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Choices also determine the finale of Beyond: Two Souls, as any number of possible plot endings can be experienced by the player. Examples of choice-based outcomes are the chapter titled The Party, where the player is given the choice of unleashing brutal revenge toward a group of bullies or simply running away, and the chapter titled The Embassy, where the player can either engage in psychic information retrieval or can jeopardise the mission by forcing one of the guards to commit suicide. These choices are typically moral decisions made through Jodie's dialogue options, interventions with various characters, success or failure in her combat scenes, or psychic actions that the player chooses to have Aiden perform. Besides affecting dialogue and story developments, the outcome of entire scenes (and in some cases, the outcome of scenes several chapters later) can be manipulated to a certain extent based on player choices. Īs the player makes choices throughout the game, the gameplay's plot is revealed. Jodie frequently calls upon Aiden to provide different abilities, such as form a protective shield around her, allow the dead to speak to the living through her, grant her an ability to see events of the recent past, and enable her to heal a character's wounds. Amongst the shades of greys, interactive objects are highlighted by an aura shining in one of several colours, with the colour of the aura indicating his potential interaction: orange characters can be possessed, red characters strangled, blue objects (or characters with environmental effects) knocked around, and green characters healed. While playing as Aiden, the game becomes monochromatic. Failing certain action sequences will alter the course of a chapter (and sometimes later chapters) and in some cases lead to the death of a non-playable character. Other sequences require real-time stealth, which has the player sneak Jodie through environments while coordinating certain actions with Aiden. During action sequences, like chases or hand-to-hand combat, the cinematography moves into slow motion whilst Jodie performs the physical manoeuvre during this time, the player must determine the direction Jodie is moving and push the controller stick in that direction to complete the action. Conversation prompts float in the air, defaulting to a certain choice if too much time passes before selection. If Jodie must perform a specific action, icons pop up on the screen to prompt the player to press and/or hold certain controller buttons. While playing as Jodie, the game includes interactive objects marked with a white dot, which can be interacted with by tilting the controller stick in its direction. Aiden, as an incorporeal entity, exists permanently in noclip mode and can move through walls, ceilings, and other obstacles however, he is limited to moving only within a certain radius around Jodie due to their spiritual tethering. At almost any time, however, the player (or second player during a two-player game) can switch to control Aiden instead. The player primarily controls Jodie through the in-game environments. The game received polarised critical reception upon its release, and sold 2.8 million units by July 2018.īeyond: Two Souls is an interactive drama and action-adventure game, requiring the player to move and guide the character into interactions with objects and other non-player characters in the scene to progress the story. David Cage, writer and director of the game, explained that game development studios should provide ' interactive storytelling' that can be played by everyone, including non-gamers. The actors in the game worked during the year-long project in Quantic Dream's Paris studio to perform on-set voice acting and motion-capture acting.ĭespite being a video game, Beyond: Two Souls premiered at the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival, marking only the second time the film festival recognised a video game.

Willem Dafoe co-stars as Nathan Dawkins, a researcher in the Department of Paranormal Activity and Jodie's surrogate-father-figure. Jodie, who is portrayed by actor Elliot Page, possesses supernatural powers through her psychic link to Aiden, growing from adolescence to adulthood while learning to control Aiden and the powers they share. The other is an incorporeal entity named Aiden: a separate soul linked to Jodie since birth. The game features Jodie Holmes, one of two player characters.

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It was originally released on 8 October 2013 for the PlayStation 3, later being re-released for the PlayStation 4 on 24 November 2015 and Microsoft Windows on 22 July 2019. Beyond: Two Souls is an interactive drama and action-adventure game for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4 and Windows, developed by Quantic Dream and published by Sony Computer Entertainment.

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