Beyond Two Souls

Beyond two souls is a PS3 exclusive interactive movie by Quantic Dreams, staring Ellen Page and Willem Dafoe. Beyond two souls was the second game to be screened at the Tribeca Film Festival.

The non-linear story of Two Souls features a girl called Jodie, who has a psychic connection to an entity has called Aiden. This entity, bound to Jodie, has a mind of its own as it manipulates objects and people. The narrative zooms back and forth through Jodie’s life as she learns how to control Aiden through the care of two doctors, then when she becomes independent and working for the CIA. Details of the game can be different dependant on which options you choose throughout the game and can cause branches to form; as like Heavy rain – another game made by Quantic Dreams.

The gameplay is beyond the norm as the game lets you control both Aiden and Jodie throughout Jodie’s life. The game has no HUD and object interaction is done through manipulation of the analogue sticks instead of a button. The closest thing to a HUD is a tiny white dot highlighting anything you can interact with. I think this is great as it helps immerse you into Jodie’s world without face-clutter acting as a distraction.

Due to the multiple options to change the branches of story line, replay ability will be very high. This is without mentioning how much fun it is to mess with people using the entity; which alone is worthy of a play-through again.

Beyond Two Souls prides itself on its e-motion capture details and the use of famous actors Ellen Page and Willem Defoe. The graphics to show these details are amazing for current gen (soon to be next gen also). Cut scenes are movie master pieces through direction by David Cage and game play is fluently blended in as if you never lost control. I haven’t seen this dynamic since Hideo Kojima’s fourth instalment of the Metal Gear Solid Series in 2008, and Beyond Two Souls advances this exponentially.

As a conclusion, this game is very refreshing. As games become more and more realistic and a bigger medium of entertainment through movie like stories, we need games like this to dig us out of the current rut of: Cut scene, kill, kill, kill, irrelevant cut scene, kill, kill and linear walkways. This game will sure have its critics who would also dislike Metal Gear Solid for its long, yet not elongated, cut scenes but you can only make so many run ‘n’ guns before the modding community starts making their own retexture packs.

 

This game should be on PC too:

9.4

Space Marine

 

Since 1987, Warhammer Forty Thousand models have adjured to fill table tops of battle thanks to Rick Priestly and The Games Workshop. In 2011, this dice fantasy was turned into a controller journey of battles and mass-slaughter, gun ‘n’ run, fun. Developed by Relic Entertainment and published by deceased THQ, this 3^rd person shooter implores you to rampage amongst Orks and other non-human targets – smashing their skulls to replenish health.

 Space Marines is all about the fun factor – so much that you can even forget about the story line. There is very little strategy to the game, other than grabbing a nearby enemy and stomping on them to replenish health. This health replenish system keeps the flow steady and doesn’t require you to hide around a corner for 2 minutes or tip-toe around the map until you find a pick-up – a mechanic which can kill the fun out of most games. At long range you have a barrage of fire-power with very little hiccup. Getting up close and personal is just as fluid as you grab, stab and finish enemies like a Soul Calibur tribute. However, after a while this does all become routine and I feel the game loses its edge … and then the jump jets appear. Only for little moments, but the jumps jets really open up the map, giving the player to the ability to smash players into the floor in a way Crysis 2 wouldn’t.

The graphics are good, not fantastic, but good. I would have liked to see a few less flat textures but the game is desirable considering it runs on the Xbox 360. The only things the game was missing was a few paint runs or over-spray on the characters to give that authentic Warhammer look. The sound, I found, was sufficient, though the characters sounded like heavy cigar smokers – perhaps it’s just a side-effect of gene modification.

The levels of the game did annoy me in the title. I found the maps rich of layers and detail, except all the nice details were on a plain different to our own. While enemies were firing down at us from vistas of surrounding sections, we were stranded on the lower levels as if playing Space Invaders. This was rectified by the jump jets, hence opening the map up, but still the majority of the travel was bland and served no purpose except to deliver the feeling of progression.

All-in-all, a very fun game to escape to and a game which actually tries to just be a game instead of an interactive movie.

 7.1/10

Dragon's Dogma

Dragon's dogma is an action role playing game released in 2012, developed and published by Capcom for the Xbox 360 and PS3. The game is set in a fantasy world of dragons and other mystical beings who either help or hinder you slashing through quests.

 

The visuals are realistic with a hint of magic, as weapons glow and streams of power bounce around the immediate surroundings. The version we had was from the Xbox, showing signs of drained, pastel colours in some day or brightly lit scenarios. The models and physics of such are amazing; especially of the mystical beasts: The first beast being a Lion, Goat and Snake combined comes to mind.

 

Game play is an individual experience as you can create your own class of character with any appearance you desire, much like the pawns. You have: Fighter, Warrior, Mystic Knight, Strider, Ranger, Assassin, Mage, Sorcerer and Magic Archer to choose from, each with their own weapons and powers. Pawns are your helpers within the game from which you modify, much like your own character, from an astounding array of choices: From body type, hair and tattoos to their characteristics on how they react to certain events. These characters you can call for using preset interaction orders: for example, "Come", "Go" and "Help". Combat is fluid as there is no waiting between animations: attack moves are combined with animations flowing in to each other.. Boss battles are revolutionized from the normal 'dodge and attack' cliché as now you can climb or grapple enemies to deliver devastating strategic blows.

 

Replay ability is present due to the random spawning of enemies, couple this with all the different character types you can play as or have helping you: Many reruns are possible, if you can survive past the bore of repetitive cut-scenes.

 

During my first impression I found that the game expected you to know how to play, throwing me in to a battle. However, this was a nice, fresh approach apposed to sitting still for 10 minutes as the game ran through each and every control asking me to repeat. To help was a layout of controls on the HUD, making memorizing them semantic as I kinesthetic-ally learned them. Once the tutorial level was over, and I  finished creating the character I'd play as for the rest of the game, I was bombarded by cut scenes, shortly followed by a short burst of game play and then another few cut scenes; this was the order of the rest of the amount I played until the introduction of pawns and another boss Battle: A giant Cyclops. With the Cyclops a few attacks were made until its back was turned, followed by climbing his back and defeating it with a few hits to its eyes; this concluded the game play time.

 

Personally I am not in to mystical quest games, whether point and click or action but this game seemed well made, compelling and innovative enough for perhaps a few more hours of play. I give this game:

 

7.5/10