to an insulting degree. Videogames are capable of something that no other form of media is, choice, interactivity, every game has some level of interactivity, whether that be game altering choices like in Mass Effect or it be simple who do you wanna kill first and with what gun in Call of Duty. Every single videogame has that level of interactivity, from Final Fantasy to Flappy Bird. Yet Beyond: Two Souls holds your hand for the entirety of the game, "go there, stop! Use Aiden to kill that guy, now go here, stop! Use Aiden to control that guy". Even in terms of the story there are very few choices in the game that will affect things greatly until the end of the game. Several characters will live or die depending on your choices but that's pretty much it, the game does give you the illusion of choice, for example there is a point in the game where it looks as if you are given the option to commit suicide, which would be cool except if you do choose this option then Aiden will stop you, making the moment meaningless. This is made all the worse considering that game's genre is considered an "interactive drama action-adventure" when this is probably the least interactive game I've ever played in my life, and we don't really take part in the action or the adventure, we just sort of watch it unfold.
And the sequel bait at the end means feels like something out of Infamous rather than Beyond: Two Souls (is that what the colon is for? Were you expecting Beyond to become the franchise name?) which means that if they were to make a sequel then the gameplay would have to be completely different from what it is already. Now from a technical aspect, the game is pretty good, yes the gameplay is crap but at the very least, it still works properly, I didn't run into any glitches or bugs while playing it and the graphics are a very good quality and looks incredible.
I've always said that David Cage (Director of the game) would be a brilliant film maker, games like this and Heavy Rain have great compelling stories, but the gameplay is just horrendous and proves that Cage knows nothing about making games, but his stories are too long for a movie (How about a book or a mini-series then Dave?). But Heavy Rain is given a pass for the game actually being interactive and your choices do matter, but this game, it really doesn't. Everything about this game screams movie, even down to casting big movie stars in the lead roles and marketing them as such.
So overall Beyond: Two Souls, it's a crappy game, but would make a damn good movie.
-Danny
No comments:
Post a Comment