‘Beyond: Two Souls’ review
By Steven Cayer, Senior Columnist
5/5
Have you ever wondered what would happen if movies and video games melded into one awesomely massive genre? In Beyond: Two Souls, you basically control a movie.
Made by Quantic Dream (makers of Heavy Rain), this supernatural thriller provides an interactive experience and features amazing performances from A-list actors Willem Dafoe and Ellen Page.
I know I’m talking about a video game, but the graphics are so good it made me forget that it’s not a movie. More than once I got hurt in the game because I forgot I was holding the controller.
The story of Beyond: Two Souls starts with a young girl named Jodie Holmes (voiced by Page) who has a gift: she is linked to a ghost-like entity named Aiden that she has some control over.
The entire game is about how she learns to control Aiden through experiments conducted by Nathan Dawkins (voiced by Dafoe).
The story is broken up into a non-chronological sequence of Jodie’s memories. It would’ve been a little better if they were in the right order.
The entire game is built on using quick time events (QTEs) and the right analogue stick moves to interact with the world. Some would say that this approach might be too passive, but I didn’t mind taking a break from the thumb candy games.
One thing I didn’t see coming is the co-op: one player can play as Jodie, the other as Aiden. This adds another layer of intensity with teamwork.
Overall, this is not a game to be missed, especially to enjoy Page’s finest performance.
