BEYOND: TWO SOULS (contains spoilers)

is an incredible game.

tw/ war, death, suicide, sexual assault... (and i swear a little bit lol)

i've recently bought a ps3, and got this game too. i just finished it, and...

[SPOILER ALERT PROBABLY]

i love it. i think the game truly shines showing off difficult aspects in life. war, being homeless, being used and manipulated, giving birth... those were definitely my favorite parts of the game. they're really thought provoking and they really stuck with me.

[SPOILER ALERT DEFINITELY]

the game tells the story of Jodie Holmes. you control her in a universe where another parallel world exists, called the infraworld. in that world exist entities, and souls, and in general, i guess spirits, and it's basically where dead people go.

now, Jodie is a bit of a special case. she lives her life with an entity as a companion, called Aiden. he's got the ability to affect the real world (say, moving things, pressing buttons, killing people..) and also to exist in Jodie's consciousness, and she can control him, tell him what to do, etc etc...

he also serves as a pathway into the infraworld, and he can let souls of dead people possess Jodie's body temporarily, or show her their memories, etc etc etc...

now the US government is aware of this. they've caught onto the fact that the infraworld is a thing, and as it is the US government, it wants to take over it and use it for military purposes. so, once Jodie is born, she is separated from her mother (who is immediately sedated permanently, so as not to be killed, but also not to have any consciousness) and then raised in a government facility, the DPA (department of paranormal activities).

in the game, you live her life through various stages (being a kid, being a teen, an adult etc etc) and essentially go through various memories she has, but not in chronological order. (in the intro of the game she says that she's losing her memory and needs to put things in order... later on in the end she explains that because she's losing it she's writing down as many things in her life as she can remember to try and put them into order and also not to forget them).

living her life, you get to make choices for dialogues and stuff (like if youre gonna be nice or a prick to somebody), control Aiden and understand how he helps out Jodie, and really get a grasp on her emotional state. i think the game does a great job at making you feel really immersed in her state of mind, and the situations you go through. i really enjoyed it and it was also awesome when i got to choose how i'd act to someone i liked or didn't like and get to represent that through Jodie.

in general, it left me at a loss for words quite often. you feel a lot of impact in certain moments, like loss, or anger, or manipulation. i certainly did and was affected a lot by what i saw (which isn't something i feel in lots of games).

one of my favorite memories/chapters of the game was the one where you killed Gemaal. you were told by the CIA (through your prick love interest ryan who i DON'T DIG AND I HATE THAT I CAN'T NOT BE WITH HIM) that he is the biggest warlord of his country, and you need to kill him. you have to track him down with the help of Aiden (who gives you flashbacks which reveal his whereabouts), and on the way there, you meet this little kid, Salim. he points a gun at you, in fear, and he's been shot in his leg. but you earn his trust and with the help of Aiden, you heal his wounds, and he's really grateful. as a "thank you", he helps you get to where you need to go by helping you kill your enemies (which kinda fuckin sucks. this kid is in war, helping me shoot tons of people, and he's a kid??? (but the fact that it sucks is so cool . like. do you get it)). at some point, you leave Salim behind since you arrive at your destination, where Gemaal is. to kill him, you need to take control of one of his soldiers (or somebody who works for his government anyway) through Aiden from a distance, grab a gun, and shoot up the entire joint, full of other government workers. you walk in the room where they were, take a picture of Gemaal, and leave. as you're taking a picture, Salim runs in, gets on his knees and cries into his dead father's arms. YOU JUST KILLED SALIM'S FATHER. it was absolutely heart wrenching to go through, and you can tell both Jodie and Salim are shattered. Jodie because she realises what she's doing just for the bloody government, under false pretenses, and Salim because you killed his father.

on the plane back, your idiot dickhead shit man cia order-giver Ryan goes on about how "oh you did the right thing, dude was a killer" etc etc. you put on the telly to forget, and if THAT wasn't enough, you hear that Gemaal was the DEMOCRATICALLY ELECTED PRESIDENT OF THE COUNTRY WHO WAS SUPPOSED TO STOP WARS.

fuckin cia, man. it was really quite emotional.

i won't spoil the actual end of the game, BUT IT IS SO FUCKING GOOD ITS SO GOOD ITS SO GOOD ITS SO GOOD ITS SO GOOD go play it GO PLAY IT go gogogogooggo

[NO MORE SPOILERS]

at this point i shall say; the controls SUCK BALLZZZZZ lololololol this game is unpleasant to play sometimes and the framerate on a ps3 without an overclock is also crap . the game is capped at 30fps but being there isn't even common. quick time events are the only gameplay other than walking and choosing dialogue options, and you can't fail them (which is cool) but i failed half of them cause i couldn't tell which direction i was meant to go with the analog stick. also walking is really clunky, camera work is shit sometimes, and it feels like it takes forever to do what you want to do. but really its not as bad as im making it out to be and i still enjoyed the game and only got frustrated like once.

the graphics are really nice. Jodie's face in the menu looks entirely photorealistic which is really impressive, and in general no faces felt uncanny. Willem Dafoe is also a main character and you can immediately tell who he is. he doesn't look off at all.

ALL the character designs are brilliant, and Jodie is cool as fuck, as is her room in the DPA joint and her apartment AND her lakeside forest cabin. all the other characters also feel very realistic, and i never once was taken out of the immersion by a crappy outfit or an awkward facial animation or anything of the like. the game definitely has a very cool vibe.

i'll attach some cool concept art as well.

[more spoilers sorry]

other things i wanna mention include:

the game also includes a co-op mode, which i didn't try. :>

I DON'T LIKE RYAN. sure he manipulated Jodie cause he too was manipulated by the CIA. but idc why do i have to date some dude.

hawkins is an egotistical dumb prick. and I HATE HOW HE THINKS I'LL DO SHIT FOR HIM AT THE END OF THE FUCKIN GAME BROTHER YOU SHOT YOURSELF IN THE HEAD BECAUSE OF SHIT YOU CAUSED I AIN'T DOIN SHIT FOR YOU AND LET YOUR FAMILY DIE ALREADY

the government also sucks completely. mcgrath deserves a special place in hell just for his annoying ass face let alone how much of an inhuman rancid rat he is. (but i love rats they're really cute)

fuck the dudes in the bar who sexually assaulted Jodie. fuck the dudes at the party who locked her in a cabinet (and the ungrateful ass host too). fuck the dudes who beat up Stan.

I'M SORRY I LET YOU DIE COLE BUT I NEEDED TO SAVE THE WORLD

FUCK YOU RYAN !!!!!!!!!!

i guess that's my thoughts . :>

the game is a solid 8/10, i think.

gameplay: 5/10

story: 10/10

graphics/art direction: 9/10

yeah bang on an 8 lol

i love it. go play it. :>

Jodie in the hospital