Beyond: Two Souls - Less Sixth Sense, More Ghost - Preview

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I’m an ardent believer that the internet has ruined part of the fun of E3.  That seems hypocritical as an online games journalist, but a big part of what made the conferences great to watch at previous E3 were the big reveals.  These days the internet leaks anything important hours before the official reveal which takes away a large part of its impact and is the reason so many of the press conferences come off as disappointing.  This was the case with Beyond: Two Souls, which was leaked just a day before it would have been officially revealed, but unfortunately when you know that a game announcement is coming a trailer that focuses just on story and the involvement of Ellen Page seems lackluster.  “That’s all great, but how will it play?” was the question on most minds.  Luckily a behind closed doors session with David Cage at the helm answered just that.

First off he told us that Beyond: Two Souls is the story of Jodie Holmes who has always had an inexplicable link with some invisible entity.  This entity can be helpful or a jealous irritant.  You play through 15 years of Jodie’s life as she lives with her invisible tagger-on named Aiden (David Cage didn’t want to confirm the spelling so this is what I’m going with).  During that time Jodie will learn about death and the world that lies beyond it.  David Cage mentioned that he didn’t want to just make Heavy Rain 2 with a new cast of characters because making games is all about taking risks, and working with Ellen Page was a dream come true for a game director. 

Finally it was time to start what we’d all been waiting for: the gameplay.  It started with a third person view of Jodie sitting on a train.  As the camera moved back and forth Jodie swatted it away saying “No Aiden, I’ve been running all day, I’m too tired”.  So obviously the first important bit of news is that during certain points in the game you play as Aiden.  You can float around and through objects in first person to your heart’s content as well as interact with certain objects and people around the immediate area.  While you play as Aiden you always have a tether to Jodie that simultaneously lets you know where she is and keeps you from venturing too far away from her.  People that Aiden can interact with come with different colored auras that indicate how you can interact with them.  The demoer went up to a sleeping man with a blue aura around him and when Aiden interacted with the poor guy he just shivered. 

After a bit of playing around, the train started to come to a stop and Aiden went outside the train to scout out what was happening.  Aiden passed by two heavily armed policemen talking about how Jodie was incredibly dangerous and wanted for treason.  It was a roadblock.  So the first real task for the player as Aiden is to wake up Jodie and warn her about the incoming police search team.  Interacting with a bag on the overhead compartment over Jodie dropped it on her for a very effective alarm clock.  Now the demoer controlled Jodie for some now classic Heavy Rain-esque QTE based chase scene gameplay.  A short run down the train ends at a bathroom with an emergency hatch that Jodie can’t open no matter how hard she tries.  Luckily she’s not alone and Aiden forces the hatch open so that Jodie can go up for the standard epic-looking chase on top of a train.  Another short QTE fight scene ends with Jodie surrounded on top of the train.  David explains that there are times when Jodie can use Aiden’s powers herself, and the demoer went through a QTE in which Jodie jumps off of the train with a blue forcefield around her pushing away the rain’s water droplets. 

Her forcefield must not have been perfect though because Jodie lands in the forest on the side of the train tracks significantly worse for wear.  Another chase scene ensues where Jodie is running through the forest and she hears a deep disembodied voice that is impossible to make out completely but was probably telling her that the cops were still chasing her.  While running through the forest David Cage stressed that the demoer had free reign of where they wanted to go and that would change what happened during the chase.  Eventually some police dogs caught up with Jodie and a fight that ended with a rock to the snout of one of them is probably going to enrage PETA once they find out. 

After taking care of the dogs Jodie ran to a cliff and climbed up to see another blockade in her path.  The demoer took control of Aiden again and notices that one of the police has an orange aura.  This indicates that Aiden can possess this person and take control of them for a time.  Any possessed NPC has deadened out white eyes that are noticeable if others get too close, and touching another person while possessed will eject Aiden, so it’s not an almighty power.  By climbing into a car and smashing back and forth between the road barriers Aiden was able to distract the other guards long enough for Jodie to sneak past and steal one of their motorcycles for her own devices.  David assured everyone attending that while this was how the demoer decided to solve the problem there were multiple ways to get past the blockade and onto the motorcycle. 

It’s not long before Jodie comes to yet another barricade, this time manned by much more heavily armed guards with machine guns.  Jodie gets her courage up and charges through the barricade using her blue shroud to deflect all of the incoming bullets.  Sadly nothing seems to go this girl’s way and she ends up in a town surrounded by a team of SWAT or military troops.  Out of any other options Jodie asks Aiden for help and the demoer was given free rein to roam around the town and cause havoc. 

Aiden’s powers were significantly enhanced (perhaps because Jodie was in such a state) and the demoer proceeded to not only possess guards and force them to shoot their companions but sent a clock tower tumbling down to the street.  Aiden also came upon a guard with a red aura that allows you to kill them directly, Darth Vader style.  Jodie calls for Aiden’s help opening a theatre door and asks for a diversion while she tries to escape out the back.  The demoer probably went a bit overboard though as he possessed a helicopter and sent it crashing down in a gigantic blaze.  Jodie limps out of the theatre and walks up to the lone survivor to warn him, “Tell them to leave me the fuck alone, because next time I’ll kill everyone”. 

After the demo we got a short Q&A session with David Cage.  He refused to tell us how to spell Aiden, but he let us know that during the town scene you’re able to play it as you see fit in a practical sandbox.  Also during this scene the armed guards are constantly edging forward towards Jodie so you don’t have an infinite amount of time to play around.  I asked David if Heavy Rain’s “No Game Over” sensibilities were in Beyond even though you only had one character to play around with this time and he said that while revealing how he kept that ideal in Beyond would reveal too much about the story he confirmed that he was still keeping that in mind and most scenarios didn’t really have a way to fail without recourse.  He’d like to try and achieve the same results that Heavy Rain did with its four game characters in a different way.  He also mentioned that while the scene we saw was more action oriented there will still be all the dialogue choices and slower moments that Heavy Rain had. 

So screw you, Internet at large and Sony leaks, for taking the surprise out of Beyond’s reveal, but thankfully closer inspection shows that there’s still a lot to be excited for.  I’m really curious how Quantic Dream will keep game-overs out of a game with only one character to kill off, and the Aiden portions of gameplay are completely different than anything from Heavy Rain, so obviously these guys still have some new ideas to add in to their largely QTE-driven experiences.  What I saw was nothing short of amazing and the idea of a real blockbuster actress like Ellen Page staring in a video game as story focused as this means that it’s likely to be something truly special.  Keep an eye out for this one when it releases in 2013.

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