Through its poor character work, lack of meaningful interactivity, and mishandling of it’s larger ideas, Beyond: Two Souls left me with nothing but a sore ass.
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Citations:
1. Rose, Mike. “In story-driven games, ‘Game overs’ are a failure of game design, says David Cage.” Gamasutra, 23 August 2013, https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/198880/In_storydriven_games_Game_overs_are_a_failure_of_game_design_says_David_Cage.php
2. The Playing Field. “What is Level Design? An Intro,” YouTube, 1 July 2017 https://youtu.be/n8t4-a1lmP8?t=195
3. Chariot Rider. “The Magic Circle,” YouTube, 1 March 2019, https://youtu.be/kx8UHeNHa8M
4. Games As Literature. “Games as Lit. 101 – Meaningful Choices Don’t Need to Change the Story,” YouTube, 24 May 2016, https://youtu.be/HolOFCTTYBQ
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Link to the Script: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1doHKT0qynASnUOVKgE6WdVFtzHKI1kdqKK8D0nvC6bQ/edit?usp=sharing
Link to the Assets List: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1m7-t_Q6bm3qr42_GpZuxY-vxeKQ1oPDgoWTYS4ddgpw/edit?usp=sharing
37 Comments
Meh, I had fun playing it. I quit Heavy Rain after a few hours because of the depressing story and lack of positive agency; every choice felt like a bad option.
I had been considering getting the PC port of this before this video. Thanks for saving me money.
David Cage is a disgrace on so many levels. Did you know he was accused by the journals Médiapart, Canard PC and Le Monde of toxic behaviour (sexism etc) with his employees, and then sued these three journals ? Here is the Canard PC article in English : https://www.canardpc.com/373/strange-atmosphere-quantic-dream
Did you know he received in 2014 the Légion d'honneur (one of the highest decorations in France) mainly because of Beyond two souls ? The fact that David Cage is a made-up anglo-saxon name, his real one being David de Gruttola just confirms that this man is a fucking clown
17:11 FUCK I got chills at that cw. Incredible timing
I was about to buy this shit. From what I see here it's just a fucking movie, and it stops so it can tell me that I have to click to continue. Lame! This is why I never bought any tell tale games. I would just try the free first episode of something then not bother buying the rest. How about just charging the price of a movie rental instead of game prices eh. Sure I'd buy it then for $1.99 -$3.
It’s not racist, it’s not boring & your review is I guess your opinion… I disagree, I’ve played through it twice on my PS3 then on my PS4. This game deserves a play through.
Good catchphrases and very accurate statements (e.g. "grief porn", "suicide is a complex issue"). You've just earned a new subscriber. 🙂
Indeed, extremely low amounts of interactivity rob the illusion of control from a player. This, as a consequence, renders a software less of a game.
By the way, "a paranormal scientist" is an oxymoron. I hate stuff that include such blatant bullshit. And… supernaturalism is an antiquated and an extremely cheap storytelling tool that conditions major misconceptions and ignorance about the world we all live in. Being a consequentialist myself, what I'm saying is that supernaturalism most probably does more harm than good to Homo sapiens.
Cheers,
VassilevB
i get a "i blame women for why i cant get laid" vibe from this character
Worst David Cage game ever.
i hate this game with a passion and can't find any other good videos that point out how awful this game is. and I actually liked Fahrenheit and Heavy Rain a lot. but that makes me even more angry, because they could have done a much better job.
Your great, would love to see more videos like this on games.
Carrying that hay bale gives me PTSD flashbacks to when I played Beyond Two Souls. It was the first and last David Cage game I played and will ever play cuz it was not fun.
just played it
the idea is like always very nice but the execution is like always utter bullshit
certain paths are not meant to be and this game makes sure you get at least the feeling you could….which becomes very fucking annoying because why the fuck cant i just kill every single being in my way to the "warlord"?
i can burn the house down and jump out of a helicopter but when i fuck up in the homeless section at the end i end up in a koma in the hospital?
AM I Aidens part time job or how does it come that i can sometimes do the most stupid shit and get away with it and sometimes i get bonka in my honka?
4/10. so much potential wasted on retarded story writing
I like the concept and the CIA part of the story but the crappy love story and random events ruin the parts that I thought were fun. Edit : I wish they had more stealth missions/actual gameplay
OMG!! the protagonist doing protagonist things is like so giga racist, amarite you guys? Get over yourself 🤡, that whole "white savior" tangent was cringe af.
Found your channel after just finishing the white savior chapter and looking to see if other people noticed. You put my thoughts into words perfectly and you also helped me notice other abhorrent aspects of the game I couldn't quite put my finger on. Don't even care for the spoilers, what a trainwreck of a game.
i'm currently taking a class called "writing for interactive narrative" at my uni and this video covers a lot of the things we've learned!! i'm hoping to write for games someday so this video was very informative, thank you!
Hey Zac. I want to start off by saying, you created a well-thought-out and impressive video. You make a lot of valid points from the very flawed storyline to the inconsistencies in choices you make in the game that affect the outcome of the story. That being said, in my opinion, I think you are judging this game extremely harshly.
Even though I agree with you, and even though I particularly hated the final segments of the game, it was an overall enjoyable experience for me, partly, maybe mostly, because it was different. I think it’s existence has value as something to pick apart, repurpose, tweak, shine, oil, write a better script jfc. I’m far behind on gaming, so maybe there already are games out there that does this better. (Just got a ps4.) (But why did the researchers give the baby to a random couple, when they knew it had powers? «Just let us know if something strange happens» … )
This game is a masterpiece you wish you could make.
I just have on thing to say. Wether you like it or not, suicide is always an option. I don't see why it shouldn't be an option in the game as well, considering she's freaking depressed and WANTS to die, and has wanted to for a long time
David Cage is the kind of dude who’d make a game where the player character is given the choice of ”Rape” or ”Do not rape” another character, but no matter what you choose the outcome will be no rape anyway. Then the following question will be: why give the player such a choice anyway? Lol
I feel like the only reason why Detroit Become Human is as decent a game as it seems is because the playable characters are Androids. This way David Cage didn't need to write meaningful human beings and he can get away with doing the whole "do a series of boring menial tasks" multiple times.
However using Androids didn't fix David's desire to put "cool" imagery over having his world make mechanical sense. When Marcus enters Jericho, a secret android shelter, why do they have barrel fires everywhere? Why would an Android need fire for warmth or light? How does it make sense for one android to heal another android's wound by cauterizing it? This is just one small example of how David destroys his stories by not thinking them through entirely.
Then there are the more insulting aspects to his writing. In the pre release to Become Human David swore up and down about race not being a factor in the game only to have Androids sent to the back of buses, an overt reference to the Underground Railroad and "I have a dream" to be a literal graffiti choice in the game. And as cowardly as it is to use civil rights imagery while swearing your game isn't about race, it's not as damaging as the ending note of Willam Dafoe's character in Beyond which is basically "If you miss your dead family, just blow your own head off and you'll be reunited." When you think about that flippant use of suicide (or sexual abuse) as a cheap narrative device in the game you can begin to understand why Ellen Page and Willam Dafoe looked so miserable in all those promotional interviews for the game. His stories are great in concept but lack the proper vision. A fail of David Cage's design if you ask me.
After I surprisingly enjoyed Detroit despite its clichéd/bad writing, naivité and superficiality I thought I could give Beyond another go after I quit it years ago
(Just as I did with every Cage game outside of Heavy Rain and Detroit) but it seems like you just saved me the time and anguish 😀
Thank you!
quality content,
subscribed
This is actually ridiculously good
Love the title, and I agree. David Cage is irredeemable in general.
You covered a lot of the harmful tropes in this game, and somehow found a genuine, respectful way to make people laugh.
When someone finds a fun way to help people learn, and to think more critically, that's an important video in my eyes.
I fucking hate Ryan Clayton. He was so manipulative to Jodie Holmes. He never loved her or cared about her.
Someone: How many endings can you cram together in one story?
David Cage: YES
Great video and excellent points. I will say though that I still really enjoyed the game and the world it built.
Thats why I played it Chronologically, the original order was so sloppy and confusing. Im honestly sad that theres 0 plans for a sequel even though they set up the ending for one.
I just finished this game (bought for a fraction of the original cost) and I wish the Navajo part was expanded into a whole game, but without the whole white savior thing. A game about a Navajo family trying to free themselves of an ancient curse would have been way more interesting. But only if someone else wrote it. 😂
i still love this game
For me David Cage is bit of a hack writer his stories only resonate on a surface level and when dig just beneath the surface you find a whole heap of problems and contrivances.
And I think the reason why he reason why chooses video games to tell his stories is because there's a lower bar of entry than professional made movies because he was either rejected or he knows his own scripts don't hold up.
While you can defend him by saying the way the games are having to write so many paths is difficult and they're not all going to be perfect my rebuttal is that two souls is the most linear game quantic dreams has made and it's still has problems story wise meanwhile their other games judging their stories by best routes still have problems and contrivances.
As much as I really enjoy watching long-form essays that tear problematic media to shreds, I think you were able to sum up everything I was feeling about this game in under half an hour. Great job
Loved your video, came from another guys critique just bombing the stupidest stuff of the game, but you explain your perspective
Wow, you've totally missed the point of one of the best games ever.