After taking part in the unbelievable journey in The Last of Us it’s hard to imagine a better game coming out this generation, but Beyond: Two Souls have a shot at it. Beyond is an interactive drama action-adventure video game for the PlayStation 3, made by French developer Quantic Dream, famous for making Heavy Rain. The game stars actors Ellen Page (Inception, Juno, Hard Candy), Willem Dafoe (Spider-Man, Finding Nemo, The Boondock Saints, The English Patient) and Kadeem Hardison (White Men Can’t Jump, A Different World) and is set for release on October 8th in North America and on the 11th in Europe.
The making of
Quantic Dream CEO David Cage announced the game at Sony’s press conference during E3 2012 and the debut trailer featuring in-game graphics was released during the press conference. Actress Ellen Page revealed in an interview that the script for the game was 2000 pages long. Tragically the original soundtrack for the game was composed by Normand Corbeil, who died of pancreatic cancer on 25 January 2013. Lorne Balfe, famous for making the soundtrack for Assassin’s Creed III, replaced Corbeil. A 35 minute trailer was screened at the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival which made the game the second in history to have been recognized by the film festival because of it’s cinematic qualities. The latest trailer revealed at E3 2013 shows how players can control Jodie Holmes and the entity, Aiden, in their journey.
The plot
The game, which features psychological, spiritual and thriller elements, is centered around questions about what happens after death. The game lets the player take Jodie Holmes through 15 years of her life (ages 8 through 23) on a journey to discover the true meaning of the entity Aiden, who has been alongside her throughout her life.
The creator
David Cage is founder, co-CEO (with Guillaume de Fondaumière), director, lead game designer, and screenwriter at studio Quantic Dream. He founded Quantic Dream back in 1997 and has directed all three games released by the studio: Omikron: The Nomad Soul (1999), Fahrenheit / Indigo Prophecy (2005), and Heavy Rain (2010). Quantic Dream always tries to make different games and places emphasis on storytelling, emotion and innovation
Heavy Rain won three awards at the BAFTA Interactive Entertainment Awards where he made this statement:
“Games always explore the same things. They’re about being powerful, being the good guys against the bad guys – that’s a very tiny part of what can be done. There are so many other stories to tell, so many other emotions to trigger – this is a fantastic new medium, we can do much more than we currently do with it.”
Exclusive content
GameStop will release exclusive downloadable content (DLC) of an additional 30-minute scene for those who pre-order the game. Also available is a “special edition” which comes in steelbook packaging and includes various bonus features.
Special Edition includes:
• Exclusive Steelbook Premium Packaging
• Extensive Behind The Scenes Features
• Soundtrack
• Dynamic PS3 Theme
• PSN Avatar Pack
Check out all the high-res screenshots and trailers on here.
