Spoiling spoilers.
The world of David Cage is a dark one, full of grief and
heartache. After the intensity of Heavy Rain I expected a lot from Beyond Two Souls.
Especially due to my excitement over the actors.
Heavy Rain was intriguing to me due to the way the story was
broken up and how we experienced the story through the eyes of all the main
characters. The choices made the game truly feel like they mattered at the end
of the game. This really wasn’t the case with Beyond Two Souls.
But let’s be positive for a moment. The acting was awesome,
and at the end of the game I felt a lot of emotion over the choices that we get
to have Jodie make. As much as some of the moments felt cheesy, I couldn’t help
but care.
My favorite character would have to be Cole whom I have
deemed Jodie’s adoptive mother. You may laugh at me for saying that but if Cole
was a woman you would be thinking the same thing. Jodie is his ‘little
princess’ for life and he loves her even when she is an angry teenager and
makes Aiden possess him.
My least favorite character? Ryan Clayton. This man meets
Jodie when she is forced to leave Mommy Cole and Daddy Dafoe, and my choices
for that conversation have Jodie almost throwing a temper tantrum and Ryan
yells at her! So my reaction to her wanting to sleep with him? Please destroy
him, Aiden. I continuously denied Ryan’s advances, which leads me into the
negative aspects of my review... I kept saying no to Ryan but in the end did
she say she loves him and kiss him? You bet. I played the ending where you
choose to be with Ryan and I felt very bothered by Jodie saying her and him
never talk about it or any of the things they’ve been through. That isn’t
healthy, in my opinion. You can’t pretend your life didn’t happen. Each ending
proves that by the fact that she still has to face entities in the future. And
is she with anyone in those endings? Only when you choose life with Zoe.
My favorite is absolutely the Sarah Connor/terminator ending
with Zoe. This is my favorite because she chooses love but not a romantic kind
of love.
Least favorite, of course, is the one where everything is
terrible and you basically fail. This ending frustrated me greatly because
throughout the game there is no fail state. When I messed up holding buttons
and moved the wrong way there wasn’t much of a change in the game that I could
readily notice. You would have to react but it didn’t mean the end of the game.
But all of the sudden it does mean a lot. I messed up buttons and it was game
over. I ruined everything. Let’s compare this to other games. The Last of Us? A
clicker bites you and then you start over from a saved point. Heavy Rain? People
died when you messed up or lost opportunities for clues but you kept playing. You
kept trying. The game wasn’t over. Even the worst ending wasn’t like Beyond Two
Souls where you basically just fail. See my problem?
This leads me into the feminist discussion. How does this
game compete in the market of games most feminists back? I say it depends on
your opinions of what makes a ‘strong’ female character and if it matters to
you how much the female character in question is like America’s idea of
womanhood.
Jodie is emotional, she has feminine characteristics when it
comes to how her romantic relationships, well at least when she is preparing
for her date with Ryan. Jodie even helps deliver a baby. This is the part of the
story I both love and question. Not all women want or care about having babies.
Many would be very uncomfortable delivering a baby. There isn’t enough to say
how Jodie feels about kids prior to this scene. As a woman who does love
children, and wants to be a mother, this scene doesn’t bother me. What bothers
me is the fact that pregnancy is used to show femininity, kindness, and caring
so often in games/TV/movies about women who aren’t ‘traditional’.
But was this the point of that scene? If you don’t ever see
or choose the epilogue with Zoë and the other people from the homeless chapters
then this scene really just seems like a scene about the fact that Jodie is a
woman. Even the stupid date preparation scene has more meaning than this
because it shows Aiden’s feelings for Jodie. Aiden is normally told what to do
by Jodie; this is a scene where Aiden is forcing Jodie to do what he wants. This
scene shows us how even in ‘normal’ life circumstances Aiden changes everything
for her. Side note: Ryan asked her to dinner in an EMAIL? Low, dude, that’s
low.
Finally, let’s end in positivity. I loved this game in part
because I got to play it co-op, I played Jodie and my boyfriend played Aiden. This
really proved how the game was about two souls. Aiden is not Jodie and Jodie is
not Aiden. But they are connected.
My review is 3.5 out of 5. I’m not sure if I would recommend
to just anyone. I would suggest Heavy Rain over Beyond Two Souls. But I would recommend
it to people who enjoy co-op and 3rd person games like I do.
Let me know what you think and whether you disagree or
agree. Also if you played, what was your favorite ending? Which ending did you
get first?
