Beyond: Two Souls has been a roller coaster ride of a game – This interactive drama has been hard to focus on the story and also understand what on earth is going on at times. Beyond felt muddy with its plot and the level of story packed into this one game was insane. Honesty this game should have probably been broken up into a series, with a better plot layout and understanding of what the ultimate goal is. This game overall lacked consistency in its story and character development for the most part. Really the only thing that had somewhat of a consistent story flow was the main character Jodie Holmes.
Jodie’s story is told in chapters out of chronological order across a span of 15 years of her life. Jodie is a little girl when the game starts, but you move into her being a teenager and a young woman, and then back to a little girl. Jodie has a spirit in-game called Aiden that you can control depending on the circumstance presented in the game and portion of the story.
With the story hitting multiple areas of Jodie’s life and timelines across multiple ages the story get’s confusing fast. I always felt that I was never really caught up with the story or narration that was happening on screen which was disappointing. Personally, I feel the plot was not well written as even if the story was told in order I feel it would still be confusing. I so wanted this game to be engaging with a deep story and character development that would draw you into the plot, but this was far from what actually happened.
Every once in a while the story did have some amazing moments that sparked a little hope for me in what was coming at the end. One thing that the voice actor Ellen Page who played Jodie did was bring an emotional connection for the audience to care for Jodie and connect with her. The rest of the cast seemed to struggle in bringing the level of emotion, and connection it took to really play the lines well enough for you to care for any of the other characters that were unfolding in this story.
Overall the game just had too much missing for me to really enjoy the gameplay and story. The systems put in place in the game were simple to use, and the interaction you had with items and people in the world seemed very streamlined. Using your ghost, Aiden, seemed to be pretty streamlined as well. You can switch to your ghostly companion which gives you a first-person view and allows you to move through walls, ceilings and even possess certain enemies. You can’t always switch to Aiden so you had to wait until specific moments in the game before you could use him.
Combat in the game was ultimately disappointing, with a system that felt very clunky and hard to use due to the lack of time you had to make decisions. Whether dodging, blocking, punching, kicking, I found myself doing the opposite of what I wanted to do most of the times including moving in the wrong direction even though I was moving the thumbstick in the correct direction. Honestly, the combat was almost pointless as Jodie could get completely mangled, and die in multiple different forms and it wouldn’t ever feel like the story was really affected…..as Aiden would always be there to heal her and get her right back to where you left off.
Beyond’s choices you end up getting to make just never felt large enough to me as though you are just a passenger on a story you can’t actually be a part of. You can choose how Jodie responds in conversation throughout the game, but those choices just felt small and that the story is going to go on no matter how you play. To me, a dramatic story-based game like Beyond should have large and small moments that suck you into the story and make you feel as though your a part of the outcome.
Beyond is an absolutely beautiful game with its scenery, well crafted landscapes, and the story was good enough thanks to Ellen Page and her voice acting. Overall though this game seemed like more of a well-crafted game cinematic that you get to be a viewer of but not actually have any impact of what happens in-game. Playing beyond was overall an interesting experience for the story, but it was not a good game at all due to the sporadic plot, lack of engagement that made it feel like you were part of the world, and lack of character development.
After you get introduced to all the adults of the Losers Club, the speed of the overall story slow down a ton and you get a flashback of the young Losers Club in a clubhouse scene that wasn’t part of the first film. The young actors may only play smaller supporting roles in chapter two, but just like the first film, they did an absolutely amazing job! Even though chapter two focuses on the adult Losers Club, the characters to me just didn’t have the same impact that the kids did in the previous film.
IT chapter two had a ton more CGI than the first film did which was disappointing as it didn’t feel as nostalgic as the first film did. The CGI wasn’t the best either and really pulled away from the enjoyment of such an epic horror classic. On the plus side, the film had some truly amazing scary moments that made up for some of the sporadic plots.
I’ve waited a long time to write this review on a game series that has become one of my all-time favorite stories…ever!
On an episode by episode basis, I think the Final Season brings a good close to a great series and the studio that started it all. We get to see a mix of moments between dull and dragging, to cringe-worthy and exciting but the final destination of this game is well worth the time put in to get there. Each episode has at least two or three pivotal moments that made me feel like reloading my save and making the other choice, only to realize that either way would leave me with mixed emotions. When a story-based game can create hard decisions personally for you as the player then the developers have done an amazing job in my opinion! After knowing these characters in-game for so long it’s hard to make different choices aka break those cycles like we talked about earlier, but change is necessary for this game and the characters have a chance to change their ways and so do you as the player.
With all this said I think The Walking Dead: The Final Season does a fantastic job bringing you on a journey and discovering more about the relationship between Clementine and A.J. – Which honestly produced some of the craziest situations, and hardest decisions/choices ever in the game series to date. At times, the story gets clogged up with this new free-roaming gameplay feature, and the onslaught of new characters introduced that never get fully developed. Each episode though did have a very satisfying conclusion and wrap up that set up an amazing end to the final game. We ended the game on a bittersweet note especially since this was the last game TellTale worked on before shutting down, which really hit home in how they did the ending for Clem and this amazing story that’s unfolded over the last seven years.
Also new in the open world feel of Gears 5 comes a new toy you will get to roam around with. The wind-powered skiff, pictured here lets you tackle a huge open-world map and get to areas fairly quickly as well as going after those optional quests littered through the area. I found that these optional missions are worth the extra time as the rewards were usually upgrades for Jack. Along with some fresh new weapons, the open world feel, a wind-powered land cruiser and some very interesting boss fights, Gears 5 has become one of my favorites to date of the franchise!
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A Hobbits Journey 