Beyond: Two Souls

Beyond: Two Souls is another interactive drama from Quantic Dream, released on PS4 as a remastered version with improved graphics and more stable performance compared to the original 2013 PS3 release. The player follows fifteen years in the life of Jodie Holmes, a woman bonded to an invisible supernatural entity named Aiden, whom she can directly control at key moments to solve puzzles, fight enemies, and make small supernatural interventions in the surrounding world. The story is told deliberately non-linearly, jumping between different periods of Jodie's life from early childhood through adolescence to adulthood, giving the narrative a cinematic, fragmentary, puzzle-like character that the player gradually pieces together like a mosaic of memories.

The game's main draw was the motion-capture performances of Ellen Page as Jodie and Willem Dafoe as researcher Nathan, which on PS4 shine thanks to sharper textures, better lighting, and smoother transitions between scenes, letting the subtle facial expressions of both actors stand out even in quiet, contemplative moments. The gameplay remains simple - contextual actions, quick-time events, and environmental exploration rather than classic puzzles - so the main emphasis is again on story, emotion, and the cinematic visual presentation of the whole experience.

Beyond: Two Souls divided critics and players due to its non-linear structure and less room for genuine decision-making compared to the earlier Heavy Rain, but it still remains a significant experiment on the border between film and game. It's still talked about today as a showcase of how far you can go with Hollywood casting and motion capture technology within interactive storytelling. Aiden's ability to intervene in the world outside the main heroine's body also remains one of the more original gameplay ideas, one Quantic Dream hasn't used in any other game, since it lets players explore surroundings Jodie herself can't reach.

Why play: For players curious about Hollywood casting and motion capture on the border between film and game, Beyond offers the original Aiden soul mechanic, despite a non-linear structure with less room for real decisions.