Beyond: Two Souls

Beyond: Two Souls
Beyond: Two Souls logo
Studio	Quantic Dream
Publisher	Sony Computer Entertainment
Senior Developer	David Cage (Director)
Erstveröffent- lichung	PlayStation 3 October 8, 2013 October 9, 2013 October 11, 2013 October 17, 2013 PlayStation 4 November 26, 2015 Microsoft Windows July 22, 2019
platform	Microsoft Windows PlayStation 3 PlayStation 4
Game engine	Kara (own)
genre	Interactive film , adventure
Game mode	Single player , co-op mode
control	DualShock 4 , keyboard & mouse
medium	Blu-ray , download
language	Audio : German, English, French, Italian, Japanese Subtitles : Danish, German, English, Finnish, French, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Swedish, Turkish
Age rating	USK PEGI

Beyond: Two Souls is an interactive film with adventure elements, which was released for the PlayStation 3 on October 8, 2013. It was produced by the French development studio Quantic Dream . The main roles are played by the actors Ellen Page and Willem Dafoe . The running time is given as 12 to 15 hours.

action

The game has spiritual and thriller elements and revolves around the question of what happens after death. The plot is conveyed to the player in a non-linear narrative style and can vary depending on the style of play. There are always individual chapters between the eighth and 25th year of life of the protagonist Jodie Holmes ( Ellen Page ). Throughout the entire plot, Jodie tries to reveal the true nature of a psychic being called Aiden, who has accompanied Jodie since she was born.

Viewed linearly, the action begins with eight year old Jodie at her adoptive parent's house. Jodie is in contact with a parallel world, the so-called Infrawelt, in which there are livelihoods that also inflict physical injuries on her. When Jodie plays on the street, a situation escalates and her constant companion Aiden almost chokes a boy to death. Her adoptive parents then decide to take Jodie to the Department of Paranormal Activity (German: Authority for paranormal activities , DPA) because they are overwhelmed with the situation. At the DPA research facility, it will be handed over to the researcher Nathan Dawkins ( Willem Dafoe ) and his assistant Cole Freeman, who will remain her only caregivers in the future. The researchers conduct experiments with Jodie which, depending on the behavior of the player, are successful or end in chaos. Over time, Jodie develops supernatural abilities, such as making contact with Nathan's deceased family members and rendering other people mindless. However, all attempts to lead the life of a normal teenager are in vain, also because of her contact with Aiden. She is tormented by the other children at a birthday party and in response - depending on the behavior of the player - can set the whole house on fire.

In her teens, Jodie is asked by the CIA, which is conducting experiments with the infra world using capacitors, to shut down one of the runaway portals. Following this assignment, the CIA decides to train Jodie to be a special agent. She is undergoing three years of training under the supervision of Ryan Clayton. After completing her training, she has to fulfill several assignments, with Jodie and Ryan getting closer. But when he lies to her about an assignment to kill an African politician who is standing in the way of the CIA, it breaks. Jodie then flees the CIA.

The plot now largely focuses on Jodie's escape from the CIA. She is being followed by police officers and a special unit. But again and again she manages to escape and she finally finds refuge with some homeless people. There she also helps give birth to a baby named Zoey in an old house. But rioters set fire to the house. Jodie manages to save everyone, but is crushed by the rioters. She is admitted to hospital and is in a coma for several months. When Jodie wakes up again, she first continues the escape, but then decides to look for her mother Norah and to get in touch with Cole again. In fact, Cole manages to bring the two together and Jodie learns that Norah also has supernatural abilities and is being kept in an artificial coma by the CIA so that she will never regain consciousness. Immediately afterwards, Jodie is overwhelmed by the CIA.

Jodie wakes up in Nathan's office, who has meanwhile risen high in the hierarchy of the DPA and now controls all research on the Infra world. This includes work on a new capacitor. However, the fictional republic of Karzistan also has a corresponding capacitor. The CIA wants to use this knowledge militarily and asks Jodie to destroy the capacitor of the Karzistani in order to be the only power to have access to the infra world. Since the CIA promises to let her go after completing the job, Jodie agrees. But after successfully completing the mission together with Ryan, she is betrayed by the CIA and, just like her mother, drugged with a neurotoxin. Delirious, she learns from Nathan that he will switch off the containment field of the condenser in order to create a world in which life and death are united. With this he hopes to be reunited with his wife and daughter. With the help of Ryan and Cole, Aiden manages to save Jodie from delirium. Meanwhile, Nathan deactivates the condenser containment field, whereupon the building is attacked by existences. Since it is no longer possible to reactivate the containment field, the three of them have to go directly into the energy field of the capacitor, the beta sun, in order to switch off the capacitor directly. Nathan, whom Jodie encounters in the beta sun, sees only one way to reunite with his family: he shoots himself in the head with a gun and says in the form of a soul that he believes in Jodie.

From here, depending on the behavior of the player, there are several starting options. Jodie may die trying to disable the Beta Sun and the plot would end. Alternatively, she manages to deactivate the capacitor. Jodie loses consciousness and is immersed in a spirit world. She learns that Aiden is the ghost of Jodie's deceased twin brother, and is given the choice of whether to return to this world or to the hereafter. Depending on who the player was able to save during the course of the game, the subsequent credits change. However, one scene is always similar. It shows Jodie, Zoey or both together in a gloomy future vision of the world, which is dominated by the evil existences from the infra world.

characters

character	English speaker	German speaker	role
Jodie Holmes	Ellen Page	Manja Doering	Main character and linked to Aiden. The action of Beyond: Two Souls takes place between the ages of eight and 25.
Aiden			Stillborn twin brother of Jodie, who is connected to her in a supernatural way and whose identity she only realizes at the end. She is the only person who can communicate with him, even if there are apparently other people who can sense his presence.
Nathan Dawkins	Willem Dafoe	Pure beauty	Government scientist working with Jodie and analyzing her powers. He also serves as her surrogate father.
Cole Freeman	Kadeem Hardison		US official investigating paranormal activity. He acts as Jodie's friend. Sometimes as an uncle, protector and understanding confidante when Dawkins doesn't have time, doesn't feel like it or is too angry.
Ryan Clayton	Eric Winter		Government agent who is not only interested in Jodie and her skills, but also in a future together with her.

development

David Cage , CEO of Quantic Dream, first introduced Beyond: Two Souls at the Sony press conference during E3 2012. A first trailer was also published. Unlike Quantic Dream's previous Heavy Rain game , Beyond: Two Souls is not compatible with PlayStation Move . Actress Ellen Page said the game's script was around 2,000 pages long.

Beyond was the last project by composer Normand Corbeil , who died of pancreatic cancer on January 25, 2013 . Composer Lorne Balfe , who was previously responsible for the music of Assassin's Creed III , then replaced Corbeil. At the beginning of the credits, the game is dedicated to Corbeil. Hans Zimmer , with whom Balfe worked for many years, joined in August 2013 as the producer of the soundtrack.

Another trailer was released on April 27, 2013, and 35 minute game scenes were shown at the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival . After LA Noire (2011), this was only the second time that a video game was presented at the film festival.

publication

Those who pre-ordered the game received a DLC with an additional 30 minutes of playing time. There is also a special edition, which consists of a SteelBook and other bonus content. On September 5, 2013, a demo of Beyond: Two Souls was announced, which was released in early October on PlayStation Network .

The European version of the game has been changed in two places to allow for a PEGI age rating of 18+ instead of a PEGI rating of 16+.

The game has also been available for PlayStation 4 since November 26, 2015 . Among other things, it contains improved graphics, a chronological game mode and the Advanced Experiments DLC .

At the Game Developers Conference 2019, Epic Games announced that Quantic will release Dream Beyond: Two Souls together with Heavy Rain and Detroit: Become Human that same year exclusively for Windows in the Epic Games Store .

On June 18, 2020, all three games, Beyond: Two Souls , Heavy Rain and Detroit: Become Human were also released on Steam .

reception

reviews publication Rating GamePro 81% GameSpot 9/10 Gamona 71% PC Games 89% GIGA 7/10 Meta-ratings Metacritic 70

Reviews

The game received mixed, albeit mostly positive, ratings from the trade press. On Metacritic , the game achieved a Metascore of 70/100 points and a user rating of 8.1 / 10.

The game was praised for its outstanding visual technique, the soundtrack composed by Lorne Balfe and Hans Zimmer, the dense atmosphere, the successful German synchronization and the convincing portrayal of the protagonist by Ellen Page. On the other hand, the lack of opportunities for interaction, weaknesses in the story and the fragmentary narrative structure were criticized.

On January 10, 2014, Quantic Dream announced that Beyond: Two Souls had sold more than one million copies .

Awards

Beyond: Two Souls was nominated at the Spike Video Game Awards in the categories "Best Voice Actor" (Willem Dafoe) and "Best Voice Actress" (Ellen Page).

For the 18th Satellite Awards was Beyond: Two Souls nominated in the category "Best Action / Adventure Game".

Web links

• Official website (English)
• Beyond: Two Souls at MobyGames (English)
• Beyond: Two Souls in the Internet Movie Database (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Jeff Schille: 'Beyond: Two Souls' Longer Than 'Heavy Rain,' No QTEs; Quantic Dream Developing PS4 Game. In: Game Rant. Retrieved October 7, 2013 . 
2. ↑ Beyond: Two Souls - Test When good ideas sink into too great ambitions, in Eurogamer , accessed on January 25, 2018
3. ↑ Test Beyond Two Souls Spirit beings with limited possibilities, in Golem.de , accessed on January 25, 2018
4. ^ "Beyond: Two Souls" Longer Than "Heavy Rain," No QTEs; Quantic Dream Developing PS4 Game , at gamerant.com. accessed on January 25, 2018
5. ↑ Beyond: Two Souls - E3 2012: Trailer. (Video, 2:17 min) In: GameTrailers . Viacom , June 7, 2012, accessed October 8, 2013 . 
6. ↑ Ellie Gibson: Heavy Rain dev confirms work on PS4 game has begun. In: Eurogamer . Gamer Network, March 21, 2013, accessed October 8, 2013 . 
7. ↑ Alex Pham: Ellen Page is 'Beyond' real in 'emotional and subversive' game. In: Los Angeles Times . Tribune Company , July 19, 2012, accessed October 8, 2013 . 
8. ↑ Sinan Kubba: Heavy Rain composer Normand Corbeil passes away, aged 56. In: Joystiq. AOL , January 28, 2013, accessed October 8, 2013 . 
9. ↑ ^{a b} Roland Fauster: BEYOND: Two Souls - Soundtrack composed by Lorne Balfe, produced by Hans Zimmer. In: PlayStation Blog. Sony , August 22, 2013, accessed October 8, 2013 . 
10. ↑ Beyond: Two Souls - Tribeca Trailer. (Video, 2:42 min) In: GameTrailers . Viacom , April 27, 2013, accessed October 8, 2013 . 
11. ↑ Allistair Pinsof: Beyond: Two Souls Tribeca trailer + 35 minutes of footage. In: Destructoid. April 28, 2013, accessed October 8, 2013 . 
12. ↑ Derek Osgood: Willem Dafoe, Ellen Page Star in BEYOND: Two Souls October 8th. In: PlayStation Blog. Sony , March 1, 2013, accessed October 8, 2013 . 
13. ↑ Ross Alexander: Beyond: Two Souls Demo Coming October 1st. In: PlayStation Blog. Sony , September 5, 2013, accessed October 8, 2013 . 
14. ^ Wesley Yin-Poole: Sony confirms Beyond censored in Europe. In: Eurogamer . Gamer Network, October 1, 2013, accessed October 18, 2013 . 
15. ↑ Beyond: Two Souls - PS4 remaster now available in Europe. GamePro, November 26, 2015, accessed November 26, 2015 . 
16. ^ Andrew Webster: Quantic Dream is bringing PlayStation games like Detroit and Heavy Rain to Epic's PC store. March 20, 2019, accessed March 27, 2019 . 
17. ↑ Samit Sarkar: Detroit: Become Human, Heavy Rain, Beyond: Two Souls coming to PC this year. March 20, 2019, accessed March 27, 2019 . 
18. ↑ http://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-3/beyond-two-souls
19. ↑ http://www.gamona.de/games/beyond-two-souls,test-ps3:article,2344866,page-fazit.html
20. ↑ http://www.gamepro.de/playstation/spiele/ps3/beyond-two-souls/wert/48382.html
21. ↑ http://www.gamespot.com/reviews/beyond-two-souls-review/1900-6415418/
22. ↑ http://www.pcgames.de/Beyond-Two-Souls-PS3-249223/Tests/Beyond-Two-Souls-im-Test-Emotional-atmosphaerisch-vielschichtig-1091661/2/
23. ↑ http://www.giga.de/spiele/beyond-das-neue-projekt-von-quantic-dream/tests/beyond-two-souls-test-druecke-x-fuer-blockbuster/
24. ↑ QuanticDream.com: Beyond: Two Souls sold in excess of 1 million units in 2013 ( Memento from December 30, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
25. ↑ Gamona: Spike TV Video Game Awards - VGX 2013. Retrieved August 5, 2015 . 
26. ↑ IMDb: Satellite Awards 2014. Accessed January 11, 2014 (English).