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[Tulpa]

Anybody play this yet? I'm over halfway through it in one sitting, I think. I'm really liking the story so far. It isn't as hard to follow as some people have mentioned. The gameplay is lacking a bit, however. It's more of an interactive movie than a game. Pretty linear, limited options to complete a goal. Click this button, move the stick that way, cutscene, repeat. But I'm liking it anyway. If just for the story. I think watching a playthrough would give about the same amount of enjoyment as actually playing the game.

Also, some graphical glitches. "WHY IS THERE A WHITE HAND COMING OUT OF NOWHERE AT HER FACE AND SOFTLY CARESSING IT? Oh, the texture just loaded." Things along those lines.

And what's with the trend of games letting you get drunk and high in them? Noticed it in GTA V also.

[LTK]

First-person shooters (Bioshock, Deus Ex and the like) and role-playing games (Fallout series) have been letting you get drunk and high for decades.

You're actually the first person I've encountered whose opinion of the game is not "it's shit".

[Tulpa]

Well, true about the drugs. Just seems weirder when it's (relatively) normal people in a normal setting you're getting stoned or drunk.

My opinion is more "not that bad, would make a better book or movie", if you wanted to summarize it. I like the story, but the gameplay almost isn't there. Just enough to keep you from wandering away or falling asleep.

[Thomas Edison]

I don't have a PS3, but I watched a play through of it and really don't feel as though I missed out on the experience at all.

I do really like what Quantic Dream are doing with the video game format. I've played Fahrenheit (Indigo Prophecy) and sat with a friend as he played the entirety of Heavy Rain. When you get hooked to one of their games it's not particularly because the game play is enthralling, rather it's the story itself that draws you in. It's good to see a company placing such emphasis on storytelling in the medium, because video games strike me as the next leap in narrative form.

Obviously there are other companies that pay the correct amount of attention to the story of their game (Naughty Dog and Bioware off the top of my head), but the way Quantic go about it is fascinating because they almost strip everything from a game which would typically make it a game, the spectacle and complexity that many modern games promote as positive devices, boiling it down to the simplest elements possible (movement of character and decision making).

I am of the opinion that video games will overtake film and television as the mainstream storytelling formats in the next decade or two, and games like Beyond: Two Souls are useful for the progression of the medium as it looks at different structures the story of a game can take.

That said though fuck quick time events. Quick time events suck dick.

[Tulpa]

Huh, there's more endings than I thought. Took me 2 sittings to beat the game, still pretty early for today.

(click to show/hide)

So the majority of dialogue choices you make have no bearing on the ending of the game. I told Ryan I don't love him everytime, but she still did. What does matter is who you save or who you let die. Or you can just kill everyone by not making it to the end in the last 5 minutes of gameplay.

[Schmee]

There are some story-changing decisions, though:

(click to show/hide)

When Aidan first possesses your minder to take you to a club, if you sit in the front of the car you get caught on the way out and that's it, but if you hide in the boot, you actually escape, go to said club and (apparently) get drunk and almost get raped, preventing you from having any romance stuff later on. That's what I heard, anyway; the playthrough I saw just mentioned that it was possible.

[Tulpa]

(click to show/hide)

Sitting in the front can still get you to the bar. You just have to ram the guard station gates. That's how my playthrough went.