Mixersan

Video games as art? This is stunning and definitive proof. This game moved me. I've never experienced anything on PC or consoles that evoked the spectrum of emotions 'Beyond' did. Nothing even comes close. The AAA graphics, the story, Ellen Page's brilliant acting, the musical score and the story were all put together in a way that no other game has ever managed, nor likely even attempted. Having experienced (and enjoyed) Quantic Dream's Heavy Rain from 2010, I knew what to expect from 'Beyond' in terms of gameplay. I knew it wasn't going to be a frenetic button masher or an adventure game like Uncharted or Tomb Raider. Heavy Rain was, when you get down to it, merely a medium for interactive story-telling, and it did this pretty well. 'Beyond' follows along these lines, but does it far, far better. Before even thinking about purchasing 'Beyond: Two Souls', you really need to know what it is and what it isn't, and you need to know what you're looking for from it. This is not a game you'll be 'challenged' by in the typical sense, where you're presented with entertaining obstacles and your enjoyment is derived largely by overcoming them. It never set out to do that or promised this sort of experience. Instead, 'Beyond' offers to fully immerse you in a story and its main character like no other game or movie before it could ever hope to accomplish.

I'm happy to get flamed for saying this but anyone who says this game had a good story has never read a decent book in their life. There was no story in this game. The actual story arc of this game is about 3 hours long worth of gameplay. I can summarize it here: -Reaper Servants aka "Collectors" kill Shephard and his crew -Shephard is ressurected -You are told he has to travel through omega jump node to destroy Collector Base -You spend the next 5-10 hours performing COMPLETELY AND TOTALLY unrelated side-quests to recruit characters who have ABSOLUTELY NO CONNECTION to the story and join Shephard for completely unknown reasons for a potentially suicidal mission. It's literally like, "Hey, you're pretty tough. Wanna come with me and kill the Collectors?" The potential recruit then says, "Sure. Sounds good. I'll risk my life for that. Who are the Collectors btw?" -You then finish the game by going to go kill the Collectors

This game's an absolute failure in every aspect. It looks like it was developed 5-10 years ago in terms of graphics. The character models and animations are awkward looking, the landscapes are VERY bland and the particle effects, particularly blaster bolts and lightsabers, look like they're drawn in crayon. As far as gameplay is concerned, it's no better. It's almost a complete clone of every other MMO out there, which isn't a terrible thing in and of itself, but the class skills and abilities are uninteresting and you don't actually feel like you're doing much when you're fighting. The funniest part about it, however, is that there ISN'T AN AUTOATTACK. As a trooper, I actually had to press a button EVERY TIME i wanted my guy to shoot at ****? Finally, and probably the worst part of the game, are the features which BioWare touted as their differentiating advantages over the competitors. First, you get "companions", which were apparently supposed to be NPC's who join you for your storyline and talk to you, grow with you etc as you progress. I was THINKING it would be a lot like KoToR or Mass Effect or something, but it really wasn't. They might as well just be 'pets' for all that they add to the game. They're nothing like 'companions' in any other good RPG I've played, and they're definetly a lot like a 'pet' from WoW or any other game. I suppose that they talk to you now and then, which is different, but the dialogue is so ho-hum and the stories that Bioware has thrown together for each of the character classes are freaking lame. Bioware, as far as I'm concerned, hasn't written a decent story since ME1. After the pathetic stories they put together for DA:O, ME2 and DA2, I'd assumed that maybe the good writers from KoToR and ME1 were working on ToR. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like it. I'd avoid this game. Patches won't fix it. It's an ugly, boring, uninspired effort and adds absolutely nothing new or interesting to the genre.