Beyond: Two Souls

Beyond: Two Souls is an interactive drama created by developer Quantic Dream and originally released for the PlayStation 3 in October 2013. Dealing with the question of what happens after death, the game focuses on Jodie Holmes, a young woman who is psychically tethered to a ghostly entity named Aiden. Players follow Jodie from her childhood into adulthood as she seeks to understand the meaning of Aiden's existence.

A remastered version of Beyond: Two Souls was released for the PlayStation 4 in November 2015. It was also included on disc versions of Heavy Rain's remastered port. On December 4, 2018, the PS4 versions of both games and Detroit: Become Human were rereleased together as a compilation pack called the Quantic Dream Collection. On March 20, 2019, Quantic Dream announced via Twitter that Beyond: Two Souls, along with Heavy Rain and Detroit: Become Human, would be released for PC later in the year via the Epic Games Store; it would remain exclusive there for a year before being released elsewhere. On May 25, 2020, the demos of all three games became available on Steam. Quantic Dream announced via their YouTube channel that the full games would be available on Steam on June 18, 2020.

“I think they get the message.” — Spoilers for Beyond: Two Souls follow.

Characters[]

Jodie Holmes (Elliot Page) - The main character and protagonist of the game. Since birth, Jodie has had a strange psychic connection with a mysterious entity named Aiden, through whom she can perform many strange and often frightening telepathic acts, such as possessing peoples' minds, strangling them to death, and manipulating certain objects. Despite all the adversity she has faced her entire life — lied to, betrayed, abandoned, assaulted — she still has a kind heart, though bitter. She is able to bounce back from most, if not all, her troubles with relative ease.
Aiden - The secondary main character and deuteragonist of the game. Despite being mischievous, and often times malicious in how often he goes too far, he genuinely cares for Jodie. He acts as a proxy for her sometimes absent self-preservation, and will, to the best of his abilities, prevent injury and death. Initially, Aiden is afraid of the monsters that would come in the night to attack her — he eventually learned to fend them off when Jodie sleeps in the DPA facility for the first time.
Nathan Dawkins (Willem Dafoe) - A scientist working in the Department of Paranormal Activities, he is first met when Jodie's foster mother consults him on Jodie's condition. He comes to act as a surrogate father to her, along with Cole, when her foster parents leave her in their care. In the beginning, he is fond of Jodie, and is reluctant to force anything of her — as a result, he can be smothering without meaning to be. However, after his wife and child die in a car accident, he starts to retreat into himself. Jodie channels his wife in hopes of consoling him, but it only acted as the catalyst for his madness.
Cole Freeman (Kadeem Hardison) - A scientist working alongside Nathan in the Department of Paranormal Activities. He is shown doing most of the paternal care-taking throughout the game, while Nathan busies himself with either work or grief.
Ryan Clayton (Eric Winter) - A CIA agent, and Jodie's primary love interest. He is initially shown to be very curt, distant, and by the book, focusing instead on the mission at hand as opposed to personal feelings and moral objections. As the story progress, he warms to Jodie considerably, enough so they begin a romantic relationship.

Gameplay[]

The gameplay primarily consists of prompted quick time events, similar to Heavy Rain. In combat sequences, players are required to pay close attention to the direction in which Jodie is moving and move the joystick in the indicated direction. An additional twist is the second playable character Aiden, a disembodied invisible being that is able to manipulate inanimate objects and possess certain non-playable characters. Using Aiden's abilities is often required to complete certain chapters.

Additionally, the game can be played in either Solo or Duo Mode. Duo Mode is accessible either by connecting a second DualShock controller or by using the dedicated mobile app, Beyond Touch. In Solo Mode, one player controls both Jodie and Aiden. In Duo Mode, one player controls Jodie and the second player controls Aiden. Accessing Duo Mode is required to unlock two of the game's trophies. The chosen game mode can be changed at any time from the main menu.

Development[]

Quantic Dream CEO David Cage first announced Beyond: Two Souls at Sony's press conference during the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2012. A début trailer featuring in-game graphics was released during the press conference. Unlike Quantic Dream's previous game Heavy Rain, Beyond: Two Souls is not PlayStation Move compatible. Actor Elliot Page noted that the script for the game is around 2,000 pages long.

Beyond: Two Souls was the final project of composer Normand Corbeil, who died of pancreatic cancer on January 25, 2013. Composer Lorne Balfe, who composed the soundtrack for Assassin's Creed III, replaced Corbeil as the game's composer, after Corbeil's death. Balfe's long-time collaborator Hans Zimmer joined him as producer in August 2013.

On April 27, 2013, a new trailer was released, and 35 minutes of the game were screened at the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival, with both Page and Cage in attendance. This marks the second time a video game has been recognized by the film festival, the first time being 2011's L.A. Noire.

Release and Reception[]

Beyond-two-souls-special-edition — Box art for *Beyond: Two Souls Special Edition*

On September 5, 2013 it was announced via the PlayStation Blog that a demo for Beyond: Two Souls would be released October 1, 2013 in the United States, October 2 for Europe, and October 3 for Japan. Despite the demo's official release, a few users of the paid subscription service PlayStation Plus got the demo earlier than the expected release date, which was September 24, 2013. GameStop gave a limited number of beta keys out on September 24, 2013 to let gamers play the demo before its official release. The European version of the game is censored to keep the PEGI rating at 16 instead of 18. Two changes were made to the version, amounting to 5-10 seconds of gameplay. The changed scene was when Jodie impales a man with a metal rod through the neck, which was changed in the European release so the pipe simply struck the man and fell away.

The American version is also altered in a different scene that involved nudity, also removing 5-10 seconds of gameplay.

Publication	Score
GameRankings	72.54%
Metacritic	71/100
Destructoid	5/10
Edge	5/10
Electronic Gaming Monthly	7.5/10
Eurogamer	6/10
Game Informer	7.75/10
Game Revolution	4/5
GamesRadar	3.5/5
Gamespot	9.0/10
GamesTM	8/10
GameTrailers	7.2/10
Gamezone	7.5/10
Giant Bomb	3/5
IGN	6.0/10
Joystiq	2.5/5
Official PlayStation Magazine (UK)	8/10
VideoGamer.com	4/10
Digital Spy	5/5
Forbes	9/10
Metro	4/10

Beyond: Two Souls received mixed to positive reviews upon release from critics. Aggregating review websites GameRankings and Metacritic rated the game 72.54% and 71/100, respectively. Reviewers praised Elliot Page's character portrayal of Jodie Holmes, many of the other actors, and the amount of details in the game's animations and graphics.

IGN criticized the game for making the gaming experience too passive and unrewarding, and its plot too muddy and unfocused. Joystiq criticized its lack of solid character interaction and unbelievable plot, noting its unintended silliness. Destructoid criticized the game's thin character presentation and frequent narrative dead ends, as well as a lack of meaningful interactivity.

The game was rereleased digitally for the PlayStation 4 on November 24, 2015. In this port, players have the option to play the story in chronological order as opposed to the original one. Also, at the end of every chapter, there is a summary of choices made that shows the percentage of other players that made the same decisions. It also includes the "Advanced Experiments" DLC.